Flying back from Philadelphia last night I sat next to a man suffering through the second leg of a grueling transatlantic journey from Germany to Seattle, shoehorned into a seat that seemed designed to taunt his 6-foot, 4-inch frame. I suppose I should have shown him more mercy considering his sleep deprived state, but I couldn’t help myself, and so we ended up talking politics. He was on a rare trip back to the states after spending most of the past three decades as a civilian military employee in Germany, and I just had to ask about the German attitude towards the US these days.
“They hate us,” he replied without hesitation. And not just the Germans he said, but throughout Europe, the United States as a nation (as opposed to individual Americans) is feared and loathed. Thank you Mr. Bush.
Since squandering the near global goodwill lavished on us in the tragic aftermath of 9/11, the US has become a nation without political allies. Indeed, being identified as an ally of President Bush has become a recipe for political suicide, with first the UK’s Tony Blair biting the dust, and then Poland’s hateful Kaczynski twins. And yesterday it was Australian voters’ turn to repudiate Bush’s disastrous policies:
Bush’s closest ally, Australian neanderthal John Howard “suffered a humiliating defeat” today. Kevin Rudd, a moderate left candidate will be the new prime minister and he has promised to overturn the ultra-reactionary Bush-like policies of his predecessor, particularly in regard to Global Warming and Iraq. Bush’s only ally left in the entire world on Global Warming is now Oklahoma crazy right-wing senator, James Inhofe. Rudd won a clear parliamentary majority and it looks like Howard may actually lose his own suburban Sydney seat to boot! […] Rudd campaigned on promises that “his first acts as prime minister will include pushing for the ratification of the Kyoto climate agreement and to negotiate the withdrawal of Australian combat troops from Iraq,” both seen as repudiations of George Bush’s embarrassing leadership.
And oh yeah, with Rudd’s victory it now seems likely that Midnight Oil singer (and Senator) Peter Garrett will join the new cabinet as Environmental Minister.
Of course they hate us in Europe. We are free to do whatever we wish in the greatest nation in the history of the world. They are slaves to their governments.
They hate us because Americans defend ourselves around the world. They are cowards, eager to succumb to any force that comes along: Communism, Nazism, Islam.
They hate us because we defend ourselves in our homes. Thanks to the God-given right of self-defense as constituted in the 2nd Amendment. Especially in the major cities of Europe, like London, where the chances of being assaulted has shot up 100x since they banned guns.
But most of all, they hate us because we are still at our core (well, except most democrats) a decent moral people who have bailed their fat @ss out of the fire countless times.
Like the liberals they are, Europeans hate our success, our fortunes, our wealth. Thank God that real Americans are not like them!
1 – Oh. Did they hate us as much before we started the beating the war drums for Iraq? Or blew them off as we plunged into Afghanistan? Can you cite any polls?
No. No need to cite facts when neo-con talking points will do just fine.
Thank God that real Americans
It’s always the sheep and the goats with you wingers.
They hate us because of Bush? They hate us because we’re an imperialistic bully. It doesn’t matter who’s in power, we still have the same number of U.S. military bases encircling the globe. I think the number of overseas bases is somewhere around 750. Even when the Dems are in power, and there’s no war going on, the fact that the U.S. has multiple military bases planted in the majority of countries on earth isn’t exactly winning us brownie points.
I don’t exactly remember any of you protesting the U.S.’s global domination through military might when Clinton was in power. Having a military base on a foreign country’s soil is a pretty big clue we live in a country that believes in using the threat of military force to ensure our continued global domination.
I just laugh when Americans are shocked and outraged that we invaded a sovereign nation. How naive. The fact that we have so many U.S. military bases overseas should have been a clue to you about what the U.S. is all about.
@1 Us? No, they hate YOU and all your wingnut friends. Europeans liked what America represented before you fucking fascists showed up.
@1 (continued) Given your patronizing and inaccurate opinion of Europeans, their reasonable and justified opinion of you is not surprising.
Keep it up, wingnuts! We’re witnessing a global plebescite on your attitudes and policies, and early results indicate you’re about as popular as the Third Reich.
@3 “They hate us because we’re an imperialistic bully.”
What do you mean “we”? The imperialistic bullying is strictly a GOP show. They liked our bases in JFK’s time, when Americans protected everyone else. It took a gaggle of wingnut imperialists to turn the world against us. They don’t like our bases anymore because you assholes use them to bomb them.
