Framlings, raman, or varelse? was Re: Making a nation democratic

[Jeff Bone]

Owen Byrne wrote:

> Yeah, well when a policemen settles crimes of his own choosing, acts outside
> the boundaries of their own rules they, bullies local citizens into buying
> arms to 'protect' themselves from the "criminals", while also making a few
> bucks selling arms to the criminals, what kind of cop is it?

"American."

;-)

Seriously, Owen, I think you and I are almost totally in sync on the facts.
There's no particular difference in our perception of the facts, rather the only
difference is in the focus of analysis.  Sure, we suck.  Sometimes.  We
acknowledge this and then we attempt to assuage our guilt by all sorts of
benevolent and "altruistic" means that ultimately create more enemies than
friends and do nothing but drain the American taxpayer's dollars and distract us
from things at home that need attention.

> So now we've got this rogue, corrupt, cop open to payoffs from all corners,
> the Dirty Harry of international  policeman - about to make itself
> invulnerable (missile defence), that occasionaly uses its military force to
> solve domestic problems (firing cruise missiles at the Sudan to make the
> American people forget the name Monica)

Hey, it is a fact that al Qaeda was parked there at the time.  The timing seems
a bit odd though, doesn't it?

>  "Look at all the aid we give
> to these countries."  Excuse me, its weapons - "We're keeping the peace."

More often, it's just dollars.  Sums and sums of dollars.  Directly,
indirectly...  dollars, dollars, dollars.

> I think the Mafia moving into your neighbourhood is a more appropriate
> analogy. Yeah we'll give you food, but then you owe us... We'll be sending
> our friends Mr. Lockheed, Grumman and General Dynamics over to see you every
> week. And don't even think about looking for help from those other guys ...
> there's only one show in town now, baby. But hey, the crime rate will go way
> down in the neighbourhood... just you watch.

And it's true --- Mafia-controlled neighborhoods in i.e. Brooklyn have some of
the lowest crime rates anywhere in NYC.  For instance.  But the Mafia at least
have two things we (the US, as a nation) don't have:  integrity and cojones.
They play the coercion game well.  We need to make up our mind about whether
we're really going to play the coercion game or not, and if so we need to stop
dicking around and *do* it.

> I'm not really this anti-US, but the policemen to the world portrayal really
> riles me.

I was being sarcastic, Owen.  I think it's a ludicrous policy as well, one which
has caused far more harm than good for all parties involved.  Unf., we're deep
in the shitter now.  We need to take some drastic steps at this point to avoid
getting flushed.

jb