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I believe that the issues raised by Sr. Alzugaray are extremely serious ones that Americans should be giving more attention. I am disturbed myself by other implications of what we are doing. First of all, virtually every great nation on earth (and many of the lesser ones, too) are products of violent civil conflicts that made them what they are--not least, of course, the US itself. Are we now to believe that, to the extent possible, the US and its allies will step in to prevent such conflicts? Secondly, we are in effect encouraging self-determination for every minority, no matter how small. Is this a precedent we want to establish? It could easily come back to haunt the US. What is happening in the former Yugoslavia, in my opinion, is small potatoes compared to what is likely to happen in Russia and the former Soviet Union in the next 10-15 years. I do not think there will be much to be gained by western intervention there, any more than there was 80 years ago. Within the next twenty years, I feel pretty sure that the entire model of linear progress towards capitalism and democracy will be discredited by events. That is not to say that I do not believe in very long-term trends in those directions, merely that major areas of the world are due for major crises. This is only the beginning. David Kaiser -------------------------------------------------------- --Public reply to list: h-diplo@h-net.msu.edu --To unsubscribe send e-mail to: listserv@h-net.msu.edu with UNSUB H-DIPLO as the only text in the body of your message --To temporarily suspend your account: send e-mail to listserv@h-net.msu.edu with SET H-DIPLO NOMAIL as the only text in the body of your message. To reactivate your account, send e-mail to listserv@h-net.msu.edu with SET H-DIPLO MAIL as the only text in the body of your message -- to receive a daily digest of events: send the following message to listserv@h-net.msu.edu: SET H-DIPLO DIGEST. To reverse this, send the the command SET H-DIPLO NODIGEST to the same address --Personal help from list moderators: hdiplo@yorku.ca --Visit the H-Diplo web page at: http://h-net2.msu.edu/~diplo/
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