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How Democracies Die Silence over Georgia attacks is a show of moral relativism Jonathan Gurwitz The eminent French political scientist Jean-François Revel, who died two years ago at the age of 82, was doubly blessed. He lived long enough to see the death of the Soviet Union – the last great homicidal regime of the 20th Century – but didn't have to see the West shrink before the KGB kleptocracy that grew like a black fungus over its remains. In his seminal book “How Democracies Perish,” Revel wrote, “Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is working to destroy it.” He was describing the way citizens of Western nations condemned their own societies, their own governments, their own leaders for the hostile and sometimes genocidal acts of communist regimes during the Cold War. When the Khmer Rouge, for instance, slaughtered more than one million people in pursuit of a communist utopia in Cambodia, quislings like Noam Chomsky – who retains a cult-like status in left-wing intellectual circles and on university campuses – first denied clear evidence of genocide, then placed blame for the atrocities not on Pol Pot and his murderous comrades, but instead on the United States. “In addition to its external enemy,” Revel wrote, “democracy faces an internal enemy whose right to exist is written into law itself. Totalitarianism liquidates its internal enemies or smashes opposition as soon as it arises.” I mention Revel's commentary and the pathetic antics of Chomsky a generation ago by way of asking the question: Where are the protestors today? You know, the ones who only a few years ago were marching against unilateral war and regime change. The ones pleading to give peace and the United Nations a chance in Iraq. The ones demanding, “No blood for oil.” Where are they now as Georgia smolders? To begin with, any sort of comparison between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Georgia is obscene. Iraq under the rule of the Hussein family was a mafia crime scene at a national level. Georgia is democratic, not only in the sense that its government derives legitimacy from a relatively free and competitive election, but also in the sense that it is evolving the institutions of a free society. For those with short attention spans, the government of Mikheil Saakashvili hasn't used chemical weapons on its own people or its neighbors, hasn't slaughtered hundreds of thousands of ethnic and religious minorities in genocidal campaigns, hasn't attempted to conquer or destroy neighboring countries, doesn't provide financial and military support to international terrorists and doesn't throw those suspected of disloyalty into human meatgrinders. In further regard to this sickening moral relativism, the Russian government of Vladimir Putin did not, as three U.S. administrations did, endure the defiance of 17 U.N. Security Council resolutions over 12 years, the final one – Resolution 1441 in 2002 – unanimously providing the United States and its allies with the mandate to use military power. Yet now, where are those thousands who took to the streets and signed petitions in the United States, Canada and Europe to protect the monstrous Baath syndicate against this mandate? Where are MoveOn and ANSWER? Where are all those professors and students, actors and artists?Silent – or worse, engaging in the same kind of intellectually dishonest, morally vacuous games that Chomsky did 30 years ago. Here is a truly unilateral war that really is largely for oil – for the Kremlin to control or destroy the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, Europe's only major source of Central Asian oil and gas that does not go through Russia. And Russian leaders cite NATO's bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999, not Iraq in 2003, as the precedent for attacking Georgia. Nevertheless, the usual suspects allege the United States lacks the moral standing to criticize Russia's actions in Georgia because of Iraq. And, as always, the people inclined to blame America first – and only – demonstrate they lack the critical faculties to make such moral judgments. |
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8/26/2008 11:29 am |
If history recorded many things in times past, or if the history told the depth of truth in it's details, Africa and China, has traded long ago in the history of mankind.. there is differences in how Present Day China and Present Day Africa works... and they each know what their trade off are.. but what they get that other nations may not like, is they build based on their agreements, not what other western countries try and tell them how it should be.. and it's for sure western countries, will do their propoganda fights, to put a spin on it, because they don't benefit directly, and they are for sure not eager to see Africa or China act as their own agents in their affairs.. but what is taking place, is countrie are now seeing they don't need "western brokers".. to cloud their deals with western ideals and western based objective.. so there will be much printed flak about the arrangment made between Africa and china, but the wise mind, will think, deeper than what they see printed in western media about it.. and look for the bi-laterial facts that support their deals.. china is not known for taking war parties into other nations.. Nor is Africa.. and that makes a very big distinction of what history has in the depth of what is history.. most of the instability in African regions, is the result of many of the Nordic and Western as well as the Southern European Regions such as Spain and etc.. have for many many centuries created the highs and lows of conflicts... but if people think , the question would come to mind, why is there such despairity in Africa, when so many countries have plundered it, but the whole nature of plunder is to first destabilize and infuse with chaos, that leads to the ability to over-take and get what is wanted without giving anything in return.. so this model of what is shaping up now, will be both progressive for China and Africa.. The world is changing rapidly and much will come to view in many ways in the coming years.
