BeaverFever BeaverFever:
I am neither for nor against Trudeaus decision but I think you’re overreacting.
Just to play devils advocate here, it seems that Guaido‘s legal claim to power is less than rock solid. And he’s not elected either so it’s not like democracy is being restored if he’s able to assume power. A foreign-backed coup replacing one unelected leader with another isn’t progress. The motives of the countries recognizing Guaido is also questionable and the track record of past US-supported regime changes is poor.
Also just a factual correction: Pol Pot wasn’t wasn’t forced out by any do-gooders, he started a border war with Vietnam, who subsequently invaded and set up a new communist regime. Por’s Khmer Rouge continued to form part of a coalition government into the 90s
Also the removal of Saddam Hussein us going to go down as one of history’s greatest blunders and a perfect example of why foreign governments shouldn’t conduct regime changes. ISIS is not better than Saddam and the million plus citizens and thousands of US troops who died directly or indirectly as a result of the Republicans unjustified invasion are testament to that
Yes and no. The forcible removal of gov'ts by foreign force should be avoided at all costs but supporting the opposition to a totalitarian regime is the proper thing to do. The only question is in what way should it be carried out while still allowing the population to have the final say in their own destiny.
And yes, the Cambodians did start a war with the Vietnamese who were one of their sponsors before the falling out. The border war was started because the Khmer Rouge political and military structure was designed to be fluid and allowed independent actions by different military commands but, only because control of these units by the central command was almost impossible given the terrain and lack of communication in the country.
So, in essence it wasn't Cambodia/Angkar who gave authorization to start a war with Vietnam it was the "Eastern Command" and they started it because of their xenophobia and fear of the Vietnamese scheming to take over the parts of Cambodia, namely the parrots beak. They even went so far as to start a genocide against Vietnamese citizens in country, military included which despite the Vietnamese attempts to defuse led to the war.
As an interesting side note when the policies towards the people changed and became even more draconian a large part of the North Western Command defected into Thailand and started a guerrilla war against their replacements from there.
But with those actions aside, I also firmly believe that the Vietnamese would have eventually attacked Cambodia with or without provocation from the Khmer Rouge. The reason for that thought is that the major sponsor of Kampuchea was China and the Chinese and Vietnamese relationship was strained throughout history to say the least. So, given the Khmer were allowing China to set up a Naval base and various military bases in exchange for aide it's understandable why the Vietnamese would become more than a little antsy about having he Chinese on two borders.
As it turned out they were right because when the Vietnamese had enough of the crazy from Cambodia and attacked to stop the Cambodian incursions the Chinese went to war with Vietnam.
If you want to read a good book about the Khmer Rouge takeover and trouble governing the country try, The Pol Pot Regime by Ben Kiernan. It goes into great detail explaining the founding of the Khmer Rouge, their actions up to and including the war with Vietnam and finally their demise.
CKA Uber 
CKA Super Elite 
