2016-03-04, 09:09 PM
[MENTION=14191]Silvarien[/MENTION], America never acted, on behalf of Europe or anyone else, out of the goodness of its heart.
America, like any other country, has always acted out of its own self interest.
And America's self-interest is the interest of big business that rules it. Do you think American industry shed any tears over the soldiers dying in Europe? Hell no, they were too busy manufacturing for the "war effort". Same as Nazi Germany, except the money went to private hands rather than the government.
I don't see how you consider the Cold War to be America saving anyone's butt. It was about two sides trying to rule the world and threatening to destroy each other with nuclear weapons. Everyone in the middle, be it Europe or Southeast Asia, were pawns in this war, not its cause.
"Keeping the world safe for Democracy" actually means "Keeping the world safe for Coca Cola." If America kept to itself and let the rest of the world go under Soviet rule, who would buy America's products?
Let's look to more modern times. The USA sending troops to die in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq... Who begged America to do this? Who were they saving? Big egos and big business.
Mind you, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. My own country, Israel, probably owes its continued existence to being in America's (and America's business') self interest. Israel receives large sums of money from the US government every year - which it is required to spend on American goods. So, in effect, the US government is indirectly funding its own industries, with Israel as a (very willing) middleman. And Israel is not the only country helped in this way.
So you should not go spouting "we saved Europe's sorry ass at great cost to ourselves out of the goodness of our hearts," because that simply was never so. Just as the French didn't help the American Revolutionaries out of the goodness of their hearts.
Communism is socialism gone bad in the hands of tyrants. We see all over the world - yes, Europe, and Canada, for example - that socialism can work without tyranny. You can disagree with the premise of high taxation for big government spending on giving everyone certain minimal quality of life, but trying to fearmonger that socialism necessarily means gulags is just a wee bit disingenuous.
America, like any other country, has always acted out of its own self interest.
And America's self-interest is the interest of big business that rules it. Do you think American industry shed any tears over the soldiers dying in Europe? Hell no, they were too busy manufacturing for the "war effort". Same as Nazi Germany, except the money went to private hands rather than the government.
I don't see how you consider the Cold War to be America saving anyone's butt. It was about two sides trying to rule the world and threatening to destroy each other with nuclear weapons. Everyone in the middle, be it Europe or Southeast Asia, were pawns in this war, not its cause.
"Keeping the world safe for Democracy" actually means "Keeping the world safe for Coca Cola." If America kept to itself and let the rest of the world go under Soviet rule, who would buy America's products?
Let's look to more modern times. The USA sending troops to die in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq... Who begged America to do this? Who were they saving? Big egos and big business.
Mind you, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. My own country, Israel, probably owes its continued existence to being in America's (and America's business') self interest. Israel receives large sums of money from the US government every year - which it is required to spend on American goods. So, in effect, the US government is indirectly funding its own industries, with Israel as a (very willing) middleman. And Israel is not the only country helped in this way.
So you should not go spouting "we saved Europe's sorry ass at great cost to ourselves out of the goodness of our hearts," because that simply was never so. Just as the French didn't help the American Revolutionaries out of the goodness of their hearts.
Communism is socialism gone bad in the hands of tyrants. We see all over the world - yes, Europe, and Canada, for example - that socialism can work without tyranny. You can disagree with the premise of high taxation for big government spending on giving everyone certain minimal quality of life, but trying to fearmonger that socialism necessarily means gulags is just a wee bit disingenuous.