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Comment by throwawayaway | Hacker News Reader

I'll be very short, at least Iran and China didn't invade Iraq and Afghanistan on false pretenses. They aren't currently droning civilians in 5 countries. If you pay taxes in America you are financially supporting their military efforts, that's how I look at it.

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China invaded Tibet on false pretenses.

What's the bodycount? Incidentally, may I ask how far back in history you are going, is it something more recent than this:

> In October 1950, the People's Liberation Army entered the Tibetan area of Chamdo, defeating sporadic resistance from the Tibetan army.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Tibet#1950_to_prese...

This?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Tibetan_unrest#Casualties...

How many bodies do you need before you care?

1, I want to compare atrocities. You need numbers for that.

You mean like "Only 10,000 of your people died. 20,000 of theirs did, so your atrocity isn't as important as theirs."? Helluva world view.

I certainly think 20,000 deaths is worse than 10,000 deaths yes.

I believe there is a much greater discrepancy than 2x, between the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and ongoing drone strikes inflicting civilian casualties, and Chinese incursions into Tibet.

That's not to say I support China in their incursions into Tibet. I am very sympathetic to those who have had atrocities committed towards them.

I do think however that the scale of a crime is important, and can be compared.

With the numbers you can make meaningful comparisons. This person committed two murders, this person committed one. To suggest all atrocities are equal is weak.

Using your logic, spraying a country with mustard gas is better than killing half of their citizens, as the body count is smaller.

Which crime is worse is the question you should be asking, instead of trying to invert the interpretation for reasons unknown.

Let me add to that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_r...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_mili...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_interventions_of_the_...

If you look at history, China looks way more pacifist than the US. In fact, one has to wonder why the US govt. and media keep spreading fear about China... Perhaps the US govt./media are scared of some country doing to them the exact same things they do and have done to other countries.

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