quote:
Do you know anything about the Founders of your country and the ideas they had?
Absolutely! ..and I wish our goverment actually believed in those ideals and ideas. I also watched "Leave it to Beaver", Father Knows Best", "Dennis the Menice", and "Happy Days" ...and learned that the life they depicted never existed outside of a television studio. It is much like that in our foreign policy. We have an image of our nation based on "our" lifestyle ..not the lives that we impact in certain areas of the world.
There is a flip side to every coin, sub-zero ..a dark side. Make no mistake about it ..we, the noble USA have a dark side when it comes to our foreign policy. We are not selfless ..and NEVER WERE.
Take our rebuilding of most of the world after WWII. Do you think that was some selfless act of humanitarianism? Humanitarian, yes. Selfless, no ...but what in the world would you do with a totally intact economy that was @ 100 % industrial and agricultural output at the end of the war? Send it into a shocking depression? How do you think that WE became the currency that the world looked to?
Why did Japan attack the USA? Because we and the Brits had effectively locked them out of resources in Asia. We had a monopoly and they were strangled by it.
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You can't hide behind the idea that "the end justifies the means"
I don't ...but I'm not going to call crap gold and sell it on the market either.
There are two places on the planet that our "lame" foreign policy is most evident. One is the banana republics. We fought the Cold War, WWII, built the federal hyway net, and put a man on the moon ...and you tell me that we couldn't develop those troubled nations into something beyond a game of either proping up dictators or toppling them to effect conditions that served our needs? We obviously "want" them this way. It's the same in the middle east. We protect and support corrupt monarchies that leave their people ignorant and basically drain their nations dry ..yet we, and our parnters, live a life of luxury in comparison. We don't foster devolopment or leverage these nations to educate and benefit their people....we just want what we need and to **** with them (apply bananas, sugar, oil, etc. as 'wants').
This "blind eye" surface policy is because it is cheaper then doing the things that we should. In reality we promote this type of internal chaos.
How else can you explain why the richest nation in the world is so protective of a region of the world that provides the life blood of the modern capitalistic world ...yet the majority of its residents are in ignorance and poverty?
Just dumb luck??? We keep it this way since it is cheaper than doing the right thing.
Don't get me wrong. I grew up during the cold war. I went through the nuclear drills ..knew where my fallout shelter was at school ..my parents taught me to say "please" and "thank you", wait your turn, and to respect adults and athority. If you did something wrong ..not only would the first adult kick your butt ..your dad would do it harder for the shame you brought to him as a parent. I said the "Pledge of Allegence" and meant it in every classroom and Boy Scout meeting. I thought the peace movement was a commie plot and that Vietnam was "right" because my government was doing it.
Well, I found out that no one had such ideals. Coaches put their kids in when they didn't deserve it ...the principles were more into "keeping the trains on time" ..that many cops were just jerks that wanted to be jerks with a gun and a cop car, ..we've had the S&L scandel, Enron, WorldCom, Martha Steward, Watergate, Iran-Contra ..and a whole bunch of other things that had nothing to do with the life I was led to believe was proper. I've been bested by the cheater, deceived by the liar, conned by the trickster ..you name it..
..and I have no delusions of any "ideals" in our government. I AM pricipled ...and therefore have to call a spade a spade.
This war, if anything ...was the right deed for all the wrong reasons. I pray that it is effective and that it achieves its intended purpose without too much "collateral damage" to us and to others who it impacts.
[ March 29, 2004, 01:08 AM: Message edited by: Gary Allan ]
