Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mschuster91 3343 days ago
> Honest question, why should the west care about every single problem that happens anywhere in the world? Why should we spend billions in wars, shed lots of our own blood, etc? Haven't we had enough of that?

Because that exactly same attitude, especially by the UK and US led to the rise of Hitler and eventually the Holocaust.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.
1 comments
mythrwy 3343 days ago
"Because Hitler" can become the excuse for all kinds of nonsense though.

Witness the Iraq war.

link
mschuster91 3343 days ago
The Iraq war was not done "because Hitler". It was as clear as gold that it wasn't just about chemical weapons, but much rather about oil and funneling money into the US weapons industry.

What the Iraq war (just as the Afghanistan war) has lacked and still lacks, unfortunately, is a post-war strategy similar to the Marshall plan...

link
mythrwy 3343 days ago
While that's factually true I have to guess you may not be in the US or else possibly weren't listening to George Bush's speeches and reading the all the media hype leading up to the event.

There were no shortage of "Because Like Hitler" and "Neville Chamberlain" type arguments being bandied about and the situation was not even remotely similar.

Point being, this kind of rhetoric (in addition to not being a solid argument) is dangerous and easily slips into justification territory. (As we've seen). Cases should evaluated on an individual basis.

link