The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson
Chris probably means there is one "regime" that the U.S.couldn't terminate without having the U.S. regime terminated in retaliation, and so the U.S. is deterred from terminating that regime. Charles ^ There are no contradictions between the statements below.It's not saying only the U.S. can do this. /Joanna Chris Doss wrote: The United States has the capability to inflict appalling destruction while sustaining only minimal damage to itself. There is no regime it could not terminate if it wanted to-including North Korea. --- Why do people keep saying this? One Russian Oskar-class submarine can destroy the Eastern Seaboard. .
Re: The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson
Bingo. -Original Message- From: Charles Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 09:20:25 -0400 Subject: [PEN-L] The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson Chris probably means there is one regime that the U.S.couldn't terminate without having the U.S. regime terminated in retaliation, and so the U.S. is deterred from terminating that regime. Charles ^ There are no contradictions between the statements below.It's not saying only the U.S. can do this. /Joanna Chris Doss wrote: The United States has the capability to inflict appalling destruction while sustaining only minimal damage to itself. There is no regime it could not terminate if it wanted to-including North Korea. --- Why do people keep saying this? One Russian Oskar-class submarine can destroy the Eastern Seaboard. .
Re: The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson
The United States has the capability to inflict appalling destruction while sustaining only minimal damage to itself. There is no regime it could not terminate if it wanted to-including North Korea. --- Why do people keep saying this? One Russian Oskar-class submarine can destroy the Eastern Seaboard.
Re: The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson
Come on..the post says EVEN North Korea. As a bully the US has the power to inflict appalling destruction while sustaining only minimal damage to itself because bullied countries do not have the power to respond. Russia and China are not included in the circle of those to be bullied at least not by inflicting appalling destruction. But one might argue that Iraq and Vietnam show that the political and economic damage caused by playing the bully may be too high eventually. Strange that the media never seems to detect any immorality at the sight of the most powerful nation in the world attacking countries such as Afghanistan, Panama, Grenada and Iraq that are completely outmatched. The dominant story is the justice of the cause as if the bully were a kindly benevolent policeman restoring peace and democracy. But this story would not have the slightest credibility if there were complete wanton destruction. This is why the US always talks of precision bombing, avoiding civilian casualties etc. while at the same time often targetting hydro plants, water treatment facilities, etc. using crippling sanctions imposed by the UN etc.etc. Civilian casualties will always be collateral damage. By the way is there confirmation of the use of cluster bombs in the recent Fallujah battles? Cheers, Ken Hanly - Original Message - From: Chris Doss [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 6:04 AM Subject: Re: The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson The United States has the capability to inflict appalling destruction while sustaining only minimal damage to itself. There is no regime it could not terminate if it wanted to-including North Korea. --- Why do people keep saying this? One Russian Oskar-class submarine can destroy the Eastern Seaboard.
FW: [PEN-L] The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson
Title: FW: [PEN-L] The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson Ken Hanly wrote: Strange that the media never seems to detect any immorality at the sight of the most powerful nation in the world attacking countries such as Afghanistan, Panama, Grenada and Iraq that are completely outmatched. The dominant story is the justice of the cause as if the bully were a kindly benevolent policeman restoring peace and democracy. But this story would not have the slightest credibility if there were complete wanton destruction. This is why the US always talks of precision bombing, avoiding civilian casualties etc. while at the same time often targetting hydro plants, water treatment facilities, etc. using crippling sanctions imposed by the UN etc.etc. Civilian casualties will always be collateral damage. --- Not really. This seems like simple ideological hegemony. As Marx and Engels wrote, the ruling class is compelled, merely in order to carry through its aim, to represent its interests as the common interest of all the members of society it has to give its ideas the form of universiality, and represent them as the only rational, universal valid ones. (The German Ideology) It also explains why so many poor Americans blame only themselves for their situation. Jayson Funke The information contained in this e-mail may be confidential and is intended solely for the use of the named addressee. Access, copying or re-use of the e-mail or any information contained therein by any other person is not authorized. If you are not the intended recipient please notify us immediately by returning the e-mail to the originator.(B)
Re: The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson
k hanly wrote: Come on..the post says EVEN North Korea. As a bully the US has the power to inflict appalling destruction while sustaining only minimal damage to itself because bullied countries do not have the power to respond. Russia and China are not included in the circle of those to be bullied at least not by inflicting appalling destruction. But one might argue that Iraq and Vietnam show that the political and economic damage caused by playing the bully may be too high eventually. Iraq is different from Vietnam in that wholesale slaughter cannot be carried out retail as it was in Vietnam, where it was possible to kill several million while not killing more than a few score in any one spot. They will never destroy Fallujah or Baghdad as completely as they destroyed hundreds or thousands of Vietnam villages. And the mass slaughter by bombing in North Vietnam was completely hidden. (B-52 pilots should be put in the same category as officers at in the German death camps.) Because of these fetters on u.s. military in Iraq it is actually becoming a possibility that the Iraqi people will militarily defeat the U.S. Army. Carrol
Re: The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson
There are no contradictions between the statements below.It's not saying only the U.S. can do this. /Joanna Chris Doss wrote: The United States has the capability to inflict appalling destruction while sustaining only minimal damage to itself. There is no regime it could not terminate if it wanted to-including North Korea. --- Why do people keep saying this? One Russian Oskar-class submarine can destroy the Eastern Seaboard. .
The Empire Falls Back - Niall Ferguson
Some of this analysis by Niall Ferguson in the new year Issues 2004 special edition of Newsweek, bears re-examination. Chris Burford The U. S. can inflict great damage while sustaining none, and is programmed to rebuild itself, but not others. That's its problem. .. Let's first take a closer look at the fabled $10 trillion U.S. economy. The lion's share of the annual output of the American economy is, in fact, accounted for by private consumption. That share has risen from about 61 percent in 1967 to 70 percent in 2002. As they have consumed more, so Americans have saved ever less: the savings rate averaged about 10 percent between 1973 and 1983; at its low point, in 1999, it touched 1.6 percent, and it has risen only slightly to 3.6 percent in 2003. The only way that the United States has been able to achieve such rapid economic growth in the past decade has been by financing investment with the savings of foreigners. .. Foreign lending also underwrites the American government. Some 46 percent of the total federal debt in public hands is now held by foreigners, and the bulk of the most recent purchases have been made by Asian central banks, particularly the Japanese and the Chinese. The fact that the financial stability of the United States today depends on the central bank of the People's Republic of China is not widely known. Yet the significance is great. .. As has become obvious in Iraq, the United States does not have an especially large pool of combat-effective troops on which it can draw. With about 130,000 personnel required for active service in postwar Iraq, the Pentagon admits that it is at full stretch. .. The paradox of globalization is that as the world becomes more integrated, so power becomes more diffuse. The old monopolies on which power was traditionally based-monopolies of wealth, political office and knowledge-have been in large measure broken up. Unfortunately, thanks to the proliferation of modern means of destruction, the power to inflict violence has also become more evenly distributed-so that a poison dwarf like North Korea can resist the will even of the American giant. .. The United States has the capability to inflict appalling destruction while sustaining only minimal damage to itself. There is no regime it could not terminate if it wanted to-including North Korea. Such a war might leave South Korea in ruins, but the American Terminator would emerge more or less unscathed. What the Terminator is not programmed to do is to rebuild anyone but himself. If, as seems likely, the United States responds to pressure at home and abroad by withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan before their economic reconstruction has been achieved, the scene will not be wholly unfamiliar. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3606145/