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8/26/2008 9:38 am |
Very thoughtful discussions. Russia is flexing its strength at a time when it knows the US & the EU leaders are too weak to respond...and over a barrel because of energy prices and democratic elections... Thanks again for everyone's contributions... (Now wait till China does a land-grab for someone else's resources, like Siberia...? It is already propping up illegal African despots to get their oil & other natural resources from Africa...maybe that's another geopolitical subject to cover later.) No doubt that China has a lot of natural resources but why use yours when you can exploit others and save yours for when there is an acute shortage in the world. And speaking of acute, you know there are a lot of cute girls in China that will probably self-export themselves in order to find a husband. VICKY
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Very thoughtful discussions. Russia is flexing its strength at a time when it knows the US & the EU leaders are too weak to respond...and over a barrel because of energy prices and democratic elections... Thanks again for everyone's contributions... (Now wait till China does a land-grab for someone else's resources, like Siberia...? It is already propping up illegal African despots to get their oil & other natural resources from Africa...maybe that's another geopolitical subject to cover later.)
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8/24/2008 1:50 pm |
KnowledgeSpider never underestimate anything... overestimation of one's self is the quickest way to meet with the upsets, that can unbalance your own apple cart. you exemplify an aggressive arrogance, that may make you miss things you should consider.. for one when you speak of contradictions, you may want to study some of Mao, premise, which deals with the acknowledgment of contradictions, and if you look at even the structure in some of the way Chinese speaks when it's translated into english, it finds and states it's points of logic in many addresses of how and what and what of contradictions that one acknowledges. but not only do they as a whole deal with contradictions but also how things blend and merge for harmony, and objective aims.. now as to systems.. to have survived 5K years thru many variables of structure.. is of itself, a great feat.. is that not 10 times, that of many Nations. so the transfer of cultural idioms has a chain, but that chain is also connect to some of the great advances that exist in society of some creations as well as some models of variable spectrum's that were of the nations of China's developmental creation. their adaptation to the economic industrial complex, should by and of itself tell you a great deal... and they made that within less than 60 years. so.. maybe look even a bit broader and much deeper.. and then re-check some of your summations, the revelations may be astounding. as to the women of China, there is a variety of learning points in dealing with women, of China and any other Asian culture, that has a variable different ideology, but there is too a model of philosophical mergers within their compositions.. it's far from a one dimensional cultural modeling of philosophical make up.. that has many influences upon and within its composure.. that spans a wide gambit of ethical variables.. even in thier systems, there is a certain degree of religion devotional make up in the composure that is less secular in some respects and more combined philosophical collective, which post their social structure and it's system.. and what do you find, you find that there is Buddhist, Taoist and other factions that co exist, under a common system structure.. and you find this all throughout Asian in various countries. and each continue to expand in their democratic forms, from some that once had dominant and stern authoritarian structures.. and they continue to modify..
