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On Fuch's list: A line of truth through all your points, but some are more symptomatic, than causal - a ride down the slippery slope if you will. Hard to sort out where these things begin, as the...

While the discussion of weapon bore's is fascinating, I noticed that no one answered these questions from a few pages back (though several took shots at each in the posts pror to my request):



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Empires always rationalized their behavior by the very real benefits they brought, and then typically fall unable to understand why people might prefer ineffective freedom to effective control.
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Fuchs your examples miss the mark.

The Brits milked the world for decades, but that ended long ago. I doubt the Russians purpose in going to Afghanistan was a quest for tribute so much as an...

I doubt the Romans paid market price or did not extract heavy taxes from those they exercised dominion over or offered their protective services to. Paying someone not to attack you or to protect you...

History will judge. America is undoubtedly the first Empire to pay retail.

What gets us in trouble is that we are stuck in the middle. We want to be a good guy, we think or ourself as a good guy,...

If we adopted the "principles" held by the rest of the world the Middle East would be an American gas station and every piece of geostrategically key terrain and waterway around the world would have...

All revolutions are germane to the understanding of revolution.

Most like to focus on the differences, and those differences are indeed important to understanding a particular revolution in...

More than the books they read, it was the times they lived in that shaped both the books they opted to read and how they interpreted their meaning.

I can read Mein Kamph and think, "huh, that's...

Also worth remembering is that in the American Colonies there was extremelly effective governance for that era, and perhaps the highest standard of living as a whole in the world. Yet still,...

Obviously it is the affected government that must listen to its own people. These things are not about us. We need to learn to accept that, regardless of how keen we believe our interests in the...

Revolutions cannot be well assessed by outsiders. Or by the affected government either for that matter.

All such grievances are as perceived by the affected populace; and typically the...

First thing you've gotten right in this whole exchange. I stand corrected.

Yeah, that guy. Clearly no one was containing Japan in that era. No one knows what FDR would have done if he had lived to shape the post-war peace. I only point it out because many seem to think...

Carl, to paraphrase Glenn Campbell, "That's mighty bold talk for a one-eyed fat man."

If ignorance is bliss, you must be very happy indeed.

David,

You are correct. We will never know what would have happened if Roosevelt would have survived, but it is pretty safe to assume that the Colonial powers would have been denied from...

Carl,
That is an impressive load of ideologically fused tripe.

Revolutions among populaces where agriculture is the key industry and where land is owned by an elite few tend to respond to a...

As you fully realize, the final conventional battles in Vietnam were the long planned "Phase III" finale of the Maoist model of insurgency adopted and applied in Vietnam. As to Russian and Chinese...

Better yet, name the single existential treat to our nation. Besides ourselves, that is.

The world is a dangerous place, and when one meddles too deeply in the business of others one draws fire. ...

Bill,

I did answer his question. You just don't like my answer, which is not "left wing" its just the facts as laid out in history. Revolutions are messy, but sometimes they are the only...

Carl,

You have your opinion, you don't listen to positions that counter you opinion. That is your right.

You apparently hate/fear China. Great. But they are not our enemy and we need to...

Carl, (yawn)

Really? That's all the game you've got?

Perhaps you remember the 150 million. Americans who didn't want or vote for the past several American Presidents? Majority rules, even in...

A couple of keen insights worth remembering (and even more true today than when originally spoken):

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will...

I made the table up. It's just how I think and feel. Any overlap with what anyone else has put forth is purely coincidental.

Call it what you want. While we will always need to guard against...

Well, like all grand strategies, it isn't for the people it affects on the action end, it is for the people it protects at the point of origin.

I think most would prefer that when the US comes to...