> disdain for America is firmly rooted here
I do hope you are not packing me in there.
> you would think that America hasn't done anything in the last 50 years that wasn't self-serving
Barring the notable post WWII rebuilding programs, that is about true. If you know of examples to the contrary, bring them up. Now before you take that as America bashing, you should note that I don't think any of the self-righteous Europeans (or Russians, or Chinese, or...) would have done much differently either. In fact the Russians did a hell of a lot worse. And by the virtue of its great size and vast interests, US has been involved in almost every major conflict in the world. Were you under the impression that our defense industry grew because we were champions of peace?
You could argue that while the cold war was raging on, some (not all) of what we did was necessary evil. I could be convinced of that. But that war is over. The gist of my argument is that Bush is taking a huge step backwards and is creating global instability instead of making the world a better place. Global stability is only possible if the world can agree on establishing international laws that everyone, including us will abide by even when it is not quite to our liking. This is what a real leader would have done. But like you said, it is much easier to take the path of attack and destruction than construction.
Force begets force. There is a finite window of opportunity (that may already be mostly gone) before a serious opposition against US solidifies and we'll be forced to live in a cold war type of world again. I didn't like that world and look forward to its return even less enthusiastically. Unfortunately I cannot say that about defense and oil industries or the power hungry politicians who need to create a big threat to legitimize their abuses of power.
Nuclear technology is almost 60 years old. Biological weapons are even older than that. Do you really think they can be kept out of terrorist hands indefinitely? This is a very important question that you should answer before you endorse Bush. His methods of brute force, IMO, will only make the world a worse place to live in. How will you even play the kind of games we played with soviets with the extremists? It is not as if mutual destruction (what a horrible prospect) is going to work with them. Instead of putting more pressure on someone who is holding a ticking bomb and is about to self destruct, you have to convince him that there is hope.
Now I am done on this too.
all the best,
Sun Tzu |
