I think Niall Ferguson's Empire and Civilization are also worthy as they tell it from the other side. Or, at least from a more objective side.
THAT's imperialism - admittedly so. We're more manipulative. But, reality is it's kind of the same thing. . . Father to Son if you will.
Once we allow corporations to have armies and warships like the East India company, then you'll know we're there
Anybody who is stupid enough to believe that Trump threatened Putin with bombing (because the Great Liar said so) should be on psychotic medications and be watched 24 hours a day in a rubber-lined room. This person should not be allowed to drive a car or own a credit card. I'm sure Trump cleared his statement with Putin first, so Putin would not blow Trump's lies up before the election. Trump doesn't care if he blows up his lies after the election. Needless to say, it would be incredibly foolish of any U.S. leader to threaten the life of any world leader who has nuclear weapons. Especially one who is currently losing a major war and might get killed by his own people in a coup anyway. But I suppose some people are too incredibly stupid to figure that out.
The U.S. may have had a minor imperialistic phase during the late-40's and 1950's, where the CIA did some damage in Central and South America, as well as the middle east (Iran). Another minor imperialistic phase was maybe in the late-1800's with U.S. "businessmen" importing opium to China, although the U.S. certainly did not control the Chinese government (this is kind of stretching it, since the U.S. government did not encourage this activity; they just turned a blind eye to it for a long time). I don't think that Vietnam could be called an imperialist war, as the U.S. was never successful enough to expect anything in return for their investment. There is nothing that could be compared to the absolute control that Great Britain (and other European countries) had over their colonies, or Russia had over their Soviet block countries, or Japan had over the countries they conquered in the early 1900's, or China had/has over some of its immediate neighbors (Mongolia, Nepal, etc.). Compared to those countries and their histories, the U.S. is the standard bearer for freedom and democracy. And I don't have a problem with that.
Medvedev a troll the likes of which we do not have “Trump got carried away. Did he really talk about 'hitting fricking Moscow?' Of course not," he said. "He's generally smooth as silk in negotiations. And there’s only one answer to such words: your fricking Washington will get hit too."
I’m talking about N Korea sending their soldiers to Russia to fight in Ukraine. Once they move from Russia to Ukraine that’s basically an invasion.
Agreed in that most of the really cynical stuff happened under the Dulles' watch. I'd count Iraq 2.0 as more hopelessly idealistic than cynical, although there were definitely elements of the latter.
N. Korea rivaling Russia in its ability to trigger chickenhawks. But come on, how many Americans, Brits, Poles, French, Germans, Aussies and other unofficial-official troops are fighting for Kyiv ? Weapons and aid from 50+ nations.
Only about 2,000 western volunteers have fought for Iraq, although some nitwit claimed it was a couple million. Maybe that nitwit is just a mentally-defective clown.
I will find the S Korean response to the N Korean military support and now incursion into Ukraine interesting as well. What an oddity it would be if escalation in the Ukranian conflict comes from SE Asia / the Korean Penninsula. A previous Western Democracies / Communist block conflict zone (to this day). Frankly I would like to see S Korea commit troops and resources to counter the N Korean effort. NATO should quit pussy footing around and ramp up Ukranian support, including in field logistical (manpower) to assist Ukranian forces. Make no mistake, this struggle stretches back to the Tehran and Yalta Conferences of WW2 and the fracturing of geo political power in the post WW2 struggle between competing ideologies. Losing Ukraine, would and will have severe consequences for the Strategic Polices of the West, NATO and Democracies around the world. It's damn regrettable that the MAGA / Trump faction does not realize this.
That’s probably true. But on the average I think a life means a lot more here than it does in Russia.
When has Israel ever conducted a long-term war? Half of their wars are measured in terms of days. This particular one has dragged on for over a year, but they still don't have their hostages back, and they are fairly certain that some of them are still alive. Would you give up on your son or daughter after a year if they were held hostage somewhere in the next county?
Agreed, and while I share many of the liberal principles shared on this board by WG, sadly age and study has convinced me that our species, cultural dimorphisims, and the plain old selfish greed of men in hoarding wealth and resources, leads me to agree more with CHFG8R's views of the reality of man's politic. As I just stated above about N and S Korea, new, albeit traditional battle lines have been drawn. The West vs East or Democracies vs Totalitarian ideologies, this time is raging on the Plaines of Ukraine. Just like in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan, and many smaller conflicts in between. In the sphere of religion, Judeo Christianity and Islam is spilling blood in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and perhaps Iran very soon. This conflict is much older, starting around 610 AD. How anyone that took basic History 101, and cannot see these things is beyond me. So while I wish WGs world of "Imagine" as sung by the great John Lennon would be true, well, it is not. I wish it was, I do. It took 600,000 American dead just to rid this country of Slavery, and that was not that long ago. It's a hard, cruel world, run by hard cruel men. It's a sad fact, but its US against THEM, and despite all the West's warts, and there are a plenty of them (too many), I'll take our ugliness over theirs, every day of the week and a month of Sundays. (BTW, I'm an atheist). Diatribe finished.
