Posted by Garnet71 on March 27, 2009, at 22:46:18
In reply to Re: Obama and stuff » Garnet71, posted by Sigismund on March 27, 2009, at 20:50:57
Hi Sigi, Well since I can't do all I need to do until I'm stabilized, I might as well do something-anything.
I've never heard human rights claims as the basis of the 2003 Iraq invasion, but yes, I've heard the Bush administration mention them many times-more in a periphial way as a response to criticism.
A Saudi prince's plane would fly into one of the airports I used to work at, and park there a for a few days. I never went on it, but some of my coworkers have. The interior was lined with gold. It was one of those HUGE planes-the biggest civilian aircraft, well back then, a L10-11. The whole airport would shake when it took off. Western society was great when the prince's family (I think the one with medical problems was a female) needed to fly here to get monthly medical care. If only he considered 1/2 the talent here is female...they stifle the talent of 1/2 the population in the way they opress women. We'll never know if a Saudi woman is the one who would find the cure for cancer, yet wasn't allowed to drive a car to work, in the 21st century. Yea, Western society is always great when it benefits you personally, and provides profits from oil to support a lot of people who don't even work for a living.
I wonder if its going to go the other way in the U.S. Black females have much higher college enrollment rates than black males, and they have been steadily climbing. I should look at other trends and see where we are going, just out of curiousity. I used to work with this anthropologist who did her dissertation with the thesis that women would discriminate against men in the future and have the predominant power in society. With some of the hateful feminist movements going on, though I'm not as familar with them to know whether or not they are growing, but that along with some other smaller, but numerous trends, I wouldn't be overly skeptical of that claim.
The Cold War strategy you mentioned-supporting Saddam (and we also once supported the Taliban in competing with Russia) has shifted from supporting/collecting allies consisting of political groups/states to winning over populations. Are you aware of that? According to national security strategy, it's going to be a lot of propaganda, coersion, technology, media, but also employment opportunities and aid; trade, capitalism. It concerns me, however, because now if someone 'turns on us'--it will be the population of a whole country rather than just its leader(s) or groups w/in a population. It seems like another Cold War, but with people instead of states.
poster:Garnet71
thread:887302
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20090221/msgs/887338.html