From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Sat Jun 07 2003 - 17:41:30 MDT
From: Dehede011@aol.com [mailto:Dehede011@aol.com]
> you will find that the leaders, Egypt especially, are trying
> desperately to hold the lid on before they are either chased
> out of country or left swinging from a lamp pole.
Most of the dictators who rule the arab countries are indeed
frightened of democracy.
> Yet the best advice MEZ can give us is not to send so
> many bombs and missiles.
I have made, in this thread and others, concrete proposals.
Specifically:
1) That the US should refuse to support dictatorial regimes (Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, etc..) unless those regimes are taking concrete and
measurable steps towards democracy, open market, civil liberties, a
free press, the rule of law, and so on.
2) That the US should dramatically increase its foreign aid to the
region (and to much of the rest of the world) and focus that aid on
incentives for nations to implement the political and economic reforms
I list above.
US foreign aid spending is currently about 1/20th of US military and
security spending. A rational foreign policy would balance out the
carrot and the stick a bit more.
3) That the US reserve the use of military force as a last resort.
Indeed, I believe Iraq was a particularly heinous situation. And with
a US administration who I trusted to implement a long-range foreign
policy that made sense, I could have been convinced to support
military action.
> At first MEZ gave his advice because he was a middle
> easterner and therefore held special expertise. Now he is a
> poor Egyptian Christian that hasn't been in the country since
> he was 3 years old. At first he lambasted the US and its
> policies, now he is a loyal American and I mustn't criticize
> him.
Your post sheds much heat but little light. As I posted in a previous
conversation with you a few months ago, I'm an atheist. I was born to
parents of a christian minority in Egypt. I moved to the US at age 3
and am culturally american (or as culturally american as an atheist
transhumanist can be). Living here has not prevented me from
traveling the world, and in particular from visiting the place I was
born or conversing with people who live in that region.
> Only one thing
> is consistant with him, everything he says is detrimental to
> our country, IMHO.
Demonizing those who you disagree with is so convenient, isn't it?
Yet it does nothing to address the issues. I've posted my analysis of
the situation, the evidence which supports that analysis, and the
proposals for future action that arise from it. All you've posted
here are insults, distortions of the views of others, and vague
opinions which you have yet to back up.
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