Close Topic Options

Politics - USA the big bad bully? - Page 5

I'm sure many people in neighbouring third world countries would want to live in the US, just like the same as Europe and every other first world region. I purely meant that from the perspective of the first world. People in my country or Europe don't want to move to the US because we are happy with out lives. I don't believe the US is the most desired place of migration, certainly not amongst the developed world. This is way off the topic at any rate.

We don't always agree upon what is the US's business. But I can assure you other countries affairs are not your business without invitation. It's not up to the White House to determine what is or isn't their business overseas. This is where the "bully" perception stems. If the US minded its own business I'm certain they would have a glowing reputation around the world.

bully bad big USA Politics

The point is, if we feel threatened, that makes it our business. It doesn't matter if another country accepts that we are threatened. All that matters is that we feel threatened. Believe me, I wish we would stay out of most situations. I don't want to financially support any other country. Yet, most countries are more than willing to take our money...

I believe in the isolationist point of view until we perceive a threat against our national security. However, our politicians don't see it that way.

Politics - USA the big bad bully? History & Civil Business Politics

The same can be said for EVERYTHING! It can be said for the internal operations of all countries. It can be said for the diplomatic, social, and commercial relationships between any two countries.

The hatred for the US is bigotry, just as the disdain that many Americans have for other cultures is bigotry.

So, if US citizens are being threatened, robbed, and murdered in a country, due to the government or prevailing culture of that country, your contention is that the US should just let it go. After all, if Columbia wants to bring cocaine into the US, it is a private matter for Columbia. The US has no business interfering with Columbia's internal business. Right?

Or, if warlords in Thailand are bringin heroine into the US, we should just ignore it. When Saddam Hussein paid terrorists to harm US business interests, we should have just looked the other way.

Finally, the big one. When we learned that Hitler was rounding up Jews, Gypsies, blacks, Catholic priests and nuns, homosexuals, anyone with mental problems, and any other sort of undesirable, the US, Britain, and other allied countries should have been happy to get the Germans to agree to stop bombing London.

There is rank evil in the world. I, for one, am not willing to turn a blind eye to it. What you claim to be the evil that the US does is extremely minor compared to the evils that we are fighting. Of course there are problems with what the US government does. There are problems with what individual companies do in regards to international relationships. But there are even greater good things that come from US involvement.

I am sorry, but this assertion is extremely laughable. I know many people who have moved to the US from Canada, England, Australia, Spain, Germany, Japan, and even Sweden in order to make their lives better! There is over a 1.5 year wait for people to even get their immigration visas reviewed! And a VERY high percentage of the people who want to move to the US come from the "First World".

Actually, I must strongly disagree with you here. Since we are a democratic Republic, we are completely to blame for the actions of our government. The thing is that a majority of us believe that the things you claim are evil are not. Of course this perception can, and does, change over time, concerning specific things.

Page 5 bully bad big USA Politics

There is a huge difference between being threatened by another country and your government telling you another country is a threat.

Iraq possessed no threat to the US whatsoever. There has not been one iota of proof that it ever was a threat. Where are the WMDs? Which terrorists are you talking about? Saddam hates Al Quaeda, he hates all islamist organisations because he was a secular leader. How do you think he treated the extremely religious Shi-ites in the south?

How on earth can you compare the situation in Iraq with World War II. That is an insult to Jews and Iraqi citizens alike.

Afghanistan, nor the Taliban, were ever a threat to the US. Find me any proof. The Americans even supported the Taliban in its earlier days when they were fighting the Russians.

My point is, the US doesn't just involve itself when it feels threatened. It involves itself for a whole variety of reasons, but always uses the excuse of feeling threatened. Iraq was an ideological war and there was also oil. If the US purely fought countries it felt threatened by, then why not North Korea? Of course the US isn't the only country that does this and it's other countries cop similar criticism. China is no exception.

Regime change in any country is NOT the US's business. It is for the people of that country to determine, not you, or I, or someone sitting on their high horse in Washington. How would you feel if another country came in and changed your government because it saw fit?

This is laughable. The US Government has inadvertently helped revive the heroin trade in Afghanistan. That is all the US has realistically achieved by invading Afghanistan, a country which never threatened them. Now warlords run the poppy fields and Bush doesn't care. Afghanistan is the now the largest producer of heroin, the Taliban had eradicated this industry. Sure, Kabul enjoys some form of a puppet, powerless government, but the rest of the country is just as dangerous and oppressed as before.

