It\'s happening in Florida again.

[supervike]

sorry but...

I think this is a bit of a misnomer....

America\'s financial aid (and much military aid) to Africa is well documented, and I dare to say probably unparralled by any other country in the world.

I don\'t know why America feels we have to be the protector of the world, but how do we ever win?

If we sit on our hands and do nothing, we are hated.

If we send financial aid, it is not enough, even though it is almost always more than what ever other country gives.

If we send military aid, we are just after oil or trying to set up a puppet regime, and hated even more.

These topics are much too complex to be discussed properly, and quite frankly much too big to be understood by someone of the likes of me, but what should America\'s foreign policy be?

Should we revert to out pre-WW 2 isolationist attitude? America did not want to be involved in that war either. It took an attack on Pearl Harbor to motivate us. If that attack never happened, would we have stood by while Hitler and the Emperor of Japan take over the rest of the world?

More recently, should we have helped in the Balkans? Should we be concerned about North Korea? Does Iran having a Nuclear Bomb give us reason to fear?


America has been under attack for many years, way before the civilians in the World Trade Centers were slaughtered. The same group of fundamentalist murderers has been to blame for a series of attacks (and not just against Americans) Why? Because of our support of Israel? Because of other perceived injustices? I don\'t know.

But I do know we are in a lose/lose situation. We will not be able to please everyone, and still look after our own interests. The rest of the world will probably always have a love/hate relationship with us.

I\'d like nothing more than for our soldiers to come home from all over the world, all our tax money to be spend on Health Care or Space Exploration or Poverty instead of military defense/offense. Unfortunately this is not the world I live in.

 

[Evil Dave]

Originally posted by frenchkid

Originally posted by Evil Dave
What about the estimated 300,000 + estimated Iraqi\'s dead?
You know the one\'s murdered under Saddam\'s regime.
The one\'s they\'re finding in the mass graves now, women, children, men, old, young.


Mass Graves
another reportl

That is just a bullshit argument and a sad excuse for having gone to war. The US never whent to war because sadam was killing people, and they never whent to war because he was a bad dictator, and they absolutly never whent to war because they truly belived their were weapon of mass destruction. They are plenty of other tyrants in the world killing 1000 everyday, but it dosn\'t seem GWB cares a lot about them. He you really feel so badly about those people beeing killed well go help. Take a plan ticket to africa and go help the millions dying of hunger. And as U4 said dosn\'t seem the war lowered the number of killed.

It\'s not our job to go in and help everyone, it\'s the UN\'s job, a job they don\'t seem particularly good at.
As for helping I went the first gulf war, to help get rid of a tyrant, that the UN put back in power.
What have you done?
As for aid we americans have spent more than any other country in the world on foreign aid. Maybe we should pull all that and take care of our own.

 

[frenchkid]

Originally posted by Evil Dave

Originally posted by frenchkid

Originally posted by Evil Dave
What about the estimated 300,000 + estimated Iraqi\'s dead?
You know the one\'s murdered under Saddam\'s regime.
The one\'s they\'re finding in the mass graves now, women, children, men, old, young.


Mass Graves
another reportl

That is just a bullshit argument and a sad excuse for having gone to war. The US never whent to war because sadam was killing people, and they never whent to war because he was a bad dictator, and they absolutly never whent to war because they truly belived their were weapon of mass destruction. They are plenty of other tyrants in the world killing 1000 everyday, but it dosn\'t seem GWB cares a lot about them. He you really feel so badly about those people beeing killed well go help. Take a plan ticket to africa and go help the millions dying of hunger. And as U4 said dosn\'t seem the war lowered the number of killed.

It\'s not our job to go in and help everyone, it\'s the UN\'s job, a job they don\'t seem particularly good at.
As for helping I went the first gulf war, to help get rid of a tyrant, that the UN put back in power.
What have you done?

Well then let them do their job As for having done something well beeing only 18 no I haven\'t done any military service and no I haven\'t gone to a country that wasn\'t my own to shoot bullets. I did give up every sunday morning last year to collect money for the population of chiappas in mexico and an ophanage in mexico, wich I went to afterwards to help the kids the best that I could. No need to use a gun to help.

 

[Evil Dave]

Originally posted by frenchkid
Well then let them do their job As for having done something well beeing only 18 no I haven\'t done any military service and no I haven\'t gone to a country that wasn\'t my own to shoot bullets. I did give up every sunday morning last year to collect money for the population of chiappas in mexico and an ophanage in mexico, wich I went to afterwards to help the kids the best that I could. No need to use a gun to help.

The problem is they aren\'t doing their job.
Rwanda, Kosovo, Iraq.
They sat back as hundreds of thousands were killed.
They put sanctions on Iraq, that they themselves were circumventing with the Oil for Food program making millions if not billions in the process.
We had a majority in the UN to go to war with Iraq, the four countries with veto power said no. Why? They were all making money off the Food for Oil program.
Also, name one country that actually goes before the UN before going to war.

Also being in the military isn\'t just about using a gun. Every country that my ship went to we helped out others, In Panama we helped build a church, In Abu Dhabi we helped reroof an orphanage, and many more things. Don\'t let the movies you watch fool you, military personel are not brainwashed killing machines, they are people too who care just as much as you do.

We also have entire units in the military whose entire purpose is to build, I have a cousin in Iraq right now who hasn\'t had to pull a trigger. He\'s been rebuilding roads, powerlines, and better shelters for the Iraqi people.

 

[Jas]

Peace kills!

Money and money alone determines most countries foreign policy. Global Corporations control the distribution of wealth in this world. Our leaders are merely puppets who preserve the \'best intrests\' of the Global Corporations. If this means funding dictatorships to help finance our arms trade and secure wealthy lands, or ousting unpopular regimes/governments to allow \'sympathetic\' leaders to replace them. I\'m sorry if I seemed to single out the US, I know full well that this is true of many Nations throughout the World, including here (UK). Our arms trade and foreign policy helps fund torture in far off lands!

It amounts to the same thing, rarely will a change of Government mean anything more than a new puppet. People are the ones who, united in thier efforts can make this world better.

I by no means want to offend anyone here, the views I hold, reflect my beliefs on freedom, equality and the wish that we can all live together, as human-beings with no war. This is sounding waaaayyy to corny but I really do want a world like this, there is more than enough money and resources in the world for everyone to live quite comfortably, and as long as we take more than we need, we are taking from someone who probably needs it more. I also feel that Peace is acheived through Peace, and not War.

P.S I am not a religious, tree-hugging mad man hermit, although I may come across so.lol???

Thanks for reading, sorry for offending.
Jas