Mike,
If you will take the time to look, almost everywhere that Spain had a colony, there in now in power a most miserable, corrupt government. Sen Beveridge got most of it right.
Steve Featherkile said:
Mike,If you will take the time to look, almost everywhere that Spain had a colony, there in now in power a most miserable, corrupt government. Sen Beveridge got most of it right.
I guess the people of these countries don’t have the right to self government.
Better we should govern them. No corruption here :lol:
Ralph
If you say so, Ralph.
Steve, we could argue back and forth about whether or not being conquered by the US was good for a country. That’s a different question. The point at hand was Powell’s claim that the US has never engaged in imperialism, and I think the examples I gave show it’s demonstrably not true.
Our declaration of independence says that all people are entitled to self-government–“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It’s a “self-evident truth”–in other words, it’s common sense! They wrote it they signed it: it’s really clear.
If you read Beveridge’s speech, you’ll find this gem: “The Declaration applies only to people capable of self-government. How dare any man prostitute this expression of the very elect of self-governing peoples to a race of Malay children of barbarism, schooled in Spanish methods and ideas?”
So imperialism is ok as long as it’s those people who aren’t capable of self govt. that we are conquering. Meaning, not capable of governing themselves in a way we like.
Guys like Beveridge made Mark Twain a bitter and despairing old man
Powell’s statement was wrong. I’m still proud to be American and think on th balance it’s a good country. All countries do wrong. Don’t get me started on the Brits…
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-colin-powell.htm
While it may seem like ‘splitting hairs’ I believe it is extremely important to quote someone in the proper context and environment. Mr. Powell is a personal hero of mine, I admire him greatly. He deserves credit for what he said and how he said it. Read his full response, it’s worth the read.
At least Colin Powell did not make a speech in the UN trying to establish a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda. The obscure link between a supposed Iraqi officer meeting an obscure Al Qaeda operative in Poland (?) is more tenuous than the obscure link reported in a local newspaper in Nigeria linking Saddam with uranium ore. Talk about clutching at straws. We have the CIA which has been implicated in international political assassinations and bringing down foreign powers and all they can come up with is a report in a daily newspaper in Nigeria and a reported meeting in Poland. Wait a minute, was not it the CIA that planned the bombing in Belgrade back in the late 1990’s? That is right, the Chinese embassy was bombed, as it seems the planning commitee used a tourist guide of Belgrade to factor in the co-ordinates of the cruise missile used in the attack. Tourist guides are as deadly as Nigerian newspaper reports and clandestine meetings in Poland.
Thanks for posting that link Mark.
Jon Radder said:Agreed. Nice to see the real quote in the proper context. Ralph
Thanks for posting that link Mark.
No one here has ever claimed that the agents of the CIA, DEA and FBI are among America’s best and brightest.
Did I say that out loud?
Mark Verbrugge said:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-colin-powell.htmWhile it may seem like ‘splitting hairs’ I believe it is extremely important to quote someone in the proper context and environment. Mr. Powell is a personal hero of mine, I admire him greatly. He deserves credit for what he said and how he said it. Read his full response, it’s worth the read.
Thank you for posting that, Mark. I was unaware of the context in which Powell made these remarks. It was enlightening to see his comments from a different perspective.
It resonates when Powell says “there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.” These times are few and far between, but they do come.
I hope the next US president is better able to discern them than the current incumbent.