On the avoidance of small wars

[Dayuhan]

Yes the Americans squandered the opportunity to do good in the world. With their Presidents Wilson and FDR leading the charge to put the boot into the Brit Empire which led to uncontrolled and often chaotic decolonization.

We've been through this before, but at the end of WW2 the Brit Empire was an ex-parrot. it needed no boot to push it into oblivion, nor would anything Americans could have done have held it together.

To their credit many Americans are aware of the fact that the end result is that the world is not a better place despite their belief that they were making it so.

Is the world not a better place? Better than what? When was it ever better than it is now? I certainly wouldn't say it's better because of Americans or America, but that doesn't mean it isn't better. We are neither scourge nor saviour, just another bunch of generally misinformed blunderers trying to muddle through.

Your broad brush condemnation of them is more painful than most will admit.

Only to the very isolated and very thin-skinned. We've all heard far worse.

So you will be accused of being misinformed, misguided etc ... and it will get worse (so you will need broad shoulders).

Broad shoulders might be useful. The ability to support one's arguments might be even more so.

The bottom line sadly is that unlike the Brits the Americans are not mature enough as a nation to engage in robust rebate on a subject such as this. Around here you will find they can dish it out but they can't take it (and often the moderators take sides). You need to know where you are headed.

Bring it on. I will personally request that the moderators be permissive, which may or may not accomplish anything.

What might be a more interesting robust debate would be to get a bunch of people who think America has done everything wrong (no shortage of them around) together and let them argue over what America should have done. They all seem to have quite different and generally incompatible ideas on that score, and of course they all absolutely know that they are right and the others are wrong.