From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Thu Dec 26 2002 - 08:22:03 MST
Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
> America as a world-devouring menace, and Saddam's Iraq as pitiful 1939
> Poland? Ok. I don't see the necessity of the USA defining its role in
> the world as some kind of global people-pleaser; every-ready to reasure
> and consult withw anyone and everyone who makes a complaint.
Um... I suspect that the specific aspect Charlie Stross and I are both
referring to is the manner in which the US clearly wants war, is looking
for the slightest excuse, and failing the existence of any excuse will
manufacture one while claiming that it is Iraq's fault and we were provoked.
Perhaps a case can be made that the US needs to pre-emptively invade Iraq
in order to prevent them from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, but I
don't think the current party line of "They're making us do it! Really!
We were provoked!" is fooling anyone outside the US. And it *is* rather
reminiscent, historically speaking, of Poland 1939.
Though come to think of it, it's probably reminiscent of a great many
other cases in international history as well; it's just that Poland is the
famous case that even an amateur like myself has heard of.
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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