"Sooner or Later Everyone Sits on A Banquet of Consequences" - Robert Louis Stevenson or whoever
As
Prof Chomsky claimed, is the greater threat to regional and world peace (and even
survival of the human species) the relentless pursuit of the socio-economic
elites of the United States for “global hegemony through military, political
and economic means?” I contend that the debate or issue is now getting more and more irrelevant in the light of the emerging new world order and disorders everywhere. But let me say that not
every itch and every rebellious resistance in many parts of the world can be
traced back to the positions, decisions and actions of the United States and allied western powers.
Why The World Needs A Top Cop More
Than Ever?
Because
the very constraints of morality, conscience; and aversion to the use of force
and violence apparently absent in the minds of serial violent criminals can also be lacking
in the minds of the top leaders of some rogue groups or countries. Also, we need a top
cop in a world where the growing needs for access and control of ever dwindling
natural resources of the planet and protection of national interests by some economically
and militarily capable countries drive them to pursue ever greater and greater capability for
aggression or to become outright aggressive.
 |
| Greatness not in spite of BUT because of variety of ideas & opinions |
Because no else has the acceptance of more nations, the capability, the will (and greater shares of what's at stake) should disorder, chaos and regional wars erupt in the volatile regions of the world by any preventable causes. To add: because this is a world shaped (or tamed) more according to the decisions, actions, behavior, desires and interventions of the United States (from World War II to present), and thankly so. Actively playing the role of the top cop can also save the Americans from playing the more challenging role of being the savior at the greater costs to the country (liberating Europe, stopping Japan in World War II, etc.)
Who or What Can Be A Viable Alternative?
Yet another reason reason is that its a vital matter of national security too. Playing the top cop help protect the way of life that the Americans now enjoy. And playing the top cop prevents another entity from assuming the role.
The United States' moral authority emanates from the values and democratic ideals that its society espouses ánd that shared by most nations in the planet. (With all its imperfections, we will later argue that the very strong balancing forces of so many independent and either contradicting or reinforcing the others, ensure its citizens and non-citizens enjoy the freest society among the major countries of the world). In fact, who would you rather play the role? Who is similarly capable? The United Nations has limited capability on its own. A collective of countries is at present non-viable or ineffective, it will be plagued by indecisiveness and can be paralyzed by the difficulty of balancing the contradicting needs of member-countries.
The United States' moral authority emanates from the values and democratic ideals that its society espouses ánd that shared by most nations in the planet. (With all its imperfections, we will later argue that the very strong balancing forces of so many independent and either contradicting or reinforcing the others, ensure its citizens and non-citizens enjoy the freest society among the major countries of the world). In fact, who would you rather play the role? Who is similarly capable? The United Nations has limited capability on its own. A collective of countries is at present non-viable or ineffective, it will be plagued by indecisiveness and can be paralyzed by the difficulty of balancing the contradicting needs of member-countries.
For example, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are now as divided as their
positions in China's build up and behavior in the South China Sea as in the present instance of how to remedy the case of thousands of stateless Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi economic migrants stranded in boats in the waters of Southeast Asia. Even more of a folly (at least in our thinking) is to have an illusion that the world need no cop and no top cop. Or that perhaps some moderator, like an array of international organizations can serve the purpose.
Think of the recent case of Sudan (before the independence of South Sudan) when its government and security forces committed acts of genocide, and now of Boko Haram or ISIS: How did it all come about in the first place in regions with all sorts of economic, political, military and religious alliances among the regional countries surrounding the areas of conflict, in places where there are rather dense concentration of international agencies doing all sorts of charity, peace-keeping, poverty-alleviation missions? No group of entities in any region of the world at present is anywhere near the minimum capability of addressing issues that need the use of force to stop a sinister force from committing crimes against humanity.
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Other recent posts
When Survival of One Group of Human Beings Is Feared As Unwelcome Burden or Even Existential Threat by Others
Philippine Big Banks Accepted & Protect Billion$ of Dirty Money?
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Other recent posts
When Survival of One Group of Human Beings Is Feared As Unwelcome Burden or Even Existential Threat by Others
Philippine Big Banks Accepted & Protect Billion$ of Dirty Money?
