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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (6633)	12/12/2005 10:41:56 AM
From: neolib	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 542970

Thus, for me the problem with Bush's policies is not the use of the military but (a) it was used against the wrong target (Iraq rather than Al Qaeda), (b) it was not used in concert with a well conceived plan of nation building, and (c) it ignored the historic ethnic makeup of the colonially created country "Iraq". Worse than that, it ignored the local (Iraqi) view of America within the wider ME context.

To: JohnM who wrote (6633)	12/12/2005 10:44:18 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542970

I've just never been a pacifist and lately have come to the conclusion that there are circumstances under which state sponsored violence is acceptable. The principle one is that it be couched within a program which leads to decreased violence and that it take into account the full political, social and cultural context of the violence it seeks to control. I don't know about that. Maybe I am a dreamer, but if you look at the trend: The Soviet Union collapsed and basically no one was killed. Two World Wars were started in Europe, and with the EU coming together (sort of), I can't envision Europe going to war (at least with each other) again. It seems inevitable that all state sponsored conflict that end in violence will end and it may happen much faster than we think. I agree that between now and then (when all violent conflict ends - the end of history - if you will) seems far away and nearly impossible. But if you look at the trend, and if you look at what happened in Europe, there are signs that things could get a lot better much faster than people think.