Serious rant mode here. I apologize in advance: ----------------------------------
Liberation is all well and good. But EVERY TIME the U.S. has destroyed a corrupt government, it has then moved out and moved on, and a regime just as bad as the last has taken hold. (No, I don't count the post-WW2 'liberation' of Germany. Europe, by and large, was responsible for that.) We have to pull our big egotistical thumbs out of our asses and realize that people are responsible for their own revolutions.
What would we think, if France declared war on the United States, because they were convinced that it was the only way to take 'that warlord' George Bush out of office? If they flew over our beloved cities and dropped fire on our heads, to this end? If they landed a hundred thousand troops in Florida, and then started marching for the capitol, arresting everyone along the way? Would we fight back? Would we cheer them, from our hospital beds? What would we think? Would we applaud their bravery, or curse their damned arrogance?
In my opinion, there is only one good way to encourage revolution. Pry open the channels of free trade, commerce, and cultural exchange. Make the people prosperous, make them educated, make them able to listen and think for themselves. Then, perhaps, when they rise up on their own, back their revolution. Because ultimately, a nation's people will establish and tolerate the form of government it deserves -- and nothing better. We have to educate them, not push them down and handcuff them on a march to Baghdad.
If -- perhaps even when -- Saddam and his family are torn limb from limb, or gassed or whipped or hanged or jailed to our satisfaction, what will Iraq do next? These questions really bother me.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: I'm no soldier, but
Date: 2003-03-24 02:12 am (UTC)----------------------------------
Liberation is all well and good. But EVERY TIME the U.S. has destroyed a corrupt government, it has then moved out and moved on, and a regime just as bad as the last has taken hold. (No, I don't count the post-WW2 'liberation' of Germany. Europe, by and large, was responsible for that.) We have to pull our big egotistical thumbs out of our asses and realize that people are responsible for their own revolutions.
What would we think, if France declared war on the United States, because they were convinced that it was the only way to take 'that warlord' George Bush out of office? If they flew over our beloved cities and dropped fire on our heads, to this end? If they landed a hundred thousand troops in Florida, and then started marching for the capitol, arresting everyone along the way? Would we fight back? Would we cheer them, from our hospital beds? What would we think? Would we applaud their bravery, or curse their damned arrogance?
In my opinion, there is only one good way to encourage revolution. Pry open the channels of free trade, commerce, and cultural exchange. Make the people prosperous, make them educated, make them able to listen and think for themselves. Then, perhaps, when they rise up on their own, back their revolution. Because ultimately, a nation's people will establish and tolerate the form of government it deserves -- and nothing better. We have to educate them, not push them down and handcuff them on a march to Baghdad.
If -- perhaps even when -- Saddam and his family are torn limb from limb, or gassed or whipped or hanged or jailed to our satisfaction, what will Iraq do next? These questions really bother me.