Re: The only place this has worked in reality is the US and our history is very different. Also it's taken over 200 years and counting to bring real civil rights.
It hasn't worked in Europe. Look at how the French, English and others are fighting even the very weak EU, which is certainly not a nation-state.
To force this concept on blood enemies is so absurd that it defies comprehension.
Actually, it also defies the official, if tacit, US foreign policy... Your despondent cynicism about other peoples' and countries' willingness to get along with each other is what drives the US's relentless drive to stir tensions and mutual distrust between neighbors from the Far East (*) to the Balkans, to the EU/Turkey relationship, to China/South America relations, etc. While US officials artfully pose as fair do-gooders and honest brokers among contending nations, they actually do their best to pit everybody against each other except the US. Divide and rule.
Take Turkey for instance: it's the US strategy to isolate Turkey from all her neighbors --Russia, Greece, Syria-- and to deteriorate the ongoing EU-Turkey talks over Cyprus while locking Turkey up in an exclusive US-Israeli bondage... Ditto with Pakistan and India: Secretary Rice arrogantly called for India to drop her pipeline project with Iran and Pakistan... Ditto with Venezuela's latest arms deal with Russia (**). Ditto with Lebanon: spurring the Maronite minority against Syria so as to leave Lebanon with only two "friends" --the US and Israel. All in the name of "freedom" and "peace". Somehow the US geopolitical utopia is for each and every country to alienate all its neighbors while maintaining friendly relations with the US and Israel ONLY. You'll sow the winds of hatred and mistrust until you'll reap the storm at home....
Gus
(*) Japan the spoiler in Northeast Asia
By Zhiqun Zhu
atimes.com
(**) Rumsfeld criticizes Venezuelan arms bid
Thursday, March 24, 2005 Posted: 0115 GMT (0915 HKT)
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is criticizing Venezuela's reported efforts to purchase 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Russia, suggesting that Venezuela's possession of so many weapons would threaten the hemisphere.
Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, has warned that he will cut off shipments of his country's oil to the United States if the Bush administration supports an attempt to force him from office.
Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil exporter and provides about 13 percent of U.S. crude oil imports.
[...]
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