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Originally posted by Lebell
Yes, I would love it if we went into North Korea and Iran (not sure how India and China pissed in your Wheaties), but there are other factors that make it prohibitive.
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I see. So we only invade the countries that we can easilly defeat. . . .the ones that pose no threat to us in other words. You're saying we should get rid of evil dictators only when it's really easy. Funny, but that doesn't sound very moral to me.
Quote:
Originally posted by Lebell
But what I'm really scratching my head over is that you are apparently saying that it is a bad thing Saddam is out of power and that is beyond belief.
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Well scratch no more, because I'm not saying that. It's not a bad thing that Saddam is out of power. What I AM saying is that it was not OUR place to remove him. We are not, nor does the world want us to be, the world's policeman. Ever since we started assuming that role, world opinion of our country has gotten worse and worse because we are now seen as a swaggering bully, attacking any country we disagree with.
What if someone had looked at the United States back when slavery was legal, and said we were being cruel (we were) and we should therefore be defeated and occupied indefinitely. Think that would have been a good idea?
We as a country looked at Korea when they started fighting with each other and decided we just HAD to butt in. That worked REAL well. Got umpteen thousands of our soldiers killed, and now, decades later, Korea is still divided and they still hate each other.
We looked at Vietnam when the north and south were fighting with each other and decided we just HAD to butt in. That also worked real well for us. Got a staggering number of soldiers killed while doing nothing but pissing the world off at us. Again.
We looked at Iran and decided we didn't like the democratically elected leader. So we had him removed in a coup and installed the Ayatollah. Yeah. Good move.
We looked at Cuba and said we just HAVE to support Castro's coup to take power in 1959. Gee. Good idea there.
Chile, 1973. We supported the overthrow of Salvador Allende to put Pinochet in office. Pinochet was the mastermind of Operation Condor, the international terrorist network formed to eliminate any opponents of Pinochet's regime. Chalk another dazzling success up for the US of A.
1983, the US supports CIA agent Manuel Noriega in his takeover of the Panamanian armed forces. One year later, the US would work with Noriega to rig the Panamanian election, while simultaneously praising it as democracy in action. Noriega would go on to control this, and the next president of Panama, in effect a shadow-president. Another wonderful example of the US making life better for the world.
In short, every single time we have butted in where we don't belong to try to force our values on others, it's bitten us in the butt and made the world a worse place.
I am all for making sure our interests are protected. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who attacks us or tries to do us harm should be annihilated. But if they're not messing with us, then <i> it is not our place or our right to mess with them.</i>