[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by scandium

Or at least that is what they teach you to believe (and many of us as well, whose school books also happen to be written in the United States).

You have a valid point that up until, and including, WWII this was exactly what other countries were doing in one form or another.

Oh they have been doing it for quite a bit after that. Remember the Soviet Union? Or China? Or to some extent England and France (holding on to what they had in a death grip). What does the US do? Hay Puerto Rico, statehood, independence or the same old same old? Go ask your people and let us know, we’re cool with what ever you decide.

And there's no denying that many things the US has done have had a benevolent impact (the Marshall Plan is a prime example). But is this the full story of US intervention? Is its foreign policy really driven by a desire to maintain peace and help the less fortunate around the world? I think not, on both counts.

The Marshall Plan was to maintain peace by preventing the Soviets from getting a bigger foot hold in the Med. Remember the Monroe Doctrine? Europe say out of the Americas. The Korean War? The Communist Bloc decides it wants to help the North Korans invade their neighbors.

There's a much more modern and effective way of achieving imperial style wealth and power without conquering anyone: economic imperialism. Like the imperialism of old it transfers the wealth and resources out of the client state and into the imperial power, but without all of the expense and mess of old fashioned colonialsm with its need for occupation and risk of rebellion. Its a subtler, kinder imperialism that all Western countries wage but that the US wages better than anyone.

So we can't act for the common good simply because we have so much money? If say Portugal or Norway or Lesotho had billions and billions of dollars and a huge military and they didn’t act to prevent a country whose leaders have determined their people’s goal should be the systematic extermination of another group of people by the most heinous acts imaginable you would be screaming at the top of your lungs (…err typing at the tips of your fingers?) for them to act, you would probably be even saying that’s its criminal not to act. Everyone complains when the US acts and they don’t like what we are doing and everyone complains when the US doesn’t and everyone doesn’t even bother to remember when the US acts and does good. As for money coming in to the US there has been a huge discussion in how Illegal Immigrants to the US come here for the sole reason to send money out.