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

To: michael97123 who wrote (119048)	11/10/2003 4:04:35 AM
From: frankw1900	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East" 60 years ago was when FDR cemented an alliance between the US and the Saudis(Saud family). Is that what Bush is referring too? Yes, among other things. The whole post WW2 Cold War situation and the reliance on oil did lead the US and other Western countries to let pass or support all sorts of odious regimes. It's a repudiation not necessarily of those times but of the present outcomes. 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 I don't know about left wing view but the lack of political headroom along with local socialist type control of food has been a very important factor in creating the extreme Islamist movements. The tax cuts are these days conventional economics from the right wing point of view. The idea is to grow out of our deficits. The liberal impulse to remake the world in the American democratic image is what got us into trouble in vietnam as well The Vietnam War had everything to do with fighting the spread of communist tyranny, as the West, especially the US, did throughout the world. It's possible to interpret that struggle in the terms you do but it misses the important point, and to that degree is in error. 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 The way the US and other countries got to be democratic was by practising democracy. That's too much of a slogan but there's great truth in it, nonetheless. It's in US interests make sure democratic forms are established permanently because it makes it much more difficult for the dictators to come back.