From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Tue Feb 18 2003 - 13:02:23 MST
From: Spudboy100@aol.com [mailto:Spudboy100@aol.com]
> Let me not defend the undefensible, but these were the days
> when Mother Russia's Empire was riding high, and it was
> determined to enforce its empire everywhere in the world.
> Support for brutal dictatorships did not happen in a vaccum,
> but were against the zero-sum game played by the ruling
> communist party, in the Soviet Union.
You're right. I'm willing to give the US a certain amount of leeway
for cold war events given the context. But in the here and now I want
a US foreign policy that is focused on spreading the qualities that
make this country great. I haven't seen that. We're still propping
up corrupt dictators. And when we see a country like Iran actually
making significant headway towards democracy (it's more democratic
than many of our so-called allies like Saudi Arabia or Egypt), we
respond by alienating them and strengthening the hardliners.
If a US president stood up and announced that our new foreign policy
was based around the ideas of spreading democracy and respecting the
rights of individuals in other countries, I'd applaud it. What's
more, such a president would get my support for an invasion of Iraq
with the intent of putting in place a democratic government that does
not oppress it's people and is less likely to pursue nuclear weapons.
The current US administration doesn't meet my bar though.
mez
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