People used to know how to think before computers.
Jack F. Matlock, former legendary US Ambassador to the Soviet Union, says that the US now has an "aggressive ideology like communism".
"The United States seems to have replaced what had been before simply a defensive [alliance for] countries against an aggressive ideology like communism with an aggressive ideology of its own.
We are now saying we must protect human rights, what we define them as. We change the definition at times of which ones are important... And [we say] that it is our duty and destiny to spread democracy in the world.
Now there are two things to be said about that.
First of all, on traditional international law, sovereign countries are sovereign in terms of their internal politics and external interference, particularly by coercion, whether military or our economics is not permissible.
Second, the idea that one country can spread its system. We call it democracy, now whether it is or not, we can debate. But the point is that if democracy is ruled by, for, with the people, then an external country can't create it. It can only be created by people in that country.
And furthermore, if an external country begins to favor and support certain factions in another country, which is seen as a threat to the power that is there, it is going to be a damage to that. Something Americans should understand because we have also been incredibly sensitive to what we consider interference in our own elections.
So in effect we we're trying to extend our jurisdiction over certain things and we can see that particularly in our sanctions program where we sanction other countries over all sorts of things. And the way of compelling them to, you know, to do certain things that are politically important.
I might say in terms of trade, sometimes sanctions are necessary to get fairness in trade, but to use economic sanctions to bring political results, particularly those that are viewed as assaults on sovereignty, I think, not only fail, they simply make the situation worse.
So I think that the American policy of applying either military force or not quite as bad, but also bad, economic sanctions to achieve political ends, particularly to change the nature of internal governments is going to fail, just as Brezhnev's doctrine failed during the Soviet Union."
The New York Times Denounces Cancel Culture... After Fueling Cancel Culture For Years
Former French PM Dominique de Villepin, masterful as usual in his explanation of the current "political deadlock" in Gaza.
"We are today, not only in a humanitarian impasse, but we are in a political deadlock.
Let me just clarify why there is a political deadlock. The political process that the Americans want to initiate... Blinken, we must measure the humiliation made to the Americans, has gone 7 times to this region. And Bill Burns today... All American authorities, President Biden, are mobilized for this. What do they want? They want to establish a special relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a normalization of relations by providing a guarantee, a guarantee pact to Saudi Arabia that would justify them taking this step.
What do the Arab countries want, and from this point of view they are united, we don’t hear much from them, but they are diplomatically united. They want recognition of a Palestinian state and this is something that will last.
What does Israel want? Israel, and this is where there is a hidden agenda and this is what is not acceptable, is that the reality of the policy led by Israel and the will of Israel, it is in no way to engage in a peace process. A large part of the fighting that is engaged is done to mask the fact that Israel, at least Benjamin Netanyahu, in no way wants negotiation. And why? Because they want to continue in the path of colonization and continue in the path of creeping annexation of the West Bank...
What do the Arab countries propose today? They have proposals regarding the day after, because this is an essential element of the negotiation and this is where Israel is bogged down for a long time in this affair, because it’s one thing to want to destroy Hamas, it’s another thing to manage the territory afterwards. The Arab countries propose that there be a UN international peace force installed on the ground and that can manage, in connection with the Palestinian Authority, the situation. The Americans, they would like it to be an Arab and American force. We clearly see that no one is on the same wavelength and that we are headed for a drama that lasts.
I would also like us to ask ourselves another question, since you asked me to put myself in the place of the Israelis, let's now put ourselves in the place of the global public opinion. What is going to happen? The day, I hope as soon as possible, when the gates of Gaza will open. The day this open-air prison, bombarded for 7 months, will reveal its secrets. What will we see, what will we find? Will all this be bearable? The price Israel pays today is its isolation and this too will last. We saw it at the UN with the vote, the decision of the General Assembly, 143 countries out of 193!"
(Translation by Arnaud Bertrand on X)
"We are the 8 billion"
Nostr is the digital Swiss army knife! It is and has many useful tools to make it an essential companion in the digital space.
Happy Mother's Day!
Noob here...🫣
Government deficits have just a bad reputation! It's no problem. 🫣
#meme #memes #nostrmemes #memestr
I don't know American idol. Eurovision was a good competition a long time ago. Then it became a complete freak show and politicized.
