The era of Western countries having colonies is over. There used to be economic colonies, and most of those are independent now, except for the poorest. Lately we’ve been trying again under the guise of “democracy” colonies. We tried to do this most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq, with the hope that we could partner with them later in economic goods, i.e., oil and minerals..It isn’t working. Those countries on the opposite side of the world (in more ways than one) have cultures and traditions older than ours by far. Only a small number of their people seem to want our status quo. .Edmund Burke touched on this in his “Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies.” The maintenance of our ideas of government will not stick, just as the British ideas for the American colonies did not. He said, “A nation is not governed which is perpetually to be conquered.” Isn’t this the situation, now? .He also said the application of military measures against unrest is futile: “Conciliation failing, force remains; but force failing, no further hope of conciliation is left.”.Eventually we will leave Iraq and Afghanistan to their fates, just as previous “conquerors” did, having made things even harder for the people there. The slaughter of innocents will ensue. .Even though our intentions may have begun as just, evil came of them. Who is to blame? Not the American public as a whole, I think, nor the average soldier. Often America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair. In these cases, unfortunately, it was countries.
The era of Western countries having colonies is over. There used to be economic colonies, and most of those are independent now, except for the poorest. Lately we’ve been trying again under the guise of “democracy” colonies. We tried to do this most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq, with the hope that we could partner with them later in economic goods, i.e., oil and minerals..It isn’t working. Those countries on the opposite side of the world (in more ways than one) have cultures and traditions older than ours by far. Only a small number of their people seem to want our status quo. .Edmund Burke touched on this in his “Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies.” The maintenance of our ideas of government will not stick, just as the British ideas for the American colonies did not. He said, “A nation is not governed which is perpetually to be conquered.” Isn’t this the situation, now? .He also said the application of military measures against unrest is futile: “Conciliation failing, force remains; but force failing, no further hope of conciliation is left.”.Eventually we will leave Iraq and Afghanistan to their fates, just as previous “conquerors” did, having made things even harder for the people there. The slaughter of innocents will ensue. .Even though our intentions may have begun as just, evil came of them. Who is to blame? Not the American public as a whole, I think, nor the average soldier. Often America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair. In these cases, unfortunately, it was countries.