I was just listening to a radio show about this on KQED-FM, and a caller made the point that it's ridiculous to act as if Hawaii would be a free nation today if we hadn't grabbed it .
If we hadn't grabbed it, Japan would have, or Britain, or Russia, or someone else. The country of Hawaii was completely incapable of defending itself against a large industrial country. If Imperial Japan had grabbed it--the greatest likelihood--there would be no Hawaiians to complain about America today--the Imperial Japanese government would have eradicated the locals and replaced them with Japanese immigrants.
This is just one of a zillion examples of the implied false alternative in politics.
Same with America and its American Indians. If it hadn't been us, another Western power would have moved in sooner or later, and still wiped out most of the Indians just by coughing on them, with or without military conquest.
As Dr. John said, "If I don't do it you know somebody else will..."
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