A Home Grown Debate, Part 2

Nick,

Thanks for your writing and time.

Finally, I found time to respond. Sorry for delay.

 

I watched the BBC series "why we fight" you sent me. Although the authors tried to present both sides of the aisle, they missed (I think intentionally) several major events (Afghanistan, Kosovo, etc) and misrepresented some data (USA military budget as a portion of overall federal budget), and messed up with the democracy vs. capitalism (in interview with a leading expert in last part of the movie). Overall, this is about the Iraq war, and particularly presenting the war as a response to 9/11. But it is not 100% true. The major missing thing in the Iraq war analysis is the omission of the report of Congress Commission on 9/11. This is a major document answering questions about 9/11, Iraq, WMD. It is understandable that the commission report was not mentioned in the movie, - the report confirmed that Saddam Hussein wanted and pursued development of WMD. But sanctions, inspections, and constant pressure from the West did not allow his government to succeed in this goal. In short, it was just a matter of time until Saddam would get it...

 

What is the major conclusion you drew from this movie? Is it this, below?

>

> Military intervention has caused more problems than

> it has fixed. If the government truly went to war with the interests of the

> American people in mind, it would have followed the constitution and it

> wouldn't have been so secretive. The fact that it has ignored that founding

> document constantly over the last 50 years proves to me that there is some

> other interest in mind. I'd like to believe that the US government has never

> done anything wrong and that it always supported freedom for others and

> always supported democracies, but the fact is that those were just words,

> and the actions, for the most part, are contradictory.

>

>

 

 

Assuming that this is what you concluded, let me say again, that the US has not always done "right" things, but mostly has. There is no perfect world.

Nick, you are sensitive to government " lies", but interestingly not sensitive to a general demagoguery like " interests of the American people". What are they? Growing prosperity? Security? Security of energy resources? Spread democracy across the world? Nobody knows. Each administration defines them according to their political and ideological believes.

Even if we agree on some definition, still our interpretations would be different.

Personally, I am somewhere between "this country has permanent interests but temporary friends" (Disraeli on imperial Great Britain) and Reagan' optimistic "shining city on the hill".

The latter, by the way, that is why our families left Russia for America.

 

I care more about the US, less how others perceive us. Typically other countries have not loved us much, more or less. All these Pew polls show again and again the low standing of the US in let say Middle East. They maybe correct. Envy and hate-love rung deep. But then, these people stay all night in line at the American embassy to get a visa...

(We just returned from the Caribbean cruise. On islands, I asked our taxi drivers about their lives and politics. One driver summarized it as "America is a racist unjust country". Asked about children, the guys answered that they sent them to American universities... Interesting, ah? I think it answers many questions...)

 

Nick, you wrote about secrecy of the government. It seems to me it sounds naive, or Assange-esque. You believe that it should be no secrets from the public? And you call yourself "realist"?  J

 

Hopefully, our discussion will continue!  :-)

 

Victor

P.S. (1) I watched the clip you sent me before, Rick Steve' tour of Iran. A good movie, I should say. Traveling, tourism are good, but living is different. Plus he was controlled and had a minder. Ancient history and scenery are good, the today events coverage is highly questionable.

 

(2) Take a look below on the US military budget historical data. As a percentage of the outlays (liberals like this) or percentage of GDP (conservatives like this).

The data contradict what was said in the movie.