Mahdi Bahrami is the developer of the game Engare, a puzzle game where you must reproduce mathematical curves using the trajectory of points on moving objects.
> WW2, Korea, Vietnam were all unavoidable ideological wars.
None of those were ideological wars. If WW2 was an ideological war, then we would have fought britain, soviet union and china as well as germany, japan and italy.
Wars are fought over wealth, not ideology. There has never been an ideological war and there will never be an ideological war. "Ideology/religion/etc" are used to rile up the masses and send them to die in wars. But they are never the cause of war. Wars happen when the elites feel they can steal wealth from other elites by sending the masses to fight and die.
Two of our "closest" allies - Israel and Saudi Arabia - aren't exactly ideologically aligned with the US. Don't see us going to war with either anytime soon.
Britain back then was the british empire. The empire we fought for 150 years to lead the anglo nations. The empire we fought for 150 years to lead the world. During ww2, the nation/empire we were the most ideologically opposed to was the british empire. The british empire was top dog ( superficially at least ) and the US wanted to be top dog. Hence why we bled them dry during ww2 and shattered the british empire over our knees after ww2.
Now, britain/uk are ideologically aligned with the US and we can be "friends". But that certainly wasn't the case before and during ww2 when they were the british empire. People really underestimate US disdain for the british empire and how instrumental the US was in destroying it. FDR even equated nazi slavery with british slavery.
"I can’t believe that we can fight a war against fascist slavery, and at the same time not work to free people all over the world from a backward colonial policy."
Of course altruism didn't drive our actions. It was self-interest. If the british empire "died" then we'd be the new rulers of the world. Just a few years after we admonished the british about nation's self-determination, we prevented vietnam, iran, etc from self-determination. The king is dead, long live the king!
As for israel, I'm not seeing how they are ideologically similar to the US. They are an ethno-religious nation-state far similar to saudi arabia than the US. Our relations with israel and saudi arabia are centered around convenient equal opportunity exploitation than ideology or anything else. Though one can question how equal the exploitation has really been the past few decades.
I agree with you on your general statement about how self interests may be the cause for wars.
I also must tell you that your perception of Israel is simply false. Describing Israel as "an ethno-religious nation-state far similar to saudi arabia than the US" is wrong, and implies that your familiarity with Israel is not high.
Most of the population in Israel is secular. In fact, in many areas, Israel is more liberal than the US (and other western countries as well), for example in the areas of abortion, women, gay and human rights. Is Israel perfect? of course not, but none of the western states are.
In a poll in '07, 50% Israeli said they would not live in the same building as an Arab, nor would they ever befriend an arab. Imagine 50% American whites saying the same about African Americans. Israel in 2020 is what USA was in 1960
>Ideological differences historically have not been reconciled without war.
Sure they have, just look at Saudi Arabia. It's the biggest state funder of extremist Islam and way more repressive of human rights than Iran (e.g. women not being allowed outside without a man accompanying them, not allowed to drive..), but in spite of these ideological differences it's best buddies with the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxfNwuI75oU
The game is very interesting and unique.
My best wishes to him and his family, and I hope that some path to reconciliation between our governments can be found.