Hi Tracy

<snip>
>Look at the the actions of the U.S. overseas - good and bad - and look at the history of the once British Empire and there is no comparison. We have definitely stuck our nose where it does not belong and stayed longer than was needed, but at least we did not murder hundreds of thousands of natives, take over the country and its government, and monepolized their production.

Invading a country and over-throwing its current government in order to put into place a "friendly" puppet regime of one's choosing is occupation by proxy. When those puppet regimes slaughter tens of thousands of its own civilians using weapons and resources supplied to them from "friendly" supporting nations one cannot really claim innocence.


>The two countries that we could be acused of 'ruling' or 'occupying' (although that is a poor interpretation and is only used to put a more negative spin on it) are still in their infancy stage with no established government and successful police force to maintain security. In two or three years it can be reviewed again and scrutinized in compared to the British past but it is still to early for those.

Presumably you refer to Iraq and Afganistan. I agree that there are reasons why the US et al are there, some good, some bad, some fake. Ultmately I think the UN should have been there too in order to give it all some support.


>That does not take into consideration our history of supporting insurgents in other countries but we never took over those countries and ran them and controled the locals for own benefit as other countries have done. As for England, Egypt and cotton come immediately to mind... let's not forget the Sudan, India, and on and on and on...

Supporting insurgents is not by definition a noble cause. Country A chooses which side they prefer in country B and then supports them. That is not necessarily the morally right thing per se. If those insurgents then come to power then effectively one has gained "influence" and power in that state via proxy. It's a more sophisticated type of control/occupation. Thousands of people have been killed as a direct consequence of supporting insurgents and influence peddling in countries around the world. And the purpose is for control and influence and money and power.

So many of these types of actions by numerous countries in the last 50 years has back-fired with terrible consequences. But hey, as long as the politicians still have a job and their spin controllers...