Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (114123)	9/7/2003 9:08:48 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hawk, the main support the USA gave in East Timor was to withdraw political support for Indonesian brutality, which had been given for quarter of a century for the suppression of East Timorese who were not Moslems. The USA supported the Moslem murderers. Which is somewhat ironical don't you think? Once the political tidying up is done, I can handle the rest easily with a few good blokes with rifles and a firm, fair, enforcement of rule of law of habeas corpus in ethical relationships. The nukes won't even need to be disarmed. They'll just half-life themselves into decommissioned status. Though recycling them into power stations and Globalstar satellite launching would be worthwhile. The key force required is psychological. The rule of law of the jungle is the current problem. Once that is usurped by the NUN, the rest will just fall into place, easy peasy. We, the Military, will go around saluting each other, having a nice time and playing a few paint ball exercises to keep in trim. Mqurice

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (114123)	9/7/2003 11:45:54 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 281500

Hawk, it's quite a dilemma, being in favour of democracy, but not really. That's essentially your position in the international sphere. You don't really want one person one vote around the world. Your position is that the one with the guns and money should rule the roost and take the profits of control. That's quite illegal in the stockmarket, with minority shareholders being protected against the ravages of the dominant. Though there is still quite a bit of it. Other people in the world, who quite like democracy, don't see it that way. They don't think the USA should rule the roost and the rest of us be grateful for small mercies. Of course, I'm not totally a democrat either, in that I don't like the idea that a mob can vote to take other people's property. Not to mention lives, as the USA used to do by keeping slaves; even the great founding father of freedom, Thomas Jefferson, is alleged to have had intimate knowledge of slavery. But neither do I think that the rich should be able to just buy control, and other people's lives against their will [which conscription is about, with rich Daddy's darlings getting a cushy number playing at driving aircraft]. That includes rich countries like NZ, the USA, France etc buying control of the NUN. The essential conflict in the eons-long human drama is the haves versus the have-nots and the high-and-mighty versus the great-unwashed-masses. Ameliorating those conflicts is the trick to be performed. The biggest improvement was the invention of contraception, which has almost entirely reduced the previously unavoidable pressure of human numbers with limited resources to keep them alive. Fighting was inevitable. We are just tidying up the last of those tribal problems, with nation states being the significant tribal problem still to be sorted out. A reconstituted UN, the NUN is the way to do that. < you're not quite right that only one country has the necessary resources to take it on as a "leader". As with so much in the world, a co-operative effort is more effective. > //Come on Maurice.. The UN couldn't even manage to deploy and support peacekeepers to East Timor without US transport and logistical support.// I thought Oz provided the main forces there and if the Yanks gave them a ride to get there, that's a relatively minor contribution. It was a co-operative effort, with, in that instance, Oz doing the main contributing. The USA is learning in Iraq that a co-operative effort is a good idea. Now the USA is soliciting co-operation. There's more to being a leader than having the most money and a big fist. Those are not even significant in real leadership. Those are mere aspects of power, which has nothing to do with leadership. Power and leadership are usually confused by people, because of our tribal dominance hierarchy chimpoid cultural antecedents. They can go together. Rumour has that Augustus was a power and leadership kind of guy in the Roman Empire. Mqurice