Steve (as 41oo) wrote:Well to answer McG's point first, I certainly agree that the world would be a better place if we had held onto the N American colonies, the loss of which I ascribe to George III (not to be confused with George II) being mad, and relying far too much on Hessian mercenaries.
Britain "lost" the "North American colonies" long before our revolution. They were "lost" to Britain nearly a century earlier with the establishment of self-governing legislatures in the principal colonies which were populated by people who fled persecution and exploitation in Britain. The ineptness of British military operations in the Seven Years War (or French & Indian War) convinced the early Amerricans of the limitations of British leadership, and the post war British attempt to impose taxes on Americans to pay for their inept folly was the final straw. George III was mad, but so was the imperial colonial policy that Britain had been pursuing for a century. A few British statesmen at the time understood this, but evidently the memory of their wisdom has faded - at least for Steve..
Quote:America has global reach. Effectively it has a global empire. That empire has its weak points and sometimes its necessary to re-arrange things a little. Thats all thats going on, and its perfectly understandable.
That its dressed up in fine language about combatting evil and bringing freedom is just a sweetner for the people who are kept deliberately ignorant about what is going on, lest they get anxious.
Here Steve makes a very revealing admission. In his view we have an empire merely because we have global reach and the ability to enforce our will. Never mind that we do it only selectively, and have not attempted to directly govern most of the Mideast, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent as the British did until just over 50 years ago. There is a rather large difference here, and Steve simply refuses to acknowledge it.
The issues we are dealing with today are a direct consequence of the greed, perfidy, and incompetence of the British and French governments during and after WWI. They knowingly, and without justification, brought down an Ottoman Empire that presented no threat to them, and carved up and divided the spoils - from Syria to Yemen and Egypt (and everything in between). They abolished the Moslem Caliphate, exploited the resources of the region, betrayed both their Arab and Zionist allies, and imposed incompetent misrule on the region, with only their immediate economic interests in mind. We are now, with damn little help from them, attempting to put the pieces back together and restore freedom and enlightened self-rule in the region. They can't forgive us for that, and dread the prospect of our success. Steve somehow, doesn't see or acknowledge any of that, though the facts are undeniable.
