Posted on 08/14/2008 6:06:43 PM PDT by Kaslin
Russia invades Georgia. China jails dissidents. China and India pollute at levels previously unimaginable. Gulf monarchies make trillions from jacked-up oil prices. Islamic terrorists keep car bombing.
Meanwhile, Europe offers moral lectures, while Japan and South Korea shrug and watch — all in a globalized world that tunes into the Olympics each night from Beijing.
"Citizens of the world" were supposed to share, in relative harmony, our new "Planet Earth," which was to have followed from an interconnected system of free trade, instantaneous electronic communications, civilized diplomacy and shared consumer capitalism.
But was that ever quite true? In reality, to the extent globalism worked, it followed from three unspoken assumptions:
First, the U.S. economy would keep importing goods from abroad to drive international economic growth.
Second, the U.S. military would keep the sea lanes open, and trade and travel protected. After the past destruction of fascism and global communism, the Americans — as global sheriff — would continue to deal with the occasional menace like a Moammar Gadhafi, Slobodan Milosevic, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-il or the Taliban.
Third, America would ignore ankle-biting allies and remain engaged with the world — like a good, nurturing mom who at times must put up with the petulance of dependent teenagers.
But there have been a number of indications recently that globalization may soon lose its American parent, who is tiring, both materially and psychologically.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
that’s rich:
>>>Meanwhile, the hypocrisy becomes harder to take. After all, it is easy for self-appointed global moralists to complain that terrorists don’t enjoy Miranda rights at Guantanamo, but it would be hard to do much about the Russian military invading Georgia’s democracy and bombing its cities.
Damn Vic, don’t hold back, tell us how you REALLY feel.
“China and India pollute at levels previously unimaginable.”
And yet, the DBM says that the US is responsible for ‘globull warming’.
Spot on!
We should drill for our own oil, become great again and help save the world from itself.
Don’t worry folks. Obama is going to talk to the Russians. All will be well when he treats them real nice.
Goodness, anyone who ever bought into that nonsense deserves to be ridiculed, publicly and often.
Nations act internationally in accord with their vital national interests. Period. There may be slight deviations from time to time, but each nation looks out for itself.
Let me know if you want in or out.
Links: FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
His website: http://victorhanson.com/
NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
Pajamasmedia: http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/
I even hate to open this can of worms, but consider that the present world situation might be caused by the collusion of Bush and Putin working together to construct a world order that they desire. Recall that a long term problem that Russia has is demographic- they don’t have enough kids to replace. They have Siberia (low density population with rich minerals) which the Czars took from China. To the south, lies China teeming with people. China is actively looking for lebensraum and natural resources to fuel their development. What would you do?
Maybe it's just PAST time for the US to get real. Our dependent "teenagers" are in their 30's and still living in the basement...
Clearly a change of priorities is in order on the part of a no longer prostrate Western Europe whose economy is now larger than its benefactor, specifically in terms of the nature of allegiance and its costs. A dozen carrier battle groups on the one hand versus not quite one - this isn't, to be sure, the only measure of strength but it is a very telling measure of commitment. And given the lead time necessary to produce armed forces capable of prevailing on today's battlefields one cannot help but wonder if it isn't already too late.
The preference of negotiation to war is laudable and one signal characteristic of a civilized nation, but there is nothing inherently civilized about negotiation because one has no other choice. "Soft" power is a cruel illusion that leads its moralistic adherents straight to the slaughterhouse, the sheep clinging to the comfort of moral rectitude while other hands hold the knife. Nations may be civilized, but the world is not.
1. Sorry, I don’t buy it.
2. Siberia was never taken from China. It never belonged to China. Russia expended to the East to all that huge territories without practically any resistance. The very low density populated areas belonged to multiple small ethnicities more analogues with native American Indians than anything else. The current demographic pressure in the Russian underbelly is different story. Its true and it strong.
I’ve never could find a satisfactory explanation why we still have bases in Germany and in Western Europe at all. It only makes sense to move them to Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic. The only thing we still need from Old Europe is permission to fly through their air space.
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