Toke on this:

[NATO AIR]

what is your view of India?

 

[Annie]

Originally posted by NATO AIR
what is your view of India?

Huge power, huge population. Between India and China they could rule the world, easily.

India though has not been an aggressor, even with Pakistan has been more of a reactor. They have a waste in the caste system, but micro slowly they seem to be addressing that. At the present rate expect improvement on that front in 500 years or so.

They have a very bright core population, that continues to leave for greener pastures, especially the US. Huge brain drain, but good for us.

 

[NATO AIR]

yea, the brain drain is in effect

hmm what will become of all that?

if we can help the pakistanis and the indians reach agreement on kashmir, that would remove a fairly large grievance in the muslim community, as well as a source of terrorism, and lessen the chances of nuclear war between the two

i see them as a natural ally, (a) they don't trust china (b) they're a democracy (c) terrorism is their greatest fear (d) they would like to be alligned with us anyway, consider the joint US-Indian space and technology development agreements

 

[NATO AIR]

do you know anything about belarus or have an opinion on them?

 

[Annie]

Originally posted by NATO AIR
do you know anything about belarus or have an opinion on them?

Not a whole lot. Know they were close to Russia, but I think they had a falling out. It's one of the more successful of the one-time satellites I'm pretty sure. I'm more familiar with the Ukraine, which I would guess Belarus has some of the same problems. Corruption at the local level makes it very difficult for people to succeed, it's like mafia control. The people desperately want to work, so they leave if they can.

Like much of the former USSR, very low or negative birthrates, so a quickly growing older population, add to that the exodus of the young and educated whenever possible, you've got a big problem.

 

[NATO AIR]

oh

they're the last remaining dictatorship in europe

their leader hobnobs with saddam (used to) milosevic (used to) the mullahs in iran, syria's dictator, north korea, etc etc

didn't hear much from the NATO summit about what to do about them

 

[Annie]

Originally posted by NATO AIR
oh

they're the last remaining dictatorship in europe

their leader hobnobs with saddam (used to) milosevic (used to) the mullahs in iran, syria's dictator, north korea, etc etc

didn't hear much from the NATO summit about what to do about them

Well that's probably because they're not much of a threat to anyone? Again, we can't right every wrong, if we want to try I think there are plenty of problems in the Americas South of here.

Dictatorships are sometimes the only thing that avoids total chaos. I'm thinking of Tito, granted brutal but effective at keeping Yugoslavia from devolving into what happened later. Not good, just an aside.

 

[NATO AIR]

this joker is just a thug but i understand your point

at least he's not OUR sob...

i can't stand that mentality...

on an aside note, i highly recommend a book to check out if you get a chance, its on this topic and is by reagan's ambassador to hungary (the guy actually marched with the freedom marchers against the communist regime, pretty ballsy for an ambassador and my personal idea of what an ambassador should be doing if its possible), its been universally praised by folks all over the political spectrum and for good reason

how to rid the world of the real axis of evil:how to topple the world's 45 remaining dictatorships by 2025
by ambassador mark palmer

great reading if you want different ideas on how to handle dicatators and oppressive gov'ts