On Aug 1, 2007, at 9:36 PM, Warren Ockrassa wrote: > Fifteen years ago I got into casual debates with very insightful > friends about the then-burgeoning threat of China. (It was a much > simpler time.) I proposed a solution: Give them the Internet. Let them > play in the freedom of cyberspace, let them become dependent on the > flow of information-rich sources such as Europe and the US. Not on the > governmental level; saturate the *people* with this free exchange of > Forbidden Ideas, and see how long China actually remains a threat to > the Rest of the World™. > > Huh. > > And now we want to attack Iran, and we're babbling about Pakistan? > > Hmm. > > How much would it actually cost to wire everyone there to the net?
I had a conversation with a smart Silicon Valley type yesterday who said that the US has chosen to project the wrong "brand" to the Middle East. That's not so very different from what you say here -- give 'em hospitals and the Internet and project a brand of "helper" instead of "invader" and you're likely to win more hearts and minds, and at the cost that I would wager is quite a bit smaller than the brand we're projecting now at the point of our many guns and missiles. And it wouldn't have cost us the growing shame of the Pat Tillman story, which is starting to smell more and more like they shot their own hero because he wouldn't read from their script. > Here's my dream ticket. Gore and Kucinich. > > Think about that for a while. I will. Just finished watching Inconvenient Truth and nearly wept for what might have been done in this country with a leader who is not a whacko cowboy oilman puppet, but somebody who has apparently dreamt of a better world, not just more power, for most of his life. And Kucinich -- every time he speaks, I want to "throw my vote away" and show the world that he's not so far out that Americans can't support him. In fact, IIRC, I actually "traded" votes with someone in Ohio who _had_ to vote for Kerry (while I'm in solidly Blue-safe Northern California) so I could afford to vote for Kucinich "on behalf of" my Ohio vote-mate. It was an easy choice to make. Thanks for that hopeful thought, but I don't think the Vice President (Gore, that is, not the Dark Lord of the current infestation) wants to remain in a position to say "I used to be the next President of the United States." Dave _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
