From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Fri Sep 06 2002 - 13:42:41 MDT
This is worth a read, from the National Review. It's an imaginary dialogue
between Europe and America. t The reason I am including this article in this
list is because transhumanists, like the socialists before WW1, thought that
the road ahead was certainly to be transnational. Instead, nationalism, beat
socialism to a bloody pulp, because nationalism had the greater drawing
power. I am guessing that this is true today and that perhaps, a permanent
split between the US and the EU, will also impact transhumanism. Decide for
yourselves (always).
<<
http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.asp?ref=/hanson/hanson090602.as
p
September 6, 2002 9:00 a.m.
The European Dialogue
Are we friends, allies, or neither?
Europeans: Your proposed "adventure" in Iraq not only poses all sorts of
practical problems for us, your allies, but also challenges the very reason
d'etre of international accords. All these protocols, to the chagrin of the
world, you have, in essence, violated time and again — whether at Durban, the
ICC, or your rejection of an entire series of U.N. mandates.
Americans: We gave up the idea a long time ago that our sworn-treaty allies
would remember Argonne, the Bulge, the Berlin Airlift, or the specter of the
Warsaw Pact. And we cannot think of too many times the tragedy of people
dying prompted real risks on your part or any of your other organizations.
Instead, just look at the present nature of the U.N. There are few liberal
republics on the Security Council. Libya is the proposed head of a Commission
on Human Rights, and the body has a poor collective record of stopping
atrocity from Bosnia to Rwanda — all coupled with shrill denunciation of the
only democracy in the Middle East.
Europeans: One might say that the U.N. is at times both impotent and
hypocritical without undermining its very charter or condoning, as it were,
unilateral action that destabilizes international equilibrium. There is a
complexity here that seems to escape you — or at least some of you.
Americans: So show us where and how we have destabilized anything — unless
you believe that Kuwait, Panama, Grenada, and Kosovo are better places before
than after the use of American force. Please demonstrate to us how
theoretically outlawing racism at Durban or keeping obsolete agreements with
a defunct Soviet Union helps world peace and security. In reference to your
own behavior, we wouldn't allow an ex-Communist thug in Cuba to butcher
200,000 with impunity for eight years, before asking you to come over here to
stop the bloodletting, a few hours from Miami. Perhaps you would say that our
differing ideas of right and wrong — arising from our different histories and
national characters — explain our present estrangement....>
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