Re: botched diplomacy?

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Fri Nov 29 2002 - 23:26:29 MST


John K Clark wrote:
> "Amara Graps" <amara@amara.com>
>
> >unfortunately in the last years, any good actions of the U.S
> >government is lost in the Mud (working against the Kyoto
> >agreement [...] in Afghanistan (remember that place?)
> >They still would like some help, in order to build roads
> >and have clean water.
>
> That's the best example you can think of for foolish American policy?? The
> Kyoto Protocol if adopted would cost between 150 to 350 billion dollars
> every year (that's Billion with a B) and for all that it would mean the
> warming you would see in 2100 would be postponed until 2106.

That is hardly accurate. The protocols project benefit is
longer than that. It can be pointed out that the projected cost
s of not taking global warming more seriously make 300 billion
seem very little.

  You say you
> like clean water, if we spent the same money on that in just 8 years in 2010
> every human on earth, not just Afghanistan, would have clean potable water,
> this would stop 2 million deaths and prevent a billion illnesses EVERY YEAR.

Sounds really good. But this doesn't mean that both are not
worthwhile.

> And yes I remember Afghanistan very well and I remember that if Bush had
> been foolish enough to listen to the advise of some members of this list one
> year ago the Taliban would still be in power and Osama able to sleep in a
> nice cozy warm comfortable bed. That would be doing the Afghanistan
> people and the world no favor.

No comment except to say that a never ending war and perpetual
excuse to attack our rights is not my idea of something
preferable to the above highly hypothetical picture.

>
> And whatever you think of Bush the man is getting nearly everything he
> wants, how is that "botched"?

If what he wants is botched (which it largely is) then that he
is getting it is certainly botched as hell. The title is
botched *diplomacy*. What we are practicing doesn't qualify as
diplomacy except of the gunboat variety.

- samantha



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