From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Sep 27 14:36:59 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from femail34.sdc1.sfba.home.com (femail34.sdc1.sfba.home.com [24.254.60.24]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 14C4537B408 for ; Thu, 27 Sep 2001 14:36:47 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ATLANTA.threespace.com ([24.21.224.204]) by femail34.sdc1.sfba.home.com (InterMail vM.4.01.03.20 201-229-121-120-20010223) with ESMTP id <20010927213646.TBWI3482.femail34.sdc1.sfba.home.com@ATLANTA.threespace.com> for ; Thu, 27 Sep 2001 14:36:46 -0700 Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20010927172202.02ada3c0@threespace.com> X-Sender: tech@threespace.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.2 Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 17:32:23 -0400 To: FreeBSD Chat From: Technical Information Subject: US foreign policy In-Reply-To: <20010927171312.C56631@lpt.ens.fr> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010927100849.017f9938@threespace.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20010924191808.0227cf28@threespace.com> <3BAFD532.6ED7A320@duth.gr> <4.3.2.7.2.20010926015428.01814630@threespace.com> <20010926125046.C1370@lpt.ens.fr> <20010926070519.A30531@blackhelicopters.org> <20010926132021.E1370@lpt.ens.fr> <20010926072915.A30655@blackhelicopters.org> <4.3.2.7.2.20010927003714.01819658@threespace.com> <200109271345.f8RDjn116287@dungeon.home> <4.3.2.7.2.20010927100849.017f9938@threespace.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 11:13 AM 9/27/2001, you wrote: >The more cynical would say that the US gives assistance to foreign >countries to gain more control over them; I've read such accusations >of the US policy towards Israel, among others -- ie, "if you don't >obey us, we'll cut off the funding".) Be that as it may, I don't see >what's wrong with criticising the bad points (and there is much to >criticise), while praising the good (yes, there's much to praise too). >As for trade: what's that got to do with anything? Trade between the U.S. and other countries is typically structured to be beneficial (in terms of trade difference) to the other countries, and that's not a coincidence. >Yes, the US do spearhead the economy of the world, they are at the >technological cutting edge. In terms of economic policy, and also in >terms of the educational system (not mentioned by Sinclair, I think), >the US unquestionably got it right and everyone else is lagging far >behind. But I don't think that means one should not criticise the >foreign policy. And I certainly don't think the foreign policy is >justified by, or has any connection whatever with, these things. In the first paragraph, you say "the US gives assistance to foreign countries to gain more control over them." In the previous paragraph, you say that you don't think "foreign policy...has any connection whatever with these things." Huh? If somebody gives you a LOT of money, you can best believe they have a reason for doing it, probably one that will benefit them in the long run. And I think this is true of anyone anywhere. It's certainly true of capitalists. So it seems hypocritical to me to take the monetary assistance, unbalanced trade, military protection--whatever--and them complain that we want a say so on some aspect of how the country is run. --Chip Morton To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message