A clever analogy (and I don't just think its clever because it uses Canada, 'cause my Canada doesn't have a self-esteem problem).
Jax
I was reading the always-incisive (though sometimes mad) Niall
Ferguson's analogy of Taiwan today to Belgium in 1914:
t r u t h o u t - Niall Ferguson | Sinking Globalization: It is
true that the Chinese have no obvious incentive to pick a fight with the
United States. But China's ambitions with respect to Taiwan are not
about to disappear just because Beijing owns a stack of U.S. Treasury
bonds. On the contrary, in the event of an economic crisis, China might be
sorely tempted to play the nationalist card by threatening to take over
its errant province. Would the United States really be willing to fight
China over Taiwan, as it has pledged in the past to do? And what would
happen if the Chinese authorities flexed their new financial muscles by
dumping U.S. bonds on the world market? To the historian, Taiwan looks
somewhat like the Belgium of old: a seemingly inconsequential country
over which empires end up fighting to the death...
Scary. Deservedly scary. But let me transport Niall's paragraph back in
time 150 years, replacing "Taiwan" with "Canada":
It is true that the Americans have no obvious incentive to pick a
fight with the British Empire. But America's ambitions with respect to
Canada are not about to disappear just because Washington knows that
Lancashire needs to buy its cotton. On the contrary, in the event of an
economic crisis, America might be sorely tempted to play the nationalist
card by threatening to take over its errant province. Would the British
Empire really be willing to fight America over Canada, as it has
pledged in the past to do? And what would happen if the American authorities
flexed their new economic muscles by embargoing cotton exports?...
A hundred and fifty years ago it was our "manifest destiny" to own the
entire North American continent. Today the desire to annex Canada is
limited to us left-of-center Democrats desperate to turn the marginal
voter from a guy outside of Nashville with a hound dog to a guy in
suburban Toronto with a Greenpeace card. May an analogous process take place
between China and Taiwan. (Link)
# posted by Jacob @ 3/21/2005 07:07:00 p.m.
