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Rantings of a Sandmonkey

Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off

Monday, June 13, 2005

The new Victor Davis Hanson column is one sentence!

All you hypocrites decrying America now will be supporting us soon enough when China starts flexing its undemocratic, tyrannical, nuclear world-Power muscles. Money Shot: The Patriot Act to a European is proof of American illiberality in a way that China’s swallowing Tibet or jailing and executing dissidents is not. America’s support for Saudi Arabia is proof of our hypocrisy in not severing ties with an undemocratic government, while few care that a country with leaders who traverse the globe in Mao suits cuts any deal possible with fascists and autocrats for oil, iron ore, and food. As nations come to know the Chinese, and as a ripe Europe increasingly cannot or will not defend itself, the old maligned United States will begin to look pretty good again. More important, America will not be the world’s easily caricatured sole power, but more likely the sole democratic superpower that factors in morality in addition to national interest in its treatment of others. China is strong without morality; Europe is impotent in its ethical smugness. The buffer United States, in contrast, believes morality is not mere good intentions but the willingness and ability to translate easy idealism into hard and messy practice. All those of you who hope that China will become a worldpower strong enough to counterbalance the "tyrannical" "Imperial" USA, well, just be careful what you wish for, ok? Altough , something tells me that you will get exactly what you deserve!

12 Comments:

At 6/13/2005 03:25:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Right on...

Serious censorship of the internet...3 defectors to Australia lately...no religion...

Its going to make the US look good.

thinker

 
At 6/13/2005 06:38:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

VDH is a nutcase. Every single column he's written in the past few years is the same - America is perfect in every way, just, wise, merciful, etc. America could not possibly do any wrong even if she tried. All should bow down before her unquestioningly. Anyone who pledged anything but unquestioning loyalty to Washington is pro-tyranny.

In contrast, Europeans are garlic-chewing, weak, effeminate, hypocritical pansies who would slit their own mothers' throats if they thought it would offend President Bush. And they are actively pro-evil and pro-genocide in places like China and Russia.

The man takes a perfectly reasonable point - that Europeans don't always put their money where their mouth is and go often too far in their anti-Americanism - and takes it to such a ludicrous extreme that the sensible version of the argument is lost.

If I didn't know better, I'd say he was a European plant who was trying to discredit America with his stupidity.

- Adam

 
At 6/13/2005 07:52:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sam

VDH is brilliant. He has an amazing intellect along with an entertaining writing style. Best of all he is Unashamedly Pro-American. He sees America for what it truly is, to quote Lincoln, "The last great hope for planet earth" and I couldn't agree more.

 
At 6/13/2005 11:47:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

In the meantime, the US is outsourcing its industrial base to china (and elsewhere) at an increasingly rapid rate... and a leading advocate of the free trade cult is hanson's own national review...I hope we can take on the chinese with sugar water

 
At 6/13/2005 12:48:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wish people wouldn't say "Europe" when they mean "France". Britain, Poland and many other countries are in Europe too.

 
At 6/13/2005 02:42:00 PM, Blogger programmer craig said...

Sandmonkey, I think it's inevitable that the United States will be balanced at some point by another global power. I think that's what the world wants, and they'll have it. That's really what all thie anti-Americanism is, right now.

The Europeans thought it'd be them. It won't be, and it wouldn't have been even if the EU constitution had passed. No offense to European nations, but they don't have the right stuff to be a super power. On the one hand, they are not free or capitalist enough to bootsrap themselves to "superpower" status, but on the other hand, they are not autocratic and militaristic enough to create a totalitarian superpower.

An Indian/Chinese alliance could do it in a few years. With India as the junior partner, obviously. So could a Chinese/Russian alliance.

Both of these are very unlikely, but possible. Vhina will get to superpower status on it's own, but it'll take a while. There's no stopping it. It's not something I want, but the writing is on the wall.