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8/22/2008 8:03 pm |
If people in China had even a fraction of brains and resolve that Americans have it wouldn't take them 5000+ years only to begin copying the elementary principles of market economics that the rest of the civilized world has mastered long time ago, while still preserving its dictatorial political system. It's no wonder that people's sensibilities are offended when the subject of China comes up I think you need to look deeper into this, and learn more.. seriously... China was built by the combining of many factions of Dynasties over a long period of time. now some of those factions, also sold out many things and much access, in it's wars against other factions.. and by that time there were invaders in the soil from other lands, that by their means of divide and conquor, found their ways to erode the collective and seize upon the resources it sought, and this was magnified in the British Occupation.. when China found it's way to choose the Stalanist system,, it's people were already decimated into many factions of despair.. and they had been driven to the excessive use of the sedative consumption of Opium that nearly ravaged the country and when they tried to change from Opium, the British raised holy hell.. upon the people and their actions to impose even harsher subjugation, because Opium was a cash crop for the British, when China closed it's doors, it killed millions upon millions of it's own people, entire families for a long span, to wipe out the Opium destruction of it's people.. and it chose a system of stern controls of socialism, to try and stabilize and unify it's people.. and it took it many years of many sacrifices and many hardships and great challenges to keep other out, until it could re-instill pride in it's people of being Chinese, it was a devastation to be controlled by another people, whom China's men had to near act like boys, before the British, and still today, there are many in some areas of China who still feel they have to measure up to British standard to feel of equality.. but that is changing rapidly.. no longer can the British or any of it's colonial people come to china and the men or women cater to them as if they are Gods and the Chinese are subservient.. so you may want to study what is the road to freedom, of self, and you may find they found the restoral of their unity of pride, throught socialism.. and the sternness of it's system.. and that takes time.. it's no different than the same oppression on the blacks in America, but we as a people did not have the luxury of a closed system to re-unify ourselves.. and we were too battered down, when we began to chant "I'm black and I'm proud" in the 60,s trying to regain a sense of self.. when for hundred of years, another had oppressed people and stolen their idenity and acted harsh upon them even if they tried to claim their own idenity or even claim themselves as a man... and people said the same thing about black people as you are saying about the Chinese, "why do they have to speak of their nation Pride as being a Chinese.. WHY.. because other's tried to take it from them, and make them feel they were less than, for even being Chinese.. Now they are finding they can be Proud be say I am Chinese.. see you understand so little when you make the statements you did in the tone and manner and intent they were made.. it conveys your limited knowledge of the pathway thru the history of regaining the stature of self.. when opposition is still trying to push them down for being proud to be whom they are.. for many many years, take again HKG for example, many Chinese were not and did not feel they could be treated nor seen as equal, unless they emulated the British, or even married into the circle as their rise to stature to be seen as a person on equal level of being a person.. they struggled so hard with that, they even were down on other Chinese who held to some of their own historical traditions, and they became some of them, even more prejudice against some traditional Chinese than the British were.. because they wanted to seperate themselves from Chinese Idenity.. and Identify with British.. that's how oppressions damage peoples idenity of self. It's why Ghandi fought so hard against the British in India, and it's why MLK marched so determined in America.. there was a time a British person could walk through parts of China and certainly HKG and pick up their women like it had it's own giant harem, and that was the same way it was in America with the Whites when they dominated the blacks, they could pick up the women and wanted no one to say a thing.. and then men were looked at as less than.. but now days, the women are much different, and they are relearning how to respect their men, and see what they men have come thru... but in the big picture of it all.. people will fight to regain their own idenity.. no matter who tries to take it, or how much they do to try to take it, the depth within individuals is far deeper than the malice of man can destory.. so before you criticize them about their regard for their heritage, dig deep and see what it all composes and it's a world of a history of much more than a whimsical summation.
