Impressive breakage of Betteridge’s law of headlines.
In the world stage it’s obvious to me that the US is the Least Evil Empire, so they have my backing. But damn what a close call it’s been huh? The list of ruthless dictators the CIA has helped gain power is so long I can’t even keep track. Anything the keep the commies out, and it simply wasn’t worth it.
If the US had taken their role as steward of the “Pax America” a bit more seriously, the global south would’ve today been as angry about Putin’s war as the West is. It makes perfect sense for a free speech free market democracy to be the leader of the free world but the US did a shit job at it.
> In the world stage it’s obvious to me that the US is the Least Evil Empire, so they have my backing.
I think this is probably true, but maybe not obvious, and especially not obious if you live in South or Central America, the middle east or some parts of Asia. It's probably very obvious if you live in parts of Africa or other parts of Asia though.
China does some horrific shit, but they never nuked anyone just for fun. And the list of countries they have organized genocides in, installed brutal dictators to, or simply carpet bombed into oblivion for no reason is a lot shorter.
> China does some horrific shit, but they never nuked anyone just for fun
To be fair the nuking wasn't for fun, it was to save hundreds of thousands of lives of their own soldiers (and the local civilians as an afterthought). China is currently at the late 19th early 20th century US stage, with infrastructure investments to further their business interests. Then they start taking over stuff because loans can't be paid off, start asking for preferential treatment, etc. We'll see how it goes, but yes, China today is a much less evil choice for a foreign benefactor, with some massive caveats though.
"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons." -- Admiral Leahy
“I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of ‘face.’”
The urgency of the program was to get the bombs out the door before their target surrendered either to the USSR or unconditionally. The only thing needed to arrange a surrender much sooner was to give the government some way to rationalize it as not an 'unconditional' surrender even if the terms were the same.
McArthur et al weren't as evil as the Japanese command, but they weren't that far off.
In the world stage it’s obvious to me that the US is the Least Evil Empire, so they have my backing. But damn what a close call it’s been huh? The list of ruthless dictators the CIA has helped gain power is so long I can’t even keep track. Anything the keep the commies out, and it simply wasn’t worth it.
If the US had taken their role as steward of the “Pax America” a bit more seriously, the global south would’ve today been as angry about Putin’s war as the West is. It makes perfect sense for a free speech free market democracy to be the leader of the free world but the US did a shit job at it.