POLL: Would you accept this as a litmus test for presidential candidate?

Since true democracy rarely start wars with each other, the foreign policy goal of the United States should be the PEACEFUL spread of democracy, by these means:

1. We will not attempt to undermine or overthrow a democratically elected government even it harms some business interest. We will not kill people for oil companies, plantation owners, or sweatshops, nor will we enter into any trade agreement that undermines people's right to form unions and try to improve their standard of living.

We will not assume a government is hostile to us because they choose a different place on the continuum from laisseze faire capitalism to socialism, so long as they have truly representative democracy with free expression, and other rights necessary to the proper functioning of a democracy.

2. We will gradually withdraw our military aid from any dictatorship until they make concrete, measurable steps toward democracy.

3. We will reject the neo-liberal agenda of bankrupting countries so their assets can be privatized and sold to trans-national corporations at bargain basement prices since this undermines democracies and increases hostility toward the United States.


Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

1. O.K.

1a. Works for me.

2. Any foreign policy based on that criteria would be a utter failure in real application.

3. O.K.

Your intentions are very well meaning, but 2 simply does not work because the nature of a dictatorship. It's either a dictatorship or a democratic work in process.

How many dictators wake up one day and said, "That pig of a US President is right, I'm a tyrant and we need to change the way things are run around here. I'm giving up my absolute powers and giving it back to the people so I can get more military aid"

and if we turn down the volume of our support, his grip on power will slip, much as happened with the Soviets and their Eastern European satellites. Once Gorbachev cut off the love, those regimes dissolved (though admittedly, not always into something better).



Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

In the second part of point 1, you say:

"We will not assume a government is hostile to us ... so long as they have truly representative democracy with free expression, and other rights necessary to the proper functioning of a democracy".

I hate to do my cliched moral-relativist routine, but who judges these things? Where in the world does this truly representative democracy exist? Free expression is all well and good in principle, but how about European countries with 'incitement to hatered' laws, tough libel legislation, and the like? It seems to me far too vague and open to interpretation, and any interpretation would have to serve certain interests, and I think we know which interests it would end up serving, good intentions aside.

Also, in the first part of point 1, you say:

"We will not attempt to undermine or overthrow a democratically elected government even it harms some business interest"

What about dictatorships, are we happy to overthrow them?

Part 2 I have no problem with in principle, but my problems are again practical, and boil down to what was outlined above. I would be much happier if Part 2 read "We will not sell weapons to other countries, except insofar as we will extend military aid to our direct allies in an armed conflict, or insofar as legitimate groups such as the UN, AU and the like request them for peacekeeping purposes."

Part 3 seems to me obviously correct.

to Bush method of doing this.

I agree with you, we should not be in the business of overthrowing any government unless they attack us, at least not by military means. In a case like North Korea, removing Kim Jong Il by means other than military and assassination would probably benefit the people there.



For the sake of not overthrowing governments, I think we should err on the side of a broader definition, and again my point is that we do this LESS OFTEN and within narrower parameters than we do now.

And of course if we take the business motive out of the equation, there would be little pressure to invade anyone ever.

For the sake of giving military aid, I would say giving up "realpolitik" would win us more enduring support from the countries in question anyway. If we hadn't messed with the Muslim world on behalf of the oil industry for the last 60 years, most of those countries would be secular democracies. The mullahs got part of their juice because we cut off political avenues for the people over there to have control over their lives, so they turned to the mosque. Even if a government was fundamentalist, if we didn't mess with them, they would be unlikely to mess with us. You don't hear OUR fundamentalist calling for an invasion of the heathen Netherlands or Sweden.

Of course the goal of our foreign policy is not to make friends. It's to make money for a handful of interrests. That will have to change and will be the hardest thing to get rid of, but the most crucial if we want to have a decent society.

Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

That's what I want my President to say, and mean it.

We need to get our own house in order before we tell others how to run theirs.

We are NOT the world police, nor should we be.

We will trade with whomever we feel trades fairly, and deny those who don't.
We will offer support to whomever wants to become a Democratic society.

It is not up to us to tell countries how they should be governed.
How does the saying go? "Judge not lest ye be judged"

Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

As long as we take care of some of our social needs here, we should be free use our military to increase transnational corporations profits, which are more important than human life, goodwill toward the US, and our security here in the US.

Joe Biden should be president for life.


Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

we use it as a litmus test for domestic policy too!!
Bushco has been fuckin' over this country from day 1.

The power rip-off in California -- fed regulators sat on their hands at the direction of admin.
while Enron etal. bled the state dry.

Recent overturning of Ca's Medical Marijuana Law(also passed in 9 other states.)
Aren't repugs the States' rights guys?

The environment -- they treat like their personal property to do with as they please.
We are quickly become a Third world country.

Using nearly half of the national budget on the military and bigger 'n' better guns, planes and bombs.

I could go on -- but you get the idea.

Let's put our own house in order and a lot of the foreign policy problems will disappear in the process.

This guy should not be getting one red cent!

Islam Karimov - our boiler in Central Asia...