[thechat] "I guess we'll buy them"

[nate koechley]

Well, it comes off as a Novel Idea, but actually it's been (almost) exactly 
our Standard Operating Procedure for the last 50 years.

The West believes that western-style open-market societies are more stable, 
more predictable, more influenceable (and this mainly appears to be true). 
When you say "Buy Them", you are, in essence, suggesting that these 
problems would not exist if they were a free-market society. After all, 
it's not the Statehood that would be stabilizing, but rather the existence 
of Freedoms and Capitalism. Consumers are inevitable docile citizens. Just 
look at the political apathy in America. (well, look back 8 days at least)

It's not a bad idea, to be sure. (Many would say that it's that exact idea 
which defeated Communism.) We've been trying to do this to the world for 
decades. We've succeed in almost all cases. (Take a look at the worlds 
countries... many of them are, in essence, States. The West -- aka: the 
democratic, capitalist powers -- leads, supports, funds, and dictates to 
all these countries.)

But, don't forget that it's almost exactly these idea and pressures to 
which these forces are rebelling.

Cheers,
.nek

(ps: i'm not trying to put words into your mouth. just trying to progress 
the discussion)


At 02:00 PM 9/18/2001 -0700, you wrote:
> > >  > Anyway, let's just buy Afghanistan.
> > >
> > >With a GDP per capita of US$800, it wouldn't take much....
> >