Post by haplotype on Oct 31, 2007 13:40:29 GMT -5
The dean of the school of international and public affairs at Princeton writes a clueless editorial about Asia:
kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/us-on-the-sidelines-of-global-trends/index.html
I take issue with "Southeast Asia offers a calmer alternative to the tensions of East Asia and provides a bridge between China and India."
Southeast Asia has had more recent wars than East Asia, ranging from the Vietnam War, Khmer Rouge holocaust, to the Chinese holocaust in Indonesia, or the ongoing Maoist insurgencies in Nepal and the Phillippines. Burma's government may collapse any day, while Thailand is ruled by a shaky junta. Ethnic tensions threaten to boil over in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Singapore still faces a credible military threat from Malaysia. The region's rising Muslim population is at odds with both China and India, far from providing some sort of moderating role.
What does Southeast Asia expect from us anyway? They want us to buy their goods, while they close their markets to us and ignore intellectual property laws, yet they want us to protect them from China.
kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/us-on-the-sidelines-of-global-trends/index.html
I take issue with "Southeast Asia offers a calmer alternative to the tensions of East Asia and provides a bridge between China and India."
Southeast Asia has had more recent wars than East Asia, ranging from the Vietnam War, Khmer Rouge holocaust, to the Chinese holocaust in Indonesia, or the ongoing Maoist insurgencies in Nepal and the Phillippines. Burma's government may collapse any day, while Thailand is ruled by a shaky junta. Ethnic tensions threaten to boil over in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Singapore still faces a credible military threat from Malaysia. The region's rising Muslim population is at odds with both China and India, far from providing some sort of moderating role.
What does Southeast Asia expect from us anyway? They want us to buy their goods, while they close their markets to us and ignore intellectual property laws, yet they want us to protect them from China.