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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis O'Bell who wrote (43239)	9/11/2002 11:02:58 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 281500

<<...throwing money at these problems will not magically solve them...>> Yup..I agree...that's true with the military as well...there's tons of waste in our Defense Department...IMO, we still have a Cold War type of military that may not be appropriate for the new types of decentralized threats we face...Our $30 Billion/year Intelligence gathering system has failed to be inter-connected and OVERhauled...That should have been job #1 after 9/11. And finally, some of our country's wiser leaders (like Colin Powell) realize that MANY problems around the world can not be solved with U.S. military might. regards, -Scott

To: Dennis O'Bell who wrote (43239)	9/11/2002 11:07:30 AM
From: gamesmistress	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Note the assumption that "we" should "spend more on building the world than defending it" - "we" meaning, of course, the US government. The wealth used to build this country did not come from government spending, it came from private initiatives in a free market, sometimes allied with governments as in transportation. Poor people in other countries could build themselves, if they had the chance and the government got out of the way. Zimbabwe (as you said) is a good example. I also noticed that the author of this piece is based in Seattle, home to Bill Gates, whose privately owned wealth is probably doing a lot more to help poor peoples health than this guy will ever do.