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

To: slacker711 who wrote (91920)	4/10/2003 3:22:24 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 281500

think my post addressed that. As long as ME countries protect some basic human rights (along the lines of the bill of rights), and have routine open elections, we are going to have to live with whoever they elect. It might not be the outcome we want....but I can live with a hostile government. It is the individual religous rage that we are trying to defuse. I think having a say in their local governments would go a long way in doing that. I think if this and future administrations were to do as you say, America would have a real change of reputation there and the world would be a better place for everyone. I am not holding my breath though. The temptations to the contrary are just too great. ST

To: slacker711 who wrote (91920)	4/10/2003 3:37:07 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I think my post addressed that. As long as ME countries protect some basic human rights (along the lines of the bill of rights), and have routine open elections, we are going to have to live with whoever they elect. It might not be the outcome we want....but I can live with a hostile government. It is the individual religous rage that we are trying to defuse. I think having a say in their local governments would go a long way in doing that. We certainly agree, once again. But I doubt the Bush folk do. If I'm right, this invasion is not about democracy but a critical first step in a larger plan to make the US feared around the world, to insure it is more powerful than any potential opponent or possible coalition of opponents, and to gain control over the central global energy resource of oil, more for political reasons than economic reasons. The rhetoric of democracy is only that. The problem, however, with using it as rhetoric is that folk come to believe it and act on it. As for countries in the ME protecting basic human rights, that's a great deal more difficult than installing majoritarian democracy. How do you get from where Iraq is to that? I don't know. Certainly there have to be ways but they all seem to me very long, require long term commitment, require addressing infrastructure issues, require patience, etc. None of those are marks of recent American foreign policy.