Smash, over at The Indepundit has taken issue with something that I said in one of his comments.

He plays on it very well and responds in a truly satirical fashion.

What I said, was:

… no Human being should be subjected to all out war by [a] foreign country in order to gain [freedom].

*Some* Americans need to learn that the United States is not and need not be the “Superman” of the world.

LT. then went on and listed every instance in the last 150 years where the US has “saved.

What can I say but touché.

I’m sure the Cubans are forever grateful as they have enjoyed their new (?) found freedom since those Spaniards left. Sorry about that Bay of Pigs thing though…

Same goes for the Phillipines who had such a wonderful time with Marcos at the helm and US Bases on their shores that they finally ran Marcos out of the country themselves and then ran out the US with the last base closing in ’92.

And all the Latin American countries who have benefited by US military intervention, you know… like Panama. And don’t forget Nicaragua… who owes the defeat of the Sandinistas to the US’s support of [contra guerrillas]perpetrating civil war in El Salvador for 12 years and costing 75,000 lives… Corrected leftists for contras… sorry, wrote it too early this morning

I’m sure that the residents of Vietnam and their neighbours are forever grateful that you rid them of all that darn forest…. it was too thick anyway. Oh and I’ll pass along their thanks for the help with the cancer and deformities.

That reminds me. Have the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki thanked you lately?

Then there are the Afghanis… who, without the help of the US in the Jihad against the Soviet infidels would never have known the joys of the Taliban and thus would never have been able to be freed once more by their American saviours. I wonder if the CIA gave Bin Laden acting lessons as well… he sure loves the limelight.

And finally, our friends the Iraqis. Who have so recently been freed by the same people who supported their oppressor in his bloody, chemical weapon loving war against Iran. I’m sure at the time the common Iraqi was keenly aware that America had their best interest at heart. It must warm their heart and give them real hope when they see the old video (high and low bandwidth) of the man currently in charge of the foreign boots in their soil and the Interim Government shaking hands with their former leader.

Reagan’s November 26, 1983, National Security Decision Directive (NSDD 114), proves that he was really doing what was best for Iraqis:

“Because of the real and psychological impact of a curtailment in the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf on the international economic system, we must assure our readiness to deal promptly with actions aimed at disrupting that traffic

Ronnie must have just left out the part where they wanted freedom and liberty for the Iraqis… I’m sure the Iraqis understand and forgive his forgetfulness now.

So you see, LT was right, if it wasn’t for the US all these people wouldn’t have been freed… again… and again.

P.S.

The Crash Test Dummies said it best:

Superman never made any money

saving the world from Solomon Grundy

More Response:

So now that I’ve thoroughly annoyed or confused a few people (Here, here, here, here, here, and here). Intentionally, I admit… why don’t we dispose of the Sarcasm and Wit and instead focus on the facts as we both see them. The thing about “facts” is that they can be manipulated equally well on each side.

Alright so I think I’ve gotten enough peoples attention, maybe now we can start a real discussion on what I was really talking about. The underlying view that drives what I said above is shared, I believe, by millions of people around the world. That view is this:

Overt Conflict and war between nations has rarely, if ever in history, led to true “freedom” and societal change towards democracy.

The evolution from non-democratic, suppressed state to a truly progressive state where the government changes frequently and by the will of the people is invariably slow and fraut with peril.

Progress can be made over a very short period of time… like say the collapse of the Soviet Union, and then those gains are whittled away as we are currently seeing in Russia. This happens not because democracy or the need for “freedom” has failed, but rather because it takes so long for society to accept, digest and deal with such a fundamental change.

In every instance that I cited above the US’s claimed altruistic actions did not actually lead to an immediate switch from tyranny to democracy. In fact, it most of those situations the very opposite happened. And now still only a handful of those countries can be truly called “Free” and democratic.

I must go for now… but suffice to say that in almost every single case where war was brought onto a people to force regime or societal change, that change eventually failed. That does not mean that intervention is automatically wrong, but it is a very strong indicator that it does not work for the long term.

The most reliable method of societal change is for the people themselves to rebel and rise up against their oppressors. It worked for the French (a few times), it worked for America, and most recently Ukraine.

No matter how hard you try and how good your intentions might be, you simply cannot force freedom on a people that are not ready for it. Yes, they may want it… but even they cannot know when they, as a society, will be ready to accept it and embrace it. It’s far too organic a change to predict.

Fatal error: Call to undefined function digg_this_button() in /home/chrisale/public_html/wp-content/themes/murkyview2.5/single.php on line 17