|
|
 Originally Posted by Jack Sawyer
On a poker table, your expectation is to be fleeced. There are no allies.
What about the folks who expect to win? What about the players that *think* they're good but really aren't? They aren't expecting to be fleeced are they?
What happened here was a country sending in operatives who posed as allies
I think you're being a little too liberal with your definition of 'ally'. It's not like we share bonds of brotherhood with any of these countries. It's not like we owe them any kind of loyalty. Just because someone isn't an enemy, doesn't mean that they are our friend.
to those who had resources but did not know what to do with them, with the pretence of being an ally to assure mutual growth, just to be fleeced every single time.
You're totally ignoring the likely consequences of the US leaving these countries alone. You just said, they have resources and they don't know what to do with them. Do you think that the US was the only one knocking on their door? Don't you think that Iran, N. Korea, China, Russia, or any number of other not-so-friendly nations might want to get their hands on those resources too? Are we supposed to just sit by and let it happen just so we can claim some non-exploitative moral high-ground?
Again, you're conflating the word 'ally' and 'friend'. Nations don't have friends. And 'allies' are only allies for as long as mutual interests don't conflict. I don't see what's wrong with holding leverage to ensure that these poor countries don't pursue conflicting interests.
Geopolitics can be ugly sometimes. But the alternative is uglier.
Side with your people and you get deposed (like Mossadegh) or killed (like Torrijos)
It would be cool read if an ultimatum like this appeared anywhere in the book. But it didn't. It was just a nerd, (not an 'operative' like you said earlier) whose job is to make a sale.
We don't complain when a fool pays too much for something, or buys something he doesn't really need, because he was convinced by an adept salesman. It's every man for himself in a free market.
A complete fool is someone who gets dollar signs in their eyes whenever they hear a slick sales proposition. Complete fools should not be running countries (bring on the Trump jokes). And if they are, then being deposed or murdered is probably an inevitability anyway.
Anyway, teh point of all this was that the book is stupendously boring. There's literally nothing you could get out of the book that you couldn't from reading mine and Jack's posts here. There isn't an interesting person, a meaningful conflict, or a suspenseful event on any page in the book.
|
Reply With Quote
