****OT****(American Foreign Policy)
Once more: "What else can we do?"
We can't force a nuclear power to behave as we can force a weaker one to bend to our will.
It is not a question of forcing anyone to "bend to our will", using military or non-military means. Sanctions, in particular, I think tend to be counter-productive. But I would like to see us, whenever possible, to speak out when the situation demands it.
Let us go back to the Chechen situation again. I doubt very much whether the Russians would have started hitting us with their nukes if President Clinton had simply come out with a statement deploring the slaughter, rather than basically endorsing it. I can't prove it, but it seems to me that the failure of the Europeans and especially the Americans to go on record emboldened the Russian establishment to pursue their operation with even more vigor ("The West doesn't care").
As for practical measures: perhaps the Americans could have advised the IMF NOT to extend that monster loan to Russia, as long as the bombing continued...As subsequent events have shown, the Russian government did not make good use of that money, anyway.
We must accept the real world at face value.
Can't quite agree. We must recognize the real world for what it is, yes. But "accept" it as it is? That is, pass by it in silence, thus in effect approving it as it is? No. Calling a spade a spade will not "change" anything, in the sense of forcing the government of any given country to "obey." But, in the long run, it often changes the general atmosphere for the better.
I have been struck by the admiration many people I have met in the former Soviet Union have for former President Jimmy Carter, not for anything he actually "did", but for what he said. In their view, his stress on the importance of Human rights really had an effect on the actual course of politics at home and abroad. (And even if it did not -- it certainly was good PR for America.)
jbe |
