US blockade of Cuba

[jbg]

Why anyone would choose to ignore the complete history of American foreign policy and such propaganda leads me to believe the untidy arrangements for their own days of empire would prove embarrassing and equally indefensible. America is the same as it ever was.

I'm not quite sure where you're going with this. Normally I would put this in a PM since this post is somewhat more confrontational than I normally post on the board, but you have that function blocked.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the complete history of American foreign policy". Unfortunately, one of the few things the leftists and rightists in the US seem to agree about (though at different times, rightists before WW II and leftists in recent days) is the concept that America's involvement in the rest of the world should be limited, and only when America's interests are directly, immediately and severely threatened. Not for them is the Churchillian view of nipping tyrannies in the bud where possible. Granted, Churchill was willing to fight to the last drop of Canadian, Aussie and US blood.

I would hope that what you mean is that America's ideals are always good, but are often either not translated into action, or resources are not mobilized to promote them (with the signal and belated exception of WW II). Your post leaves me befuddled and confused though.

[bush_cheney2004]

I would hope that what you mean is that America's ideals are always good, but are often either not translated into action, or resources are not mobilized to promote them (with the signal and belated exception of WW II). Your post leaves me befuddled and confused though.

No...I do not mean that America's ideals are always good in any moral sense....they are always good in advancing America's political and economic interests. Mine is an amoral view that reflects the actual history of American domestic and foreign policy, not the naive fairy tales related by some Americans, Canadians, or other nationals in the hope of casting today's Iraq or Afghanistan as particularly dark aberrations compared to the past. The USA is less a champion of ideals than just a different way to achieve the same economic objectives as the kings and queens of the past, achieved and bolstered by the idea of individual and liberty.

The much maligned slogan of "freedom" heard today is no different than the "freedom" heralded 50, 75, 100, or 200 years ago. Remember folks....the "Evil Giant" started as 13 small colonies on the eastern seaboard that decided it would be a good idea to boot the king of Pax Britannia in the ass. The rest, as they say, is history.

[myata]

I'm not quite sure where you're going with this. Normally I would put this in a PM since this post is somewhat more confrontational than I normally post on the board, but you have that function blocked.

C'mon jbg, we here aren't bound by the post 9/11 self-censorship for the sake of greater good.

I would hope that what you mean is that America's ideals are always good, but are often either not translated into action, or resources are not mobilized to promote them (with the signal and belated exception of WW II). Your post leaves me befuddled and confused though.

You see, that's the problem. If the actions don't live up to the ideals, how do we know that them ideals "are always good"?