The Cold War was respectable

[salinen]

compared to this. Yeah, the Military Industrial Complex made a killing as usual, but the Ruskies were actually invading and occupying other countries. It was sad to see Soviet tanks rolling down the boulevards of Prague. So I can wrap some of my mind around opposing the commies.

And now we have the war on terror. It's completely offensive. If we just packed up and left, the war on terror would end. America has become the invader and occupier using the "war on terror" as a justifier to control.

Now go shopping dammit!

[Mass]

1. I cant really forget Chile and so many African countries sent to

where there are now because they had the audacity to choose a leader that did not want to obey to the CIA.

How about VietNam (a nice product of the Cold War).

So I cant really agree with you.

In addition, the "War on Terror" has nothing to do with Iraq and has never had anything to do with it. In part, the WOT is directly a product of the Cold War.

[salinen]

2. I'm being flip in a way

like warm dogshit is better than cold dogshit. But how is the WOT a direct product of the Cold War?

[Mass]

5. Because the US supported the Talibans and Osama in Afghanistan

in order to fight the Russians. Smart move, dont you think.

In addition, they were supporting many other oppressive governments in the ME (Iran and the Shah, for example) in the name of fighting the Communism (what was their real motive is another story).

Just a few reasons.

[enough]

3. Not to mention Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala......

I don't think we can really use the word "respectable."

[applegrove]

4. Start of the Cold war was respectable. They tried to avoid it all.

But no - deposing democratic governments around the world in favor of dictators really didn't help the people in a country. As long as the "leftist leader" was a true democrat - they should have been left alone. They would have been voted out of office in time and people would have voted for what worked and learnt to trust governance in the process.

Think of all the reforms that were put off in places like Africa and South America. Just so that no redistribution of wealth would hurt American corporations. I'm sure some of it was real fear about soviet influence. But often it was not. It was about self-governance. Being independant.