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8/22/2008 7:29 pm |
Vicky, that's a beautiful essay you posted. Except that it contradicts 100% with your other posts about Tibetan protests. You seem to think that as China rises it has the right to gobble up smaller countries around it. But guess what? Russians feel about Russia same way you feel about China and Russians feel about Georgia same way you feel about Tibet. And speaking of defence of democracy... you are supporting one of the least democratic countries on the planet by participating in its blitz-propaganda event. I think you'd have no trouble at all forgetting about Georgia by the time 2014 comes around and it's time for you to buy the tickets for the Sochi Olympics, even though Sochi itself is not that far away from border with Georgia. I've come across quite a few clever girls from China, but tell me, why is it so difficult for a Chinese to do away with the sort of "I am proud to be Chinese" crap? I mean, let's get real: Chinese had 5000+ years to develop and the best they could do is copy the Stalinist system invented in Russia based on a philosophy invented in Germany. Yet it took the United States only 200+ years to become the eminent economic power and the military superpower. Duh! Maybe in America they invented something that no Chinese could come up with for 5000+ years. And maybe it has something to do with the fact that when someone says "I am proud to be American" they aren't referring to some fuzzy warm feeling of belonging to a pot with another 1,500,000,000 anonymous people in it with nothing more interesting than common racial characteristic and geographic point of origin to unite them, but instead are referring to the fact that in America you are your own person and nothing stands in the way of you arranging your life just as you see fit. Now, where is this sort of freedom in China? China is a country that still keeps people in prisons for their beliefs with everyone who lives there just worrying about their outward image and where they can buy the cheapest pair of shoes. If people in China had even a fraction of brains and resolve that Americans have it wouldn't take them 5000+ years only to begin copying the elementary principles of market economics that the rest of the civilized world has mastered long time ago, while still preserving its dictatorial political system. It's no wonder that people's sensibilities are offended when the subject of China comes up. So, make a choice: either you are American or Chinese, because even though you may look yellow in the mirror there is no way to combine things which are so obviously contradictory. And there is really no advantage to whitewashing things because at the end of the day everything is just the way it is regardless. The first step to prevent death of democracies is: stop boosting countries which aren't democratic and which at the first available opportunity would squash democracy everywhere! (By the way, it is only a matter of time before China's economy stalls. Take a look at Japan. They also had the grand dream of overtaking U.S. And they actually came quite close to doing it all within the timeframe of 50 years. Very admirable. I wouldn't even dream of driving anything that wasn't a Toyota or buying a piece of electronics that wasn't Sony or Matsushita/Panasonic. So what happened? Japanese economy stalled. Why? Because Japanese culture just isn't that open to individualism and innovation. They are actually at the midpoint: either they go forward and become American or slide back to being militarist and authoritarian and in the end, poor. So what makes Chinese better than the Japanese? If the Japanese couldn't do the let's-overtake-America thing, then what rational basis is there to claim that Chinese will be able to do it? Sorry, but the hard fact is that even today the entire world's economy is holding strictly on American innovation, with all other economies catering to it. Why is American economy the most innovative? Duh! That's because America is the freest country in the world with the freest culture in the world. Try to beat that.) And the second step to prevent death of democracies is for those living in the democratic countries to develop weapons systems capable of destroying fleets and armies of dictatorial regimes in a matter of hours. No one is really preventing YOU from designing such systems. It will be a hell of an effort, but what the hell... that's what life is about anyway. You can take your inspiration from the ancient Greek by the name of Archimedes of Syracuse; he was a hell of a mathematician and as it turned out, a hell of a weapons designer as well. And the third step to prevent death of democracies is to build more nuclear power plants to be less dependent on oil. And that is all. These are all purely technical problems. touch213, your pessimism is amazing. "on top again of the economic erosion in this country, with no visible means of repair, or uplift in sight.. and only reports of further economic decay and faltering shows to be eminent". Wow. You obviously have had a bad day and feel very much resentful that someone would ask you to defend them... but can you really just ignore when something that you value is being destroyed? No wonder you feel so weak. Giving up on your values because you don't feel like making the effort will make you even weaker. The way of the strong is to defend that which you value. The only problem today is that we don't have enough in terms of technological, and by extension, military capability; but this is only a temporary problem and is only technical in nature. So, cheer up, go make some money, and then spend all of it: that's how you turn the economy around.  