To be very honest I'm tempted to downvote this , not because I would disagree if this was the topic at hand, but because it seems like a deranged rant that's very loosely related to the comment it's replying.
Not to mention, if you compare the US, its citizen's intentions, and its government's intentions, and yes the DnD's intentions to all but a tiny handful of countries, the US is a golden boy of good.
Compare today's US to, for example colonial powers. The US is pure in comparison.
Compare the US to what happens to journalists in Russia, China, Iran. The US is a beacon of justice.
Is the US perfect? Nope. But do a little comparative analysis, and the result is that the world has never, ever seen such a peaceful empire.
The rancor often displayed on such comments makes me wonder.
While I agree that the tone of parent is... unhelpfully agitated and aggressive. The broad strokes critique of US foreign (and domestic) policy is on point.
The US began as a corporate colonial project - Virginia Company, London Company, Plymouth Company, Massachusetts Bay Company etc. It proceeded to expand through genocide of indigenous populations and wars of conquest - Cherokee–American Wars, Mexican American War, Spanish American War, Quasi-War with France and on and on.
From the first the US (contrary to domestic myth) was colonial, expansionist and interventionist. US involvement in theatres around the world has initiated, prolonged and expanded conflicts - from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to Iraq and Afghanistan. The US has toppled literally dozens of democratically elected governments and helped elect numerous authoritarian dictators. The list of countries where the US has engaged in 'regime change' is so long it could fill up this comments character limit but to cite a few Hawaii, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, Philippines, Korea, Venezuela, Libya, Palestine, Syria etc. America has funded (and continues to fund) genocides, death squads, torture sites (its own as well as those of its allies). The US has replaced democratic leaders in countries as friendly as Australia as recently as 1975.
At the risk of turning this comment into a letter to the editor of Foreign Policy - the US is not remotely a 'golden boy of good'. On balance Pax Americana has kept Europe at peace, but at the cost of keeping Africa, Latin and Central America, and parts of South East Asia impoverished and constantly at war.
Is it China? Is it Russia? No. Would they make worse imperial powers? Almost certainly. It's a unique kind of tyranny, one that manages to convince it's own elites against all historic evidence it's a 'force for good'.
b112|1 year ago
Compare today's US to, for example colonial powers. The US is pure in comparison.
Compare the US to what happens to journalists in Russia, China, Iran. The US is a beacon of justice.
Is the US perfect? Nope. But do a little comparative analysis, and the result is that the world has never, ever seen such a peaceful empire.
The rancor often displayed on such comments makes me wonder.
dbspin|1 year ago
The US began as a corporate colonial project - Virginia Company, London Company, Plymouth Company, Massachusetts Bay Company etc. It proceeded to expand through genocide of indigenous populations and wars of conquest - Cherokee–American Wars, Mexican American War, Spanish American War, Quasi-War with France and on and on.
From the first the US (contrary to domestic myth) was colonial, expansionist and interventionist. US involvement in theatres around the world has initiated, prolonged and expanded conflicts - from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to Iraq and Afghanistan. The US has toppled literally dozens of democratically elected governments and helped elect numerous authoritarian dictators. The list of countries where the US has engaged in 'regime change' is so long it could fill up this comments character limit but to cite a few Hawaii, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, Philippines, Korea, Venezuela, Libya, Palestine, Syria etc. America has funded (and continues to fund) genocides, death squads, torture sites (its own as well as those of its allies). The US has replaced democratic leaders in countries as friendly as Australia as recently as 1975.
At the risk of turning this comment into a letter to the editor of Foreign Policy - the US is not remotely a 'golden boy of good'. On balance Pax Americana has kept Europe at peace, but at the cost of keeping Africa, Latin and Central America, and parts of South East Asia impoverished and constantly at war.
Is it China? Is it Russia? No. Would they make worse imperial powers? Almost certainly. It's a unique kind of tyranny, one that manages to convince it's own elites against all historic evidence it's a 'force for good'.