Monday, February 28, 2011

Loving Revolution

Niall Ferguson: Americans and Revolutions - Newsweek

 

Ferguson is an academic, not an idealogue, I generally find the quality of his thought to be high, and this is no exception.

In the absence of an American strategy, the probability of a worst-case scenario creeps up every day—a scenario of the sort that ultimately arose in revolutionary France, Russia, and China. First the revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East could turn much more violent, with a death toll running into tens or hundreds of thousands. Then they could spark a full-blown war, claiming millions of lives. Worst of all, out of that war could emerge an enemy as formidable as Napoleon’s France, Stalin’s Soviet Union, or Mao’s China.

Yes, Americans love revolutions. But they should stick to loving their own.

 

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