Posted on 09/30/2001 9:31:07 AM PDT by annalex
The bumps are from Kipling. I trust that no one on this forum would consider this famous poem in the least bit racist; nor is the subject of this thread related in any way to race relations.
A TREASURY OF PRIMARY DOCUMENTS . The ultimate source of history links.
A Chronology of US Historical Documents.
The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School, more historic documents.
Laissez Faire Books.
Second Renaissance Books.
Reason Foundation.
Ayn Rand and Objectivism.
Religion and the Founding Fathers
Religion vs. Morality, from the Ayn Rand Institute.
Simply leaving after decapitating a regime is probably not optimal, but then neither is setting up a DEPENDENT puppet government. The policy has its unintended consequences. Without internal support in these countries based upon a cultural respect for republican government methinks "The White Man's Burden" is more an avaricious play for raw material and cheap labor than it is benevolent.
I note that the most likely successor to Shah Masoud is a communist.
What a surprise!
I have no desire to see the US military guaranteeing Unocal access to gas, nor protection for copper mines simply because domestic RICOnut environmentalists have made that a necessity through Bubba's minerally strategic EOs. Energy can be used to replace materials as a substitute good, for example in compressing Nitrogen to cool power transmission lines that require far less copper. The possibilities are nearly endless. Build nuclear power plants instead of enforcing access to fossil fuels and playing into the hands of the UN thereby. Note that the Tobin tax is positioned to take advantage of dependence upon imported fossil fuels by taxing payment transfers. I would much rather deprive them of the funds.
That said, perhaps making this country independent and strong is the best long term strategy, as well as purging PC communist fascism from western universities by competition from superior alternatives. In that respect, perhaps we can do more for the world long term, by cutting federal support for state universities and supporting the current flourishing of home schooling. I think that the effect of that infusion of intelligent and independent thinking into the highest echelons of government and industry would be far more rapid than is commonly supposed; i.e., less than ten years.
You have seen my comments on civil defense; they stand. If you want me to repost them here I will do so.
Similar to homeland defense by the militia and civil defense by the free market, strengthening our ability to render aid to a collapsing world communism is far preferable to kissing its royal tusch to get at raw materials controlled by western banks.
We disagree Annalex, I do not think we have the population or resources to conduct our affairs and dominate the lives of 1.5 billion Islamists in Russo/China's back yard, nor do I think that it is in our interest to so attempt. Lack of respect for the national sovereignty of other nations will have unintended consequences at home that in my judgement are not worth the risk.
"For the same reasons it will not be possible to limit our engagement to military means: "strike hard and get out". Any military campaign needs to be followed up by either an occupation regime, or establishment of a friendly government committed to a meaningful, from terrorism-fighting standpoint system of law enforcement. It is in our vital interest to leave the area not sooner than when a Muslim culture rooted in property rights and genuine political pluralism has a chance to withstand future recurrence of Arab militancy.
The policy advocated here has a discredited name: imperialism.
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We have, as you noted, a clash of fundamental values.
Individual fanatics are leading this movement, in and outside of governments and/or religious groups.
We cannot decare war on the muslim world, or even on selected political parts of it, imo, without bringing on another global war. - WWIII.
Therefore, we should decare war on the fanatics, the individuals responsible. -- We should identify these individuals as it becomes possible, make our case, and announce to the world that no quarter will be given in their personal elimination , collateral death & destructon be damned.
After several such successful actions, killing thousands of these fanatics, the rest will learn our way. -- To live & let live. -- Or learn to die opposing it.
Imperialism, as you have defined it, will never work again unless the enemy is totally defeated, as per WWII.
We cannot fight the whole islamic world for its unconditional surrender.
We don't need to. What we must do is to completely wipe out the Taliban and all of it's brutal tyranny. The Taliban is mostly hated by the Muslim world. To say waging war on it would be waging war on the nation of Islam, would be similar to saying that waging war on the Davidians would be waging war on Christianity.
Once the Taliban is eliminated, there will be no efficient ruling force to govern Afghanistan. This was our mistake the first time after the Russian invasion. We allowed anarchy to prevail there and the Taliban is what results in anarchy. Haven't you ever seen Escape from N.Y. or L.A.? We must occupy Afghanistan in order to assist in installing a TRUE democratic government. If we do not, we can expect a similar situation to take place in the future. We must learn from our mistakes.
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Sorry, I don't get my history or philosophy from movies.
Did you even read the fine article above?
This is a war against the islamic fundementalist, not just taliban afghans. -- Sure, we can occupy, and TRY to convert them to 'democracy'. The lessons of history say we will fail.
-- The germans & japs of WWII had our basic capitalistic values.
Fundamentalist islam, [millions of people, far beyond afghanistan] does not.
We will never win their hearts & minds. Only THEY can change themselves.
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