Quote:
Originally Posted by Steel_Tomb
The UN is a lame duck, someone should just take it round the corner and shoot it. Seriously, no one has any respect for it... it's just a system for hypocrisy and bureaucratic bull s**t.
The only time the UN worked, was in 1950 when Korea kicked off... since then it's been a pathetic excuse for dillydallying and red tape.
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Arguably, it was fairly useless even then. Worse, it was still very expensive. That's what happens when nations turn control of national affairs, to any degree, over to a centralized power structure.
The U.N. is a just a federal government as it would appear under magnification. It has all the components of any federal government, but its flaws and failures are made more apparent by its size and the scope of its operations. The E.U. has the same problems, adjusted for the population it governs.
The problem with Iran is that it is full of Muslims, and the problem with Islam is that it is a centralized power structure, wherein the whims of the few dictate the actions and circumstances of the many. Thus, the solution to a threatning Iran seems obvious. We must break their power structure. But how, exactly, do we go about doing that? History has taught us that direct opposition actually reinforces the will of Islam and the extremists who commit violent acts in its name. That is the nature of Jihad. Jihaddists are actively searching for a Holy War, and they are willing to interpret any concerted effort against them as a casus belli. They have, after all, been waiting for over a thousand years to fight a decisive conflict againt the infidel.
Of course, it is difficult to fight a conflict againt an idealistic opponent. So long as their ideals remain, they can prove impossible to destroy. As such, the obvious solution is to destroy their ideals, but that's a tricky proposition in itself. One cannot forcefully dictate the ideals of another. There is no force on the planet that can really quash an ideal, especially when that ideal includes an afterlife full of virgins.
What we must do, then, is to change the ideal by means of leading by example, something we have already tried, but one important exception must be made. We must also crush by example. The main weakness of any theocracy is that it is a centralized power structure. Centralized power structures always eventually fail economically. They simply cannot do otherwise. Economies are not the result of the whims of great men, but the result of everyday, average people making mutually beneficial financial transactions. Knowing this, we must press for a free-market agenda, one that encourages trade, and more importantly, encourages trade to migrate away from oppressive power structures. In so doing we will either encourage change in radical Muslim philosophy or render it impotent by bankrupting it.
I realize that all this sounds a bit silly to those who assume that the West has a dependency on foreign oil. It may seem that we are the ones beholden to the will of oil-rich Middle-Eastern states. The fact is that nothing could be further from the truth. The West has vast oil rserves, from the North Sea to the Gulf of Mexico to the Western United States. We simply do not utilize them to full effect because both private and public oil firms wish to use Middle Eastern oil first. The low standard of living in the Middle East naturally encourages cheaper prices for oil, and even when the price increases due to scarcity, the Western oil firms seek to lock down the competition by means of legislation. Even when gas prices skyrocketed in the US in this decade, it was only the major firms who sought audience with congress and presented a very weak case to drill on protected lands.
Our energy problems are the clear result of a centralized power structure, a power structure that is becoming increasingly centralized because people who are no smarter than Islamic fundamentalists and who are no less beholden to a centralized power structure actually think that the world is some kind of pie and we all must fight for a slice. We have learned time and time again that prosperity is not finite and that free-markets actually increase the size of the "pie" for everyone who participates, but we still have a number of very vocal and ignorant persons who agitate for equal distribution of the slices(of course, some are more equal than others
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We must reject this philosophy and pursue free trade, free minds, and free markets in every way that we can. By doing so we will attract business from every corner of the world and we will gain economic power over totalitarian nations of all kinds. The nations that seek to destroy us will either convert or be rendered impotent by lack of funds, and it matters not which. If the west can control the capital throught the free-market, it will both spread prosperity through natural market mechanisms and condemn nations with centralistic governments to poverty.
What can a totalitarian nation do in the face of the prosperity that a free market breeds? Its own populace is likely to revolt when it sees just how badly it is being screwed over. Either that or it will continue to wallow in failure. It's a win-win solution
The fact of the matter is that people are people, no matter where they live or what culture they are a part of. They will always pursue their own interests to the maximum extent they see as being beneficial. That holds true for states, which are made of people as well. The key to reforming Islam lies within the people who comprise it. We cannot force beliefs upon them; they must change their beliefs by their own volition, and we have the means to make it so, if only we would quit interfering in their affairs and start leading by example, rather then force.