Posted on 02/02/2024 7:04:56 PM PST by RandFan
@dbenner83
What if our foreign policy was deeply flawed the entire time?
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WWII was just. We had to clean up for the mistakes of WWI.
The Cold War was a mixed bag. The Korean War was a success. We rescued South Korea. 36,574 deaths is a heavy price to pay for South Korea. So I am not completely sure about that.
Vietnam War was a mistake. Enough said. Reagan was great during the '80s.
Bush provided steady leadership during Panama and Operation Desert Storm. We went in to break stuff. And then we got out. No problems with that. His son should have done the same when he went in Afghanistan, take out the Taliban and then turn it over to the Northern Alliance.
I didn't have a problem with invading Iraq the second time to take out Saddam. But we should have turned it over to the Iraqi Army and then left. Paul Bremer made the worst possible mistake by dismantling the Iraqi Army so all the soldiers with guns became insurgents.
The world is a dangerous place. So unfortunately, we have the burden as the world's cop.
As I said in the other post, we were tied to the hip with Britain to safeguard the Atlantic, since we moved so many naval resources to the Pacific to guard Hawaii and The Philippines.
Makes sense. But we ended up getting in a mess. And it was not ours to clean up.
It seems at times we have more powerful and dangerous internal enemies than external enemies.
Bump and agree!!
I like having a powerful Navy. McKinley might b3 called the first neo- con. He believed in bulding an Empire. Tr eas actually LESS Imperialistic. Wilson was a fool. The Cold War was a special case
I go back and forth on whether Spain was a threat to the US. It is debatable. They were mucing around in our Hemishphere.
The "Spanish Empire" was very weak by 1898. A threat to no one.
They were mucing around in our Hemishphere.
Despite the Monroe Doctrine, the U.S. did not own the Western Hemisphere.
And Spain had legitimate ties to the Western Hemisphere. Most of Latin America were former Spanish colonies.
He is too simplistic: single source of causation, and nationally self-flagillating and thus not persuasive.
I wouldn't say he squashed it, but he certainly didn't help them. That was a missed opportunity.
The Rebels were the good guys.
I've been saying we need to beat the sh*t out of Iran *SINCE* 1979. We never should have let them get away with taking our hostages.
Exactly right. Had we stayed out of WW1, there likely never would have been a World War II, or a communist Russia, or Atom Bombs, or any number of horrible things which happened as a result of us intervening in WW1.
I don't think it was a mistake. It was the way we chose to fight it that was the mistake.
Bush provided steady leadership during Panama and Operation Desert Storm. We went in to break stuff. And then we got out. No problems with that.
Should have toppled Saddam at that time. Had to come back and do it again later.
His son should have done the same when he went in Afghanistan, take out the Taliban and then turn it over to the Northern Alliance.
Yup.
I didn't have a problem with invading Iraq the second time to take out Saddam. But we should have turned it over to the Iraqi Army and then left.
Yes.
Paul Bremer made the worst possible mistake by dismantling the Iraqi Army so all the soldiers with guns became insurgents.
I said this very thing the instant I heard they were contemplating doing this. I said at the time this is the absolute stupidest thing you could possibly do, and I could not believe all the military officers, who supposedly went to war college and learned war history, would not rise up in unison to tell him he's a d@mned fool if he does this.
He went further than that, and banned all Bath party members from any government jobs. I said at the time he has just taken the most dangerous men in Iraq, and made them into our mortal enemies.
He created the utter mess that Iraq became, and I cannot believe he did it without George W. Bush allowing it.
Dumbest thing you could do. Killed thousands of our people and tens of thousands of theirs as a result.
It marked the first time we engaged in a military campaign to control territory outside the borders of the U.S. without ever intending to annex it as future U.S. states. That’s when the U.S. ended as a nation and officially became an empire.
Saddam was a useful buffer against Iran. Iran was always the bigger threat.
The die was cast when we annexed Hawaii.
So, you would have been OK with the Mexican War?
Many wanted to make Cuba a State.
Probably not.
That was a rightous war. In any case, if you want to blame someone for our current predicament, blame Bush 1 and Clinton. We should have disingaged from Europe, and the me in 1992.
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