|
|
Re: Another random collection of thoughts.
by callei on Jul 06, 2004 - 11:30 AM
(User info | Send a Message)
http://http://
|
"Independence is something countries should have when they are ready for it.”
This is one of the most patriarchal things I have ever seen you write. Who decides when a country is “ready” for independence? Some group in Europe? Some group of their neighbors who have no real reason to care about that country’s people unless they are spilling over the border? Who helps them “become ready”? A nation that is held together by tax laws and football teams? And independent from what? From some other country trying to make a carbon copy of itself? From some group of countries that want to make sure it behaves the way they want it to?
Your people were ready for it at a time but the British couldn't see it and you had to fight to get it.
Less than 10% of the people that lived here and were European decent cared about “Independence” one way or the other when a group of uppity men got all stirred about having some foreign bastards take all their money, resources, and set rules for them. We were just harder to kill because England didn’t have as much of a technological advantage over us. The French financed that war by the way, as a way to piss off the English, not so we could have “freedom” but to destabilize the Monarchy. We weren’t “ready” for “independence”. We are still trying to sort it out, like who gets to vote (this was still being actively fought over with bloodshed and everything as little as 35 years ago) and who has “rights (this is still being fought over in a major way). This country is usually on the brink of civil war, so who are we to tell someone else how to run their country when we cant run our own.
Many countries were NOT ready when the Europeans left Asia and Africa and almost nobody could see it (or else they didn't have the will to act) and we are suffering the consequences of that hasty withdrawal.
This is another stupid slander. When the Europeans showed up, killed everyone that had money, training, power, and made puppets of the rest, they didn’t do it “for the good of the people so that they can grow to be independent”. The Europeans slaughtered millions to keep their monopolies and trade interests safe. They toppled working governments to put their own puppets in their place. The civil unrest that followed was based on the people from those countries trying to take back their own soil. The aftermath, when Europeans pulled out, was a legacy of violence since the power balance that had existed in those countries before the Europeans, was totally shattered and a new balance had to be found.
Luckily we all learn from our mistakes."
Yes we do. first we destabilize the surrounding countries so that they can’t join in the battle for autonomous rule by citizens. That is the mistake we have made before, not taking out the interconnected social structure that creates a balance in the area. Then we go in with massive firepower, kill everyone that tries to oppose us, and we leave a large standing army behind to keep the trade routes open. We also pick our fights better by making sure that the countries are ostracized by their neighbors before we go in. we make sure that they are low on weapons (the real reason for all those weapon inspections?). We make sure that the local abuses of power have reached a level that are close to what we will do when we get there. We make sure that the resource that we are there to exploit already has a solid market. That is another mistake we have made before.
If we gave a shit about the suffering of the people, we would be in so many places trying to set up safe areas, negotiate treaties and peace settlements, and disarming and disbanding various combat units. There are 5 nations in Africa in far worse shape that Irak was. There are at least 3 in Asia that could use, and have asked for, soldier and weapons to help them make peace. But are we there, toppling regimes and bringing peace? No, we aren’t.
It’s all nice and well to say Syria will fall in step with “democracy
Read the rest of this comment...
|
|
|