A Constant and Unending War: The USA vs The World

Well I voted...

Did Carter get into a shooting war? Or maybe the whole Iran hostage thing counts?

I think that our economy is dependent on big military spending and that the only way to ensure big military spending is to demonstrate a continuing need for it. The rest is just huff and puff, as far as I'm concerned. I would also venture that wars like the one in Iraq were just as much about market domination (communications and other industries) as anything else. For instance, before we invaded Iraq they used a cell phone network based on European standards. I'd bet my life savings that they are now using US standards provided by US companies.

So, I voted neither. Interesting that nobody thinks the US is the world's cop.

The idea that the US should remain the world's dominant super power forever seems to be religion in this country. But historically it's inevitable that we will not always be on top. I remember Howard Dean saying something along those lines and getting blasted for it. I believe we will go down fighting for something that was impossible to attain (eternal dominance) when we could have taken steps to come down gently.

I think dominant cultures are brought down by economics, not belligerent enemies. Think :Russia and England in the late 19th century.
The first signs of this might be showing up in the dollar dive and the upsurge in the gold market.

Imperial over reach and economic missmanagement, both of which define the US at the moment.

It's just a thought...I have to go back and read that New Yorker article on the economics of Bush.

Remember, bin Laden has threatened to bankrupt the U.S.

bush, bin laden and a handful of people around the world will bankrupt the USA...together...purposefully...when the harvest is over...you burn the fields....let the ground lie fallow..... and look for a new harvesting place....

What other country has troops stationed at places around the world? We, the USA, can't be the only one, right?

We have folks all over the place, Japan, Greenland, a couple three places in Europe (Not France), Turkey (still NOT Europe, sorry Turks), Afghanistan, of course, but also that little island in the Indian Ocean as well as a few here and there in Saudi Arabia and Cuba.

Do we still have anybody down in Panama? I don't know.

Oops, I forgot the Philippines and, oh my gosh, Korea.
South Korea, that is.

Besides all those thirty-five year old National Guard troops riding their paper mache machines on the mean streets of Iraq.

I'm only talking about troops on the ground but let's not forget the Sixth and Seventh Fleet cruising for a bruising in the mediaterrean and the Indian Ocean, the battle wagons bristling with missiles and let's not forget the sssssssilent service, those submariners who leave Virginia and sail under the seven seas guided by the signals from the sattelittes swimming through the vast outer reaches of the atmosphere.

Who else does this? Australia? Canada? FRANCE? Italy? Germany? OH, how about Great Britain? or Spain? How about RUSSIA? Finally, I remember, they have troops in Chechnya......... and how about China, does Tibet count? They have had troops there for almost forty years.

And yet no one will say we are the cop on the beat?? What's up with that?

Who else sent troops to Somalia?

Wait. I know. France has troops in the Sudan.


Whew. for a second there I thought we were the only one nation building....................


Joe (putting pins in the world map.....) Nation

I don't believe for one moment that any of you would be happy if we suddenly pulled all of our troops home. We've arrested a mass murderer in Saddam... and I do hope we don't stop there. Cop, on the beat. Happy now?
Ps. If it were U.S. Vs. the World, we'd be winning.

Goddess - do you never tire of such crap, Bill?

But - you are kidding, right?

I do not know if OBILL is kidding or not. But there is a significant body of opinion in the US that would agree with his statement. This country at the moment is engaged in imperial over reach on a significant and unsustainable level. This is generally the first stage in a serious decline of power and moral authority. As GWB said, he had political capital and he going to spend it, and he's spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave.

When someone else in the world wants to step up to the plate and take over the responsibilities that the US has taken upon itself, they are more than welcome to.

I'd like to see Germany take over the deterrance of N. Korea by stationing a retallitory threat in S. Korea.

I'd love to see the EU prevent the mass murder and genocide that was taking place in it's own backyard in Bosnia.

I would have loved to see the world keep Totalitarian regimes from starving their own people in a run for power and I'd like to see more support from the world regarding this war on terror.

Instead we see blustering, bitching and boistrouness. We see complaints, condescention and cowardice.

It's easy to complain about what the US does, it's hard to to their job.

Two points
1) stepping up to the plate - that's called the United Nations, which the US used to support.

2) taken upon it's self - we certainly did, and didn't even wait for someone else to ask us. We just jumped right in.

LOL!!!!!!! The White Man's Burden, eh???????

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

Yeah, the UN...

Had we waited for someone to ask, the only thing we'd be hearing now is whining and complaining about how much the US could have done.

Go tell it to the mountain.

Pathetic, McG

You mean your recent posts? I agree. They have long been devoid of both content and meaning.