CPayne, Europeans are hapless; it's no secret. Take former German PM Gerhard Shroder who is now chairman of the Gazprom Nord Stream which he was a proponent of while still being prime minister. That guy is directly on Putin's payroll. No wonder in Germany they call him the Russian German. NATO is dead as well. Even though Georgia isn't a member, NATO membership is nothing more than a piece of paper in someone's folder; the real factor is the willingness to intervene militarily which no one is willing to do. So U.S. is the only ally of Georgia still left standing even though its defense of Georgia is pretty weak and in the first few days of the war seemed like complete betrayal considering that Georgia had 2,000 of its troops supporting U.S. in Iraq. it's far less a personal matter with me, nor does it have anything to do with my days as an individual... if you stop, think, look and listen.. and have followed not just the political news, but the financial news, the nations, situation fo economic challenges, and the disparity of the public in general at the wrong way factions that has resulted from this war.. but I don't know where you are from, nor what you view daily, but evidentially,.. you are not looking at the big picture of this nations. Not only are the current mentioned matters existing.. we have a nations that has no faith in it's congressional people, and they cannot and do not act in a timely manner other than for self protection and self interest... we see that with their recent untimely vacation.. we see that with the housing disaster, we see that with the fuel disaster, we have seen that over and over and over with the mess in Iraq.. now ..you may see a dream scape... and for the sake of humor.. I'd really not mind nor care if you care to take up arms and catch the next flight to Georgia.. but truth of the matter is.. have you not noticed that the military was stretched and had to pay top dollar to get recruits for their surge, and then they still had to pay the Iraqi radicals "not to fight", as their manner of trying to show success... they paid 'BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS", and never stopped to think those same people will only buy more weapons with that pay day wind fall. Besides, do you see any other DEMOCRACIES GOING OVER THERE TO DO ANYTHING ?? no you don't... because they are not going to do a damn thing, other than flap their lips and sit on their posteria and claim themselves some passive non violent nations, and when their doors get over ran.. they will be the first whining asking for America to come to their aid, at the expense of America footing the bill to cover their lazy ass. It'a about time.. America stops being "sucker played" by these other nations... there is NATO, and there is the UN... surely they are sitting firmly on their ass.. ready to have another meeting and share with each other why they will do nothing, and how long they will engage dialogue with each other to keep from doing anything.. Now.. ask yourself another question... how many are talking this stame fevor of get up and defend and get up and help... when Darfu has been a mess for 10 years or more.. Rawanda killed people, and left the area littered with dead bodies.. and all people did was sit back and say.. it's their problem... Has anyone tried to go to Haiti and help them relieve their run away inflation... not a damn thing has been done and not only that, it's not even talked about.. All of Europe is sitting right there at the doorstep of Georgia.. the Nordic regions is sitting on their butts in the comfort and luxury made off of plundering Africa and buying up stuff in other democratic countries with the profit, and claiming themselves so dignified they don't fight, but yet, they rip off and play near as possible as parasite off of the varied countries of Africa and have been doing so for nearly 100 years.... and they sit back.. and set up banks, so all the criminals of the world can come and hide money in their system... while they use it to buy up other countries.. maybe you may care to get a broader view of the world, but a magnifying glass and look deeper into the details that exist.. In America do you know who some of their biggest investors and owners of things are.. it's the Dutch and the Canadians.. and other Nordic regional countries.. Study the depth of financial reality beyond what the news shows.. China may sell a lot here, but they are by far not the biggest owners of anything in America compared to the Nordic regional countries.. Now ask yourself.. why are these regional countries.. not amassing themselves within Georgia and taking a democratic stand. it takes careful study before you callously seek to size up an individual in the midst of a conversation about international matters.  