1, 3 — Notice the clever use of rhetoric (“us” and “we”)? When wingnut misbehavior causes the roof to cave in on them, they try to pretend Democrats are just like them! Not. There’s no “us” or “we” there; this is strictly a “you fucking wingnut idiots” situation.
As if were ever assented to any of their crap …
we not were
@7
Wake up, RR. What did you think those bases were for?? Did you think they were toy factories?
WE HAVE OVER 750 U.S. MILITARY BASES ENCIRCLING THE GLOBE! WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY ARE FOR??? WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!
Roger Rabbit Quiz
Listen up kiddies, we’ve got a real toughie today, so put on your thinking caps and don’t rush your answer! Your gut instincts are probably wrong, so think before you leap.
Who is responsible for wingnut screwups?
[ ] 1. Mother Goose
[ ] 2. The Tooth Fairy
[ ] 3. Santa and his Elves
[ ] 4. The Easter Bunny
[ ] 5. Wingnuts
@11 They were built to contain communist aggression.
If you have any more stupid questions, write them in this box [ ] and mail them to __.
@11 You didn’t go to a private school, did you? I thought so. As bad as public schools allegedly are, you can’t fairly accuse them of putting out an educational product like you.
@11 Is this your argument in favor of imperialist aggression?
RR, you are very naive. So you think it’s okay for one country to have 750 of its military bases in other countries, but then surprised when they use some of that military might?
Go Roger!
I don’t believe any county has the right to plant its military bases in another country, let alone 750 of them. Getting rid of them would be a good start in the direction of the U.S. being a more peaceful nation.
What the future will show, amusingly enough, is that while Sarkozy was elected on the strength of jingoistic/racist domestic slogans, we may well see his fall based on allying himself with der BushlerFüerher.
Hey – the point is they (Europe and most of the world) did NOT hate us after 9/11. We had European and worldwide sympathy. We had a coalition and agreement to go after Bin laden (remember him? Bush doesn’t!) in Afghanistan – the perpetrator of 9/11.
Cheney/bush decided to use 9/11 to go after Iraq – many Europeans didn’t buy it – gee – they actually have educated free people – who don’t listen to Fox news – and can therefore make an informed decision without consulting an idiot like Rush Limpbrain. How many times did they try and link 9/11 to Iraq and Iraq to al quaida using the time-worn republican strategy – many lies make a truth. Our sycophantic media bought it but now only 25% of Americans (some of them trolls on this site) believe it.
Meantime – bush went around trying to twist peoples (other nations) arms to back us in Iraq (coalition of the (un)willing), giving sham evidence at the UN and pretending a mushroom cloud would envelope us if we didn’t attack Sadaam. bottom line – it is bush that other people (read thinking europeans and most of this country) hate. Most Europeans I know agree with most americans – the war was promoted falsely by the bush administration.
All we need to gain back our historic allies is a new adminstration without an idiot at the top and a war-mongering VP.
@3:
Before Bush there were lots of liberals dubbing the Clinton administration the most violent presidency in history. Lots of people had problems with the way Operation Desert Fox was conducted (you’ll remember the “town meeting” in Ohio Clinton held in order to sell the all-out war idea where Madeline Albright was shouted down and drowned out by protesters), and people followed Gen. Wesley Clark around when he was running for president to raise questions about the cost of victory in Kosovo (the bang-up job he did there did not get him far in 2004).
It is true that people need to grips with the fact that the U.S. has an unbroken history of using the military to “advance its interests” abroad and, for example, has used torture against people it doesn’t like:
http://www.onthemedia.org/tran.....7/10/05/02
That doesn’t make these things right, inevitable, or worth condoning, under Bush or anyone else.
““They hate us,” he replied without hesitation. And not just the Germans he said, but throughout Europe, the United States as a nation (as opposed to individual Americans) is feared and loathed. Thank you Mr. Bush.”
That’s odd, because I am married to a German and we have family over there. I visit Germany frequently and I have never felt nor heard any contempt for the United States (Remember Merkel was just elected and she is known for her very good relationship with President Bush).
