I am in [[wp:DC]] and logged onto my home machine to check some work related stuf. I decided to read a low volume political list I am on and this happend.
I wound up posting this as an email to a mailing list I am on. I cannot include what I was replying to… so I cut that out and summarized.
This touches on some topics that I have been mulling over as I walk around Washington D.C. and musing on the state of the world. I’ll have more to say about it… but this came out as I wrote a “quick” reply.
Fundamentally this post is about the US actions on the global stage, and the upset other nations feel about it. I edited it heavily to keep only the section that is a semi essay.
Posted by Soulhuntre to a BDSM/Politics list on 06/05/2004 around 17:22:00
[ a comment was made that President Bush doesn’t give “a rats ass” about global politics ]
I disagree. I think US policy indicates tat our government takes global relations extremely seriously – you all just donโt like our choices.
[ mention was made of the [[wp:Kyoto]] agreement on environmental issues and the US’s refusal to sign onto it ]
Kyoto is a deeply, deeply flawed document. There is absolutely no advantage or incentive for developed nations to sign onto it and it was almost tailor made to shift the cost of cleaning and maintaining the global waste issues onto our shoulders. As with so many recent global movements the concept seems to be to screw over the US and western nations (to a lesser degree) as punishment for some perceived economic or ideological mistreatment and then blame us when we donโt bend over and lube up for it graciously.
[ similar upset was expressed that the US has refused to place it’s citizens under te jurisdiction of the [[wp:ICC]] or ‘world court’ ]
It’s one of the things I like about this guy. US citizen, US courts. Some other nation wants to effectively hold one of our citizens hostage or kidnap them then they may wind up looking down the seeker of a smart bomb. Go ahead, make our day.
These are the sorts of policies that governments are SUPPOSED to handle… the protection of its citizens from the unilateral detention and abuse by foreign powers. It is, in fact, one of the few really strong arguments FOR a federal government’s intervention in our lives.
Especially when we can see that as resentment for the US situation (being the sole remaining truly global power) that the little dogs are barking louder and louder for US blood.
US citizen, US laws, US courts. As one of the provisions of the “world court” (they left out the word kangaroo) was to allow that court the unilateral right to judge, extract and detain US citizens from US osil – itโs a damn good thing he didn’t sign on.
BTW – this is not something that Bush is alone on. Very few US citizens like the idea of turning over our sovereignty and ability to keep our own citizens under US jurisdiction.
[ discussing that the US has forced the [[wp:EU]] into compliance with some of our anti-terrorism policies ]
But lets even grant that that isn’t true… then the irrelevancy of the EU as a power capable of enforcing the will of its people serves as a warning to the US as to what will happen to us as soon as we start appeasing other nations demands.
We are a nation at war. Entire segments of the planet work and pray daily for our destruction in a way they do not work against the EU. Whether you agree with our choices as we fight that war is not really relevant. No one else on this spinning ball of mud has the power to protect us but ourselves and most of even our “allies” seem to secretly long for us to fail.
It is no shock then that we have decided the wishes of most of the planet are irrelevant or not in our best interests … most of them aren’t.
This hatred of the US predates Bush, and it is not a reaction to him despite the propaganda otherwise. The ideological enemies of democracy and capitalism are many – and the look for nothing short of the eradication of our nation in its entirety. The communists wanted us gone, yet we remain. The radicals and extremists in the middle east want us gone, and we will remain after their little corner of the earth is eating McDonalds and wondering what happened to their fanaticism.
On a planet with a large portion of the population that wants our destruction we must take steps… they will not all be popular and they will not all be correct or fair. We will adjust. We always do.
But history has shown us that appeasement always fails. When you ask forgiveness or feel guilt for your very existence you are already defeated. Those who want the US gone may say it’s because of Bush for the moment, or Iraq, or Britney Pears navel or whatever the excuse is but it is a lie as it was a lie when Hitler and Stalin pretended that small compromises would appease them.
As a nation in a battle for our existence we have seen that the rest of the word is almost entirely useless to us. With the exception of a very very small number of allies we have found that most of the world will stand aside form the battle and tell us how we deserve what we are getting, and that it is our own fault. We have realized that our own fate is in our own hands entirely… and we are making decisions accordingly.
It is no surprise that this position is unpopular. The self sufficiency and self interest of another is always a source of anger and upset to the weak and irrelevant. Hell, Ayn Rand is spinning in her grave saying “see? it applies to nations as well!”.
Like this parasites depicted in Atlas Shrugged many nations of the world are angry that the US is looking to its own self interest and survival. Like them the constant demand is that we subsume our interests and sovereign will to that of the mob or the “greater good” all the while carrying their burden and defending them.
Pardon me then for not weeping when they get upset.