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Jan. 6th, 2016 04:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* I have long been of the opinion that my government should not be mucking about with India and Pakistan on the grounds that we are far too ham fisted and often too ignorant to move with the subtlety required to do more good than harm. This is one of the many, many reasons I thought invading Afghanistan was a terrible idea. (Supply chains run through Pakistan. The money and diplomacy involved change the balance in chaotic ways, and the skill level and knowledge level of our president, secretary of state, and diplomats are pretty much random.) We have no business messing around with something this complex and volatile when we mostly don't know what we are doing. It's too fucking dangerous, and it's not about us. It's about India and Pakistan and to a certain extent Baangladesh, Afghanistan, and other countries in the region.
I have a similar discomfort with us meddling any number of places. Watching events unfolding in the middle east currently (Isreal, turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Baheraine, Yemen, etc.) I am thinking there is little chance of us not making things even worse if we meddle. This is not any slight to Mr. Obama, who I do think has the intelligence and intellectual curiosity to read and understand not only briefs but way more complex position papers and expert summaries, unlike the previous president who pretty clearly couldn't handle the most simplified foreign policy briefs. I think that we are looking at something so big and complicated, involving a large number of countries all with complex histories with each other and with western colonialism stretching back a millennia or two. I think that it would be hard enough for someone who speaks most of the relevant languages and studies this and only this for a living to make intelligent choices. I think it is impossible for a president however brilliant with a lot of baggage (drones, US history in the Middle east and north Africa, current treaties and conflicting alliances) to weigh all the relevant factors and do something large scale positive that does not have chaotic negative results, especially given the long history of crusades and colonialism. Would I love to see everything work out well? Of course. I just think that we are likely looking at a first do no harm situation in which we have been mostly going out of our way to do harm since George Bush became President. At this point there are no good options for us because we have done so much damage every single time we stuck our big boots in with our stomping around and ignoring the complexity of the situation on the ground. And for the most part? Not about us, and every time we try to make it about us, we destabilize things further, make more enemies, and make it so much harder to do diplomacy in areas where we actual could have helped. Having Presidential candidates screaming about how we should carpet bomb civilian populations or bring out nukes is only making sensitive diplomacy harder.
I do not trust us to do something sensitive and subtle and long term. Instead, I suspect that we're going to do something stupid and thoughtless and violent whichever party takes the White House next time, and I would rather do nothing than that. It's going to get so much worse before it gets better with the escalating proxy wars already occurring all over the region, and while I can easily see us making that worse, I can not think of a thing we could do to make it better. I would love to be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
* On the parallels between Donald Trump and George Wallace. "Trump's combative style has echoes in history:"
* "Impassioned Obama advances gun safety around indolent Congress:"
* To Be Clear: I honestly prefer that we use negotiation first every time, but it is a fundamental problem that it is legal to shoot children for playing in the park without any warning at all. I honestly do not understand why we can endlessly negotiate with white terrorists, but can't take even five seconds to negotiate with an innocent child.
I can't not be furious about that. I honestly do not understand why we can't have the same high bar for not killing people to a man who broke up a fight and may have been selling loose cigarettes, or a grandmother answering the door for cops her neighbors called to help, or a kid playing by himself in the park, or a first grader asleep on the sofa. Why can't we have the same level of care for everyone's life that we routinely extend to scary armed white men?
* "New calls for federal probe of Snyder admin in Flint water fiasco:"
* "Secret pagan basilica in Rome emerges from the shadows after 2,000 years:" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/12005864/Secret-pagan-basilica-in-Rome-emerges-from-the-shadows-after-2000-years.html
* "The Daily Show's Holiday News Roundup:"
* Beautiful modern take on Les Miserables: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/136731503387/karnythia-marauders4evr-marauders4evr
* "A Report On Alexander Hamilton Written By A Kid Who Has Only Listened to The Musical :" http://the-toast.net/2015/12/17/report-on-alexander-hamilton-written-by-a-kid-who-has-only-listened-to-the-musical/
* This is what Dhraegon imagines Happily Ever After would look like with Marsei: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/135407308207/excalibee-and-they-run-away-to-highgarden-where#notes
* Want to help finance Hector's cat food and my meds/medical co pays? Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
I have a similar discomfort with us meddling any number of places. Watching events unfolding in the middle east currently (Isreal, turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Baheraine, Yemen, etc.) I am thinking there is little chance of us not making things even worse if we meddle. This is not any slight to Mr. Obama, who I do think has the intelligence and intellectual curiosity to read and understand not only briefs but way more complex position papers and expert summaries, unlike the previous president who pretty clearly couldn't handle the most simplified foreign policy briefs. I think that we are looking at something so big and complicated, involving a large number of countries all with complex histories with each other and with western colonialism stretching back a millennia or two. I think that it would be hard enough for someone who speaks most of the relevant languages and studies this and only this for a living to make intelligent choices. I think it is impossible for a president however brilliant with a lot of baggage (drones, US history in the Middle east and north Africa, current treaties and conflicting alliances) to weigh all the relevant factors and do something large scale positive that does not have chaotic negative results, especially given the long history of crusades and colonialism. Would I love to see everything work out well? Of course. I just think that we are likely looking at a first do no harm situation in which we have been mostly going out of our way to do harm since George Bush became President. At this point there are no good options for us because we have done so much damage every single time we stuck our big boots in with our stomping around and ignoring the complexity of the situation on the ground. And for the most part? Not about us, and every time we try to make it about us, we destabilize things further, make more enemies, and make it so much harder to do diplomacy in areas where we actual could have helped. Having Presidential candidates screaming about how we should carpet bomb civilian populations or bring out nukes is only making sensitive diplomacy harder.
I do not trust us to do something sensitive and subtle and long term. Instead, I suspect that we're going to do something stupid and thoughtless and violent whichever party takes the White House next time, and I would rather do nothing than that. It's going to get so much worse before it gets better with the escalating proxy wars already occurring all over the region, and while I can easily see us making that worse, I can not think of a thing we could do to make it better. I would love to be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
* On the parallels between Donald Trump and George Wallace. "Trump's combative style has echoes in history:"
* "Impassioned Obama advances gun safety around indolent Congress:"
* To Be Clear: I honestly prefer that we use negotiation first every time, but it is a fundamental problem that it is legal to shoot children for playing in the park without any warning at all. I honestly do not understand why we can endlessly negotiate with white terrorists, but can't take even five seconds to negotiate with an innocent child.
I can't not be furious about that. I honestly do not understand why we can't have the same high bar for not killing people to a man who broke up a fight and may have been selling loose cigarettes, or a grandmother answering the door for cops her neighbors called to help, or a kid playing by himself in the park, or a first grader asleep on the sofa. Why can't we have the same level of care for everyone's life that we routinely extend to scary armed white men?
* "New calls for federal probe of Snyder admin in Flint water fiasco:"
* "Secret pagan basilica in Rome emerges from the shadows after 2,000 years:" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/12005864/Secret-pagan-basilica-in-Rome-emerges-from-the-shadows-after-2000-years.html
* "The Daily Show's Holiday News Roundup:"
* Beautiful modern take on Les Miserables: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/136731503387/karnythia-marauders4evr-marauders4evr
* "A Report On Alexander Hamilton Written By A Kid Who Has Only Listened to The Musical :" http://the-toast.net/2015/12/17/report-on-alexander-hamilton-written-by-a-kid-who-has-only-listened-to-the-musical/
* This is what Dhraegon imagines Happily Ever After would look like with Marsei: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/135407308207/excalibee-and-they-run-away-to-highgarden-where#notes
* Want to help finance Hector's cat food and my meds/medical co pays? Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com