Re: American Imperialism?

From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Sun Mar 19 2000 - 01:07:02 MST


On Saturday, March 18, 2000 4:26 PM Octavio Rojas Diaz orojas@data.net.mx
wrote:
> I sincerely wish the U.S., was doing what you say, but unfortunately
> the U.S. is still a very imperialist and interventionist country.

I agree.

> However please note, That this is because of the way the government
> handles
> international issues and I'm sure more Americans oppose to imperialism
> and most
> most of it's current foreign policies, than those who advocate them.

I don't think it's merely the government to blame here. For example, the
views I've expoused -- i.e., about the US basically acting like any garden
variety imperial power (and not the worst of the bunch; I don't want to just
make a shrill case here) -- all depend on research any US citizen or
resident can do. I do not have some special gnosis, nor am I privvy to some
secret proceedings of the State Department, on these issues.

So, partly to blame are American complacency. Granted, government and the
some of the Media do distort things, but one does not have to spend day and
night in used books stores and research libraries to find this stuff out.

> But unfortunately when you live in America, you don't get all the
> information
> about the things that happen in our regions of the world.

I agree on that. Americans, I've noticed, tend on the whole not to care
much. Too many of them view foreign nations as either vacation spots or war
zones. Now, that said, I'm not advocating that everyone in the US suddenly
become a scholar of world affairs and culture. Far from it, because I fear
that more public interest might make America even more interventionist.
After all, if Americans remained unaware of Somalia in the early 1990s,
maybe just maybe the problem would have contained itself.

> Speaking of my country (Mexico)
> Although after the end of the usa/Mexico war when we lost more than
> half our
> territory the usa has never invaded or threatened us militarily,
> they've forced
> us to do what they think it's better using all sorts of resources or
> excuses.

I understand this, but one minor point I would add too. I don't want to
whitewash the American role in that war, but, at the time, both nations did
a lot of bad things. It was probably inevitable that eventually they would
clash. A lot of Europeans, at the time, actually believe the US would lose
and Mexico because the latter had the bigger army.

That said, we must admit Mexico has a prett corrupt government now and that
needs to be cleaned up. This is starting to change -- perhaps not quickly
enough -- but I doubt Mexico will be more assertive vis-a-vis the US until
it does. After all, PRI does rely on a lot of US support, official and
unofficial, whereas opposition parties do not. At least, this is my
North-of-the-border understanding.:/

I would also like to see Mexico become more free market oriented. That is,
for the government to get out of the way NOT of American big business but of
individual Mexicans. A step along this path would include denationalizing
government owned industries, downsizing the government, and legalizing all
victimless crimes (such as marijuana production, distribution, and use). Of
course, the US would never go for that, so it's just my pipe dream. (No pun
intended!:)

Cheers!

Daniel Ust
http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/



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