What gives America the right to invade foreign
nations, and change their governments? Should this be allowed?
Dude, I thought we settled the question 2,400 years
ago, during the Peloponnesian wars: “we shall not trouble you with specious
pretenses … since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is
only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and
the weak suffer what they must.”
According to Thucydides, that is what a certain
Democratic Empire, Athens, told the citizens of another state in response to
their refusal to support Athenian “interests” in the region. Shortly after,
Athenian soldiers invaded Melos, massacred countless innocent men and sold
their wives and children into slavery.
Your mistake here is the attention paid to post-hoc
explanations which invoke imaginary “rights” to justify brutal invasions or
subjugation of weaker peoples. America is strong. That’s the end of it.
And like all Empires, America is more than happy to
crush anyone who challenges its power. And the goodies the position of strength
affords those in power to keep citizens relatively satisfied. At least enough
that they will not revolt. As always, there is no shortage of philosophers to
justify the endeavor and politicians to sucker the public into supporting war.
It’s really quite simple. Politics is about power. In
order to stay in power, one must make certain sacrifices. A war will do
wonderful things to shore up the support of those you need to stay in power,
whether they be private business interests or just a good old leech on the
misguided patriotism of the masses. When an invasion can help the big guy
remain in power, or otherwise promote his influence (or at least gives him good
reason to think it will) we go to war. Sometimes, it doesn’t even blow up in
our faces. At least not yet. Think about Germany, Japan and South-Korea. More
often, it’s the same spectacle of immoral barbarity Empires have always engaged
in. Iraq, the Gulf, Vietnam, Latin America and coming to a place near you: Iran.
Of course, when the big guy has no reason to think
that a war will serve his power, we are principled isolationists. We can even
stand by, refrain from the urge to spread Democracy and Freedom, as 800,000
people are slaughtered in the span of a few weeks.
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