Happy Independence Day!

[Dayuhan]

Yesterday we celebrated our Independence, today we get back to the dirty business of determining and shaping the outcomes of very similar quests for independence among a dozen nations and populaces, all unique yet all the same, struggling to find a future that they too can celebrate some day. Best we remember that people everywhere do not want to be America; they want to be like America, and that is a very different thing altogether.

Why would we assume that anyone fighting a government wants to be like America?

They want to share the opportunity to stand free as individuals from oppressive government at home, and free as a nation from excessive influence from abroad.

Again, we don't know that this is what all insurgents are fighting for. Sometimes they are fighting for power, for the ability to rule, hog the lion's share of whatever there is to have, and kick the stuffing out of the other faction/ethnicity/sect/whatever.

It is probably true that good governance is the ultimate solution to insurgency, but in practical tems that doesn't get us very far, because we cannot provide good governance to other countries. We may be able to install governments or to force people to revise constitutions, but that won't create good governance: people will still govern according to their own traditions and political culture. Their traditions and political culture may change over time, but we can't change them.

All this means to me is that we need to be very, very hesitant about mucking about in the way other countries are governed. If we absoluteley must do it, we should keep the objectives as limited, clear, and achievable as we can, which automatically excludes any idea of building nations, fixing economies, or installing good governance at gunpoint.