About Japan... Japan does not have enough Natural resources to dominate anything.. that's part why it wanted to over take the Pacific.. they were despaired for fuel and other things,.. and they thought bonding with Germany they'd have a shot at gaining dominance to get such.. Now their boom in the late 70's and 80's was due to the tech transfer the US made during the late 50's and 60's and 70's.. by the 80's the Japanese over extended themselves trying to buy up American marquee items, and they invested in seeking cheap labor from both N. Korea and from Taiwan, and some investment in by way of other diversionary process into China, but what happen was the S.Korean markets then had the money Japan paid them to produce stuff, and the S. Koreans then built up their own economy, the Japanese did the same thing they did with themselves in World War II they spread their money very thin, they were investing in India and other places for textile products..and they thought they have the Pacific region sewn up, but they don't and did not understand, if you give another enough pennies, those pennies become dollars, and then you are left with pennies.. and by that time S. Korea had made it's own international agreements, and the mid 80's s. Korea went from maing substandard cheap product, to making world class Products, and Taiwan.. began to be very skilled at managing money and being their own innovators... and what is the result .. Japan was left with a empty bag, and the delusion of being the master orchestrator ... they sold out the value their parents had built up in property, and the squandered their investment, because they wanted to be the owners of anything and everything that other's considered "marquee"... and even today.. they have lost the value of their forefathers about stuff... they take their profits from their tech indisutry.. and they buy lavish stuff.. and it's more about status.. Never in the history of Japan, has so many people chosen suicide and they have more people who are impoverished and now people don't have life long jobs anymore... so their mindset changed, and now.. they even faced over rated pay .. which they thought would last, now part of it's population are not flush with disposable cash.. They went to Hawaii, and when property was 100-200K, the Japanese were paying 300K, until they made the property un-affordable to the Hawaiian people.. and this cycle just continued , until they had to wake up, and find.. S. Korea was it's own power house, and China was the new big dog on the block.. the feud between the Chinese and the Japanese, is histories old, it was the Japanese who felt they were the more refined of the all the Asian people.. and yet,.. it is is the Chinese who consider themselves the Grandfather of the Asian people... and this dispute has many many layers of many things.. Now as to China and it's power choice.. it perfers As bmyx2002 to be a builder not a destroyer, ... it has a billion plus to consider, so it does not need to Conquor others, it wants to work with them and have open trade.. the Chinese have always been master traders, from histories long before the British came.. there example in Africa.. they are not there plundering and taking without giving something that build good relations, they are building infrastructure there, so they get what they want, but also they help the African nations support itself in the process. all other nations went to Africa and plundered and took, but gave nothing back but weapons and created conflict to distract and descimate people while they plundered and took what they wanted.. But China is different.. they know what challenge is, they also know what it is and how it is to have others' plunder your nations and create chaos and demean it's people and have them living as if they are subservient .. they don't need the obligation of dominating Africa, they need cooperative trade.. they have enough people of their own to be concerned about.. so.. People don't get the realism of China.. it does not even have to try hard to be a military superpower, because it's got the manpower and the discipline within the structure of it's system.. that it can amass and defend and if it desired to put up any level of fight that it was or is confronted with.. but that' not it's interest... they are interested in what they do best.." and thats build trade networks. why do you think the British coveted HKG, so much, because China had long about built it into t trade mecca.. even when it had feudal battles among provincial rulers, they still managed to conduct business in HKG, as a International Trade Hub.. watch what happens in the next 10 years.. China is going to build up N. Korea into a International Industrial center.. because it's ripe for labor and it's ripe for having a people who have been disciplined under a stern regime... that makes for a great house of labor and Industry.. and the people are hungry for commerce. and the Western World can forget about Tibet.. China is not giving that up... They are ripe as well for Industry.. people don't get it, when you have to move a billion people.. you do it carefully.. and slowly... while the fast runners are saying come on do it now.. China has never moved at the pace of other's dictations.. it move at it's own pace.. and with it's populations it has to have a managed program
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8/22/2008 1:04 am |
