Quote:
Originally Posted by Adux
Equilibrium,
I understand the staging of Iraq on the basis of having a staging ground, rather than 'making example off'. Saddam was pummelled down to ground, even with his rehtoric he was never a threat.
I dont understand how US government could be navie in thinking by talking and using diplomatic pressure on pakistan and Saudi Arabia, they would change them. Any loosening of grip on public in Saudi Arabi will have a opposite effect on the control of the Kingdom by the Royal Family. So what is their incentive in doing anything which will have determental effect on their writ maybe even their own life.
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And hence the frustration and recimination that has taken place in US domestic politics over the Iraqi advature in the first place. Many of my fellow countrymen in the US have viewed it with trying to make the world a better place and have alway needed a cause to rally around. Whether it was Fascism, Communism and now Terrorism, it was always a foreign challenge that shook us out of our seeming issolationist sentiment. Consequently there have alwyas been several idealistic themes in US foreing policy- a legacy of president Wilson in the 20th Century:
I. All human beings have certain inalienable rights.
II. All humans desire to live in harmony and peace.
III. the only thing that inhibits I and II above are the ill intentions of foreign government that prevent it from happening.
Therefore, all challenges have to be approached with a zeal to not only defeating our enemies but also convincing them of our insistence to help them despite their government. What the Bush Administration's first term, dominated by "neo-conservative" policymakers followed was a policy named "muscular Wilsonianism".
We Americans, protected from wars and enemies by two oceans and two friendly (and weak) neighbors have long believed that this situation was a natural condition. We happend to be a very naive nation.
Of course, I have always been fascinated by Indian foreign policy
and its determinants from Indira Ghandi to the present day. Unfortunately I can also claim that I am an aberration in that case.