Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran … War

[45rpm]

Originally Posted by Mr K

If Iraq and Libya are anything go by, it'll make it more unstable. The US are good at bombing, but not the 'what next' bit.

That is very true. However, there are other places where countries have been "liberated" and the country becomes way more stable than before.

Eg the former Yugoslavia. All (most?) of the states are thriving after independence. Note that Slobodan Milošević was ousted under Tony Blair's watch.

Also South Korea is doing OK.

Further back in time: many of the defeated countries after WW2 thrived such as Japan and Germany.

Re "further back in time"

Germany (and Europe) had the Marshall Plan, and Japan had the US backed Yoshida doctrine - in both cases, the plans had been formulated before the War was over.

[jem]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Re "further back in time"

Germany (and Europe) had the Marshall Plan, and Japan had the US backed Yoshida doctrine - in both cases, the plans had been formulated before the War was over.

Indeed. Both Germany and Japan were basically taken over and run by the allied forces. It was then a gradual process to stabilise the situation, allow various democratic systems to be set up and then slowly withdraw.

Imagine that on April 30th 1945, the allied forces had decided that ‘OK, Hitler is dead, we can go now’’, and simply left and left Germany to it. How do you think that would have worked out?

There were ‘boots on the ground’, as per the modern parlance, and that is something that the US tends to want to avoid for obvious reasons.

[Sephiroth]

Jem has a point. See Afghanistan for details.