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Re:China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan by saiya-jin on Friday November 25, 2016 @08:21AM (#13036516)
i think you are missing the point of the parent - not many people care about genocide going on somewhere in the woods as long as it's not dangerously nearby (nothing to be proud of, but a natural part of being human these days). I don't know anybody who would literally 'hate' Rwanda, Burma, South Sudan or your former/current place of pick.

now for rather unfortunate meddling into internal affairs of a given state - there isn't a single country in this world that can say US didn't try to f__k them over one way or the other. Not-a-single-one. You may not like this fact, but that's truth. Now we can say something similar, maybe to lesser exent, and maybe with more evil tone, about Russia, or in other ways about England/Dutch/French/Spanish/Belgian/German/and so on for the past, but for pure hate, US made it damn too easy to be hated.

don't take this personally - I have much higher issues with Russia in this regard, the country that invaded my home in 1968, killed quite a few, brought more repressions and stayed for 21 years. But US ain't some saint 'good' guy, far from that.

Re:China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan by ethbro on Friday November 25, 2016 @09:22AM (#13036876)
> not many people care about genocide going on somewhere in the woods as long as it's not dangerously nearby

I'm going to take the somewhat cardboard American umbrage, but I think my position is a fair one.

For all of our American geopolitical intrigue and intelligence service &#@$ups, the United States generally does care.

In the sense that compared with other countries that could act, the United States chooses to do something.

Somalia was a failed state, but we were there trying to do what we thought was best. Iraq was run by a dictator who killed his own people (caveat: yes, domestic and international audiences were lied to about WMD facts), but we were there trying to do what we thought was best. Continental Europe was occupied by the Nazis, but we were there trying to do what we thought was best. Swathes of the Pacific were occupied by Imperial Japan, but we were there trying to do what we thought was best.

It's easy to say "That's an ocean away, doesn't concern us, and isn't our business." Even when people are being murdered or exploited. Nobody points a finger and says "Why didn't you act when it was happening?"

But if we're being honest and fair, then there's zero utility in comparing how well Switzerland is liked vs the US or Russia. It's a hell of a lot easier to make friends if you never enter a competition.

Re:China About to Start $35B of Silk Road Plan in Pakistan by rangibaby on Friday November 25, 2016 @10:32AM (#13037379)
Re: Iraq Dictators killing their own people hasn't concerned the US govt before or since. They even called the thing Operation Iraqi Liberation.