2 Replies to “Guns And Butter”

  1. I think that stems from the practice of approaching international disputes from the standpoint of how democracies tend to react.
    Dictators are humans, and usually, not very nice ones. They tend to react like the bully you knew in high school, or the criminal in the high security prison. If they can’t get what they want, they’ll figure out a way to screw as many of the enemy as possible on their way out. Their interest is in control, and when that is wrestled out of their hands, self interest no longer matters. The thing most important to them is lost, anyway.
    Democracies are far less susceptable to this, because the sheer number of humans involved in the decision making process work as check and balance against illogical reactions.
    Oddly, the anti-war crowd seem to have gotten their assumptions completely backwards – – thinking that Saddam Hussein would respond to international pressure in the way a democracy would, and accusing George Bush of acting “unilaterally” and incompetently and/or with malevolent intent.
    That’s why it’s so difficult for us to understand the “pacifist” or negotiation approach to international thugs – it’s completely counterintuitive and contrary to what we know about human nature.

Navigation