It seems strange that super-powers throughout history have been unable to grasp that simple idea. We watched the might of the Soviet Union being ground down here, and the lesson we learned was that ... they were not as strong and mighty as us.
Yeah, right.
4 comments:
Not as strong and mighty as *we*.
Nonetheless, you're right.
Thanks for the correction, but I must express my utter ignorance of the grammatical rule to what you're referring. Can you express it for me?
Actually it would make a nice change for me to learn something from you lot...
You could as easily say that, the less the Afghans harbour religious nutters, the less they'll see of us.
I don't much care what sovereign people choose to do within their own countries provided it conforms to basic human rights standards (though if we really cared about that we'd have invaded Saudi Arabia long before bothering with little Afghanistan). If they want to be religious nutters, who am I to object?
Equally, the West has a long history of interfering in foreign conflicts between different groups of religious wackos -- for reasons I simply don't understand we think it's A Good Thing to support theocratic (Jewish) Israel against assorted other theocracies and near-theocracies of a Muslim flavour.
After pouring billions into those conflicts, where thousands and thousands have died, we express amazement when, after some decades, radicalised nut-jobs decide to give us back a taste of our own medicine by engaging in terrorism in our coutries.
The UK and the US have both suffered as a result of these unforgivable crimes. But, equally, we have both done unforgivable things ourselves (let's have a look at the growing evidence of US use of torture -- torture! -- and British collusion with it which makes us just as evil and culpable).
I might be a little more sanguine if the US had had even one success in its various military operations since the Second World War, but it seems to me that every single war it has started has ultimately made things worse. Korea? Vietnam? Chile? Iraq? When will it ever learn?
Actually I'm prepared to concede that Greneda is not in a completely horrendous mess, but that was an example of the US deciding to overthrow a democratically elected government and install one of its own preference. Defending the free world (except where it doesn't like the result -- vide Venezuela) and democracy in action, eh?
Lest you think this is an anti-US rant you're wrong -- I am utterly appalled by my own country's interventions in, for example, the Chagos Islands case. "Ethical foreign policy" or what?
Post a Comment