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Comment by ackbar03 | Hacker News Reader

> I can't help but wonder if things would have been different if the US

Honestly not trying to be snarky or anything but purely observationally, I find it interesting how people automatically default to thinking America should have done something about something going on in a completely different country of which they do not really understand the history and culture.

And if you've been following global developments on any scale, you would have realized the time to learn mandarin was a long time ago

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The bedrock of western ideals that the US was born from contains a lot of influences from Christianity, especially the part where the duty of a good Christian is to spread the faith and convert heathens around the world to the one true faith in order to save them from eternal damnation in hell. Although religiosity as a whole is going down in the western world, this savior complex still persists and echos of it can be seen in how many people in the West feel a need to, as you put it, do something to spread democracy and human rights on the other side of the world regardless of local history or customs because it's for their own good.

The US was also founded on a continental wide genocide that even the Nazis couldn't accomplish.

You're seeing the unintended consequences of America's shoddy foundation of slavery, genocide, and short-sighted decision making in all the protests in these past decades as historically abused minority groups rise up to demand their fair share of wealth and power.

> the history and culture.

That's because the status quo is that the US Pacific Fleet has a presence in the region that is welcome by several EA and SEA polities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Pacific_Fleet

International relations in East Asia and SEA hinge greatly on the ability of the US to respond and deter Chinese aggression against its neighbors, and persuade that a cooperative approach is more productive.

> And if you've been following global developments on any scale, you would have realized the time to learn mandarin was a long time ago

You are presuming a lot about me, I was being glib.

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