! Questions: what are your thoughts about North Korea? How do you think ! it's possible that really bad guy, who has been developing nukes and ! missiles all along, has gotten zero attention?
Media fixation on every road-side bomb that goes off in Iraq. !How about China's 30% ! increase in military spending because they can't trust us? Well reported, ominous, and frankly something we really need to start planning for. Since I follow the news, I know our policy makers are aware of it, but unfortunately I think they all (that includes both parties, no finger pointing here) are so enamored of the myth of free trade/fair trade (whatever you wish to call that pig-in-a-poke) that they can't look reality square in the face. And no, that isn't a neo-con thing---it's a Yale/Harvard/MIT/and every other academic institution since the 1930's thing. They've all been teaching free market economics from the wrong philosophical perspective since FDR... Maybe even since Wilson, who really was the first genuine interventionist in our foreign policy (no, it wasn't Karl Rove). You can't have trade, let alone genuine division of labor (which is what free trade really is), with regimes that can compel people to work against their will for next to nothing. I think Wal Mart's (and other companies') motto should be "Funding the Chinese Military since X" where X is whatever year they started doing business there. This problem is very large and once the Chinese "surprise" attack Taiwan, we'll be in bad shape. ! How about the ! effect the attention to the ME vs no attention elsewhere is having on ! our image for the world at large? ! In the simplest possible terms: just how did the ME get so important ! that we would bet our farm trying to assert our authority there? You and I simply don't agree that it's about "authority". So I'm not going to keep beating that ceterum censeo of yours any further into the ground. What I will say is that if you think the Neo-Cons control the media, you must be watching news on another planet than I am. Also, I think the media goes where the sensation is. Period. They tend to be liberally biased because they are culturally liberal as a class, but generally speaking they'll hop on any bandwagon that gets ratings. The answer to your question is simple: Because Americans watched 3,000 of their fellow citizens burn to death live because of fanatics in the ME. Watch how much attention China gets when they sink a warship in the Taiwan straits and murder and pillage Taiwan. Or when North Korea lobs a nuclear missile in somebody's direction. I certainly agree they should be getting more coverage than they are, and I agree that the fixation on events (especially negative events) in Iraq is unfortunate. ! ! If you're capable of coming to terms with these questions and ! can offer ! useful analysis and solutions, then I'll think that you're something ! other than a neocon supporter/apologist. I don't care what you think I am, though I like you personally and would hope our disagreements aren't personal. I consider myself "paleo-conservative" but on the issue of the war in Iraq, I am somewhat out-of-form in that I do think it was about more than WMDs and I do believe in the transformational power of liberty, and I can't stand all the smarmy griping about the lack thereof in the face of what really are (IMHO) positive developments. I cannot see the thing as the "sham" or "utter failure" you and others view it as, any more than I can see the military or even political aspects being on any scale an abject failure. I can agree the administration oversold aspects of the overall policy proposition. I can agree they foobarred the post-invasion planning (as if anyone can get something like that 100% right). I can agree that not everyone involved in politics has angelic motives (quite the opposite) and I can even agree Bush is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Yes I can even agree that it hasn't all gone smoothly (duh). All of that still doesn't add up to the bizarre conspiracy theory you seem enamored of, and which compels you to see everything in unidimensionally negative terms. I don't consider myself neo-con, and I frankly can't wait till someone other than a Bush or a Clinton is in the White House. That whole dynasty thing is getting old. If you can note anything positive at all about what we've done, or recongnize how people of good will can support it without being incurably stupid, and see current events in any kind of a light that doesn't spell immanent doom and gloom, then I'll think you're something other than a digruntled moonbat whose delusions of efficacy of global government are truly science fictional in their proportions, given how little you truly believe in most people's cognitive abilities. - Bob ! ! ! ! Bill ! ! ! > :) ! > ! > - Bob ! ! ! 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