History of failures

George W Bush with Tony Blair decided in 2003 that Saddam Hussein in Iraq had to be removed from power. The same policy continued eight years later with the so-called Arab Spring. Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Moammar Gadhafi in Libya were the next to be deposed in the name of human rights. The alleged intention was to replace despots with democracy. These countries, throughout their history, had only ever been controlled by dictators and the naive policy resulted in destabilising the whole area of the Middle East.

Currently, Barack Obama is intent on pursuing the same policy by assisting government rebels in Syria in their struggle to overthrow Bashar al-Assad. The claim is that he murdered 250,000 of his own people with barrel bombs and chemical weapons. The rebels are essentially his own people but they are intent on annihilating him. It is only natural that he would fight them.

The regional instability gave rise to the Islamic State (IS) which has joined forces with the rebels in Syria. US Senator John MacCain suggested rebels be supplied with ground-to-air missiles to take out Russian planes which are attacking the rebels. These rebels have been trained and armed by the USA to depose Mr Assad, but they include the IS. Effectively the US has armed IS in its obsession with removing Mr Assad.

Clearly, the Democrat regime in the US regards Mr Assad as a greater threat than the IS. Understandably, suspicion abounds that Obama has a hidden agenda.

The USA is still a superpower but its status is diminishing. By stubbornly pursuing a simplistic anti-despot/pro-democracy policy at any cost, the US is perhaps the greatest threat to world stability.

Vladimir Putin sees the IS as the major threat and it is perhaps to Russia the world must turn to for wisdom.

JC Wilcox

The moonshine state

While agreeing with David Swartzentruber (PostBag, Oct 14) that excise duties here are “topsy-turvy,” I wonder if a hike in the duty on lao khao would have the desired effect. Illicitly distilled spirit -  “moonshine” -  is not difficult to find, and although at present most consumers find it easier to pop down to the shop to buy the legal stuff, which is not much more expensive, a high excise duty would make moonshine a more attractive proposition and sales would likely increase. Excise receipts might not go up, nor consumption down.

There would also be health risks as badly distilled spirit can be lethal (there are often stories from India about people dying or losing their sight because a distiller couldn’t tell his ethyls from his methyls). Thai moonshine seems to be generally safe at present, but an increase in demand could bring new distillers into the trade who might be more likely to get things wrong.

There would be no problem if the police could be relied on to close down all illicit distilleries.

Colin Roth

Kids, booze don't mix

Re: “Alcohol an adult issue”, (PostBag, Oct 14). I agree with Khun David on rules and laws regarding alcohol control.

His last paragraph impressed me. I strongly think that young children must be left out of these campaigns, not only the alcohol issue, but also political and environmental activities — until they are mature enough to have their own thoughts.

RH Suga

Courting disaster

Re: “Let’s go by the book”, (PostBag, Oct 14). The problems with the rule of law in Thailand is the slow process. There are too many appeals and too many courts. Lawyers spend more time whingeing about fairness, wrong courts and inappropriate appeals than producing proper responses to the charges trying to reach the statute of limitations time.

Burin’s suggestion to do away with the lower court is a good start.

RICHARD BOWLER

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