physics geek Says:
June 30th, 2006 at 9:19 pm

I dunno, but it someone killed a member of my family, my balanced response would include not dismembering the body of the assailant before I buried it and then salted the earth.

I would say that the correct response would be to not salt the earth. Instead, I would plant and Etrog (citron – for a Jewish religious ritual) tree to take advantage of the fertilizer that is all such people are good for.

There are limits to the greatest power. That is why idealism has to be tempered by prudence and national interest. It would be nice if the vicious thugs of Myanmar were stood against a wall and democracy instituted there, but they are no threat to us or to their neighbors. They are safe from US wrath as long as they keep their noses clean.

The hope of the Bush strategy is that democracy in Iraq will have a demonstration effect elsewhere in a region traditionally ruled by murderous thugs. If we help catalyze the spread of halfway decent consensual government by supporting the reformers we look forward to removing the real roots of terrorism, which lie in the dysfunctional political culture of the Arab and Iranian world. This may not work, but it is the best plan to start with. The alternatives are a lot messier and bloodier, especially for the Arabs and Iranians.

One of the many things Bush’s anti-war critics miss is that if we fail there will be a knock-on effect that will discredit democracy far beyond Iraq. Many people will conclude that democracy does not work and establish more…ah…muscular forms of government. This has happened before, more than once. It happened after we lost in Vietnam. It is a tribute to the ignorance, absence of wit, and lack of imagination of the anti-war lefties that they do not comprehend this simple fact. Or perhaps, like International ANSWER, they are copacetic with the spread of fascism, red, green or black.

The UN made a huge show of reforming it's Human Rights Council. It's first order of business was to re-institute the habit of the old council to bash Israel first at every meeting.
 The new UN Human Rights Council voted Friday to…

Isn’t it remarkable that we do not hear the U.N. speak out against the terrorist acts committed by the Palestinians, especially by Hamas? Isn’t it remarkable that the U.N. keeps quiet about the deaths of many Israeli civilians purposely targeted by P…

Dictatorships have served humanity for many millenia and in various marketing packages. I do think it has outlived its usefulness – especially in this time of Nuclear Weaponry. Democracy does seem to be the next step in the evolutionary process of the social ‘sciences’.

It would be nice if the WOT would eventually morph into an overarching strategy of ridding the entire world of Dictatorships as they seem to be the areas where the troubles all come from (Cuba, Venezuela, Myanmar, Muslim Countries in general, various African Countries, etc…)

Maybe we should have an UN for Democracies only. But then, we won’t know what the dictatorships are doing either…

The UN helped form Israel after WWII. I’ve long been convinced that they did this not out of the goodness of its heart, but rather a desire to gather all the Jews in one place for easier picking.

Is it wrong to say that I wish the Israelis weren’t so civilized?