Monday is politics day here at Frothing-at-the-Mouth.
Today's plank continues my platform's theme of the dignity of a nation's self- identity, but it's a two-parter that's really going to piss off some mighty big countries in South Asia.
Mine will be a policy of excessive foreign entanglements in the name of ideology, not in the name of U.S. advantage. We already have enough advantages, thanks to Providence; we can now make some Providence for other people.
Plank #14a: The U.S. will support and will act to gain recognition for Taiwan as a free, independent, democratic, sovereign nation. This will cause China to go bugfuck, but with the U.S. Sixth and Seventh Fleets in the South China Sea, they'll suck it up.
Sixty years ago, Taiwan and China were separated by processes of rebellion and exile that have acted throughout the history of the world to create new sovereign nations. Now, two-and-a-half generations later, the majority of Taiwanese have known only an existence independent of the mainland. They have built a prosperous and increasingly-free democracy; they deserve the dignity of the recognition of their status by their peers in the community of nations.
China may seek reconcilation and reunification with Taiwan. Any progress toward reconciliation can only occur through diplomacy, friendship, and shared cultural ties. China's oft-stated intent to reclaim the "rebellious province" of Taiwan through military force will not be tolerated, by the U.S. or by the community of nations.
Plank #14b: Kashmir is a bloody battleground between two enemies whose entrenched positions will not let them come to any agreement. In order to bring peace back to this once-and-future-prosperous region, the UN will take possession of Kashmir as a protectorate. India will be kicked out. Pakistani insurgents will be ruthlessly suppressed. Kashmir will be administered as a colony of the UN, with, e.g., British bureaucrats, French judges, U.S. soldiers, and German police, committed for a period of at least ten years.
The purpose of the colonial period will be to enforce the peace and establish a tradition of rule of law. At the end of the colonial period, a popular referendum will determine whether Kashmir becomes an independent nation, joins Pakistan, or joins India. The referendum will not be valid unless voter turnout is greater than 80%. The colonial period will not end until one option in the referendum receives more than 50% of the vote.
Posted by Greg at December 9, 2002 1:18 PM
14a is barely realisable, but 14b?
14b reads like a warblogger's masturbatory visions of what to do with the Middle East.
Why would any sane country want to administer a volatile region like Kashmir unless it had some pretty compelling interests there?
What makes you think either India or Pakistan (nuclear powers both) would let you take Kashmir from them?
What makes you think making Kashmir a western colony will help anything? The current mess exists BECAUSE of the English colonisation of India...
If I were sane, I wouldn't be running for President 8)
Why would any sane country want to administer a volatile region like Kashmir unless it had some pretty compelling interests there?
Because everybody, including the people of Kashmir, deserve a future of peace and hope for their children, and neither India nor Pakistan are capable of solving the Kashmir problem on their own. Everybody has a responsibility for solving problems.
What makes you think either India or Pakistan (nuclear powers both) would let you take Kashmir from them?
It'd be a UN thing, which helps, and both India and Pakistan get a lot of various kinds of aid from Western countries. Also, only India thinks it has Kashmir now; Pakistan merely wants it.
What makes you think making Kashmir a western colony will help anything? The current mess exists BECAUSE of the English colonisation of India...
Or, actually, because of some problems left behind when the English withdrew. Kashmir went to India despite a majority-muslim population because Kashmir had Hindu leaders (to simplify vastly down to my level of understanding). Basically, my proposal is both a recognition that this problem is at least partially the West's fault and that the local powers cannot solve it.
I'm not saying this'll work. Hell, I know it won't work, just like I know it wouldn't happen in the first place. The point of the proposal is to make the proposal, i.e., to say, here is a problem that needs fixing, here is a problem that causes untold horror and misery, let's put our heads together and figure out how to fix it.
American foreign policy has been overwhelmingly dominated by an end goal of what is in America's best interests. Well, we won. Now is the time when we can use that power to help look out for everybody else's best interests, too.
Basically, I'm a crazy idealist; probably emphasis on the crazy.