Dr Grump
Platinum Member
1) Still, a kettle is a kettle and a fish is a fish. From the standpoint of American policy, the same questions apply: will regime change, such as we forced on Japan and Germany, last; should the US act to curb the national ambitions of a nation that is not directly threatening us here at home; how much in blood and treasure should the US be willing to spend to relieve the suffering of foreign peoples.
You should be willing to spill no blood. Stay at home, it's none of your business. And Japan and Germany are completely different scenarios...
The problem with America butting in in ME politics is that a lot of your politicians (especially the right-wing ones) treat the ME like it does Western Civilisations. News flash! They're not. Trying to impose western mores, morals and codes of conduct on foreign countries is pointless and arrogant. Don't believe me? Ask any right winger what they think of all the Mexican overstayers in the US, or how some suburbs in your mains centres turned in Chinatowns, mini Viet Nams, Little Odessas and you'll get some feel how people resent other cultures trying to encroach on theirs...
2) Iran has acted to destabilize the government of Iraq and through its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, it has acted to destabilize the Palestinian Authority as well as the government of Lebanon, and Hezbollah is reported to have significant presences in parts of Africa and South America; in addition Iran talks about about wiping out Israel in parallel with its efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Iran may not be expansionist in exactly the ways Japan and Germany were, but it clearly uses military force to expand its influence beyond its borders and provides strong reasons for us to believe it hopes to expand this policy when it finally develops nuclear weapons.
Is staying within your borders a license to do anything you want? Should the genocide in Rwanda have been immune to foreign intervention because it did not cross any borders? Would the gassing of the Jews have been ok if only German Jews had been gassed and only within Germany's borders? Certainly there will be a political purge in Iran in which many people will go to prison to prevent further dissent in the future and some in the government are talking about executing the protest leaders: is there a point beyond which foreign intervention is justified?
Iran tried to destabilise Iraq? Can you blame them. A western-friendly Sadman had an eight year war with them for no other reason than it suited US's purposes after Khomenhi embarrassed you on the international stage with the hostages. BTW, I am for regime change in Iran, but on their terms and with their people. It doesn't help your cause when you use extreme examples to try and illustrate a point.
I don't have a problem with Iran having nuclear power. I think all countries should use it. I have a huge problem with them having nuclear arms, but then I do with Pakistan, India and the US having them, too.
After the national armies were defeated, determined opposition to German oppression was rare, small in scale and not often supported by the surrounding populations, despite Hollywood's misrepresentations. Why should Americans have fought and died to liberate France when it is reported the French resistance at its peak never counted more than 200 fighters?
Because it was the right thing to do. Something your forebears who fought in that war understood, and why some call them the "greatest generation"...