I know it is terribly painful to think about, but in two hundred years, we will probably not be asking this question, any more than people now ask was the American Revolution a mistake (and I am not convinced it was totally necessary) or was the French Revolution a mistake. We all can see the human wreckage that things like this produce, but we don't look and say, well, what if we hadn't done this or that. Would people have been kept in semi or real slavery? Used as cannon fodder in aggressive wars? Fed into paper shredders?

The future will thank everyone who sacrified their lives, in the home country, in the supporting troops, in the countries who gave of their finest and endebted themselves so that, in addition to whatever assets they acquired, such as oil, water, etc...they also eventually had some version of freedom unknown to their ancestors..and no, I would never ever impose democracy on a people coming out of a repressive situation. I would impose martial law and let them work their way out of it. No one 200 years from now will say was it worth it because they will know that it ultimately was.

I heard a song a couple of weeks ago about a coal miner and the man is talking about his father who I think says I was the last one of our line to live in slavery...so when were your ancestors able to get out of real slavery, such as the AFrican Americans had to endure, or near slavery, such as the Russians, Irish, English serfs had to endure? mg