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

To: slacker711 who wrote (95709)	4/22/2003 11:48:25 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The only reason anyone ever does something is because they want to. Sure they may rationalize it, but in the end, if you really don't want to do something, how can anyone make you? Nations and regimes are not unlike people. They change because they want to, not because you want them to change. Hussein was a very different case. To begin with, we wanted him there. We actively undermined his opposition even after the Gulf War. What we really wanted was for some general to put a bullet in his head and play nice with us. What we really did not want was a popular uprising. So using him as a counter example is not right. Furthermore, when dealing with an extreme case like Saddam, a more extreme form of non-interference may be necessary. I think these 12 years would have been best used if there had been complete blockade of Iraq. Change is not always obvious to the outsiders. Castro and Qaddafi have both changed a lot. I know this especially about Qaddafi because I've been listening to him and fallowing up on Libya from time to time. Neither of them are anything like Saddam and therefore take longer to fall (if they were like Blair may be they would never fall <g>). Let's move on to the evidence you asked for. Iran is one of the best examples. So long as a pro-US regime was in place, everything was America's fault and US was the Great Satan. But once they were isolated, they were forced to change their ways. Initially the changes were in foreign policy so that they could win over some European countries. Eventually they came to the conclusion that they can no longer blame America for everything and that they have to take responsibility for themselves. And that is when the reformists began to come to power full force. What is most interesting here is that none of the pressures from US or the outside dissident groups or even the militant terrorist groups like MEK and not even Saddam's war machine had the smallest effect on change in Iran. The reform movement is entirely home grown and has some of the former hostage takers and Khomeini's own students in their fold. Non-interference forces nations to take an objective look of their actions and find their ways. This is not a theory. Humans really do learn. And when they are not distracted with all else, they look at themselves and how they can solve their problems. ST