What a lousy memory you have. You pass on all the links you want but it makes no difference. Sure, the Right now says nation building makes sense, but that was not the song you guys were singing on Friday, February 14, 2003, when Rumsfeld said in his speech "Beyond Nation Building Remarks as Delivered by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, 11th Annual Salute to Freedom, Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, New York City, that he did not support nation building. I quote, and please, don't argue against clear facts of history, you do yourself a disservice.
defenselink.mil
"Afghanistan belongs to the Afghans. The objective is not to engage in what some call nation building. Rather it's to try to help the Afghans so that they can build their own nation. This is an important distinction. In some nation building exercises well-intentioned foreigners arrive on the scene, look at the problems and say let's fix it. This is well motivated to be sure, but it can really be a disservice in some instances because when foreigners come in with international solutions to local problems, if not very careful they can create a dependency. A long-term foreign presence in a country can be unnatural."
Of course you guys on the right think it is a good idea now. But when I first started lamenting here there was no plan to help rebuilding Afghanistan, you guys on the right, maybe not you Peter, but most of your rightist gang were all over me for being a retarded liberal pinko. |
