Great Powers Using Smaller Nations As Pawns

Submitted by STK (United States), Oct 1, 2008 at 14:54

"Feeding the crocodile" is the ethical unstatement of Bush's policy. Granted the U.S. has and deserves its weighty say in the development of political, economic, and military developments in a region that supplies its greatest single necessity that is primarily foreign-based. The U.S. needs to have say in the stabilization in this region that has the standing infrastructure in the production of fossil fuel needs. This policy of appeasement is deadly, however, when mideast allies and nations interested in having genuinely better ties with the U.S. are offered on the bargaining plate to clearly unstable sorts like Ahmadinajad and the handlers behind the scenes of newspapers and TV who truly pull the strings to this marionette of a man.

No the U.S. should not recklessly endanger its allies with the excuse of keeping the regional peace. There is no regional peace. These allies should not be risked simply to keep shipping lanes open. Why does the U.S. purchase an economic and national necessity from a crowd that rejoices each time an American is killed? At the moment this crowd is getting the best of all worlds-1) Watching Americans die fighting one of their intertribal wars 2) Leading Bush (and other Presidents) by the nose in understanding requests as signs of weakness-they cannot be backed by force or fierce diplomacy 3) Maintaining sufficating pressure on U.S. allies and potential friends with fear and force without consequence.

Mr. Bush refuses backing, at least in principle, the Israelis in defending their homeland from any enemy that clearly wants to wipe it clean off of the map. The situation is intolerable. There is no case in modern history when a nation that has been persistently threatened with its being stands by willingly acceping its fate. When that nation is threatened it has made more lucrative alliances or lashed out in self-defense to either dissuade the enemy or cripple/destroy it.

The U.S. can and must immediately begin tapping its own fossil fuel sources in addition to expanding to new areas of energy. The 7-10 year proposed time period of efficacy on this is rubbish. The Germans were able to maintain a full fighting force for most of WW2 by squeezing rocks and creating diesel in the lab. This was accomplished in full in months, not years.

By depending less on the stability of infighting tribals that happen to sell oil, the U.S. will find itself in a much stringer position in directing the future either in diplomacy or in force. The U.S. will also be able to fully free its hands to defend the rights of nations like Israel, Georgia, and potential allies offering them more confidence and the will to stand up and not fear the true evil ones of our day.

Thank you Daniel Pipes on how history does indeed remind us on how mistakes in policy affect the world and how certain aspects in these present dramas can be controlled and even how they must be dealt with lest we meet a fate worse than death-enslavement.

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