Good point, and i know exactly what you mean about consensus in the culture, it often leads directly to the handing over of power to the individual able and willing to violate its principles - the dictator ... simply because others abdicate their responsibility to provide input, or as you say, quite often their responsibility to act ... you'll find this in other situations as well, like the civil service here in Canada, just try to get one to stick his neck out and make a blatantly obvious yet courageous call - fat chance, CYA is the rule we say, 'cover your ass' ... we've heard the same expressed of promotion dynamics in various militaries .... i am not just a latin american by the way, but a full american, in the true sense of the term, 'of and pertaining to the Américas', i've held a canadian passport for several decades, spent most of my adult life here, got canadian blood from way back too, thusly tend to speak from a canadian perspective more than any other national one
Agreed in re 'consensus', which is not what i mean ... looked it up just now, the term means 'general agreement or concord; harmony' .... well that is too much to shoot for, no doubt about it ... what i mean is more like 'general agreement among a substantial number of democracies' .... this is quite distinct, and well worth shooting for on such a significant issue as the invasion of a sovereign nation, one other nation alone or one with two or three allies is not sufficient imho, the responsibility for consequences comes down on too few shoulders ... i do recognise that there is a responsibility for failing to act when one should, as well, however it does not apply in this case, as Hussein is well contained, in Chrétien's words 'e cannot do anyting' ... the schedule of the Bush II admin is being determined more by their own rhetoric and preparations and domestic politics than by a clear and present danger
Should Hussein be taken out - yes i think so, definitely ... simply a matter of how much damage is done in doing the bugger - to both civilian casualties and international cooperation ... one national opinion that would sway me hugely on the question, is that of the sunni iraqis, i know were i one i would not like this dictator, the thing is i wouldn't like a single foreign invader on the soil of my country either .... a few irish and a few danes and some canucks, this would be a whole nother thing, it might start to look like a movement i'd consider joining
Screw the french .... punto ... not what i'm talking about ... and by the way we have quebecois here who speak that language and they're alright folk outside their dickhead politicians, and hey, who among us can say we don't have some of them ... one of our regiments is called the Van Doos, for the french pronunciation of its number 22, and they have distinguished themselves in battle right beside the Eddies and Patricias and Black Watch and BC Armoured
'Do you really think the UN group decision will be better than the decision of the present coalition of the willing?'
I carefully avoided using the term 'UN', in favour of 'international institutions' or 'bodies' or 'international cooperation' et cetera, 'coalition of the willing' would be good also, if the coalition were of meaningful number, try ten or twelve at a minimum, and non-democracies count for half points only .... the UN is not working well in a number of respects, one of them is the concept of veto perhaps, not just the fact the french were given one, but the entire idea of veto .... one of the things that may come out of all this [looking for the rose among the thorns here], is a new look at what it would take to build a better organisation .... but in no way can 'better' ever mean that a single nation dictates to the rest, that is simply not how human nature works, you know from that same culture that may overvalue consensus at inappropriate times, how it always, without fail, despises the dictator |
