To: arun gera who wrote (68039 ) 8/25/2007 7:24:52 PM From: silenceddissenter Read Replies (1) | Respond to If we have forgotten, the last world war involved nuclear. That realization has prevented the power blocks of the world to find alternate ways to settle conflicts. Like trade... And Iraq is a special case. Iraq did not collapse, it was deliberately destroyed. The history of last 60 years has showed that the NATO, USSR, Chinese, and Indian nuclear powers have behaved very responsibly so far as far as the use of nuclear weapons is concerned. The British Empire collapsed. And it was way bigger, more entrenched, and more stretched in its managerial resources. They just went bankrupt fighting World War II. The power vaccum was filled in by United States, which behaved more sensibly than the old world European countries with their historical and nationalistic baggage. On the strength of United States, the whole of Western Europe, Japan, and South Korea became stabilized and peaceful. USSR collapsed without any major bloodshed (except yugoslavia). And in a short span of 15 years, many eastern european countries have almost integrated into western europe. And nuclear weapon capability among the former Soviet republics has so far been a non issue (I did not see the movie "The Peacemaker" which was tackled some of the fears). The British left India in such a hurry (after only 300 years or so of being around), that there was a power vaccum which affected 12 million people in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. However, the Indian political parties picked up the pieces and have cobbled together a reasonable nation (still an unfinished work). You have to give some credit to the US empire. They have managed to bring about significant trade relationship with China that may be irreversible, and will align China's interest with the NATO powers. And now they are bringing on another competing vendor (India) to balance China's strength. This globalist agenda, which Slagle seems to find very corrupting, is in some ways a sensible way to avoid direct confrontation with other nuclear powers. US even tried developing Russia into a trade relationship and capitalism. And Russia has adapted and become more capitalist, however, it still needs the backbone of its previously entrenched organizational structure to go further. And US should not be making the same mistake the winners of World War I did to the Germans. Do not push Russians into a corner. Let them recover from the setbacks they have suffered. And Putin has been fairly responsible so far. It is in self interest. The ruled allow the rulers to rule if the rulers make their life easier and less stressful. The more likely scenario is that US will start sharing the police force responsibilities with other nations. That is the right principle. However, the world has still not built an honest global police force that is answerable to humanity. They will not do take such an action unless they have been driven to an absolute corner. show others who is still the boss. This might have backfired a little, but the point has still been made.