A second cold war is not necessarily a bad thing. As long as it stays cold :)

 
At 6/13/2005 02:53:00 PM, Blogger Huan said...

a second cold war won't be a bad things?
the cold war was never cold. people died in places like korea, vietnam, afghanistan, africa, and most of latin america as the US and the Soviets vied for domination.
and you want a repeat of this for the sake of a perceived "balance of power"?

btw, India will more likely be a global power than China. Its population is similar, its people as educated, and it has alot more innovation and drive currently, all within a democracy too.

 
At 6/13/2005 04:30:00 PM, Blogger programmer craig said...

Huan, I'm American... I like the current state of affairs with teh US being the only superpower just fine. However, I prefer a second cold war, with the nations of the world choosing sides, than the current "America against the world" thing. Old allies of the US have become enemies in all but name. It's not good. And it's not safe, either. There's no balance of power now, there's only America and everyone else.

And, I mean no disrespect to Indians, but Indians are not Chinese. Maybe I did mean to disrespect Indians there. I'm not sure :p

I just don't think India's future will be as bright as it can be made to look on paper. You do not take cultural factors into account when you discuss education, population and government.

China invented the concept of civil service. China has been a business oriented culture for 5000 years, and still is, despite their communist system. I just don't think there's any stopping China from becoming an economic superpower. Just look at how successful chinese entrepeneurs are, everywhere in the world. They are like the borg, in reverse. They assimilate by being assimilated. Resistance is futile :D

 
At 6/13/2005 06:05:00 PM, Blogger Huan said...

craig

1. i understand better about the second cold war. but even the first did not make the world friends of the US. in some ways, our actions to support dictators who opposed communism now come back and haunt us. meanwhile erstwhile allies of the cold war have revealed themselves as fair weather friends. finally, conflicts during the/a cold war will be more subterfuge and hidden, and thus leads to greater potential for government abuses. i thus prefer a warm war, such as the one we have now with the WoT. We know who our friends are, we know what needs to be done, and we do it alone or otherwise.

2. China is the popular lead horse. But historically China has never been a superpower. China's wealth has been cultural rather than economic (the merchant class are not that well regarded still) or military (China has been conquered more than conquerer). bet on India (i am not Indian btw). i've felt this for a while. funny enough, from WaPo. look into it, the race between china and india will be interesting to witness in the 21st century.

 
At 6/14/2005 04:15:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"At 12:48 PM, Anonymous said...
I wish people wouldn't say "Europe" when they mean "France". Britain, Poland and many other countries are in Europe too."

I agree... especially the French and the Euro left who now want to claim to speak for all of Europe...

 
At 6/14/2005 04:24:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"At 6:05 PM, Huan said...
craig

1. i understand better about the second cold war. but even the first did not make the world friends of the US. in some ways, our actions to support dictators who opposed communism now come back and haunt us."

Yep. The cold war sucked. I can't believe some people are so offended by the US (usually over conspiracy theory / made up things) that they actually want a multipolar world... I get a huge kick over the French advocating this considering how well multipolar alliances worked for them in the past (can you say WWI or WWII? Did those work out well for France???)...

Anyway, I'm with you about India over China... and good. The US can probably have a friendly relationship with a super power India.

 
At 6/16/2005 11:53:00 PM, Blogger programmer craig said...

Eh... I'm not a lefty... I'm just saying, there's going to be a second superpower. And that may not be a bad thing. Maybe I'm just trying to put the best possible spin on something I think is inevitable :)

I really don't agree with you guys about India. This is just personal experience here, but I've worked with a lot of equally educated and equally experienced Chinese and Indian programmers in the last 15 years. They are not equal, despite what their credentials say. I know it sounds pretty racist, bit I'd take 1 Chinese programmer over 3 Indian programmers. I'd take an Arab or Iranian programmer over 2 Indian programmers.

So, if my persoanl experience realting to high tech industries is any indication - no way in hell India becaomes a super power! Because, you know, if it was that damned easy everyone would do it, eh?

Besides, India is in the same boat as Europe. An inefficient and corrupt democracy is not better than an efficient authoritarian communist government. Not when it comes to crossing the super-power threshold anyway. The Soviet Union is proof of that.

 

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