The chief meddler would have to be the U.S. Of course we had that little issue of the Iran-Contra Affair, but long before it, the U.S. asserted its will in Nicaragua with boots on the ground from 1909 until 1933, when we could no longer afford to intervene mired in our own Great Depression.

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But behind the scenes he is a constant meddler invariably, it seems, to ill effect.

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Finally, the administration continues to play global meddler.

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They may have meager titles, but a meddler by any other name stalls the same.

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But Mr Brown, an arch meddler, is wrong to suggest that the government can or should make it all better.

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