US Policies and Actions; What would you have done differently?

It’s hard to know what one would have done in a position of supreme power (in the US, apparently), since presidents are informed about things (and in ways) that none of us will be privy to for decades, centuries, or possibly “ever”.

But I would have sacked MacArthur during WWII. The man was far too full of himself. The Navy strategy would have gotten us to Japan 8–12 months earlier without the Philippine bloodbath that MacArthur insisted was necessary.

Would you (if you were president) have invaded Iraq? Afghanistan? No and no.l

Hiroshima (Dropped the bomb?) Nol The war would have ended soon thereafter even without the bomb. Japan was about to cave.

Vietnam escalation (Would you have let it escalate?) No. It was never a threat of any kind.

Note: China and Vietnam are “state capitalist” and not communist anymore. Too bad that no one in the US government in the ‘60s foresaw that communism would disappear from Vietnam over 30 years into the future and would be dismantled by the Vietnamese themselves. Just think of how many lives would have been saved if someone could have foreseen the future…

Just think how many lives would have been saved if people would have realized there was nothing there in the first place. These people just wanted self-determination. They wanted to get rid of corrupt business leaders and regimes. Who could blame them?

Build the International space station? Eh. Sure. A bit of a waste of resources, but not nearly as bad as Iraq.

Boycott 1980 Olympics? No. Pointless.

Let MacArthur go into North Korea? No. China. ‘Nuff said.

(Californians), supported Prop 13? No. But then, this was always a right wing plot to destroy public services, keeping the poor poor and letting the rich gain more power, albeit not as much wealth as would have had the poor gotten richer.

Elect a president via electoral college (assuming it wasn’t always done this way)? No. I think we’d be better served by a more parliamentary democracy.

Supported the creation of Israel? No. Let them negotiate with the locals for property.

Got involved in WWI? We had no choice. It got us involved. But we tried to stay out as long as possible.

The Vietnam War ( I would have got out much earlier)
The bombing of Laos and Cambodia ( Pointless and unforgivable, destabilised Cambodia and led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge)
Blind support for Israel ( Makes America look weak and unprincipled)
Invasion of Iraq ( Stupidity on a grand scale)
Authorisation of the use of torture ( Unbelievable but true)

Prop 13 is a great example of policy needing a do-over.

In a climate of red-hot increasing real-estate prices the stated intention of Prop 13 was to help homeowners, especially seniors on fixed incomes, keep their homes by freezing their real-estate taxes. Plenty of oldsters had been forced out of their homes by rising property taxes and this seemed like a good idea. Property taxes are re-assessed when property changes hands.

Well wouldn’t you know, the law does not specify that only natural persons should enjoy this accommodation. All property owners enjoy this accomodation.

Today some huge portion of commercial real-estate in California is in the hands of real-estate trusts. The trusts have owned the commercial properties since they were fresh concrete on the edge of civilization, and the same properties are surrounded by sprawl now and worth many times what they were originally. Yet, of course, they pay property taxes on the original value.
Not only that but the Real-Estate-Trust can be sold and that does not affect its taxes because the underlying property is still in the hands of the same title-holder !!

Corporations are NOT people dammit!

California used to have some of the best public schools and nearly free world-class public universities in the country. the schools now are tragically underfunded and it costs a Lot more to attend the CSU’s and UC’s than it used to. Every other property-tax-funded service in the state is in similar dire straits.

Rewriting the Prop 13 law to exclude business property would be easy. Getting it passed would be nearly impossible, due to the very strong business lobby.

Keeping out of Iraq would have been the smart thing. I recognize the value of the enemy of my enemy.
It also took our eye off of Afganistan. Our expectations there may not be met because of the Iraq distraction.
Viet Nam would have been a good thing to pass up. The damage of that war was not only the lives of American troops, but the faith in our country by America’s youth.