On Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 10:05:19 AM UTC-10, Dave Smith wrote:
> On 2018-12-13 2:42 p.m., dsi1 wrote:
> > On Thursday, December 13, 2018 at 7:10:56 AM UTC-10, Dave Smith
>
> >> I knew a guy who had been subjected to really atrocious behaviour
> >> by the Japanese in a POW camp. The people of Nanking, China can
> >> tell you about the atrocities committed by the Japanese there. I
> >> don't think they got back anywhere near as they had handed out.
> >
> > One atrocity at a time please. I'm talking about the takeover of the
> > Kingdom of Hawaii by American businessmen. The Japanese played no
> > part in this.
>
> No they didn't, but who is to say that they Japanese would not have
> snapped it up if the Americans had not been there?
>
>
> > The takeaway from that is this: Don't trust American
> > businessmen. Be mindful to keep them on a short leash and don't ever
> > let them become the president of you. Mostly, all they care about is
> > getting into bed with anybody that waves a bunch of cash in front of
> > them and making deals, deals, deals.
>
> I trust them as much as I trust the American government.... which is
> not much.
>
>
>
> >
> > As far as atrocities goes, everybody does it. All that's required is
> > that one view another human as more animal than a person. Americans
> > did some nasty things to black folks, native Americans, the
> > Vietnamese, Cambodians, and others, including white folks during the
> > War for States Rights. Canadians have relatively clean hands, not
> > counting the random mass murderers, of course.
> I would say that even those things are relatively mild compared to some
> other countries. Look at the colonial exploits of Germany and Belgium.
> South America was colonized by the Spanish and the Portuguese. I
> would say that the British and, later, Americans did a much better job.

The what ifs of history can drive you crazy if you think about it too much.