The Germans, if you will understand, have a completley different outlook on many issues. National Pride is often frowned upon (Reminiscent of Nazi Germany). I was in the Military there, and trained with the German Military. They have a very high presence in Afghanistan and continue to rally behind our troops. Talking with a civilian employee of the DoD on a flight does not and should not form an opinion for the people of that country. Remember, many Germans have long despised the Euro as well as the EU. Does that mean taht they are bad too?
Roger,
BS may be strident, but he has a point that should not be so glibly dismissed. I recommend the following books for your edification:
House of War, by James Carroll
The Blowback Trilogy by Chalmers Johnson
Our military machine, our insane levels of military spending, the way the military-industrial complex (to borrow an old term) twists our domestic priorities, and last, but not least, our bases throughout the world bespeak the trappings of Empire. That most in this country do not take these obvious facts into account is a tragedy that will result in disasterous unforseen consequences–blowback.
Yr. Obd. Servant,
Seems neither you, your wife or her relatives are regular readers of Der Spiegel. Nice try, tho’.
Bases? Those bases’ neighbors in foreign lands probably didn’t mind them a whole lot when we and they stood together defying the “Great Red Manace”. They probably also didn’t (and don’t) mind a whole lot those bases’ enriching the local economy with money and jobs.
On the other hand they no doubt always found it irritating if some of our folks went out on weekend passes and drank too much and brawled and groped their women. Hey, there’s some of that feeling between regions of our own country–remember the Southern joke about “yankees, damn yankees and God-damned yankees”?
Nowadays, folks elsewhere in the world have some new quarrels with us. That $100 price per barrel for oil is costing them as well as us. There are a few more arguments between our folks overseas and their hosts over the price of all kinds of things, now that the dollars we have in our wallets are worth less every day.
Some of ’em, who might have the quaint notion that being a Christian means observing the Fifth Commandment, and its original form at that (funny that recent translations of the Bible changed “kill” to “murder”) are appalled by the wanton slaughter in which our leadership seems to take such pride.
@16 No, I’m not surprised that the segment of our population that lacks education, discipline, and self-restraint wants to use our military might for aggressive purposes.
@16 Nor am I naive concerning what rightwing extremists are all about, and what their ambitions are.
“Seems neither you, your wife or her relatives are regular readers of Der Spiegel. Nice try, tho’.”
You mean here?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/
Or
http://www.spiegel.de/
Look for stories about who the Chancellor of Germany is. She has a great relationship with the US President. She also outed, by the people voting, a chancellor who had a very rocky (at best) relationship with the US. So you tell me. Who do you believe? Personally, I believe that citizens of Germany that voted for Merkel (mainly because she won).
I know you libs like to think that the voting public is stupid, when it votes against what you believe is correct, but that isn’t how a democracy works.
@16 That’s why you guys should never again be allowed to run our government. And when I say “never” that’s exactly what I mean. American voters repudiated Goldwater because they believed he was a dangerous extremist. Their fears came true in the person of George W. Bush — the Far Right is, in fact, both extremist and dangerous. I think a lot of Americans who took GWB at face value are going to walk away from this administration with the attitude of “never again” — never again will they fall for rightwing extremists pretending to be moderates, never again will they fall for rightwing lies, and some of them will never again trust Republicans of any stripe. Bush has done incalculable damage to the GOP. Like every other country, America has extremists, but after our recent experiment with neocon foreign policy, voters will again insist that adults run the country and you righwing lunatics will be re-relegated to the irrelevant, unlistened to, and powerless fringe.
Does anybody really give a fuck what europeans think of us? I know all you socialists who want to change Murka to be more like them do, but I SAS don’t.
@18 I really don’t have the time to educate you. There aren’t enough hours in a day (or a lifetime) to teach you what you don’t know. It’s true we “planted” a few bases on captured territory, such as Guam and the Marshall Islands. But most of our bases exist through treaties or leases. In many cases, we were invited in by the host governments as part of mutual security arrangements entered with them by treaty. One reason we have so many overseas bases is because the United States is fulfilling the role of keeping the sea lanes open to commerce, which requires a far-flung navy that depends on support facilities throughout the world. These bases provide a considerable amount of employment and bring other economic benefits to the host countries. In most cases, they’re happy to have us there, which wouldn’t be the case if we used these bases to initimidate or threaten them.
Of course, Bush’s belligerent, go-it-alone, unpopular cowboy diplomacy has strained many of these relationships, and complicated the task of retaining these bases in the future, which can only adversely affect America’s security.
