Originally posted by Curval
Midnight..no disrespect, but I think he was refering to:
Cuba - attempting to support a democratic government by recruiting Cubans to invade and then leaving them stranded after the "Bay of Pigs".
Vietnam - Mistaking Ho Chi Mihn for a communist initially, when in fact he was a Nationalist. A mistake that cost the US 60,000 men.
El Salvador - Supporting a dubious government for years
Nicaragua - same as above
Panama - supporting Noriega and then having to invade the country in order to get rid of him.
Supporting Irag in their war with Iran - that tended to bite the Americans in the bellybutton a few years later.
Not ousting Hussein and leaving the Kurds to the mercy (or lack thereof) of the Iraqis. He later supported terrorism to the maximum extent possible.
etc..I could go on..but I'm late for lunch..
Please don't get me wrong...I am a huge supporter of the US, but I am not blind to their horrible track record in certain cases.
Flame away.
Cuba - Shame on US for the Bay of Pigs tragedy.
Vietnam - a crystal ball would have been nice.
El Salvador - Cold War strat, and no worse than supporting the Soviet Union during WW2.
Nicaragua - Same as above, and seems to have worked-out in the end.
Panama - I guess the General though he was invincible and could do anything. I hear too much drugs can do that and worse to people.
Supporting Iraq - Ya, they had hordes of M60 tanks, F-15s and cobra helicopters and billions of dollars. Saddam is the type of guy that needs a lot of encouragement to go on the warpath. lol. He saw a weakness and tried to exploit it. The US saw an opportunity to get back at a regime that held a bunch of US diplomats hostage for 444 days.
Iraq 1991 - Imagine all the other OBLs that would have popped-up because the US was occupying a defenseless Muslim country and all the innocent people killed fighting in Baghdad urban combat. All the pictures of dead babies on BBC and CNN would have led to a crucifixion of the US. I guess the US would then be even more responsible for attacks on it like 11Sept. In hindsight, we should have done it anyway.
Kurds - Shame on US. Republican Guard survived to massacre them. No-Fly-Zones and embargo were steps to protect them, but were inadequate and result in political attacks on the US and more palaces for Sadam. NATO ally Turkey has a Kurd "problem" too. I guess that had something to do with the lack for a more forcefull defense of the Kurds.