IP: RE: Against hate

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: Herb Schorr <schorr () ISI EDU>
> To: "'Robert J. Berger'" <rberger () ultradevices com>, farber () cis upenn edu,
>    Herb Schorr <schorr () ISI EDU>
> Subject: RE: IP: RE:  Against hate
> Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 10:03:56 -0700
> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19)
>
> SO people have a very short memory or understanding of history, though i am
> not a historian.
> we essentially were at war with communism for over four decades. In that war
> we started the Truman doctrine to prevent Greece and Turkey from falling
> under communist domination; we fought in Korea etc. People seem to forget
> that the TAliban were opposing a communist takeover of Afghanistan. In
> hindsight, maybe it didnt matter and perhaps the communist rulers in
> Afghanistan would have gone away with the end of the cold war and certainly
> we are living with the consequences of our tactical actions in arming and
> training the Taliban. Ditto for Iraq vs Iran and maybe the answer should be
> we dont ally with dictatorships.
>
> Well then think about the second world war: both Russia and China should
> then have been left to possibly fall to Hitler and the Japanese
> respectively. Both of these countries bore the brunt of the fighting until
> we could arm and train ourselves so that we could be a signifcant factor in
> the fighting; our role was to supply large amounts of munitions and foods to
> both of these countries (does this role appear familiar ?)
>
> Now Ive never heard anyone argue we shouldnt have aided the Soviets and the
> Kuomintang in the second world war; there was a good chance that Hitler
> would have beaten the Soviets without our help; and maybe we shouldnt have
> aided the British via lendlease because they were an obvious imperial power
> subjugating many peoples.
> So basically the problem is that war makes strange bedfellows and very often
> one has to choose between what appears to be the best of your options at the
> time and yes there are consequences down the road for supporting unsavory
> regimes.
>
> Stopping the flow of money doesnt involve warfare, just trying to make
> certain  countries come up to responsible behavior rather than look for
> profit.
>
> Finally i suggest reading Tom Friedman's book entitled the "Lexus and the
> olive tree" to get a little more sophisticated view of whats going on. Or
> read his article a few days ago in the NY Times: to paraphrase it.. two
> strains in Islam today the modernists who believe we (Western democracy)
> offer a better life (ie would you like to be a woman in a traditionalist
> Islamic society?) vs the traditionists who oppose any attempts to move the
> mass of people out of their misery if it means changes to traditional
> society in any way.



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