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Just throwing a few out there. Feel free to add some in.
(Prefer this to be on this forum rather than History.)
For example, if you could turn back the clock and knowing what you know now, would you (if you were president) have invaded Iraq? Afghanistan?
Iraq situation
Hiroshima
Vietnam escalation
Build the International space station
Boycott 1980 Olympics
Let MacArthur go into North Korea
(Californians), supported Prop 13
Elect a president via electoral college (assuming it wasn't always done this way)
Supported the creation of Israel
Got involved in WWI
Just throwing a few out there. Feel free to add some in.
(Prefer this to be on this forum rather than History.)
For example, if you could turn back the clock and knowing what you know now, would you (if you were president) have invaded Iraq? Afghanistan?
Iraq situation
Hiroshima
Vietnam escalation
Build the International space station
Boycott 1980 Olympics
Let MacArthur go into North Korea
(Californians), supported Prop 13
Elect a president via electoral college (assuming it wasn't always done this way)
Supported the creation of Israel
Got involved in WWI
Others?
Iraq situation- I wouldn't have done it. We should have headed straight to Afghanistan.
Hiroshima- Would have done it. It was a necessary evil.
Vietnam escalation- Nope. There was no point to it.
Build the International space station- Done it.
Boycott 1980 Olympics- Wouldn't have boycotted.
Let MacArthur go into North Korea- I would have let him go into North Korea.
Supported the creation of Israel- I would not have supported it. It has caused too many problems. This is a terrible analogy, but creating a Jewish state in Muslim territory is like putting a cat in a pen filled with dogs.
Got involved in WWI- I would have stayed out of it.
This is a good way to get a very confusing and disjoined thread going on. The Iraq question has been beaten to death in the political forum and will do no good here. The Hiroshima question has been beaten to death here.
How can you answer most of these questions in retrospect? The only thing we know is what happened as a result, what we don't know is what could have happened if we didn't do this or that. I've read somewhere "Historians are prophets in reverse". These questions are fun but they are never conclusive and really serve no purpose. What we could debate is "what did we know at the time on what could have happened if we did or did not take action? What information was available to us in making the policy or action?" Now, THAT's history. Anything beyond that is speculation.
Using the money I saved by boycotting the Olympics, I would build a super space station from which Hioshima style bombs could be dropped on Iraq, Hanoi and North Korea. While they were staggered by the assaults and distracted, I would sneak in the creation of Israel.
But no way I let the US get involved in WW I, it may have been the dumbest event of all time...all the major powers bleeding treaure and lives on an immense scale....for no identified goals whatsoever.
Using the money I saved by boycotting the Olympics, I would build a super space station from which Hioshima style bombs could be dropped on Iraq, Hanoi and North Korea. While they were staggered by the assaults and distracted, I would sneak in the creation of Israel.
But no way I let the US get involved in WW I, it may have been the dumbest event of all time...all the major powers bleeding treaure and lives on an immense scale....for no identified goals whatsoever.
But there'd be no reason to bomb Iraq before the existence of Israel, since AIPAC's domination of U.S. foreign policy is the reason we went to war in Iraq in the first place.
But there'd be no reason to bomb Iraq before the existence of Israel, since AIPAC's domination of U.S. foreign policy is the reason we went to war in Iraq in the first place.
The really dumb thing about the 1980 Olympics was not our government's boycott of it, but our Media's boycott of it. The Olympics went ahead without us, with participants from the countries that had won 82% of all the medals in the 1976 Olympics. In other words, 5/6 of the legitimate Olympians were there, and our Media pretended like it did not take place at all. The US and Australia were the only boycotting countries that had a chance of winning more than a token medal or two, and five out of six medals were won by the athletes who would have won them anyway.
Other controversial events that I would add to the list of Actions, would be the blockade and boycott of Cuba, which has lasted now virtually unchanged through 11 administrations, with the Cuban people being the only losers.
Maybe as a single sweeping category, we might nominate the Monroe Doctrine enforcements, including invasions of Panama and Grenada, the participation in the Nicaragua and El Salvador issues, and the installation of Pinochet in Chile.
I'd have located Israel in Florida rather than the Middle East. Seriously, our support for the estabishment of Israel was our worst foreign policy blunder of the 20th century and one we'll be paying for for decades. A major motivation was anti-semitism because we didn't want a lot of Jewish refugees coming here but we'd have been much better off had we done that than create a tinderbox in an area so key to our national interests (oil).
Last edited by CAVA1990; 02-12-2011 at 06:44 AM..
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