When President Bush said this: “Like Saddam Hussein, some of today’s tyrants are gripped by an implacable hatred of the United States of America. They hate our friends, they hate our values, they hate democracy and freedom and individual liberty…” Who, other than Osama Bin Laden, was he referring to?
I thought the world was supposed to be a slightly more friendly place these days and that was because of things like the collapse of communism, the internet, rising living standards and possibly even globalisation. Happily ever after fails and I’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales. Should we get frisbees?
I think the Comrade Great Leader Kim Jong Il of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea would probably qualify. (Although he supposedly likes American movies and basketball, so he doesn’t hate everything American.)
Autocratic governments are not yet on the endangered species list. Although legally constituted dictatorships as a formal method of government are not so common as once they were, many governments with the form of republics are far from democratic in their operation.
A case by case analysis by our government, of the governments of other countries is heavy reading. Just choosing a few at random convinced me that life in places like Burma, Uganda, Rwanda, Laos, and a lot of other countries is a lot more like Iraq than like Australia, or the Netherlands. Whether the guys who kill you in the night for no reason are working for a president, or a chairman, or a Dictator really doesn’t matter much.
Personally, I would trust Queen Juliana a lot further than President James Taylor.
I’m certain there are evil despots out there right now. They just happen to be located in third world countrys we can’t pronounce.
The people mentioned above happen to be the ones with the most apparant power (money, resources, military).
Give old Vlad Putin a few more years. After shutting down the only free press Russia knew he seems to be heading down a promising road.
I would rather see the anti-corporate movement focus on peace for once instead of (or as well as) demonstrating, as they do, about a range of other things. I know there is an international peace day but I don’t when. Who does? Who ever pays it any attention? Each year there are days when World War(and Vietnam) veterans remember what war means but anyone under 50 could care less about that. I always had Bruce Springsteen’s faith in the power of rock’n roll. There should be an international peace day every year based on rock music and involving every country in the world. There’s a job for Bruce Springsteen in his retirement - peace messiah rock musician.
I believe that there is something to be said for countries “growing up”. Certain countries, or more properly some countries’ leaders, seem to have an almost adolescent frame of mind. They think that everyone is against them and nobody understands them and they will do anything to establish themselves as equals in the world.
When you look at a country like India it’s kinda scary. Here’s the most densely populated country in the world; most citizens do not have clean water, heat, or electicity, yet the gov’t has spent millions to develop nuclear weapons. Why? To defend themselves against a bunch of Pakistani doing the same thing. Sitting in America its easy to say “What the F*ck were you thinking”, but unless you have lived in that country its hard to say they are wrong.
Do I think that the US didn’t go through the same “phase”? Of course not. The US and Russia stared each other down for 40 years like a couple of school boys and even had others die on their behalf (Korea, Viet Nam), and eventually figured out that it was pointeless.
The problem we have now, is that the weapons of mass destruction are now in the possesion of countries with alot less to lose and fewer discrete (but more supposed) enemies. Really, how many countries out there are there that want to blow up the “evil empire” simply because we show breasts in movies? We’re no longer dealing with a single super power assured of mutual destruction, we are now dealing with several countries willing to die over Sharon Stone’s snatch an other affonts.
Life would have been alot simpler if we (the US and Russia) could have simply divided the world in half. But we messed up and gave Ruusia a way out that, although it saved Russia from self imploding, left Russia with little choice but to whore its arsenal to those nations seeking some way to claim a place in the global theater.
It would be silly to think that these nations, these “rogue nations”, are not worth serious concern.
The Telephone Company (cf. The President’s Analyst)
Speaking seriously, however, the potential for tyranny exists in any country where the ability of the population to select its leadership by legal means is severely restricted or nonexistent.
My current top candidate, due to personal ties to some of the country’s citizens, is Robert “Bob” Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
Oh, and I can’t let this one go by without comment:
Firstly, it seems to me that the assumption that the world is something to be divided between the US and Russia smacks of tyranny in itself. Secondly, it is unclear how the US could have prevented the Soviets from selling their arms during the Cold War years, short of the all-out war that both sides were trying to avoid. Given the circumstances, I fail to see how the USA “messed up” in this regard.
No, in favour of her daughter, the current Queen Beatrix. But since our Crown Prince Willem-Alexander (logically, Beatrix’ oldest son) has recently announced his engagement to Máxima Zorroguieta (of Argentina), it won’t be too long before he will become King Willem IV. Say in about 6 or 7 years.
The title of King or Queen is not kept for life in the Netherlands. When the power is passed on to the next generation, the King (Queen) becomes a Prince (Princess) again.
This point of view is appallingly race-centric but consider this: If it’s true that in 1000 years only 3 out of a 100 people on earth will be caucasians Russians start to seem like useful and desirable companions of Americans, Canadians, the British, the Irish, Australians, New Zealanders and Europeans generally. I mean, they’re Christians, they know how to play classical music and put on ballets if you like that kind of thing. They don’t mind drawings of human beings either. But how would I know. I kind of like cold war chic anyway. I wish I could afford a Chrysler PT Cruiser - the perfect accessory.