What is the percentage? I personally don't know anyone that would want to move to the US because Australia has a very high living standard. But that doesn't mean there aren't people who do want to go there, I am certain there are a lot. I would love to visit.

Also, this whole thing isn't about good vs evil. This isn't a Hollywood movie or fairytale. Wars are fought for far more complex reasons than that, we both know this.

bully bad big USA Politics

I have read the recents posts on this thread and it seems to me that there are a lot of misconceptions and opinions who are given in totally different perspectives.

First of all, I do not think the US has the right to do whatever they want, wherever they want as it was posted here. Actually I do not think ANY country has that right, otherwise the US would not be any different from Cuba and Castro way of thinking. There is a proper way to do things. Yes, we may not agree in what the US considers their business to be involved or not but having the "right" to do it is a totally different matter. I do not think most US citizens realised how their government is perceived because a big percentage of Americans if they have traveled, they may have done within the country itself, leaving the assumptions to how they are perceived overseas to the television and internet.

I do not think it would be fair to say the US government is evil. I think it committs lots of mistakes like any other government but I do can understand having traveled, why they are perceived as bullies. When the US asked Trinidad and Tobago to support the issue with the US soldiers not being accountable for war crimes (I can't remember the exact issue) and Trinidad and Tobago refused to do it, the US said if they do not they would pull out monetary funds from the country. Isn't this bully?. We are talking about a little island in the Caribbean. Yes, the US has all the right to pull the money if they want to, but to do it because the country did not agree, is unacceptable in my opinion. Yes, money reigns the world, but people also have souls and I do not think we should "sell" them to anyone.

Offtopic but, I know there are many foreigners from the first world (Europeans) who live or want to live in the States but I personally do not think it is because the US has a better lifestyle, definetly they do not if you compare it to countries like Sweeden and Finland who are ranked in the top of the countries around the world. It is just because of a different lifestyle but not a better one.

Politics - USA the big bad bully?

I am not going to go into further extended arguments about this. The facts are very clear.

1. There were WMDs in Iraq. Not as many as expected, not as many as were well known by ALL intelligence agencies just a few years before the Iraq war started, but they were there. There is no accounting yet for the difference between the well documented WMDs that were once there, but have not yet been found. But there certainly were stockpiles of chemical weapons found in Iraq since March 2003.

2. Another fact that is well documented is that Hussein was giving money to a variety of terrorist organizations, including Hammas, Hezbollah, and various Al-Qaeda front organizations. This is not opinion, it is documented fact. He certainly did treat the Shiites poorly, but Al-Qaeda isn't about religion anyway. Just look at how many Shiites they are killing in Iraq right now. Some of the documents showing payments to Al-Qaeda fronts were signed by Uday Hussein.

Okay, if you want to think that the USA is a huge bully in the world, you are free to think that. With the globally interlocking economic and cultural ties that we now have, small countries are just as much bullies. The US has certain interests. Sometimes our country's efforts to take care of those interests may conflict with those of other countries. But that is true of all countries.

That is enough from me. I will not continue this argument.

Politics USA big bad bully - Page 5

Nighthawk, you can not prove there was any stockpiles because you have no facts or credible reports. You are yet to present one. If stockpiles were found why have they been hidden from the media?

Furthermore if you researched much on Saddam you would understand he would sooner kill Al-Quaeda members rather than support them. I find it astonishing you can't accept that your government lied to you. They (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and even Bush) have publicly conceded there were no weapons. I am not going to argue about this anymore.

Look I don't care what public perception of the US is. All I am doing is presenting a perspective from abroad as to why the US might be perceived as a bully. It's obviously a sensitive subject. To be honest I would prefer the US to be the sole superpower than most other countries in the world. There are far worse bullies going around, lets not kid ourselves here.

I agree 100 per cent with LDS's assessment and I think most Americans living abroad would as well.

Offtopic but, I know that, as LDS said, many European countries are perceived as more desirable places to live for a variety of reasons. Melbourne and Sydney are almost always in the top five or six most desirable cities to live in international surveys. But who cares as long as you are happy with where you live.

Edited: arvhic on 3rd Nov, 2005 - 9:48am