The US security state has been overthrowing democratic governments and installing dictators for its entire existence. I don’t think they’re planning on stopping any time soon. That is literally it’s raison d’etre.
5 Likes
Not to be glib, but @SweetSummerChild wants his takes back.
No matter how left or right w/r/t domestic politics, no American administration has ever been anything but all-in imperialist. ‘Nation-building’ is just what we call overthrowing governments to install regimes that put American business’s interests first and enforce wealth extraction with whatever brutality is necessary. The war was wrong because robbery is wrong, not because we fucked it up.
8 Likes
Gotta hand it to the American war machine. 20 years, trillions of tax payer dollars stolen, “withdraw”, military personnel killed during the withdrawal, military gains sympathy points, war machine gets to bomb in retaliation, American people cheer.
What a fucking system
2 Likes
Well you didnt with Germany after the 2nd world war. There was a Marshall plan because the USA realized it would be better if the country could rebuild itsself than having to supply if forever if you took out every penny you could find.
Are you ok that people esp woman live under shitty conditions that we tied to left behind 100 years ago or so? What is your alternative for the future to get regimes like Iran, Saudi Arabia and so on to value woman as equal or do you think there are bigger things to consider than some meager rights of few? I mean your embargos dont work. Your red lines you draw dont work if you dont stand by them. So what is the fkn alternative? If you dont have one then i wont give a fuck about climate change anymore because then I think its better that the human gets erased of this stupid planet.
Germany is a european nation with a white, christian populace. It’s a key difference.
1 Like
Yes, I’m okay with leaving women under conditions of 100 years ago rather than targeting the male members of their families with bombs and killing those same women as “collateral damage.” But hey, it’s okay you “accidentally” killed them, at least you feel better about answering the bell to your heroic call to action.
Bombs for progress!
1 Like
I get what you’re saying, but the US military is not a feminist empowerment organization. We can’t just impose modern values on Afghanistan at gunpoint.
If there’s any policy to support women in Afghanistan it is to allow them to flee to America en masse (while simultaneously improving the way American society treats women, ldo). Massive immigration to America is a massive win-win for everyone but the xenophobes, who regrettably are probably the majority of Americans. Still, probably a policy that outperforms “go there for 20 years and I dont know shoot some stuff”.
1 Like
I understand that but do you see a majority which would go with a drastic change in consumer behaviour by not buying stuff were its not 100% sure that it wasnt made by children, safe working conditions and fair wages? Or just dont buy stuff at all from countries were basic freedoms arent guaranteed? I dont see it. Its just more convient to be against war/bombs than looking for the mistakes in our own behaviour. The difference between kills through bombs and death through all the other stuff that comes with our capitalistic production chains(polluted water, climate change, environmental desasters etc.) in the developing world is that only the former makes it regularly into the media.
1 Like
As someone that just drove through Wyoming and south Dakota, you could airlift every Afghan that wants out and drop them there and it would still be the most desolate places on earth.
7 Likes
Did you see the Ames Monument? That thing cracks me up every time I see it for some reason.
Nah, we were only in the eastern edge of Wyoming.
Honestly we should give most of the midwest to immigrants. It would VASTLY improve it and America.
2 Likes
The Midwest has been one of the main centers for immigration for years. Can’t really send people to completely empty places like Wyoming. How the heck is anyone supposed to live there?
One thing that the Federal government could do to break down some of the “flyover country” stigma is open/move big Federal departments to cities in the Midwest. Once the Federal government is anchored as a major employer in those states you’d see a gradual (and admittedly partial) break down of the anti-government sentiment there. This is all a dream vs. reality, though, because a) the government is nowhere near functional enough to pull it off and b) the government is packed with people who have never dreamed of any life except living in the Boston-Washington northeast mega corridor and would be terrified that they would have to move to, like, Cleveland.
1 Like
People are thinking about this. When I left the federal service there was talk of my department opening a big new branch in Detroit. The gov’t of course has the same problem any employer has: how to get early career people to move into bombed-out Midwestern cities.
Places like Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin have lots of existing infrastructure that’s been abandoned and can potentially accommodate refugees. You can’t just like dump thousands of people into someplace like North Dakota and say “gl building shelter.”