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: frankw1900 who wrote (119037)	11/9/2003 2:05:20 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 281500

And with the spread of weapons that can bring catastrophic harm to our country and to our friends, it would be reckless to accept the status quo. We did accept the status quo for more than a decade, and it brought us the WTC I, Kubar Towers, the USS Cole, and the WTC 9-11.......... Can anyone just imagine the clamor if this Administration just shook it off, sent a few missiles, and went on with business as usual as did the previous Administration?

To: frankw1900 who wrote (119037)	11/9/2003 2:26:57 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

re: Bush 11/6/03 speech: 1. How We Denied Democracy to the Middle East: We Created This Place, Weaned the Grotesque Dictators. And We Expect the Arabs to Trust Bush's Promise? by Robert Fisk Published on Saturday, November 8, 2003 by the Independent / UK ...It's all a lie. "We" - the West, Europe, America - never "excused and accommodated" lack of freedom. We endorsed lack of freedom. We created it in the Middle East and supported it. When Colonel Ghaddafi took over Libya, the Foreign Office thought him a much sprightlier figure than King Idriss. We supported the Egyptian generals (aka Gamal Abdul Nasser) when they originally kicked out King Farouk. We - the Brits - created the Hashemite Kingdom in Jordan. We - the Brits - put a Hashemite King on the throne of Iraq. And when the Baath party took over from the monarchy in Baghdad, the CIA obligingly handed Saddam's mates the names of all senior communist party members so they could be liquidated. commondreams.org 2. The Demands of Democracy Editorial Published on Saturday, November 8, 2003 by the Boston Globe THERE WAS a lot wrong with President Bush's speech Thursday to the National Endowment for Democracy in which he proclaimed "a new policy: a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East." Whole chapters of history were omitted or distorted. Bush gilded US policy as a purely altruistic affair. Still, he must have been doing something right; Iran's Foreign Ministry denounced Bush's paean to democracy as "obvious interference in Iran's internal affairs." commondreams.org 3. Noble Rhetoric Supports Democracy While Ignoble Policies Support Repression by Stephen Zunes ...he failed even once to say a critical word about any non-democratic U.S. ally in the region. It is noteworthy, for example, that he called for spreading freedom “from Damascus to Tehran” but not from Riyadh to Cairo commondreams.org

To: frankw1900 who wrote (119037)	11/9/2003 5:08:10 PM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East" Frank, 60 years ago was when FDR cemented an alliance between the US and the Saudis(Saud family). Is that what Bush is referring too? It is interesting to me that Bush has adopted the left wing view of the world with this and the Keynsian/JFK tax cuts that kick started the economy. The liberal impulse to remake the world in the American democratic image is what got us into trouble in vietnam as well. This worries me greatly. The push toward democracy in the mideast should be used to promote US interests but will we have the ability to take half a loaf at some point when it becomes in our interest to do so. Something less than true democracy will need to be acceptable at some point imo and hopefully it will become the precursor to future fully democratic mideast nations. But if we fight for this democracy now to the hilt, we may find ourselves in counterproductive mode like we did in vietnam. Somehow i remember rice was a more important motivator back then and i would think in iraq, the populace would choose security and freedom from baathists, foreigners and americans. I hope this admin is aware of this. We cant stay there for a very long time and in the time we are there we must destroy as many of the baathists, & islamists as possible. Mike