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bearssoapbox

(1,408 posts) Mon Sep 2, 2013, 12:04 AM Sep 2013

How the Rest of the World Views the American Military

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/08/how-rest-world-views-american-military

"Paul Waldman lays out a list of significant U.S. military actions over the past 50 years, and it adds up to 15 separate episodes, ranging from full-scale wars (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan) to smaller incursions (Grenada, Haiti, Panama). For those of you who are math challenged, this means we’ve launched a significant overseas assault every 40 months since 1963.

Waldman explains what this means: http://prospect.org/article/some-context-our-upcoming-bombing-campaign

Some of these operations worked out very well, others didn’t. And just to be clear, this history doesn’t tell us whether bombing Syria is a good idea or a bad idea. But if you’re wondering why people all over the world view the United States as an arrogant bully, reserving for itself the right to rain down death from above on anyone it pleases whenever it pleases, well there you go. It doesn’t matter whether you think some or even all of those actions were completely justified and morally defensible. From here, we tend to look at each of these engagements in isolation, asking whether there are good reasons to go in and whether we can accomplish important goals for ourselves and others. But when when a new American military campaign begins, people in the rest of the world see it in this broader historical context."

Another link from article- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations
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I'm still not sure what to think about Syria. I just know that I'm glad that I don't have to make the call. If Assad and the rebels(Al Qaeda?) fight it out and Assad wins what will he do afterwords? If the rebels and Al Qaeda wins then they could possibly have access to who-knows-what-kind-of weapons. Considering what a few Al Qaeda crazies did on 9/11 with a few box cutters, them having nerve gas, chemicals, incendiary, etc., gives me the willies.

I am glad though, that we have someone that is more level-headed and not a bunch of 'chicken hawks' prone to knee-jerk reactions. I believe if this had happened with Bush the Lesser in charge, Capt. Codpiece would be strutting around and giving victory speeches while straddling a cruise missile. Then him and his controllers would then send in a couple hundred thousand troops "for democracy".

I remember what President Obama was doing when Bin Laden had only a few hours to live. Or how he let the birthers and others that were saying he "palled around with terrorists", or kept wanting to see his college papers talk themselves into oblivian and irrelevance. The look on Trump's face during the dinner was priceless, especially sweet because of Trump's birth certificate idiocy.

I post this because I think it's interesting. It's history and I like history. I don't like war for many personal reasons. It maims the person that goes into a war. No matter what they say. Whether you can see the injuries or not. That is why people that have been in wars don't often talk about them or what happened.

Once was enough.