• Dessalines@lemmy.ml
    343·
    19 hours ago

    And a bunch of dronies in other threads are going on about how “authoritarian” insert X US enemy country is.

    No other country has committed more atrocities and wreaked more havoc on the world than the US in the 20-21st centuries.

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
        7·
        3 hours ago

        There’s certainly a lot after that, but this Smedley Butler quote is from 1935:

        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.

        And of course there’s the native american genocide, unparalleled in history, which mostly took place in the 1800s.

      • DragonSidedD@lemmy.mlBanned
        15·
        4 hours ago

        Yes, that is exactly what this is.

        It is simultaneously true that:

        • The USA has been the global hegemon for almost a century. During this time it has committed serious crimes and needlessly caused many civilian deaths in pursuit of its political goals. To make matters worse, the current US President is overtly antidemocratic and credibly threatening allies and enemies alike.

        AND

        • The regime in Iran is overtly theocratic – and therefore fundamentally disconnected from reality. Its leaders, their media, and as such some of society at large has a Blame-Everyone-Else mentality that MAGA would find extreme. They honestly, truly, deeply believe that God will relieve their suffering only if they can kill all the evil Jews in the Holy Land, and restore the Just rule of Islam (which they happen to speak for). And nukes is the only realistic way they can do that.
        • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
          6·
          3 hours ago

          You dronies are so transparent. You only come out to decry X country as soon as the US or its vassals attacks it. Then its all both sides bad.

          No country is perfect, but Iran is doing what very few countries are brave enough to do rn, and defending themselves from the child-killing scourge of the middle east.

          Even if you oppose Iran’s sovereignty or its theocracy, you’ll have to admit that Iran’s theocracy does far less harm than any given western country does.

          • DragonSidedD@lemmy.mlBanned
            17·
            2 hours ago

            I did not mean to imply any moral equivalence between Iran and the USA.

            Iran is a genocidal apocalyptic religious autocracy. It is dangerous to modern civilization. The USA is (at present though less so recently) a liberal pluralistic Democracy, where the excesses of one person or group tend to get moderated.

            They are not the same.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
              51·
              2 hours ago

              The US has commited genocide against Koreans (both sides of the parallel), Vietnamese, Iraqi, Palestinian, and far, far more. The US is currently trying to topple Iran because Iran is refusing to play ball with the genocidal US Empire. The US Empire is by far the worst state on the planet, without it the fascist Entity engaged in current war with Iran would not exist and Palestine would be free.

              This is extremely naive. Iran has its problems, but there’s no comparison, the US is not a democracy and is the active creator of genocide around the world today. If Iran was toppled, conditions for Iranians and Palestinians would get far worse, not better.