From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Tue Feb 18 2003 - 10:26:42 MST
From: Dehede011@aol.com [mailto:Dehede011@aol.com]
> Besides wouldn't you be the first to criticize if the
> US went in there rebuilding the country in our image?
Not at all. I believe in projecting democracy and capitalism, rather
than merely projecting military force. I believe that democracy and
capitalism outcompete the alternatives.
What I complain about is when the US goes into a country and props up
a dictator. Or even worse, when the US overthrows a democratically
elected government to install a dictator. Sadly, both of these are
standard events for the US. Consider the following examples:
- In the 1960s the CIA assisted in the assassination of democratically
elected president Allende of Chile and the installation of dictator
Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet was notorious for his death squads and his
reign of terror using murder, torture, and rape.
- In 1953 the US helped the Shah of Iran mount a coup against Mohammed
Mossadegh, the democratically elected prime minister. For the next 27
years we supported the Shah, a corrupt dictator who stole from and
oppressed his own people, because he allowed us to use Iran as a base
for force projection close to the Soviet border. The rise of
fundamentalist Islam in Iran can be directly traced to our support of
a regime that repressed the people and left fundamentalist Islamic
groups as the few willing and able to resist the dictator we'd
installed.
- In the 1980s, the US sold chemical and biological weapons (as well
as conventional weapons) to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. We knew very
well that those weapons were being used against the Kurds as well as
Iranian troops. We knew very well that our actions violated
international treaties that we were party to. But at the time we
feared Iran (a monster we created more than Iraq).
- While we were selling chemical and biological weapons to Iraq, we
sold conventional arms to Iran (against our own laws) and used the
profits to fund a terrorist group called the Contras in Nicaragua
(also against our own laws). We did this despite knowing in detail
about the torture, rape, murder, kidnapping, and mutilation that the
Contras used against their enemies.
I could go on. Suffice it to say, US foreign policy has not been one
of encouraging the spread of democracy and capitalism to the rest of
the world. Much the opposite. I would welcome a foreign policy that
was actually consistent with the principles this country was founded
on.
mez
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