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

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (133260)	5/22/2004 10:15:19 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

You apparently believe we can, through the force of our will and the use of our military, transform cultures and overcome hatreds and passions that are fueled by big ideas. No... the use of military force is solely for the purpose of liquidating the previous repressive regime that FORCED the people to OBEY THEIR VALUES. Like most totalitarian regimes, the people lose their rights to participate in their own government, or for their politicians to be held accountable through the election process. The bottom line is that the people can have a role in deciding what values they want to hold and observe, or those values can be coercively inflicted upon them.. Or in the case of totalitarian regimes, they can be left exploited by the criminal elitists who oppress them and exploit the natural resources of THE PEOPLE'S country for their own benefit. And since these regimes maintain their power via force, force is generally the means by which they must be removed from power so that the power of the people to decide their own fates is established, or restored. It seems that some people take a dim view of having others "educate their children" and "rehabilitate" them when their core values are set and have been set for generations. Sure... just like some people took serious umbrage to having their children "re-educated" into the belief that black people aren't inferior, or that whites are racially superior. Or educating them that women should have equal rights to men... But are you saying that we should be ashamed of those who fought and died for such values, or that we should not be willing to do the same for others? If that sounds silly then why don't you think it's silly when you reverse things and ask that they be "rehabilitated?" Is it because you are convinced that our way is the one "true way?" Well, millions of people around the world happen to believe the US has the closest equivalent to the "true way". That's why they risk their lives to come here and establish new lives because they don't have such opportunities in their own countries. So what's wrong with helping them to have the same opportunities in their own countries? Why should we tolerate the illegitimate and repressive regimes that are so brutal that their own people feel forced to flee to the West? And why should I, or any other American, feel ashamed of hopefully playing some role in enabling to create whatever form of society THEY DESIRE TO HAVE, and the means to peacefully and politically alter it when they don't like the results? Is there some reason that you seem to believe the law of the jungle is morally equal to the law of civilization? Hawk