On Tue, 19 Oct 2004, James A. Donald wrote:
The US government should expose and condemn these objectionable practices, subvert moderately objectionable regimes, and annihilate more objectionable regimes. The pentagon should deprive moderately objectionable regimes of economic resources, by stealing their oil, destroying their water systems, and cutting off their trade and population movements with the outside world.
Meanwhile, the world will get pissed, Arabian Bloc will finally agree on the concept of Monetary Jihad and switch from dollar-per-barrel to euro-per-barrel and later perhaps even to a gold-backed Islamic Dinar. Arabs have difficulties to agree on something, but give them an enemy and they flock together (not entirely unlike Americans) and make decisions. Once the switch is done, there will not be the necessity to keep so high dollar reserves anymore. The USD will lose most of its market power and gradually becomes Just Another Currency. Other countries will stop caring about unilateral embargos and will trade with the affected areas anyway, to great dismay of American planners. US will attempt to retaliate and cut trade with the offenders. However, the world is big and patents on embargoed goods aren't usually respected in the affected areas. Also don't forget that you foolishly offshored most manufacturing years ago, so patents or not, the rest of the world will keep buying Taiwan and China and Malaysia and Japan. And Ireland-made CPUs. The transnational corporations won't have the incentive to respect US-imposed rules, as they will cut into their profit; the ones that didn't made it yet will move outside of the influence of US law, with the corresponding impact on US tax revenue and the ability to finance further military adventures. Hey - even students are already increasingly choosing non-US universities and scientists are in process of moving conferences elsewhere, in long term influencing your ability of weapon research, further weakening you military-wise. Your policies are signing your own demise, and your beloved free market will stab your own back. Meanwhile, the Empire will cut itself off the world, in a failed attempt to punish the world for non-compliance. What will you do then? You can't bomb everyone. The world needs you much less than you like to think. Now, when you see PNAC won't work, what's your revised plan?