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

To: Brumar89 who wrote (119603)	11/15/2003 2:29:55 AM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

<Moreover we persuaded the dictator Marcos to leave power peacefully back during the Reagan administration.> We? Once again, you claim a victory that isn't yours. The persuading was done entirely by the Philippine people. Masses of people, brave people, unarmed people, going out into the street and protesting. Just like in East Berlin and Moscow in 1989-1991. The U.S. government (under Reagan and a line of previous Presidents) got along just fine with Marcos, and would have been happy to have him reign forever, maybe even start a dynasty. The U.S. government exerted no pressure at all, for decades, for Marcos (or earlier dictators, the first of which had been crowned by the CIA) to either give up power, or make more-than-token democratic reforms. The Philippines is today a democracy, not because of U.S. action, but in spite of it. At best (and this is the most charitable possible interpretation of events) we were neutral during the transition to democracy. The same can also be said of the transition to democracy in S. Korea and Taiwan. The U.S. government actively aided dictators there, had the closest relations with them for decades. Democracy happened eventually, when the people of those nations made it happen. They did it on their own.