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Originally Posted by Lothar5150
Thanks for the history lesson, some of us remember that because we where alive when it happened.
I try to go easy on the Britt’s because I fought alongside the Desert Rats. Nevertheless, you are asking for this one.
If you want to go back to original sin, the lets talk about the European Colonial Period. You (UK), French, Belgians, Germans and Dutch are all to blame for the political shit holes called the Middle East and Africa. You divided the borders based on your own economic need. You used the people for there resources natural and human and you didn't bother to offer the locals you used citizenship or protection under your laws.
You created artificial boarder with ethnic groups who hated one another and then put strong men in charge so you could still exploit them after your colonial period ended. Almost all the problems now in that part of the world can be traced back to your colonial period.
With that said, at least the UK left behind good schools, a common language, rail systems, cannels and roads. Which is more than I can say for the rest colonial powers.
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Don't feel the need to hold back. First (for clarification), I'm Dutch. Second, I agree with everything you say (you may notice in my history lesson I refer to the UK and the Netherlands when it comes to passing out the blame. When it comes to colonial history, the Dutch can pride themselves on being particularly cruel and abusive --most "efficient" slave traders, last ones to give this up, pulling off some serious war crimes in Indonesia
after we were liberated from German occupation --I guess the Nazis taught us well).
My point was that our nations are all to blame. We are not swooping in like heros to save the Iraqis from oppression and bring them the shining light of democracy; the best we can say is that we are trying to clean up our shitty mess that we created in the first place, and that we share a good bit of responsibility for those mediapathic pictures of mass graves. So let's stop pretending that we are such good guys, and that the Iraqis are
so grateful to us, and have no reason whatsoever to hate our guts.