Hmm...the Japanese have a western mindset? I don't think so. Maybe the Taiwanese do. No. Well then, surely the Russians, or the South Koreans do. No, I don't think they do either. Those with a western mindset are a minority in the world. Philosopy is provincial, Economics is universal.
As long as the Middle East has us dependent economically on their oil while they lack econimic dependence on us, they are a wild card. If their economies become enmeshed and therefore dependent on a robust world economy, then they become partners, whether willing or not.
“the Japanese have a western mindset? I don’t think so. Maybe the Taiwanese do. No. Well then, surely the Russians, or the South Koreans do. No, I don’t think they do either. Those with a western mindset are a minority in the world. Philosopy is provincial, Economics is universal.”
OK...
So then, the above-listed cultures...
Throw bomb-strapped children into battle?
Commit mass murder against unarmed civilians?
Use civilians as human shields in their combat operations?
Use civilian facilities to house military assets?
Do not outfit their military personnel with uniforms, but send them to intermingle with the civilian population?
Decapitate those whom they think unworthy?
Instruct their peoples to kill all non-adherents to their religious creed?
Sir, philosophy may indeed be “provincial,” but the moral law is universal, because it is God’s law—written indelibly upon the hearts of all men.
western culture goes far deeper than political expressions of democracy and free-market economics... The heart of western culture is the Christian Faith, and the Judeo-Christian heritage. I do not know of Taiwan, but Japan, South Korea and Russia all have/had significant Catholic populations. The Christian Faith is what defines western civilization... not economics.
RTO