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The
Underlying Forces in the Minds of the Leaders of Major Countries
Beyond survival, the driving forces for the
efforts of many of the major countries of the world to rise, become ever more competitive
and try to become dominant in some measure or area – both economically and militarily – are perhaps similar to the
driving forces in the brains of the rising and leading officials of the Communist Party of
China (as with many others elsewhere): to rise to the top of the political food chain. In our time, Earth’s resources
are dwindling ever faster, and Game Theory partly explains why no country in the world
would really do heroic and epic-scale efforts to fight tooth and nail for the
environment and save the Earth from the effects of Global Warming. (It would increase the
incentives for others to violate and carelessly indulge even more.)
(You can feast on my generalizations and
motherhood statements here, or you can leave this page. But I’ll continue to write this piece nevertheless,
for my own specific objectives. And I hope Professor Chomsky never ever get to read my
assertions here, he’s such an intellectual giant for a poorly-educated man that
I am to engage him in any argument or exchange of ideas.)
How Will the World Map (& Regional Orders) Change in Our Lifetime?
Today’s world map (its political or control boundaries) is unrecognizable to those who lived in the
nineteenth century. Do you think the political boundaries
and world order of today will remain so in the next 50-100 years? Everyone is
free to predict or speculate, and not a single one of us can be right. But for
the time being, I care about what we can do to help direct the course of
history in favor of (at least) the present world order, as drastic changes
might necessitate our passing through another period of World War (III), which
few of us might survive.
If the United States, As It Is Now, Did Not Come Into Being or Rose to Its Present Status
Imagine a world without the United States.
Imagine a world without values, virtues and democratic ideals it advances, even
imposes (if that’s what others would prefer to call it) when need be. Do you think that present-day
nuclear-armed North Korea, ISIS and other terrorist-tagged organizations did
not come into being? If so, don’t you think - with man’s irresistible urge to gain wealth, power and superiority - that no similar
groups emerged due to whatever consequence, intent, rationale or incentives
(pride of the leaders, national pride, greed - to add) in any world order of anyone
else’s desire as the present reality that came about? I
don’t think so.
We have witnessed how even religious beliefs and
political differences motivate and inspire groups of people to devise to commit
acts of atrocity - even annihilate the others - like the undesirable minorities, “heretics,” Christians and Muslims in Beirut, present-day
Muslim extremists, Sunni & Shiite Muslims during the Iran-Iraq Wars and now
in Iraq). Sectarian and ethnic strife make a mess of parts of the Middle East
& Africa – a reality now, a reality for the foreseeable future. And to
think there are seemingly irreconciliable animosities between groups of people and governments, without yet
physical or violent manifestations so far but for a long time building up in many parts of the
world, I can surmise.
Without the US in existence, or without it
having its present wealth, power and superiority in many other measures - the
desires and conquests of some other country (or group of countries) would have
prevailed. South Korea is not into being, only a Korea in China’s fold,
perhaps. Japan conquered and still rules Asia. Hitler’s children and relatives run
the affairs of Europe up to now. Or that I am dead, because Soviet-backed
Communist Vietnam conquered the province of Palawan in southwestern Philippines
where I grew up (sending many of us there into boats wandering in the seas of
Asia, with many to perish.)
My point here is that it’s simply absurd to
speculate about what it could have been, and maybe the ideal world order to our
liking & preference now is the reality in this present world. There are simply so
many actors and factors that brought about what came into being – the present
world order and reality that we live with right now, whether we like it or hate
it.
It is practical and useful to regret and wish for a different order or situation when we are talking of realities for individuals, communities, cities and even countries in a region. But not the world. Just like in a multi-nation war, outcomes can be impossible to predict due to the bewildering number of known and unknown factors and actors. If anything, I'd say I'm happy for the general world order at this time.
It's been so many years since the last World War. We bask in the glory of human achievements in science and technology, made possible by a stable world peace that the US power guaranteed. That the wonders of modern medicine afforded me many more years of surviving extremely difficult struggles because my father's life was extended. The atmosphere that gave birth to many products and innovations that made our lives easier: Even Chinese firms profit so many billions of dollars a year in producing & flooding Asian markets with counterfeit of (or using stolen trade secrets) products which invention & development financed partly with taxes paid by the American citizens.
It is practical and useful to regret and wish for a different order or situation when we are talking of realities for individuals, communities, cities and even countries in a region. But not the world. Just like in a multi-nation war, outcomes can be impossible to predict due to the bewildering number of known and unknown factors and actors. If anything, I'd say I'm happy for the general world order at this time.
It's been so many years since the last World War. We bask in the glory of human achievements in science and technology, made possible by a stable world peace that the US power guaranteed. That the wonders of modern medicine afforded me many more years of surviving extremely difficult struggles because my father's life was extended. The atmosphere that gave birth to many products and innovations that made our lives easier: Even Chinese firms profit so many billions of dollars a year in producing & flooding Asian markets with counterfeit of (or using stolen trade secrets) products which invention & development financed partly with taxes paid by the American citizens.
