Written by: Beck

Those keeping up with the comment thread on my French Bashing post from Thursday likely noted one gentleman, a certain Raymond, observing that:

[France is] not rogue, just a throwback. Little ovr 100 years ago, this was how all civilized nations conducted business.

And why are we surprised by a nation building a coalition against us? Isn't that what nations do to one another?

There's more to it than that--read the comment thread if interested (it's worth it--there's a very lively conversation going on between Goe and Raymond). Anyway, one reader had a response that wouldn't come anywhere close to fitting under the 1000 letter cap, so he emailed it to me. I felt it was worth sharing with everyone, so here ya go.

100 years ago, most of europe was ruled by empires with so many clerks that
even their emperors were unable to effect any real change, not that they
were inclined to. 100 years ago, china was a dictatorship in which free
thought was punishable by death. 100 years ago, most of russia was mired in
poverty, despite living in one of the most resource rich portions of the
planet. 100 years ago, world leaders detested the united states and it's
brash president. 100 years ago, most of latin america was dominated by
local warlords who gave themselves titles such as 'president', 'governor',
and 'mayor' to sound like they were chosen by the people they tormented.
100 years ago, most of africa was run by goons working for europe, as the
european powers tried to wipe out the locals and take everything for
themselves. 100 years ago, most of southern asia was loosely governed, so
long as the spices and silk kept moving. 100 years ago, the middle east was
kept under tight control so that it's population couldn't interfere with the
flow of spices and silk.

the only thing that's changed in a hundred years is swapping the middle east
and southern asia, and spices and silk for oil.

europe is waging a war on us, because europe thinks that we are going to cut
them off from resources they think they will die without. a similar belief
is what turned serbian land-grabs into the first world war. most of the
world sided with serbia, even though it was invading everyone around it, and
against austria, who tried to impose peace on the region. now we're the
ones trying to impose peace, and the world is lining up against us, with the
europeans footing their bills, and providing them arms. if you view the
world the way the europeans did a hundred years ago, the united states will
be divied up between canada, mexico, and a couple of small, new eurofriendly
countries by the end of 2018, with millions dead.

either we need to smack the europeans into not looking at the world the way
they did 100 years ago, or we need to launch an overt propaganda war against
europe, build up our army, and find allies before the shooting gets heavy.

Goe

The comments thread has already moved past this argument, but, well, it took a couple days to get the author's permission to reprint his email. So there you go.