20. "RE: my conclusion is that we fuck shit up" In response to In response to 19 Mon Aug-08-16 07:11 AM by akon
>and heres the kicker, maybe it needed to be done? maybe it >only partially needed to be done and some peoples hearts were >in the right places until they found it was a good living >perpetual war
i think the cold war was overall bad for every country the u.s got involved in (i dont have any nuance on this- this was the height of supporting repressive regimes for no other reason than they were against the russians. or overthrowing governments that showed any signs of supporting communism it was detrimental on the continent.)
but things have changed - its no longer become so cut and dry (except for bush,- he's special) so i do think (as you noted) it is time for a more nuanced review of this.
but i dont feel as though the conversation has moved any further from the cold war context and it should the obama policy of engagement (well, rather indecision about engagement) is very different from the stupidity of bush we tend to ignore clinton's era - which i would say was closer to obama's except for the inherited wars - this was also a time when there was less engagement in international conflicts (rwanda, kosovo etc) so there are nuances - between the extremes of the cold war and no engagement - i feel like perhaps its the conversation that has not moved forward
----- .. with regards to south sudan i dont know if the u.s involvement is overall good (or bad), but i do know that pressure from the u.s has kept our 'leaders' on the negotiating table - if that hadn't happened we would still be in a never-ending and very stupid conflict so although i think this is merely a lull and we are only a few bad decisions away from a full resumption of conflict, the threat of sanctions etc., has resulted in a semblance of peace
the reason i keep asking about u.s involvement (and to be honest, more so international involvement) is that i see countries (like mine) where the state is very powerful even if/when the majority of us decide we do not want our leaders as long as they have the armies on their side, there is literally nothing we can do about it except continue to suffer. (even though the country is awash with guns) regime change will merely be one bad politician replacing another i see people speak of revolution all the time... and im not sure they fully understand just how powerful state armies have become the people have no voice or power any more. the armies do. i think there needs to be a way to check the powers of the state (i dont know that elections work that well in my part of the world)
*shit, im about to go read 1984, i think we are living it*
. http://perspectivesudans.blogspot.com/ i myself would never want to be god,or even like god.Because god got all these human beings on this planet and i most certainly would not want to be responsible for them, or even have the disgrace that i made them.