A Usenet persona calling itself BCITORGB wrote:

Scott Weiser says:
============
We are under no obligation to conform to your liberal
socialist agenda
================

I don't recall having said anything about "socialism". What suddenly
brought that up?

It's implicit in your arguments.

Oh, and by the way, what do you mean by "socialism"?

Go find a dictionary.


Further, you're right: you are not under any obligation to conform to
anyone else's agenda. And, for that matter, neither is the elected
government of Afghanistan, for example, under any obligation to conform
to western ideals of human rights (including those of women and gays).

Quite right.

Or, maybe they are? What say you Scott Weiser?

Depends. If we view the government of another country as being dangerous to
our national interests, or if we feel that the government is a totalitarian
regime that oppresses people, we may choose to intervene and facilitate a
regime change.


All of the above notwithstanding, please do the rest of the world a
favor; don't foist your notions on us.

Why not? Our notions are good ones, and I have no compunctions about
"foisting" them upon tyrants and totalitarian regimes in order that the
people who live under oppression are given the opportunity to choose freely
what form of government will best security the blessings of liberty for
them. Nor will I shrink from "foisting" them upon nations that pose a threat
to the security or national interests of the United States. If you don't
like that, too bad. If you threaten us, however indirectly, we will act.

If that ends up being, for example, a democratically-elected theocracy, so
be it. All we require is that the people be given a legitimate opportunity
to make that choice freely and that the resulting government not threaten
world peace, regional stability or US strategic interests, and that it
continue to regularly provide for free elections to validate the choice.


--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser