Kepler
Si certus es dubita
Re: Global War on Terror III: Dick Cheney's Hague ICC Vacation
The trouble with supporting despotism is the people of the country identify you with the despot. That's fine while he's still in power, but once they have their democratic revolution, you're part of the oppressive history. Once Saudi Arabia and Egypt become democracies, their populations are going to hate us with the fury of hell for being in cahoots with their oppressors for decades -- in the case of the Saudis, for actually imposing the government in the first place.
The foreign policy that lives up to our values and yields the most practical results is to offer lots of humanitarian aid to any people regardless of its government, never support any totalitarian or authoritarian regime despot with military aid unless it's a very temporary effort to combat some even more dangerous enemy, like terrorists in their territory who may also come after us, and encourage non-violent liberalization, particularly democratic reform from within the government itself, as a gradual evolution will lead to a less catastrophic transition than revolution.
We have a great system and, considered by the standards of expansionist empires of the past, excellent intentions. We just need to remember that deeds carry more impact than words, and when a village gets bombed its population will consider the bomber to be a murderous enemy for generations. We didn't invade Germany and Japan to liberate Germans and Japanese -- we did it to protect ourselves. You don't win hearts and minds by killing people's kids.
The trouble with supporting despotism is the people of the country identify you with the despot. That's fine while he's still in power, but once they have their democratic revolution, you're part of the oppressive history. Once Saudi Arabia and Egypt become democracies, their populations are going to hate us with the fury of hell for being in cahoots with their oppressors for decades -- in the case of the Saudis, for actually imposing the government in the first place.
The foreign policy that lives up to our values and yields the most practical results is to offer lots of humanitarian aid to any people regardless of its government, never support any totalitarian or authoritarian regime despot with military aid unless it's a very temporary effort to combat some even more dangerous enemy, like terrorists in their territory who may also come after us, and encourage non-violent liberalization, particularly democratic reform from within the government itself, as a gradual evolution will lead to a less catastrophic transition than revolution.
We have a great system and, considered by the standards of expansionist empires of the past, excellent intentions. We just need to remember that deeds carry more impact than words, and when a village gets bombed its population will consider the bomber to be a murderous enemy for generations. We didn't invade Germany and Japan to liberate Germans and Japanese -- we did it to protect ourselves. You don't win hearts and minds by killing people's kids.
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But 3 gets quite the workout.