Vicky, that's a beautiful essay you posted. Except that it contradicts 100% with your other posts about Tibetan protests. You seem to think that as China rises it has the right to gobble up smaller countries around it. But guess what? Russians feel about Russia same way you feel about China and Russians feel about Georgia same way you feel about Tibet. And speaking of defence of democracy... you are supporting one of the least democratic countries on the planet by participating in its blitz-propaganda event. I think you'd have no trouble at all forgetting about Georgia by the time 2014 comes around and it's time for you to buy the tickets for the Sochi Olympics, even though Sochi itself is not that far away from border with Georgia. I've come across quite a few clever girls from China, but tell me, why is it so difficult for a Chinese to do away with the sort of "I am proud to be Chinese" crap? I mean, let's get real: Chinese had 5000+ years to develop and the best they could do is copy the Stalinist system invented in Russia based on a philosophy invented in Germany. Yet it took the United States only 200+ years to become the eminent economic power and the military superpower. Duh! Maybe in America they invented something that no Chinese could come up with for 5000+ years. And maybe it has something to do with the fact that when someone says "I am proud to be American" they aren't referring to some fuzzy warm feeling of belonging to a pot with another 1,500,000,000 anonymous people in it with nothing more interesting than common racial characteristic and geographic point of origin to unite them, but instead are referring to the fact that in America you are your own person and nothing stands in the way of you arranging your life just as you see fit. Now, where is this sort of freedom in China? China is a country that still keeps people in prisons for their beliefs with everyone who lives there just worrying about their outward image and where they can buy the cheapest pair of shoes. If people in China had even a fraction of brains and resolve that Americans have it wouldn't take them 5000+ years only to begin copying the elementary principles of market economics that the rest of the civilized world has mastered long time ago, while still preserving its dictatorial political system. It's no wonder that people's sensibilities are offended when the subject of China comes up. So, make a choice: either you are American or Chinese, because even though you may look yellow in the mirror there is no way to combine things which are so obviously contradictory. And there is really no advantage to whitewashing things because at the end of the day everything is just the way it is regardless. The first step to prevent death of democracies is: stop boosting countries which aren't democratic and which at the first available opportunity would squash democracy everywhere! (By the way, it is only a matter of time before China's economy stalls. Take a look at Japan. They also had the grand dream of overtaking U.S. And they actually came quite close to doing it all within the timeframe of 50 years. Very admirable. I wouldn't even dream of driving anything that wasn't a Toyota or buying a piece of electronics that wasn't Sony or Matsushita/Panasonic. So what happened? Japanese economy stalled. Why? Because Japanese culture just isn't that open to individualism and innovation. They are actually at the midpoint: either they go forward and become American or slide back to being militarist and authoritarian and in the end, poor. So what makes Chinese better than the Japanese? If the Japanese couldn't do the let's-overtake-America thing, then what rational basis is there to claim that Chinese will be able to do it? Sorry, but the hard fact is that even today the entire world's economy is holding strictly on American innovation, with all other economies catering to it. Why is American economy the most innovative? Duh! That's because America is the freest country in the world with the freest culture in the world. Try to beat that.) And the second step to prevent death of democracies is for those living in the democratic countries to develop weapons systems capable of destroying fleets and armies of dictatorial regimes in a matter of hours. No one is really preventing YOU from designing such systems. It will be a hell of an effort, but what the hell... that's what life is about anyway. You can take your inspiration from the ancient Greek by the name of Archimedes of Syracuse; he was a hell of a mathematician and as it turned out, a hell of a weapons designer as well. And the third step to prevent death of democracies is to build more nuclear power plants to be less dependent on oil. And that is all. These are all purely technical problems. touch213, your pessimism is amazing. "on top again of the economic erosion in this country, with no visible means of repair, or uplift in sight.. and only reports of further economic decay and faltering shows to be eminent". Wow. You obviously have had a bad day and feel very much resentful that someone would ask you to defend them... but can you really just ignore when something that you value is being destroyed? No wonder you feel so weak. Giving up on your values because you don't feel like making the effort will make you even weaker. The way of the strong is to defend that which you value. The only problem today is that we don't have enough in terms of technological, and by extension, military capability; but this is only a temporary problem and is only technical in nature. So, cheer up, go make some money, and then spend all of it: that's how you turn the economy around. CPayne, Europeans are hapless; it's no secret. Take former German PM Gerhard Shroder who is now chairman of the Gazprom Nord Stream which he was a proponent of while still being prime minister. That guy is directly on Putin's payroll. No wonder in Germany they call him the Russian German. NATO is dead as well. Even though Georgia isn't a member, NATO membership is nothing more than a piece of paper in someone's folder; the real factor is the willingness to intervene militarily which no one is willing to do. So U.S. is the only ally of Georgia still left standing even though its defense of Georgia is pretty weak and in the first few days of the war seemed like complete betrayal considering that Georgia had 2,000 of its troops supporting U.S. in Iraq.
