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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (62044)	3/27/2006 2:41:08 AM
From: thames_sider	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362563

Nice finish :) I share Blair’s values, although I regard them as stronger than he does. I share his admiration for most things American and his loathing for dictatorship and oppression worldwide. I respect his forlorn quest for fairer trade and I am proud of Britain’s record in humanitarian relief. The case for a new “international community” is strong and Blair has often put it cogently. But this community will only come into being if pursued through example and persuasion, not through war. Success lies in culture and capitalism, through the interpenetration of peoples and religions and the liberation of market forces. Because such intercourse is not couched in the language of a medieval crusader, Blair dismisses it as “benign inactivity”. Such dismissal shows how limited is his political vision. The West’s attempt — or rather that of a Labour prime minister and a Republican president — to impose its values on distant states through armed force has been an aberration doomed to failure. As Francis Fukuyama points out in his latest book, it has betrayed the neoconservative cause as much as the liberal one. It is so obviously cruel, costly and counter-productive as to be almost beyond debate. Blair is now trotting round the world and showing his fear of Bin Laden. He is curbing civil liberty at home and releasing bombs and bullets across the Middle East. The resulting loss of life and of respect for the West have been appalling. Perhaps in his next speech Blair might re-examine his lack of faith in the robustness of western democracy. Perhaps he might find its values stronger and its liberties more trenchant than he supposes. Perhaps he might be more of a liberal and less of a wimp.