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I had buddies who spent time in Diego Garcia, before I knew how it came to be a US base. I think it's horrible how it was aquired and we should immediately make

I had buddies who spent time in Diego Garcia, before I knew how it came to be a US base. I think it's horrible how it was aquired and we should immediately make moves towards reperations and departure, or at least agreement to payments for lease. I'm tired of my country increasingly acting like an empire of force when that goes against everything I was taught we should stand for. More than that though, is the inability to admit wrongdoing and learn from past mistakes, at least in public. Recently the state department has been undergoing some upheaval due to the tumultous new POTUS. One was complaining to me about it and my response was they they should have gotten rid of the war-criminal Kissinger/Zbrenzski group a long time ago and they might have avoided some of this blowback. Too many DoS people essentially worship Kissinger as the inventor of American diplomacy. Hogwash I say. It's time for real leadership in the executive to take control of the state department and other agencies and reduce what I call Machiavellian realpolitik run amok. Here is Kissingers comment on Diego Garcia. “There are only 90,000 people out there. Who gives a damn?”

ethbro 9y ago
> I'm tired of my country increasingly acting like an empire of force when that goes against everything I was taught we should stand for. "Increasingly"? We're doing pretty well as opposed to historical standards. Hell, we created Panama as a nation for strategic military reasons. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_interventions_of_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_interventions_of_th...
devnonymous 9y ago
> I'm tired of my country increasingly acting like an empire of force when that goes against everything I was taught we should stand for. What surprises me everytime I interact with Americans is their naivety in their assumption that the leaders / politicians are any different or even better than those from any other country. Their belief that somehow these people who fight tremendous odds (almost certainly not ethically) to get to where they are, managed to do this while being true to any kind of moral compass. For that sort of thing to be true would necessitate that Americans be essentially different than other humans. IOW, I am surprised that Americans do not realise that the only difference between POTUS and Kim Jong Un or Saddam or... Is what they can reasonably get away with doing.
- ethbro 9y ago
  > IOW, I am surprised that Americans do not realise that the only difference between POTUS and Kim Jong Un or Saddam or... Is what they can reasonably get away with doing. Fyi, I imagine you're getting down voted because, to my knowledge, the current US government doesn't have labor camps or gas minorities. A better soapbox might have been "histoically, the US is as guilty as anyone of exterminating indiginous peoples."

ethbro 9y ago

> I'm tired of my country increasingly acting like an empire of force when that goes against everything I was taught we should stand for. "Increasingly"? We're doing pretty well as opposed to historical standards. Hell, we created Panama as a nation for strategic military reasons. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_interventions_of_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_interventions_of_th...

devnonymous 9y ago

> I'm tired of my country increasingly acting like an empire of force when that goes against everything I was taught we should stand for. What surprises me everytime I interact with Americans is their naivety in their assumption that the leaders / politicians are any different or even better than those from any other country. Their belief that somehow these people who fight tremendous odds (almost certainly not ethically) to get to where they are, managed to do this while being true to any kind of moral compass. For that sort of thing to be true would necessitate that Americans be essentially different than other humans. IOW, I am surprised that Americans do not realise that the only difference between POTUS and Kim Jong Un or Saddam or... Is what they can reasonably get away with doing.

ethbro 9y ago
> IOW, I am surprised that Americans do not realise that the only difference between POTUS and Kim Jong Un or Saddam or... Is what they can reasonably get away with doing. Fyi, I imagine you're getting down voted because, to my knowledge, the current US government doesn't have labor camps or gas minorities. A better soapbox might have been "histoically, the US is as guilty as anyone of exterminating indiginous peoples."