Dave Winer is an over-rated, idiotic, buffoon. Perhaps I should say soemthing more thoughtful. I'll try to do that in a few minutes later this afternoon.
azeem
· 7 years ago
Good negotiators, good diplomats and great persuaders know the importance of using the right words and right language to achieve their ends. This is particularly valuable when you or I agree with those ends and we think those ends are good. But your vernacular, in common with so much of the rhetoric, flowing from the US sounds jingoistic.
The US is the most powerful nation on earth. And considering its power and its ability to create havoc and destroy, it has behaved very well over the past 40 years. Compare the US to an al-Qaeda leader: generations of US presidents could have rained nuclear terror on the planet and they chose not to (supported by a generally good system of checks an balances). The first thing a TinPot dictator does with his new batch of second hand strike aircraft is to drop chemicals on his own people.
But it is the richest most powerful nation on earth. And that puts it in a tough position, because to those who have been granted much... and unforutunately, it appears that for all the wealth (and for every smart, considered thinker), it lacks acute analysis or geopolitical sensitivity.
For example, read Geoffrey Robertson's piece on law vs war. Regardless of GRs views, he provides an interesting mechanism to get broader European--in particular German--support for a war. http://www.observer.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,78...> I want frothing, battle crazed lunatics. In battle, during combat, taking an enemy command post. I'm not sure how valuable it is during the political process, policy making or strategy building.
It's time for the US to shed its image as a gungho naive nation tempered by its more well-considered and thoughtful European neighbours. The last time it did (in Suez) things went remarkably well for most of us, except the Brits. azeem
Dean Esmay
· 7 years ago
Reading about Mugabe always depresses me.
It reminds me of another African dictator who starved his own people, while food aid from the West sat rotting in the trucks.
All Comments
But your vernacular, in common with so much of the rhetoric, flowing from the US sounds jingoistic.
The US is the most powerful nation on earth. And considering its power and its ability to create havoc and destroy, it has behaved very well over the past 40 years. Compare the US to an al-Qaeda leader: generations of US presidents could have rained nuclear terror on the planet and they chose not to (supported by a generally good system of checks an balances). The first thing a TinPot dictator does with his new batch of second hand strike aircraft is to drop chemicals on his own people.
But it is the richest most powerful nation on earth. And that puts it in a tough position, because to those who have been granted much... and unforutunately, it appears that for all the wealth (and for every smart, considered thinker), it lacks acute analysis or geopolitical sensitivity.
For example, read Geoffrey Robertson's piece on law vs war. Regardless of GRs views, he provides an interesting mechanism to get broader European--in particular German--support for a war. http://www.observer.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,78...>
I want frothing, battle crazed lunatics. In battle, during combat, taking an enemy command post. I'm not sure how valuable it is during the political process, policy making or strategy building.
It's time for the US to shed its image as a gungho naive nation tempered by its more well-considered and thoughtful European neighbours. The last time it did (in Suez) things went remarkably well for most of us, except the Brits.
azeem
It reminds me of another African dictator who starved his own people, while food aid from the West sat rotting in the trucks.
I refer, of course, to Mengistu of Ethiopia.