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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (124776)	2/17/2004 4:04:09 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 281500

The solution to oil dependence is simple: Make people pay for it. Politicians want to pretend there is a free lunch for everybody, and the Republicans are the worst offenders by far in this regard. But the bill comes due anyway, and nobody wants to pay it. So we bury the bill and make plans to spend even more, day after day. We cannot afford SUVs. We cannot afford giant, energy guzzling houses and appliances. We cannot afford cities that don't work. But we pretend we can afford it all and add to the toll every year. There is no free lunch.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (124776)	2/19/2004 11:03:57 AM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The primary problem in Saudi Arabia is that we permitted ourselves to compromise our interests by becoming so economically dependent upon one particular such regime (or any number of non-democratic regimes) and then finding our foreign policy held captive to regional turmoil. This is evident. ....no side seems to have presented a viable plan for accomplishing that without making our nation less competitive in the global marketplace. Thus, we're doing what should have been done decades ago.. Requiring those nations who expect and enjoy our protection to open up and democratize their societies and economic systems. This situation in Saudi Arabia is unique, and doesn't fit any stereotypical molds of "mercantilist capitalism". In particular, they themselves paid for all the work we've done in modernizing the country - this is why there was never any congressional oversight (or meddling) of the many programs that were executed, no taxpayer money was involved. One thing Saudi Arabia does very well is explode the pleasant myth that if we just let countries become prosperous enough to afford the trappings of American society, that somehow, as if by magic, they'll become more democratic and we'll "win" the battle of spreading democracy without firing a shot. I think it's worth taking a hard look at what has happened in Saudi Arabia when thinking about any possible evolution in North Korea or elsewhere of "democracy", human rights, or any of the things we take for granted here. Germany and Japan were turned around, but at what a cost, and those situations were again unique enough that they just don't extrapolate as to what the general policies should be elsewhere, today.