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Comment by throwaway984393 | Hacker News Reader

We had this little thing called a "civil war". Turns out a lot of our country doesn't like the idea of a federal government, and wants to do things its own way whenever it can. Trying to fix that in today's political climate would probably start another one.

I think that's why we've been the big superpower for so long. We're fucking nuts. We'll invade your country for no reason and then try to make you pay for it.

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Yeah... The US will invade countries for no reason but the trillions spent are added to the backs of our own citizens.

Iraq and Afghanistan aren't paying us the trillions we've wasted these past decades.

Lots of countries have had civil wars. Most of them, one side won and the other side lost.

In the US, one side lost, and was then venerated as heroes, which is particularly odd.

I'm not sure it's _that_ odd, really. Like, who won the English civil war? _Really_ won it, long-term?

You could argue that one both ways very easily; on the one hand, there's still a monarch, and there are no puritans. On the other, the monarch has no power (though you could convincingly argue that that was part of a process that was ongoing anyway, and the civil war didn't necessarily change the pace that much).

It's difficult to say either side is venerated as heroes.

It's the combination which is very odd. Plenty of countries have civil strife and have one side viewed as heroes. In the US both Robert E Lee and Abraham Lincoln are venerated.

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