March 05, 2006

A foreign policy built on proliferation and creating instability

Jesus, this India/Pakistan thing was a terrible idea. This administration's foreign policy has always been idiotic, but normally it's just the bully swaggering around like he owns the playground -- albeit with deadly consequences for a hundred thousand people or so. Now we have something that truly justifies soiling one's pants, as Bush seems to be actively encouraging nuclear war between India and Pakistan.

I'll grant that the government and people of India are somewhat saner than the government and people of, say, Iran and North Korea. But with nuclear power plants you get plutonium. And with plutonium you get nuclear weapons. And nuclear weapons lead in two directions: either one country becomes the local hegemon, and peace is maintained only because everyone else is too fucking scared of what might happen if they don't fall in line, or two or more countries engage in an arms race, and peace is maintained only because General Turgidson isn't the one with his hands on the button. Have these idiots never heard of the Cuban Missile Crisis? Fifteen years from now, we'll have a fun repeat when India parks a battery of missiles on the Kashmir border.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the people in this administration who do remember something about the Cuban Missile Crisis think Kennedy should've let fly on the Soviet Union. 'Pyrrhic victory' and 'civilian casualties' mean nothing to the neocons; see their Great Wars of Liberation, Iraq and Viet Nam. 'We had to destroy the village to save it' doesn't even rise to the level of tragedy (much less tragic irony) for them.

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