The Required Balancing Forces Within Societies of Powerful Nations Serve As Restraints
One thing that the United States has is an
overwhelming superiority in military and economic (its economic clout plus its
natural resources) power that guarantees it from any existential threats, but
going with it are so many independent strong institutions the collective of
which ensures no single American public official will emerge with any sense of
impunity so as to even contemplate to commit even a single act of atrocity or
mass murder. The American media is so free it reports even state secrets bordering on national
security in nature, and do so as some right even when an
information can benefit terrorists who threaten the freedom, constitutional and
human rights of the Americans themselves.
There is an array of reliable systems of
redress through which any American (even non-Americans) can avail of when
wronged, violated, suffered an injustice or that his / her rights (or of his dog’s) suppressed
or denied. For example, the streets, the
courts, the media and the election – these are most open and freely available in the American society than in any major countries - venues
for anyone even to those whose biggest problems in life are their frustrations about the
decisions of the government to build a road that will endanger the habitat
for some, say, spider or so. Add to that the internet. Each can be the check or
reinforcement for another or the rest.
Ok for Crime Orgs & Rogue Gov'ts to Know Their Secrets But Not the American Gov't?
I am perplexed about some Americans complaining
about their government collecting all sorts of information from each of them
from all sorts of available means, as reported. At least they know, and that
the government acknowledges it. It is understandable that one's right to privacy is potentially endangered, but the kind of privacy that we all desire is no longer viable in this age of the internet and globalized world.
Do they even realize that if some criminal
organization, the government of North Korea, China or any foreign power can
devise means to steal some of the top secret information like designs of the
most advanced weapons, supposedly stored in some impregnable storage systems in
unknown locations in the US that even Americans, perhaps, don’t even know exist - what
with individual sets of data about the Americans (including their habits, their
extra-marital affairs, their bedroom secrets and all)?
Is it okay for some Americans for foreign terrorist organizations and rogue governments to have access to their data and deprive their very own government of the same data for clearly articulated legitmate reasons and essential contingent uses? I don't think being selective with data collection serves the purpose of mitigating a single threat to the lives of so many Americans.
Is the claim that the bulk data collection by the US government did not prevent any major terrorist attack based on sound reasoning? Would you know how many burglaries were prevented because your house perimeter is known to have many cameras? Wouldn't extreme difficulty in concealing a clandestine plot to mass murder people much more in carrying it out not just discourage but even deter many from ever planning for one?
We all pay a price to continue to enjoy our basic rights and freedom. If an American distrusts his government so much, how come he demands guarantees of safety & security from it? I don't know, I have primitive understanding of the overall issues and topics I discussed here and of the psyches of the American public. I am perplexed.
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1st post in this blog
Insurgency, Crimes & the Most Brutal Inequality & Corruption in Southeast Asia
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Are There Unknown Torture Chambers (for Civilians) Run by Repressive Gov'ts Now? Yes.
Is it okay for some Americans for foreign terrorist organizations and rogue governments to have access to their data and deprive their very own government of the same data for clearly articulated legitmate reasons and essential contingent uses? I don't think being selective with data collection serves the purpose of mitigating a single threat to the lives of so many Americans.
Is the claim that the bulk data collection by the US government did not prevent any major terrorist attack based on sound reasoning? Would you know how many burglaries were prevented because your house perimeter is known to have many cameras? Wouldn't extreme difficulty in concealing a clandestine plot to mass murder people much more in carrying it out not just discourage but even deter many from ever planning for one?
We all pay a price to continue to enjoy our basic rights and freedom. If an American distrusts his government so much, how come he demands guarantees of safety & security from it? I don't know, I have primitive understanding of the overall issues and topics I discussed here and of the psyches of the American public. I am perplexed.
___
1st post in this blog
Insurgency, Crimes & the Most Brutal Inequality & Corruption in Southeast Asia
___
Are There Unknown Torture Chambers (for Civilians) Run by Repressive Gov'ts Now? Yes.
The American media reports extensively about
the past tortures of suspected terrorists in the Guantanamo and in other
places, but it unfairly put the US government and its relevant agencies in bad light. Do we even know how many torture chambers are out there in many
parts of the world where right now individuals are being tortured for their
religious beliefs or even for simply speaking up against abuses of the local
government officials? Just because we don’t know doesn’t mean none of it
exists. I can’t help but wonder whether some detained Uighurs in the Xinjiang
autonomous region in China were ever tortured to death. Maybe none, judging by
the once violent repression of China of the protesters in Tiananmen Square
(emphasis on the kind of reasoning).
