Thursday, February 24, 2005
Allies and Enemies
Have you noticed lately how our allies and enemies seem to change places a lot? Not that long ago we were giving Saddam Hussein and Iraq military aid and congratulating them on what they were doing - and now we're not.
In World War I, we invaded Russian, in World War II, they were our "allies" and afterwards our enemy, and now we aren't even sure. In World War I we kicked Germany's ass, the kicked it again when they attacked our ally, France. And did it again in World War II. Now the Germans are sort of our allies, at least up through the eighties, then France was an ally until they got tired of us and moved out on their own. Now no one is quite sure what say about Europe - except for the east European who were our enemy in the cold war and now are becoming our ally in the terror war - except for those who are still our enemy.
The Pacific is even more mixed up. Japan attacked us in World War II, then we conquered them (resulting in a most benign conquering I might add) and while we forced them to be pacifists (which really doesn't fit Japanese culture) are now pushing towards militarism again. China - depending on which China you're talking about is/was our enemy and friend. Formosa was Japan's in World War II, until we kicked them out. Then the Nationalists moved in after the commies kicked their ass in 1948. Then we recognized Taiwan as China until the 1970s when Nixon decided the commies in mainland China was really China and Taiwan was "sorta" China. Now we're getting together with the Japanese to support Taiwan as a sovereign nation - sort of. I think more to tweak mainland China than for any other reason. After all, mainland China is just slightly less authoritarian than -- I don't really know than who -- but we still think the way they mistreat people is OK compared to the way, say Iraq mistreated people, after of course, we decided that Iraq wasn't nice anymore.
I'm not even going to begin to try to think about other countries. Quick, are the following countries good guys or bad guys this month: India, Pakistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Malaysia, Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Columbia, Saudi Arabia, Libya. Or how about next month.
2fers: The World and Maps!
