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Keith, I would argue that Americans are more militaristic than most other cultures. There are several reasons for believing this. One is that militarism figures very prominently in American history - the war for independence, the civil war, the wars against Indians on the frontier, taking Texas and other parts of the southwest away from the Mexicans, etc. Another is that they have a very special view of how the world should organized itself, a view that much of the world doesn't really want to buy into unless it is forced to. The world should practice "freedom and democracy" American style, even if it is necessary to make it do so at the point of a gun. Yet another reason is America's huge need for global resources. The US, with about 5% of the world's population, consumes about 25% of the world's resources. Foreign oil, the reason for the war on Iraq, is a very important part of this. Increasingly, China is becoming a major competitor for what oil is left. While there may not be actual conflict between the US and China, you can bet that there will be a lot of posturing and gesturing. Thinkers like Andrew Bacevich, a graduate of West Point, a Vietnam veteran, a conservative Catholic and now director of international studies at Boston University, see all of this adding up to an ominous trend. US culture is becoming increasingly militarized. As Tony Judt, director of the Remarque Institute at New York University, puts it in reviewing Bacevich's most recent book: "Among democracies, only in America do soldiers and other uniformed servicemen figure ubiquitously in political photo ops and popular movies. ... In a country no longer supreme in most other fields of human endeavor, war and warriors have become the last, enduring symbols of American dominance and the American way of life." I agree with you on Africa. To make aid effective will require reorganizing how the aid is received and handled. It will require an end to European and American agricultural subsidies which keep African produce out of world markets. It will require a more compassionate, less orchestrated response from the people of the rich world. While Live 8 may have been useful, in the eyes of some African intellectuals it does not appear to have been a convincing or impressive response. The following, by Ken Wiwa, appeared in a commentary in this morning's Globe&Mail: I was unlucky enough to attend the London Live 8. While you have to admire the organizers for drawing fashionable attention to unfashionable causes, it was clear from my straw poll of concert-goers that most were there only for the music and the drink. As I walked into Hyde Park, navigating a labyrinth of fences that controlled, herded and segregated the crowds, I wondered at how protest has become so choreographed. Entering the inner sanctum, where some had paid as much as $1,000 (U.S.) for admission, I noticed large signs reminding everyone that the event was "generously supported by" Nokia Nseries and AOL.com. I started hyperventilating after I spotted the champagne, wine and beer stall with the corporate flag of Moët and Chandon fluttering above. That must have been around the time that I started ranting that the Live 8 symbol looked suspiciously like a dollar sign. I left soon after the concert began. I had to catch a plane to Edinburgh and I was chased out of the park by bored security guards after I leapt over a fence to take a shortcut out. The musicians in Hyde Park had expressly been warned not to criticize George Bush or the U.S. for fear of upsetting the G8 consensus. Bianca Jagger, with whom I shared a platform at the alternative G8 conference in Edinburgh, told me this. She also said that Live 8 had been a success for the G8 because as long as protest is conducted within boundaries the authorities are comfortable with, it will never effect profound change. Ken Wiwa is the son of Ken Saro Wiwa, the writer, who was hanged in 1995 on trumped up charges by the Nigerian military government of General Sani Abacha. Ed
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