On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 11:05:02 -0800, "David Brooks"
wrote:

I was going to point out that having the states' economies so interdependent
is a powerful disincentive, in terms of pure self-interest, to make war, so
we needn't worry about independent armies so much.

Then I remembered what happened in the US in 1861.

I think the States were all on an agreed upon gold standard at the
time; there was no other economic union beyond the constitutional
prohibition on interstate tariffs. The reason we all could do that to
one another back then was that Virginians and New Yorkers thought of
themselves as Virginians and New Yorkers first, and Americans second.
Robert E. Lee's decision, for one example.

The situation is still somewhat similar in Europe today. The Euros
think of themselves as French, Danish, German, Austrian, English,
Scottish, etc, first, and only then as Europeans. NATO mitigates that
a bit, but I think that's only with the 800-lb gorilla (U.S.) in the
alliance, and if that dissolves, then factionalism in Europe, in the
form of nationalism, could become more than the barely suppressed
problem it is today.

Rob

--
[You] don't make your kids P.C.-proof by keeping them
ignorant, you do it by helping them learn how to
educate themselves.

-- Orson Scott Card