by that logic then we're screwed no matter what we do. we do nothing and we encourage them to attack us. we do something, usually declare war, we kill many innocents and obliterate their livelihood, thereby giving them damn good reason to attack us.
congratulations and welcome to the real world. it ain't always pretty is it? your next step is to realize that wrath cannot always be turned aside with a kind word.
what american interest?
the only countries looking to expand are small ones. ones that don't have smart bombs or huge military forces. quite frankly we don't understand what's going on in other countries and their reasons for fighting. so who are we to force them to stop? Sure if they're our allies we should back them up but if not then it's their affair not ours.
while we were out gettin' high somebody came up with the grand idea of a global economy. you can bemoan our fate at the hands of the evil oil companies all you want, but it's not just big oil that's invested in the middle east. every american business seems to be sticking its fingers into the global pie and guess what, the rest of the world has its fingers in ours as well.
if you still think it's none of our business, consider the third world country that begs and pleads for american businesses to invest in their country and help build the infrastructure needed to sustain trade. sure enough, next week there is a coup or inter tribal warfare or just a bit of casual genocide and the new government decides to nationalize all those lovely investments. who do you think comes out on the short end of the stick then? certainly not big business, who was so over insured that this seems like a pay day. not the insurers, who will only pass that cost on to the next poor schmuck. bingo, we pay for our government's inability to maintain stability in the global business arena.
i suppose we could go the isolationist route, but in a capitalist economy that is a sure road to stagnation and death. like it or not, the world has become a very small place where even the most remote regions are struggling to become industrialized. for the us to sit on its hands while some struggling nation spirals downward into primitive brutality is nearly impossible.
he was definitely ruthless, but you can't secure that kind of power on ruthlessness alone. take for example the sectarian violence we see today in iraq. that kind of hatred doesn't pop up overnight. he spent years ensuring that these people were pissed at each other so they would never band together....
that sectarian violence existed long before saddam was even a gleam in his daddy's eye. the fact that he didn't use his iron fisted rule to attempt to obliterate it is more a testament to his merciless nature than any intelligence.
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