[ExI] riots again

[John Clark]

On Sat, Sep 29, 2012  F. C. Moulton <moulton at moulton.com> wrote:

> If true, if civilization depends on it, then the West has been engaged in
>> a very enlightened foreign policy and I hope they continue.
>>
>
> > To say the "West has been engaged in a very enlightened foreign policy"
> is a statement that is simply absurd.


If as was claimed its true that "if the oil stops, Western civilisation
collapses. So it is not negotiable. The US will do anything to ensure oil
supplies and to install friendly governments over the oil resources" then
my statement was most certainly not absurd.


> > For example consider the USA and the UK foreign policy for Iran in 1953.
>  Yeah that really turned out great.


True, it was very successful for nearly 30 years.  I wish all our actions
worked that well for 30 years.

> The USA was then in the position of supporting a brutal dictator.


A friendly brutal dictator who will keep the oil coming and apparently keep
civilization intact as opposed to a unfriendly  brutal dictator that would
not.

 > And why do you think things went so badly for the USA when the Shah was
> overthrown?


Because the USA is predominately Christian and Jewish and because it was
the most powerful country in the world, being top dog never wins any
popularity contests; it certainly wasn't because the USA engineered the
overthrow of a Iranian prime minister 30 years previously who few people in
either country could name.

> And this great foreign policy then lead the USA to support Saddam Hussein.


It cannot be denied that turned out to be a mistake but its easy to be
brilliant in retrospect, I can certainly see how that could have seemed
like a good idea at the time. You win some you loose some.

> This is the Extropian list where it is assumed that list participants
> have a clue about history in general and Extropian principles in
> particular.


Most of the Extropians I know are in favor of Civilization continuing, and
if its true as was claimed in a previous post that for that to happen the
oil flow must continue then you do what you need to do. Either the oil is
important or it is not, you can't have it both ways.

  John K Clark
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