Is America REALLY that bad?

booman

There are many of us of like mind. I simply cannot imagine that living in prison for the rest of your life can be preferable to death -- and have argued that point for thirty years.


I'm sure the fear of death for the inmate is huge -- and I understand that is the reason for why they try so hard to beat the death penalty -- but that merely reinforces my opinion that living in prison is worse than the death penalty.

Let 'em fear death -- violent death -- every day!

Maybe those island prisons like depicted in Escape from New York or
Escape from LA are the way to go. Keep the violent sickos segregated and let 'em wallow in their own excrement if that is what they want.

I honestly don't actively debate against the death penalty. There are times where my charitable side takes control -- and I say give the monsters a peaceful, easy death.

I do hate the idea that the rest of the modern, industrial world has pretty
much come to the conclusion that capital punishment is barbaric -- yet we are still on the same side of the coin as countries like Saudi Arabia.

My feelings

-By McGentrix

Having come here to A2K recently, and in search of relevent, challenging political discussion, I was eager to expand my knowledge base to encompass new opinions and ideas. I was then swallowed up into a cult of hate the like I have not seen elsewhere. The sheer hatred put forth by many of the members of this place was quite daunting. I had to change many of my personal opinions just to try to stay afloat upon this ocean of hatred and hostility. Everywhere I looked, I found criticism and hatred of many things that I hold dear. Now realize, that I could have left at any time and not been any worse for the experience, but I found some small islands of common thought and even some brief moments of actual insight into the "other" side which kept me here.

One of the things that really bothers me is the insistant attitude that America is some dark, evil place where 6 people rule with an iron thumb and that every one is enslaved to the government. It saddens me to think that is what some people see and think when America is brought up. I see a country that is one of the only beacons of freedom and justice in the world. I see a country that has a more diverse population, more influential culture, and more freedoms than any other in the world.

There are many countries in this world that are very inhospitable and I am thankful that I do not live in them. I am glad that I have the freedom to do as I choose and that I never have to fear many of the things that people in other countries have to fear, no matter what many people will say, America is still the greatest place in the world to live. I support my country and though I may not agree with everything that the current leaders do, I know that I can personally effect change without pissing and moaning about it. I know that no one is beyond being voted out of office.

So, my opinion about that article? It made me thankful that I don't live there.

Has America Become a Bullyboy?

ROGUE NATION
American Unilateralism
and the Failure of Good Intentions

In October, 1999, candidate George W. Bush told a campaign audience: "If we are a humble nation, [other nations] will see that and respect us." Alas, if only Bush as President had stuck to that idea. Instead, in case after case, the new Administration seemed to thumb its nose needlessly at the rest of the world. It walked away from a welter of international agreements, such as one setting up an International Criminal Court, the Kyoto Treaty on climate change, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia. Indeed, Washington looked to be ditching the very concept of multilateralism, an underpinning of the global system since the end of World War II. In September, 2002, the Administration published the National Security Strategy of the United States of America, enshrining the doctrines of preemptive war and overwhelming U.S. military superiority. That document -- and the Iraq war that followed -- confirmed for many foreigners that the U.S. had become the bully of the block.

If you want to find out how the U.S. lost the once ample reserves of political goodwill it held around the world, Clyde Prestowitz' persuasive and well-documented Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions is the book for you. In the view of Prestowitz, a self-styled small-government conservative and a chief trade negotiator with Japan during the Reagan years, the Bush Administration is squarely to blame. "The imperial project of the so-called neo-conservatives is not conservatism at all but radicalism, egotism, and adventurism articulated in the stirring rhetoric of traditional patriotism," he writes. Compared with that language, criticisms of U.S. policy by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder sound positively tame. Don't count on Prestowitz getting a job in a second Bush Administration.

In fact the present US policy is more unpopular than the policy of any other US government has ever been, and probably than that of any other great power has ever been.