Bob Phillips said:
Undoubtedly true, but was the New Deal a bad thing?
Question of means and ends. The ends were good and ncessary, but the means
used to secure them were quite similar to those used in single party states
and have caused no end of problems for state-federal relations since.
And whilst we know the Japanese internmnet camps were unjustified,
did FDR have the power to resist? . . .
Probably not, but you have to look at the crass politics of the matter.
There was some detention in Hawaii, but nowhere near what happened in the
western states, and it didn't last in Hawaii. After Midway, there was no
serious threat of invasion. Perhaps the detention camps continues as long as
they did in the western states because they were simply widely popular, and
FDR being a political creature was giving the people what they wanted? The
more pertinent question would be whether or not FDR had any desire to
resist.
I would argue that Germany only became a member of the clube after
it had reformed (whether by own or others efforts), and was not
still pursuing those aberrations.
A case could be made that West Germany became a charter member so that
France could keep and eye on it and bind its interests more tightly to those
of western Europe. So along those lines, would the EU and Turkey be better
off with Turkey in or out? And on a slight tangent, which is more likely to
become a member first - Turkey or Serbia?
. . . Taliban and Al-Qaeed, the Philippines, Cambodia, and is now
happeing in Uzbekistan etc, etc. We have learnt nothing.
Taliban/Al Qaeda I can understand as unforseen offshoots from supporting
Afghan partisans during the Soviet occupation. But the Philippines and
Cambodia? And are you drawing parallels between these countries and groups
and Turkey? Turkey may not be a gentle country (as the Kurds and Armenians
can testify), but it's more democratic than most, certainly more so that
most former British colonies until recent years.
. . . But I don't see the US as cleaning up any mess, they
are more in their own self-interest, and it will come back and
bite them just as it did with us.
Kuwait was right, Iraq was wrong. Supporting the Saudi royal family is way
wrong, but demographics may force a change of policy. Certainly the US
dependence on oil skews its policy choices. However, when oil isn't the
primary focus, I think the US has made more right moves than wrong, though
the game could be stacked so it's a sure loser in the long run. What the US
hasn't done is support democratic movements like it did in Central and South
America. That's a shame.