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8/20/2008 4:45 pm |
you pose a good argument.. but the issue may be more about the conditions, than about the moral fortitude.. when the military might is stretched thin, and nearly depleted, the debt is astronomical and rising, and the borrowing has become more than the ability to earn, and the internal erosion of the multiple infrastructure elements, from industry, finance and the nature of employment sectors, as well at the excess pool of empty homes from foreclosure and towns looking more like ghost towns of the old west.. this can severely dampen the will to fight, when one has no army to do so, and no means to fund it and they are suffering despair in their own daily lives.. when such things dominate the landscape.. the concern to want to rise up and gather support to protect another, is secondary.. when the primary concerns involve the lives of the daily process of individuals.. when they see the protracted war, that has depleted every faction of the economy and brought disdain for the nations from the nations of the world, on top again of the economic erosion in this country, with no visible means of repair, or uplift in sight.. and only reports of further economic decay and faltering shows to be eminent, then the rally cries will be at a low decibel.. to go forth to claim another battle.. then is when the time for the other democracies of the world, to take a stand, take a lead and take actions, and not look to the wounded, and severely damaged and depleted veteran,of many battle, who is now a wounded, once hero..unable to again rise to yet another battle, while engaged in one that continues to wound it even more as it's unable to mend its current wounds... and they ( the other democracies) stand back and expect such a veteran to lead the charge.. and when he cannot rise, they ( the other democracies) stand idle and do nothing.. BUT.. if the veteran ( the US) was not wounded, and did lead the charge, the ( other democracies) would stand back and scream, who is he ( the US), to think they are the world police.. The rest of the world of democracies stand weak to the core, acting as a infant, and claim themselves a democracy and to stand for democracy, only as long as ( the veteran -the USA), stands on the front line and take the flack, the bullets and the battering.. and they will continue to stand idle, and let Russia rebuild a Soveit style empire, and do absolutely nothing, and then sit back and cry, why won't the US help us.. when they won't do anything to help the nature of themselves as a claimed democracy... they will sit, waiting to be themselves over-run.. and whine they should have had help.. with the economic woes of the US, none stand to offer anything, they sit back waiting to see what area they can gouge next.. and what they can take or rip while one is down.. Other nations claim they want protection from terrorist, but they only want it, if the US makes sacrifices so they can have it, but they are willing to take no stand nor actions to do anything.... As a world of democratic nations, if they stepped up, and those that have for years relied on the US for their source of income infusion.. would do something from their own moral and dignity to have and live in a democratic society of world communities.. then .. this encroachment by Russia could have been contested. all they (the other democracies)do is sit idle and give the message to Russia, that it can do what it wants, when it wants to whom it wants.. and they feed the bully nature of Russia.. to infuse it with, motivations to continue to challenge democracy as it pleases.. such things reveal much in the depth of it's expanse... and it certainly exposes the weakness of NATO.. and it's collective of Democratic Nations.. as being a weak organization, with weak democracies that won't even stand to support their own principals of it's ideal.. and they want for the US.. to do it for them.. without regard for the issues that are being at the forefront of the American landscape in it's own homeland..
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