Due to couple of off line comments I adjusted the channel. The cerebral fare is part of me, but not fun to write.
Lets venture into the surreal. There is a dangerous cult out there. Now some of you are thinking this is another anti Communist rant. Well all of you are wrong. The cult that we are all a part of is the cult of unrealistic expectations and the present status quo.
Nation building has been a disaster. We haven't fixed Haiti in how long. If we can't fix Haiti with no major combat how can we expect Iraq to be run like Iowa. Communists like the Duck point to Haiti and try explain that it is proof that Capatalist countries can be as inept as Cuba.
There are those who see racial problems as a cause of the problems. The reality is that the problems are political instability and a culture of corruption. The acceptability of bribes and corruption hurts business. However the political instability and infighting scares foreign investors. The status quo with US Peacekeepers perpetuates the present cycle of instability.
We could break the cycle by allowing the sides to fight it out until there is a victor of the Strongman variety.
We could create US military run industrial parks. The US military would provide the security and stability to attract investment.
The notion of transitioning from Chaos to democracy may be misguided. Maybe a stogman like a King Hussein who can provide a strongman type of authoritarism ala Pinochet and then transition to democracy would be more natural.
Maybe the notion that all these artifical states drawn up in the 1920 Anglo French treaty is unrewalistic. We now know Yugoslavia was a myth held together by Tito's brutality. Maybe it is unrealistic for us to perpetuate the status quo. The fears about a Shia state being an Iran clone may be misguided. The Shia of Iraq are Arabs and those of Iran are Persian.
If we limit our options to the present realities we may overlook better solutions.
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6 comments:
Nation building has been a disaster.
I've always been opposed to nation building.
In 2000, GWB opposed nation building, Gore did not. One of my reasons for casting my ballot for GWB in 2000 was that he opposed nation building.
The post-WWII nation building followed decisive defeat, particularly in Japan.
The fears about a Shia state being an Iran clone may be misguided. The Shia of Iraq are Arabs and those of Iran are Persian.
Nevertheless, if the reports I'm reading in the newspaper are correct, the Islamic world may well go into severe upheaval. Yesterday's WaPo contained an article about how the Sunni/Shia mess in Iraq is leading to a breakdown of mixed communities in Egypt, especially in Cairo. On the other hand, I've heard a few talking heads speak of the Sunni/Shia conflict as the reform within Islam; I don't agree with them.
Maybe a stogman like a King Hussein who can provide a strongman type of authoritarism ala Pinochet and then transition to democracy would be more natural.
Iraq was an artificially created nation. I don't recall the date, but I remember reading about hos Iraq was created as a melding of Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish sects. IMO, it took a strongman to hold the nation together.
Sorry about running on and on, Beak. But this is an excellent posting! The cult of unrealistic expectations is an excellent term!
Lets see the money flowing in from the tax revenues of the jobs in the industrial parks can build the schools. The Haitian people are just as capable of building a sound
country as any other bunch.
The problem is political stability and a culture of corruption.
How do you break those cycles.
The problem is political stability and a culture of corruption.
How do you break those cycles.
Solve those problems, and you'll change the history of the world!
First off the bat - I am fully aware of the cult you refer to.
I've been to Haiti during a cruise, and got mad at my wife for forking over a $20 for a small wooden bowl, but I guess we helped feed them for a week.
SO let it be known that, although I am a cheap bastage, I'm at least proportionately generous.
Duck
The garment trades as well as several others do not require litteracy. Build a tax base and then develop schools.
Walmart could just as easily use Haiti as a source as China given stability.
Ah, Haiti.
A study in contrasts between Democrat and Republican if there ever were one.
In the hands of a Democrat, the United States Army loaded up helicopters onto a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, because it was easier than dredging up the amphibious assault and troop transport ships Clinton sank off the East Coast to make environmentally friendly fishing reefs. So, the Army did as best they could operating their helicopters in an environment they didn't train for, off a carrier landing deck that moves up and down with each wave. Fortunately, no soldiers died in this reckless flirtation with death, but the damage done to military equipment and the money wasted was enough to make Clinton happy despite the lack of American soldiers dying. Or maybe the operation was what made Clinton happy - the operation misnamed "Restore Democracy" where the US military was used to re-install a voodoo priest dictator (and Democratic Party drug money contributor) that refused to leave office after being voted out (in an actual democracy).
Not content with that (as leftists like Clinton generally are never content with a merely desparate situation if they have the power to make it an extremely fucked up situation) the US military was used to help Aristide's thugs disarm the Haitian population, virtually guaranteeing that Haitians opposed to Aristide's autocracy got the flaming-gasoline-filled-tire-around-the-neck treatment we see in other leftist paradises like Angola and South Africa. The stage was now set for "niggers to kill each other." Clinton could now smile and go home, but not without a promise to recieve pictures of dismembered children dead in a ditch to jack off with from Aristide as they came available. "Democracy" was "restored," yeeeeehaw!
Election time in Haiti came again, this time while a Republican was President of the United States. Republicans, in their nature of taking American foreign policy seriously, saw an elected voodoo priest dictator restored to power in America's name sending death squads and gasoline-filled-tire bearing whackos out to Haitian neighborhoods to snuff the opposition because of the fact that Aristide couldn't run in the elections (by Haitian laws about term limits) and sent the Marines to remove Aristide from Haiti.
The riots stopped, and the elections went off without a hitch.
Democracy restored, this time for real.
This shouldn't surprise students of history. The Democratic Party has always opposed democracy and civil rights, especially if the chances of dark-skinned people getting killed is increased.
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