No single major act of terror was committed in
the soils of the United States since September 11, 2001. But I wonder why, it
seems to me - everyone of what the US government does to prevent another one
from ever happening again, that it probably did already in not a few instances,
to prevent so many civilian lives from ever getting murdered at once, again –
is questioned, contested and protested against by not a few.
Paradise on Earth
It is easy to dream of a Paradise: You don’t
plant, you don’t water plants, you don’t labor to grow plants and protect it
from pests and theft and that one simply expects to indulge on the produce, eat
the fruits during a blissful morning in a sunny day, in a secured and safe
environment where peace and the love of fellow men reigns and evil is absent.
And that should anyone try to threaten the order, one need not do anything as
the disrupter can expect the wrath of God, it’s all solved at once.
Enter the Dragon
– A Supergiant One
What would Professor Chomsky say about the rise
of China? I wonder. But China is a supergiant with a super hungry appetite for
natural resources, not just to sustain its natural course of national
development but partly to feed its rise to superpower status that it thinks it
needs and is desirable. We know that power corrupts, and that power corrupts
absolutely should there be no balancing forces of independent institutions, of
which none is in existence in China, not even a weak or tiny version of the
United States’. The size of China's population and ambition is greater than the available resources it controls or are accessible to it at this time or in the not so distant future.
China and the
Philippines in South China Sea
China has a practically heterogeneous
population of more than 1.3 billion people. (Rian and I are open to corrections as to
facts.) More than 50% of the Chinese people don’t believe in a God or any
Supreme Being concept and they don't have thousands of religious leaders invoking the love of God when their members go hungry (like in the Philippines). The Chinese public officials are definitely far more
nationalistic and patriotic than most of the officials of the Philippines, for
example. It is unthinkable for any Chinese officials to have dual citizenships,
for example.
This article to be continued (the rest of it, as this entire blog's design & other articles are for editing)
Unlike China, it is a phenomenon for many
Philippine public officials to not think twice to squander the resources of the
nation. As for their children, they secure the future of their children and grandchildren by
encouraging them to study, live, work and invest in wealthy western countries until they are appointed to succeed them in public office and/or to protect their
vast business and political interests within the Philippines.
The Communist insurgents and their front organizations’ outspoken spokespersons in the Philippines are silent about China’s building of permanent artificial islands and superstructures in the disputed areas of the South China Sea, and to China’s behavior in the maritime region.
The Communist insurgents and their front organizations’ outspoken spokespersons in the Philippines are silent about China’s building of permanent artificial islands and superstructures in the disputed areas of the South China Sea, and to China’s behavior in the maritime region.
What's Also In The Psyches of Millions of Filipino Parents
For millions of families in the Philippines,
cynical and hopeless about their prospects in the country - however it vastly
improved under the present Aquino administration - their single focus is to send
a member of (or all of them) their families to work and live abroad. More than
10 million Filipinos live and work around the world right now. More than that number of
grade school and high school students have the intent to follow the same path
of their relatives or neighbors.
The ranking of Filipinos in terms of patriotism
or nationalism in the social surveys is disputable. It ranks in the Top 10 in
the world. Filipinos would say they take pride in being Filipinos, but many of
the respondents are dying to leave the country. It is similar in the habits of the Filipinos (unlike the Americans, the Chinese or Europeans,) for example, to say good
things about their local public officials especially when talking to strangers,
but in private and unguarded moments they are cheered when they never run
out of expletives and curses when describing “all” public officials. They would
credit their preferred officials for the goodies and favors that they get from
them but majority don’t think it’s an act of charity.
(I’m aware I’ve wandered far off from the
original topic as per the title of this post, but let me, please. Or let me
just go back to my line of thinking before Rian and I ate lunch, later.) The
Chinese say and really love China. The Filipinos say they love their country,
but due to cynicism among millions of poor families, in fact they’re dying to
spend to educate their children to afford them to leave this country. Medicines
and medical treatments can give way to tuition fees for their children studying
for programs to afford them work opportunities abroad or get jobs in the
bureaucracy, some intently to land lucrative jobs in the government – in the
departments known as paths to fast enrichment because of the entrenched and
unshakeable corruption in these departments or agencies.
