Saturday, March 19, 2005
Foreign Policy Blindness
Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone, but the Bush administration is a complete waste of space when it comes to foreign policy. Who decided it was a good idea to lie to our allies in order to get them to do what we want them to do? Why did we think we wouldn't get caught?
North Korea is a BAD REGIME. It's not like you have to make things up to convince people of that fact. Shipping nuclear materials to Pakistan instead of Libya might not have raised as many hackles in Europe, but Kim Jong Il's track record of starving his own people, kidnapping foreigners, nuclear blackmail, running a drug smuggling ring, and threatening to rain fire down on South Korea and Japan to "preserve the North Korean sytem" should certainly be enough to convince them that he's not first on the invitation list to the Christmas party.
Ever heard of the little boy who cried Wolf? If we keep getting caught for making up intelligence information, how are we to expect people to believe us when we have real information? Perhaps Bush is approaching this, like the budget deficit, as a "it's not my problem" kind of problem, because somebody else will clean it up after he's gone.
If Bush hopes to set American on a Republican track for the next 50 years (as Karl Rove claims to want), that BETTER not be his approach. People sometimes swear off drink after waking up with a particularly bad hangover. What kind of hangover does the Bush administration want to leave the American people?
Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone, but the Bush administration is a complete waste of space when it comes to foreign policy. Who decided it was a good idea to lie to our allies in order to get them to do what we want them to do? Why did we think we wouldn't get caught?
North Korea is a BAD REGIME. It's not like you have to make things up to convince people of that fact. Shipping nuclear materials to Pakistan instead of Libya might not have raised as many hackles in Europe, but Kim Jong Il's track record of starving his own people, kidnapping foreigners, nuclear blackmail, running a drug smuggling ring, and threatening to rain fire down on South Korea and Japan to "preserve the North Korean sytem" should certainly be enough to convince them that he's not first on the invitation list to the Christmas party.
Ever heard of the little boy who cried Wolf? If we keep getting caught for making up intelligence information, how are we to expect people to believe us when we have real information? Perhaps Bush is approaching this, like the budget deficit, as a "it's not my problem" kind of problem, because somebody else will clean it up after he's gone.
If Bush hopes to set American on a Republican track for the next 50 years (as Karl Rove claims to want), that BETTER not be his approach. People sometimes swear off drink after waking up with a particularly bad hangover. What kind of hangover does the Bush administration want to leave the American people?
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
The Taiwan Problem
China has just passed a law which mandates force should the Taiwanese decide to declare independence. Now, I don't know why the Chinese are so prickly about "territorial integrity." It probably has something to do with China being the longest running empire in the world. All those Chinese don't have so many linguistic links for nothing.
But, they are prickly. Getting worked up about it is about as useful as my complaining that I have to shave every day. It's a fact, and they back that prickliness with 1.3 billion people. Who in their right mind would cross 1.3 billion people just to get a piece of paper which says they are OFFICIALLY independent? Consider Hong Kong, which was returned to China in 1997. Hong Kong isn't perfect, and it's not exactly democratic (run by a clique of business oligarchs appointed by the Chinese government), but Hong Kong isn't exactly Pol Pot's killing fields, either. Besides, in 20 years time China will probably make the same shift South Korea and Taiwan made towards democracy, and do it because the Chinese people want it. Economic affluence tends to do that.
Hey, America wasn't too keen on the South seceding from our union. Look how many needed to die to prevent that from happening? Is that REALLY worth it, particularly when the Taiwanese themselves have seen what happens when lots of people get wealthy enough to care who runs their country?
On that note, I also don't think it's very nice for Europe to lift the embargo on arms to China. Wait a bit, guys. It wouldn't have been nice if America ifted the embargo on sales of arms to Algeria when France was busy trying to play global empire under Charles de Gaulle. Okay, not the same thing, as we aren't trying to hold onto China as a part of the American empire. Still, wait until things cool down. As things stand (under the current presidency) America will run in, guns blazing, if China tries to invade Taiwan because That's What We've Promised.
Okay, it was stupid to promise that, and America should really be giving the Taiwanese a good strong lesson in why two-foot tall skinny kids don't pick fights with ten-foot giants with Arnold Schwarzenegger physiques. That would probably go a long way towards making the Taiwanese stop flirting with independence. For now, though, America is in a bind of its own making.
Please don't force American soldiers to face down high-tech French-made weaponry in Chinese hands. It isn't polite.
China has just passed a law which mandates force should the Taiwanese decide to declare independence. Now, I don't know why the Chinese are so prickly about "territorial integrity." It probably has something to do with China being the longest running empire in the world. All those Chinese don't have so many linguistic links for nothing.
But, they are prickly. Getting worked up about it is about as useful as my complaining that I have to shave every day. It's a fact, and they back that prickliness with 1.3 billion people. Who in their right mind would cross 1.3 billion people just to get a piece of paper which says they are OFFICIALLY independent? Consider Hong Kong, which was returned to China in 1997. Hong Kong isn't perfect, and it's not exactly democratic (run by a clique of business oligarchs appointed by the Chinese government), but Hong Kong isn't exactly Pol Pot's killing fields, either. Besides, in 20 years time China will probably make the same shift South Korea and Taiwan made towards democracy, and do it because the Chinese people want it. Economic affluence tends to do that.
Hey, America wasn't too keen on the South seceding from our union. Look how many needed to die to prevent that from happening? Is that REALLY worth it, particularly when the Taiwanese themselves have seen what happens when lots of people get wealthy enough to care who runs their country?
On that note, I also don't think it's very nice for Europe to lift the embargo on arms to China. Wait a bit, guys. It wouldn't have been nice if America ifted the embargo on sales of arms to Algeria when France was busy trying to play global empire under Charles de Gaulle. Okay, not the same thing, as we aren't trying to hold onto China as a part of the American empire. Still, wait until things cool down. As things stand (under the current presidency) America will run in, guns blazing, if China tries to invade Taiwan because That's What We've Promised.
Okay, it was stupid to promise that, and America should really be giving the Taiwanese a good strong lesson in why two-foot tall skinny kids don't pick fights with ten-foot giants with Arnold Schwarzenegger physiques. That would probably go a long way towards making the Taiwanese stop flirting with independence. For now, though, America is in a bind of its own making.
Please don't force American soldiers to face down high-tech French-made weaponry in Chinese hands. It isn't polite.
