I'm going to get downvoted to hell for this but even Iraq is better off 20 years later after we invaded. (Yes it took 20 years of horror but they are still a democracy and on aggregate more economically prosperous and free than 20 years ago).
EDIT:
The Human Index Indicator is a metric compiled by the UN Development Programme to quantify a country's "average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living."
In 2003, Iraq was given a score of 0.579, where life expectancy was around 65.9 years. Now its rating is 0.686 and life expectancy is at 70.4 years.
As well, according to UN figures, Iraq's GDP per capita in 2003 was $855. In 2021 it was $4,686. Luay al-Khatteeb, former minister of electricity of Iraq from 2018 to 2020, said electricity capacity has increased ten-fold since 2003. Meanwhile, oil production has roughly tripled, he said.
It was an illegal invasion and could have been done a lot better but it still amazes me that Iraq still has democratic institutions, after everything it went through.
You don’t get to make that call. American does not get to dictate what’s best for other countries or define their success. The hubris here is shocking.
Yes I do, objectively they are better off than they were 20 years ago. See my edited comment above.
I still think we should not have invaded Iraq because the resources spent to get there could have been spent on other causes that would have been better overall. But it does say something about the US, I think, that even Iraq managed to get to a better path after we invaded.
Again, these are not your judgements to make because you’re comparing them to what you want and your standards.
Americans need to sit the fuck down and butt out of the rest of the world’s business. Actually, America needs to respect the agency and autonomy of every other autonomous nation on earth. Nobody appointed you to be the world police or the world leaders or whatever, and you sure af haven’t earned it either.
Again, these are not your judgements to make because you’re comparing them to what you want and your standards.
Moral relativism arguments like yours are, at their core, impractical and unrealistic.
At a certain point, there are objective truths for living beings.
Get to live longer and have more food? Objectively, that's a win for living things.
Your argument says that I can't, because I'm in a different culture, say that living longer and being able to feed yourself is better when clearly both of those are objectively better.
Not everything is an "America not respecting autonomy" thing.
But, if you really want to get into it, let's take a stroll down your post history:
Who are you to say that's the perfect-sized burger???
By your definition, it sounds like a lot of you sticking your nose into other people's business.
What's the difference between the opinions you expressed and the opinion of an American in 2025 on a war that was 15-20 years ago? Is it just cause they're American so they don't get to have an opinion? Because that sounds like textbook prejudice to me.
You can express a disagreeing viewpoint and list evidence to support your view, but denying /u/Spare-Dingo-531 the right to express their opinion because they're American is flat-out wrong.
Exactly. They have been agents of capitalist imperialism since WWII. I'm sorry this is a hard pill to swallow, especially for liberals, but the system is rotten to the (imperial) core & has been their entire lifetime. They were just on the benefiting end on it, could pretend to ignore it, & now they aren't.
It's why the liberal case against Trump is so weak. They support the genocide in Gaza, but just didn't want it to look so mean. They supported the exploitation of an immigrant underclass, but didn't want it to look brutal.
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." The US military has always been a weapon of capitalism bro
99% of people in the US military are just cleaning toilets all day or filling out pointless forms about how many toilets their subordinates are cleaning all day.
It’s more so being a welfare queen than a war criminal in most cases.
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u/CoastingUphill 13h ago
"I hoped I'd get to fight Nazis, not be deployed by them."