This is a nation that has mostly lost its soul.
I wonder what binding causes the Filipinos have right now, if there’s any at
all. Maybe survival, collective survival. However, the collective perception,
with or without merits, of the looming threat of China (whatever that means to
them or to anyone), I sensed, is re-awakening patriotism among even simple
Filipinos. The threats to peace, order and even our democratic system posed by
the Communist insurgency and a few Muslim insurgency groups in the country did
not elicit the same feelings among the Filipinos.
The severe corruption in our society contributed damage to
any sense of pride among the general population. The exposure of millions of
Filipinos to the systems, law and order, peace, prosperity and decent
governance in affluent countries make them regard with disgust what we have in
this country. But almost everyone has learned to adapt, survive and a few even
flourish in the kind of social and political environment that we have. After
all, they found the solution: Work and live abroad, take the cues from the
family members and relatives of the public officials.
China's Rise: Peaceful? Yes Unless You Do Something As Disruptive As Raise A Voice
Is China’s rise peaceful and without fostering
any disruptions in the current order of things, at least in Southeast Asia? Yes
and no. Yes, unless someone raises a voice or protests, distracts or try to mess
with its ongoing construction of artificial islands on top of which the planned
superstructures (or maybe some future unsinkable super aircraft carriers).
Will the Philippines ever build-up any basic
credible self-defense capability? If you were one of the top officials of the
country, would you care? In a situation of fight or flight and most of your
properties and relatives are all over the United States, Europe or Australia,
what would you do? Lead a war against China with a poor public infrastructure,
tiny and inferior-quality arsenal and with some China-fake combat materials of
your soldiers?
At least in our situation, ad in the case of
what’s going on in the South China Sea, we need some big brother. Among
countries in Southeast Asia with claims or stakes in the South China Sea,
self-restraint is self-defeating. Self-restraint is consent for China’s
build-up and behavior in the disputed areas and international waters in the
South China Sea. And no, I’m sure, not one will be sincerely exercising any
form of self-restraint in the region. Self-restraint among other claimant
countries gives more incentives for China to build up and behave as it wishes
in the area.
Calls for Restraints Is A Recognition of None of Such to Prevail
Instead of self-restraint, even Indonesia can
contemplate of arming itself with anything in the not so far future. Or at
least build up a military capability rather rapidly, overwhelming the
capability of neighbor Singapore’s. Really, even a wild imagination can’t think
of all possibilities about how it will all become in the region in the near
future. But one, thing, even without a unifying or binding cause among
Southeast nations – a unifying or moderating force can do wonders to keep the
prospects of accidental regional wars or violent conflicts between any 2
Southeast Asian nations or between any one or 2 of the nations versus China in
parts of the South China Sea.
We always focus on what we can most likely
prevent or deter from happening. In Earth’s recent history, there were not a
few high-stakes low-probability eruptions of violent conflicts between groups
of human beings (who swore to love and protect each other) and kingdom or
nation-entities. We can’t quantify the values of lives prevented from being
murdered or perished either because of direct intent or as a matter of indirect
consequence to any of our decisions and actions, or inactions. It is not even
easy to establish the plausibility of the wisdom of decisions made by any
capable and credible leaders: as for example in the case of wars or conflicts
prevented, there’s just no way to measure the benefits of preventing what did
not come into being.
How would you, or anyone know I did or that I
can help prevent a probable murder of someone somewhere in the United States if
I don’t tell you about it and what I did to prevent it? And how can you measure
the benefits of what I did when what I helped prevent did not come into being
and into your awareness? That is similar to saying that I agree that the United
States continue to take extra-ordinary measures to prevent any act of mass
murder, individual murder or any atrocities from being committed anywhere in
the world where it can make a difference in the outcome.
What I wish to
Remind the Americans Of
Americans need to be reminded of the long
history of nation building that their ancestors labored with courage, sweat,
blood and wisdom to pursue. After declaring independence from the Kingdom of
Great Britain, they endured, among others, a bloody civil war.
The US nation not only aided, but led the rest
of Europe to defeat Germany. It had to drop an atomic bomb to knock the
Imperial Government of Japan back to its senses. It had to sacrifice thousands
of lives to rescue South Korea from the imminent capture of China-backed forces
of the North. It had to risk triggering a MAD nuclear war (the end of mankind,
almost) to stop Soviet Union from putting a knife in its throat (nuclear bombs
in Cuba).
