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0 pointsEA-31674mo ago0 comments

In a bleak sense I suppose I can understand, it's not as though they can have a big, "By the way, we greedily assisted the Nazis with the worst act of industrialized murder in modern history, profited from it, were never held to meaningful account, and we're still successful," room.

And examples such as "de-Baathification" in Iraq show that even the best-intentioned actions can have wide-reaching and truly devastating unintended consequences. I won't pretend that I have some neat and clean answer to any of this, but there's a persistent sense of moral outrage that feels earned around all of this.

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jacobolus4mo ago

They could have an exhibit like that, perhaps describing how they were trying to make amends, donating money to projects promoting pluralism and diversity, opposing authoritarianism around the world, helping the descendants of those they harmed, etc.

But they're not going to, because the people in charge don't sincerely care about the topic.

As for Iraq: I don't see much evidence that US actions there were "best-intentioned", or even well-intentioned.

lostlogin4mo ago

What even were the intentions? September 11 wasn’t related, the WMDs lie was known to be false. Was it just Bush trying to impress daddy?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-64980565

queenkjuul4mo ago

Imperial hubris. Surely the US can simply decide to own the oil and poppy fields with no consequences, right?

It's not like people aren't still frothing at the mouth to repeat the same mistake in Venezuela or Palestine or Yemen. Maintaining empire requires shows of force. There's always profit to be made along the way. It motivates itself

actionfromafar4mo ago

” Bremer issued Order Number 2, in effect dissolving the entire former Iraqi army[45] and putting 400,000 former Iraqi soldiers out of work.[46] The move was widely criticized for creating a large pool of armed and disgruntled youths for the insurgency.”

Paul Bremer made something very, very stupid.

queenkjuul4mo ago

I would contend that there's a middle ground between "de-baathification" and "putting former Nazi officials in places of immense political, economic, and military positions"

I'm always surprised more people don't know how many Nazis were in NATO offices and the West German federal police

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0 pointsEA-31674mo ago0 comments

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jacobolus4mo ago

But they're not going to, because the people in charge don't sincerely care about the topic.

As for Iraq: I don't see much evidence that US actions there were "best-intentioned", or even well-intentioned.

lostlogin4mo ago

What even were the intentions? September 11 wasn’t related, the WMDs lie was known to be false. Was it just Bush trying to impress daddy?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-64980565

queenkjuul4mo ago

Imperial hubris. Surely the US can simply decide to own the oil and poppy fields with no consequences, right?

actionfromafar4mo ago

Paul Bremer made something very, very stupid.

queenkjuul4mo ago

I would contend that there's a middle ground between "de-baathification" and "putting former Nazi officials in places of immense political, economic, and military positions"

I'm always surprised more people don't know how many Nazis were in NATO offices and the West German federal police

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse