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

To: Win Smith who wrote (72891)	2/10/2003 3:32:01 PM
From: michael97123	Respond to of 281500

deleting mean spirited post

To: Win Smith who wrote (72891)	2/10/2003 3:52:57 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

On the basis of what evidence do you simply dismiss the idea that credibility is a currency with value and meaning in international politics? To argue that it is the hawks who make the credibility argument may be true but it is not a disproof of the argument. Every side in politics make arguments that will further their cause. Some of these arguments have weight, evidence, and coherence behind them. Some don't. It's not enough to say that the hawk's argument is self-serving; the argument must be examined. (Democratic arguments, e.g. that the Bush tax cuts disproportionately favor the rich, are equally self-serving; but that doesn't automatically render them false either). Now imo many of the hawks philosophy about US position in the Mideast involves a protracted loss of credibility and projection of weakness, which they seek to correct. Thus the arguments about creditibility and war are intrinsically tied together. I would like to give another plug to this op-ed by Charles Moore Message 18549924 who points out that it is not mere chance that has the hawk's arguments in acendance today. The hawks were the ones who had thought most deeply about the rising chances of a September 11th before September 11th, and thus did not need a time-out to rearrange their thinking on September 12th. This gave them an edge.