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A Contradiction and A Complication
Nov. 13th, 2009 10:03 amI'm going to Windycon for the weekend. It's not a long trip - I can see the hotel from my office window! In the meantime, a contradiction and a complication.
The contradiction
The current crop of conservatives must hold two contradictory ideas:
One - The US government is so inept that they can't possibly provide health care to the uninsured, and there is no way that we can afford to spend a trillion dollars trying.
Two - the US government is so effective and competent that, by force of arms, it can install representative democracy in two countries, neither of which have a tradition of democracy and one of which wasn't even a country in living memory. Not only that, but we can sustain the multi-trillion-dollar cost indefinitely.
(Source: here, via![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jaylake)
The Complication
Afghanistan is a place that lacks easy solutions. Per this lengthy article, re-establishing the semi-feudal government that ran it from 1930 to 1970 may be the best we can do, and even that's not going to be easy.
ETA I hate to observe problems without at least considering a solution. Fortunately I found this idea for local development using local councils. It's an action plan that fits into Afghanistan's historical decentralization. The money quote from the article? "“You don’t steal from yourself."
The contradiction
The current crop of conservatives must hold two contradictory ideas:
One - The US government is so inept that they can't possibly provide health care to the uninsured, and there is no way that we can afford to spend a trillion dollars trying.
Two - the US government is so effective and competent that, by force of arms, it can install representative democracy in two countries, neither of which have a tradition of democracy and one of which wasn't even a country in living memory. Not only that, but we can sustain the multi-trillion-dollar cost indefinitely.
(Source: here, via
jaylake)The Complication
Afghanistan is a place that lacks easy solutions. Per this lengthy article, re-establishing the semi-feudal government that ran it from 1930 to 1970 may be the best we can do, and even that's not going to be easy.
ETA I hate to observe problems without at least considering a solution. Fortunately I found this idea for local development using local councils. It's an action plan that fits into Afghanistan's historical decentralization. The money quote from the article? "“You don’t steal from yourself."
