Re:Afghanistan Exit Realized (Score 1)

I'm not sure if you're replying to me or not, but I hope you didn't take my "it is the best going" as "all other countries are repressive and backward." Surely you didn't mean to imply that any (even the dumbest) American would be mistaken in believing that only they enjoy advanced technological goods.

No, I think there are many countries on par with the US as far as a "standard of living", however, many of those have a few legal sticking points that I'm not willing to pack up my US operations for. For example, in many advanced democracies such as France, Canada, and the UK there is not quite full freedom of the press or of speech. In those countries the governments can prosecute people who, say, deny the Holocaust while holding educational positions or the like. (Please don't miss my point here and reply with something along the lines of "so you would defend Holocaust deniers!") In France, a country I've never visited but whose language and culture I am personally enamored of, you cannot own and communicate with personal cryptography software such as is freely available here. Despite my country's ethically wrong stance on Iraq, and its immoral imprisonment of drug-users and the perpetuation of the Drug War, I just cannot give up the right to free speech, which is worth way more than material comfort.

BTW, I have been to Finland, when I was a lad living in the US embassy in Moscow. I loved visiting your country, and look forward to doing so again. I take your point about the passport in serious consideration.

uraj