Gautam wrote: > >> But AFAIK there�s no plan to replace, say, the dictator >> of Egypt or the dictator of Uganda. Or even the dictator >> of China or Turkey. The message seems to be that as long >> as the dictator respects the rules of international >> capitalism, he can remain "dictating" forever. > > Well, first, Turkey is, if you squint sufficiently, > a democracy. > You will see why I mentioned Turkey...
> But I don't see how your statement conflicts with mine at > all. It doesn't have anything to do with capitalism, > for one thing. Where did you get that idea? > Because it seems that those dictators that are docile to the multinational corporations never join the lists of Evil Empires or Axis of Evil. For example, why the rules of Saudi Arabia, or even Kuwait, aren�t criticized? > It's about threat. I'm not proposing wandering around > the world lopping off non-democratic states at random. > Saddam Hussein is a threat to us. He is a totalitarian > dictator who has used weapons of mass destruction > _against his own people_, > See why I brought up Turkey? The Turkish g*vernment _has_ used weapons of mass destruction against their own people, the Kurds. They have repeatedly menaced their neighbours, and in the case of Chipre [Cyprus? I don�t know the English spelling - a small Mediterranean island that is half greek and half turkish]. > is currently attempting to acquire nuclear > weapons, > As are many other countries; even Brazil had a nuclear program to build A-Bombs, some years ago. > and has shown his propensity to support > terrorism in the past, as well as his willingness > to invade his neighbors. This is an unacceptable > combination. He's also probably the most brutal dictator > in the world. So I don't have a problem with removing > him from power, and I can feel confident that whoever > replaces him will be better for us, and better for > the people of Iraq. > I _also_ think Saddam might be the most evil dictator of the world. However, I don�t think this is the reason the USA is trying to topple him. It will sound like a good excuse, it will make the USA look like a supporter of Good against Evil, it might even improve the situation for the people of Iraq. But unless there is a serious effort to make *all* dictators feel that they are in danger, it will become just a replacement of a rebel dictator by a docile dictator. > Hosni Mubarak is an ally of ours - I hope that Egypt > democratizes soon, but I feel no particular need for us > to invade and remove him. Uganda has no noticeable impact > on the United States at all, so the same thing. The > Chinese government has nuclear weapons and an army > larger than the population of quite a few countries - the > best way to democratize China, so far as I can tell, > is hope that the developing Chinese middle class does > it for us, and then support them. > My point is that Mubarak, Museveni, and whoever rules China are "docile" dictators, that help multinational companies profit from their countries. BTW, I found a curious link at... http://www.government.go.ug/ ... where there�s a pool (!) asking when Uganda should return to a Multi-party system (!!!). Maybe I was too harsh in enumerating Uganda among the dictatorships :-) Alberto Monteiro