It had to lead the world in stopping organized
mass murders in South Sudan. It is now providing assistances to Nigeria to stop
Boko Haram from mass rapes and mass murders of their fellow Muslims. The
military might of the United States with its immense logistics helped prevent a
bigger tragedy that was to follow in the aftermath of the devastations caused
by the super typhoon Haiyan in Central Philippines, preventing many thousands
more to die of injuries, diseases and hunger – so as in the aftermath of a
devastating earthquake in Haiti.
President Obama and the Next US President
President Obama, and the one to succeed him, will be expected to deliver prosperity, peace, order, security and victories in the US' war on terrorism or war against some despot to emerge BUT without much of the pains or discomforts to the American general public, or at least to the thoughts of some media personalities. It's like expecting the great Abraham Lincoln to win the Civil War and prevail upon the Confederates, and lay some of the essential legal foundations to create the rather just and fair society that however imperfect is immensely better than ours in the Philippines or China's - without the costs, the blood, the immense political risks, the personal discomfort in disrupting a system big-time, the initial unpopularity of his decisions (on the Emancipation during and right after the war) and without him becoming a target of an assassination plot once, and another when the perpetrator succeeded.
Imagine. In retrospect, can we say the United
States should have been more decisive and acted swiftly and with more resolve
to prevent Word War II, the Korean War (by conquering the entire peninsuls
earlier), or by dropping a smaller atomic bomb in a smaller city in Japan (were
the weapon available earlier)? Doing so would have resulted to casualties in
the order of tens of thousands too (with most of the world’s media blaming
the US for it and governments suing afterwards), but it would have prevented the
deaths of millions of soldiers and civilians, and the preservation of millions
of houses and essential public infrastructure in many countries (including
China and Russia).
What Consequences the World Now Feasts On If...
So even If Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction, perhaps by now if he were alive and still in power, with all the hundreds of billions more of revenues from oil that was in his direct disposal plus his desire to match Iran’s development of nuclear bombs, he would have had more than what he was accused of (or proven to have) having in stockpiles. What about the Kurds, how many more of them would have perished? Who else would have cared enough to fight for them? My point here is there’s no point in speculating after-the-fact. Anything is a likely outcome besides the fact and reality, depending on one’s desires and imaginations. But in terms of the predicaments of individuals, groups of people or a single country, there are just so many that a top cop can do or not do to bring about a calculated and desired outcome. Otherwise, regrets and blames are rather warranted, maybe
So many models of government and structures of society. So many contradicting teachings of different religions and ideologies. So many ideas and beliefs to subscribe too. Not a few economically and militarily powerful countries in this world. Rian Igos and I can't be subscribing to one that we can't find reasons and proofs of long-term viability other than the values the American people and their great leaders espouse.
We go for what not only holds together but makes great of a nation of great variety facing equally great challenges: The democratic ideals and values of the American people, and its institutional mechanisms that guarantee to uphold even the basic rights of those who wish them deprived of the same rights. To the people of the United States: Support your role for being the world cop. It serves the humanity well.
Professor Chomsky: We ust have to make choices and take sides. And countries made their choices. It's the United States for the foreseeable future, whether we like it or love it.
So even If Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction, perhaps by now if he were alive and still in power, with all the hundreds of billions more of revenues from oil that was in his direct disposal plus his desire to match Iran’s development of nuclear bombs, he would have had more than what he was accused of (or proven to have) having in stockpiles. What about the Kurds, how many more of them would have perished? Who else would have cared enough to fight for them? My point here is there’s no point in speculating after-the-fact. Anything is a likely outcome besides the fact and reality, depending on one’s desires and imaginations. But in terms of the predicaments of individuals, groups of people or a single country, there are just so many that a top cop can do or not do to bring about a calculated and desired outcome. Otherwise, regrets and blames are rather warranted, maybe
So many models of government and structures of society. So many contradicting teachings of different religions and ideologies. So many ideas and beliefs to subscribe too. Not a few economically and militarily powerful countries in this world. Rian Igos and I can't be subscribing to one that we can't find reasons and proofs of long-term viability other than the values the American people and their great leaders espouse.
We go for what not only holds together but makes great of a nation of great variety facing equally great challenges: The democratic ideals and values of the American people, and its institutional mechanisms that guarantee to uphold even the basic rights of those who wish them deprived of the same rights. To the people of the United States: Support your role for being the world cop. It serves the humanity well.
Professor Chomsky: We ust have to make choices and take sides. And countries made their choices. It's the United States for the foreseeable future, whether we like it or love it.
Parts of this post were edited out, for the time-being...
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