On 30 Jul 2002 at 16:49, Ben wrote:
> [Joe]
> We should have done then (when the Soviets left) what we
> are doing now; encouraging a moderate and participatory democracy
> there, while attempting to attenuate some of the more rabid strains of
> islamic fundamentalism that we had previously encouraged as a means to
> that end.
>
> [ben]
> Stepping back from this specific argument for a moment...
>
> I think that there are several of us who are having a similar problem with
> your general stance as you have with ours - you are portraying yourself as
> being unreservedly pro-American, and in the process of refuting your
> propositions we come across to you as being completely entrenched in
> anti-American dogma. I am glad to read your recent admissions that the US
> has made mistakes in the past, and that admission makes me more likely to
> lend credence to your other and future posts. Now instead of thinking that
> you are infected with the "My country right or wrong always" meme, I am left
> wondering if you have a case of "My country right or wrong right now". In
> order to better understand your memeplex in order to more effectively
> converse with you I would like to ask: Do you believe that the current
> government sincerely has the best interests of both US and other citizens in
> mind when making all foreign policy decisions?
>
I have considered some on this list to be infected with the 'america is
always wrong' meme, and have seen little to dissuade me from this
position. And no, we still currently make mistakes. Some of the
rejected treaties, notably the global warming treaty, we did not sign due
to pressure from domestic business interests. We have grossly flubbed
our efforts against narcotraffickers in south america, basically because
we are trying to make a flawed policy (that is based upon the mistaken
premise that the impossible can be achieved) work, when our very own
experience with the law of supply and demand should inform us that
increasing scarcity drives up prices, makes a product more profitable,
and thus increases incentives to produce it in order to profit from a
more lucrative demand market; thus in absolute terms, a policy of
product market denial cannot succeed. We also should do something
about insuring that more of the Nigerian oil profits go to their people,
rather than the Abache regime.
>
> -ben
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sun Sep 22 2002 - 05:06:17 MDT