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

To: skinowski who wrote (119890)	11/18/2003 11:53:53 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Do dictators learn from the mistakes of others, or do they march to their own drummer? I suppose it varies. I imagine, though, that a lot of dictators are like compulsive gamblers, and think that they will be the one's to beat the odds.......

To: skinowski who wrote (119890)	11/18/2003 4:11:05 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

<Hopefully, one of the net results of Saddam's misreading of the the situation - in a larger historic context - will be that many present and future dictators will feel less attracted to any and all "great equalizers"> That's all it is, is hope. Wishful thinking, which requires ignoring all available evidence. The facts say, all our enemies have learned exactly the opposite lesson: that the only way to deter the U.S., is to get nukes. Since the U.S. respects no treaty, and respects no other nation's sovereignty, every real and potential enemy is working overtime, to get some Equalizers. Even our "friends" (Japan, Saudi Arabia) don't trust us any more, and are quietly moving towards getting nukes, too. The Bush2 Administration has done more to spread nuclear weapons throughout the world, than any other U.S. Administration, or any foreign country. We arm our allies with nukes (and the means to deliver them), and give our enemies powerful incentives to get nukes. Our official non-proliferation PR is just a cover for trying to unilaterally disarm our enemies. We bluster and threaten, as we have with Iran and N. Korea, and then don't carry through (because we don't have the means).