Below is a short exchange between myself, and an Facebook comrade.
Stephen Garcia Is it a real war or police action? The Bush Administration portrayed themselves as hardliners, but votes still mattered. Americans on which every side of the fence can't handle a real war these days. Regardless of being pro or against Israel they are old school in their approach, most can't handle it.
That is not to say they a right or wrong. I get what we're doing, we won't allow any threatening world power to emerge, we play chess, and there is no clean way in doing so. Russia is no threat...China is nothing without our products on demand, and we sure didn't allow any oil saturated nation to screw with us politically or economically.
My question would be...
What if U.S.A completely backed off, and let nations work it out for themselves, would the world be better?
Sidney Smith No. It would actually be worse. The world is so awful that we're compared to most still the good guys. Amazing that, but true. Remember it was us that ended the Balkan Genocides...Europe sat on it's hands, and let it go on for near a decade. Just like they looked the other way over the Holocaust.
Same with Afghanistan it was us that ousted the Taliban. Though thanks to Bush, and Co. getting us into Iraq they're taking territory back. So that war was a waste. However despite our sins we're still the only remotely positive force in the world.
Can you think of anyone else?
The Chinese the Russians Brazil...the fucking French...gimme a break. It's still us. Imperfect greedy racist stupid violent air headed us. This is a world so evil, and stupid that we're the only actual good guys...amazing. We're still the court of last appeal for the desperate.
Stay Tuned.
I don't see the United States as a salvific force in the world. We're just another empire, basically. Maybe we occasionally stumble into doing the right thing, but mostly we just overthrow other people's governments and start wars we can't win, apparently in a vain attempt to control the whole world, a process involving much destruction of other countries (and ultimately, I suspect, our own).
ReplyDeleteInteresting you should mention the French. I recently read on Counterpunch that the Vietnamese have basically found it in their hearts to forgive the USA for killing three million Vietnamese - but that they will never, ever forgive the French, who (I am told) degraded and humiliated them for eighty years. Personally I'm disposed to like the French, but I have to admit to a certain sense of guilty relief that we're not necessarily always the worst villains on the world stage.
I don't trust China, and I don't trust Putin - though he's clearly much smarter than our current leaders, who are a collection of blustering bumbling kleptocratic clowns. Brazil's an ongoing disaster. Right now Sao Paolo has about two weeks of water left, so severe is the current drought.
Z
Well as it happens we 'are' better than those other Maniacs.
ReplyDeleteNot "Good' really just not as evil as the rest. Which is to say we know how to have a good time, and our system more or less doesn't get in the way of that. This I suppose is why the whole world despite our sins wants to be here or effect parts of our culture into theirs.
As a people we're not "Imperials" like the British French, Chinese, and Russians. We've always been homebodies, but we have this thing about gross injustice. Even when we ourselves are unjust.
I remember the public outcry to do something...'anything' to help Somalia. The result was our stumbling into a 15 sided tribal civil war. Talk about burnt fingers, and good intentions.
That episode sums us up for the most part.
Yeah we bullied, and tormented small countries mostly in Central America for cheap labor, and their resources. Also bungled our way into two wars Korea, and Vietnam over our hysteria well not 'our' hysteria. The Hysteria of our ideo-military-corporate owners over the World Communist Threat.
You average Joe didn't give a fuck.
No we're not the villains of History. Religion, and Tribal Nationalism's are.
We're Americans. We care about folks we don't like oppressions we don't like crazy dictators, and we want folks to be okay. Left to right that's us. It's expressed in insanely different ways given our weird multifaceted culture, but there it is.
If we have a sin it's our laziness to pay attention to the jerks that run things in our name. That, and how they always fool us into thinking all their crimes are for the good.
If we have a problem that's it.
Btw I think the above is why the Vietnamese have forgiven us despite what we did to them.
ReplyDeleteThey like us.
Not our government, but us. They even said so during the War. They like our notions of what Freedom can be, and us just as folks. I read that they see our war with them as a tragic error on our part. They mention our vast anti-war movement of the time as showing where the American Heart really was back then.
...well yes, and no.
But still.
Bottom line putting our government, and corporate owners aside people like Americans always have. I think they always will. We are kind'a likable..again putting aside our owners.