[lit-ideas] Re: Europe's September 11 ?

  • From: Michael Chase <goya@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 09:21:38 +0100

Le mardi, 16 mars 2004, =E0 21:39 Europe/Paris, Phil Enns a =E9crit :

> David Savory wrote:
>
> "Spain's foreign policy is now where people wanted it all along."
>
> Not quite.  As David himself pointed out, the incumbent government,
> which supported the U.S./U.K. coalition in Iraq, was headed towards
> re-election.  This suggests that while the vast majority of people in
> Spain disagreed with the government's foreign policy, they were =
willing
> to keep the government and by extension its foreign policy.  That
> Spain's foreign policy has changed is an immediate result of the =
terror
> attacks and not because the 'people wanted it all along'.  More
> accurately, Spain's foreign policy is now where the terrorists wanted=20=

> it
> all along.

M.C. One wonder's how P. Enn's reasoning could be universalized:

        (i) if x (for instance Spain) is involved in hostilities with y =
(for=20
instance al-Qaida), then x should never carry out an action or=20
institute a policy that is pleasing to y, otherwise it will appear that=20=

y has unduly influenced x.

        It would seem, on the face of it, that such a rule would =
eliminate the=20
possibility of any voluntary cessation of hostilities. For when the=20
French withdrew from Vietnam after dien Bien Phu, or from Algeria after=20=

de Gaulle's referendum, the decision to withdraw was, one need hardly=20
point out, welcomed with considerable favor in Hanoi and Algiers. On=20
these occasions, then , the French overrode Phil's principle, and I for=20=

one am glad they did, otherwise  the French would still be killing and=20=

dying in Vietnam and Algeria.

        Speaking of Vietnam, how does Phil's rule fare with regard to =
American=20
involvement in that unfortunate land? Would Phil have argued with=20
messers Johnson and Nixon that American troops should by no means=20
withdraw from Vietnam, since by so doing they would appear to be giving=20=

in to the despicable methods of the  Viet Cong? Such arguments were=20
indeed put forth, and they held sway long enough for hundreds of=20
thousands to die. I, for one, am glad their reign is over.


> Best, Mike
>
Michael Chase=09
(goya@xxxxxxxxxxx)
CNRS UPR 76/
l'Annee Philologique
Villejuif-Paris
France

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