Reply #15: The "real owners" were equipped with guns (sometimes better ones)... [View All]

[SteveM]

No one can excuse the killing/extirpation of Native Americans (and some would argue, the Spanish/Mexicans). The "nations in Europe were there all along" -- having huge wars.

"Religion and guns are a lethal combination" -- And before there were guns, religion and swords were a lethal combination. I think you would be more accurate in saying: "Religion and WAR are a lethal combination."

An aside: I still can't quite pinpoint the motivation for the Iraq war. Some say it is latter-day imperialism, and that has merit. But I see a lot of the Manifest Destiny you reference in your comments, esp. about providing "superior institutions" with which to displace existing cultures and values. Imperialism, for the most part, wasn't interested in such a displacement. It was interested in using the existing cultures to extract wealth, allowing break-down and causing cultural collapse only as necessary. The U.S. seems to be using the principle of cultural conversion as a fundamental reason for war. Manifest Destiny going East!