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Relying on the US?
In ¡§Taiwan cannot just rely on the US¡¨ (Feb. 10, page 8), Paul Lin asks
interesting questions: ¡§Why doesn¡¦t the US claim its founding ideals ¡X freedom,
democracy, human rights and rule of law ¡X as its core interests? The US used to
offer protection to the KMT dictatorship in decades past, but today, Taiwan has
transformed into a democracy. What kind of country would the US be if it sold
out Taiwan to China now?¡¨
It is difficult to say whether Lin is being facetious, rhetorical or merely
trying to stimulate shame. Perhaps all three.
From its foundation, the US endorsed existing slavery, aggressively embarked on
the genocide of native peoples and extended its borders with a brazen land grab
from Mexico. Although it fought a vicious civil war against its own citizens
allegedly to end slavery, it then failed to protect the civil rights of those
freed for 100 years.
World War I, Woodrow Wilson¡¦s war for democracy, did not free European colonial
areas in Africa and Asia from colonial bondage. In fact, the US was fighting a
major neo-colonialist war against Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as late as the
1970s and sponsored civil wars in Central America from the 1950s through the
1980s.
Now, freed from Cold War excuses, the US is in an orgy of unrestrained,
militaristic adventures, endangering its own fragile ¡§democracy.¡¨
I guess the answer to Lin¡¦s questions about Taiwan relying on its American Big
Brother is self-evident. If we are sold out, the US would prove to be the
country it has always been. Why expect more?
JOHN HANNA
Taoyuan
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