Posted on 02/25/2006 5:09:27 PM PST by milestogo
I think one of the legacies of Bush would be his adminstration's embrace of India. Clinton started it during his final years, and I thought Bush would be more inclined towards the cold-war stage. After all, India is a socialist country with most parties lauding "samajwadi"(literally socialist) philosophy. But the terrorist attacks of 9/11 altered Bush's approach.
I remember from early 2000, while he was campaigning, Bush was against the more proactive foreign policy. His mantra was that USA was should not and will not police the world. That was too Clintionesque. My, how this has shifted... now the Democrats are against the more proactive US role in the world, while Republicans tend to bring war to the enemies.
"I like Bush," volunteers a young Indian riding a train bound for the capital, New Delhi
Lovely people :^)
I think socialism is past history for India. I have heard Indians say, we know all about socialism. We starved. I think clinton's policeman of the world is very different from what bush has been doing. Clinton dispatched the military on 14 different missions which didn't accomplish much. Bush picked a couple and is seeing them through a la Korea, Japan, and Germany. This article does not get at the main thrust of our economic initiative twoard India and China. It is clean power and water treatment systems. Those big ticket items could balance the trade.
My first impression is that the rise of India to superpower status should not cause the kinds problems we see with China. Indian interests have usually been contrained by geography to the South Asian demi-continent - no history of foreign conquests like China, and no cultural inferiority complex which requires foreigners to kowtow (like China).
In future, the area most likely to be impacted by an Indian rise is Southeast Asia - they may feel like they have to chose between China and India, which could result in instability and proxy wars.
All that said, I'm not much of a scholar on India so would defer to an expert.
Over the last few years I only met one I didn't like. The rest of them were really nice young folks with good manners.
Adds Mohandas Pai, chief financial officer for Infosys Technologies, one of India's IT whiz companies in the southern city of Bangalore, "He's good for the world. He's the only person who can stop the spread of al Qaeda." Predictably, India's still-strong leftist parties are planning anti-Bush protests, and some ultranationalists also oppose closer ties with Washington. But the government here seems determined to produce happy images for the Bush visit.
"I think socialism is past history for India. "
India has a grass-root socialist movement. There are also more hardcore communistic movements. Most lower classes and under priviledged people are socialist(their leaders being upper classes, of course).
"I have heard Indians say, we know all about socialism."
You probably heard either from upper-middle class Indian immigrants or English speaking/understanding urban Indians who are out of touch with reality. The poor and the rural folks are naturally socialistic. They don't understand basic economics. Rise in the price of gas is the cause for protests. Although it might be changing, but the country is firmly socialistic.
For example, the last time a political party tried to pump up its capitalistic philosophy, it got massacred in the polls. And the communistic-socialist alliance is now ruling New Delhi.
At least the President will be able to observe in person all the new jobs created under his administration.
I love Bush (in a very manly non-gay way)....
"His mantra was that USA was should not and will not police the world. That was too Clintionesque. "
Umm, the position of believing that the USA should not be the world's policeman is not clintonesque. Actually, it is more paleo-conservative.
Clinton/Gore were in favor of America being the world's policeman. Somalia, Yugoslavia, etc???
Your analysis of the 2000 campaign, and the issue of the US policing the world, is incorrect.
Thanks for the ping carrotandstick.
It's good to see that a lot of Indians like Bush :)
"Most Indians are socialist and don't know who Bush is."
LOL.....utter nonsense.
Looks like "ckwilliams" signed up on Feb. 26, 2006, just in time for Pres. Bush's visit to India. His previous posts (over the last few hours) on India have been suspiciously negative and he has been poisoning every India thread.
Chicom or Paki propagandist? You decide.
Chicom, definately. Their appologists always have the same talking points. :-)
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