Waytago, wingnut fuckups.
Of course, it doesn’t help America’s popularity to have the CIA repetitively going into other countries, overthrowing popularly elected governments, killing their leaders, and installing and propping up pro-business dictatorships in the name of “protecting American [read: corporate] interests.”
Not a few Republiconvicts want to kill Hugo Chavez because he thinks Venezuela’s oil belongs to Venezuela and the profits from that oil should go for the benefit of the Venezuelan people instead of Exxon’s profits.
I’m reading this from Japan (Okinawa, to be exact), where I’ve spent the last four days speaking at a conference and apologizing for our government. Okinawa is dominated by dozens of various US military bases, and these are no longer seen as protection for Japan, but a forward base for a government that wants to rule and oppress the world.
From this distance, right wing dismissals of what the rest of the world thinks of us are somewhere between foolish and idiotic. If the US can’t even impose its will on either one of two of the poorest, most devastated countries in the world, telling the entire world to go fuck itself is a losing game.
@23 I’m aware of the arguments. Americans are human, and our soldiers, like everyone else’s soldiers, sometimes commit atrocities under the stress of combat; but they do that as individuals, not to carry out any government policy. Our government sometimes meddles in other people’s affairs. On the whole, however, America has not had evil designs on the rest of the world in the way that history’s conquerors and despots did. Our military forces have been a bulwark against totalitarianism, repression, and conquest. We have not, as a people, since the end of the colonial era over 100 years ago, been in the conquest business although one must qualify this by saying “except for CIA meddling and the private actions of some of our corporations.” It is not correct to paint the American military as aggressive merely because it is large. A succession of presidents have used it to respond to perceived threats to our security or commercial interests, or humanitarian crises — sometimes wisely, sometimes not so wisely. In the Cold War era, we usually saw things in black and white terms, where the reality consisted of many shades of gray, but we nevertheless acted out of a sense that our security was at stake. We have no fears of our civilian government being overthrown by generals and a ruling junta established. We ARE different from the history that preceded our grand idealistic experiment in liberal democracy, even if the road has sometimes been bumpy because of human error mixed with a dose of greed and perfidy.
Goldy, are you ever actually IN Washington state?
Mea Culpa.
Why, of course before GWB was elected, everything was sunshine and light. Peace and love filled the world as there was never known a war. No child was ever hungry nor crime committed until GWB was President.
Oh.
That’s right, ignorance and liberalism (really the same word) have allowed every war to start.
Hey, did the CIA really prop up dictatorships? Like, how many times under JFK? Oh, my bad, he was a demo. Or Carter w/ the Shah? Oops, again. So sorry.
Republicans not allowed to run things? Why the perfect utopian state is here in WA then: Lousy schools, lousy traffic, lousy state government, lousy business climate. Oh, and now MURDERERS are getting probation. Can’t blame Taxachusetts for that one; that’s right here in KingCo.
@25 “That $100 price per barrel for oil is costing them as well as us.”
Actually, it’s not costing them as much as it’s costing us, unless they trade with dollars. Although the price of oil has gone up in real terms, much of the increase apparent to Americans is a result of the dollar going down in value.
To illustrate this, let’s say the benchmark price of oil is $50. Now let’s say the value of the dollar drops by 40%, which in fact is the percentage of devaluation against the euro since 2001. To get the same price of his oil, the producer now has to charge $83. If he converts those dollars to euros, he’s still got only what $50 used to be worth, so he hasn’t raised his price at all.
What looks like rapid inflation of oil prices is, in fact, to a great extent, rapid devaluation of the American dollar.
@31 What you should give a fuck about is restoring your creditworthiness by paying Goldy the $100 you owe him, deadbeat.
@38 We’ll match our record in office against your record in office anytime you like. To find anybody who comes even close to fucking things up like rightwing Republicans, you have to go to North Korea or Sudan or Zimbabwe.
@38 Name one thing you fuckwads have done right in the last 7 years. One thing …
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/hom epage/story/22026.html
What could have been an interesting and valuable new development:
Is probably not going to happen:
The world doesn’t trust us. The world thinks that we are insane assholes. The world watched us make demands of Afghanistan, ignore their offers, and then invade when our demands were not met. The world watched Iraq eliminate its nuclear program and allow IAEA inspectors to certify that it had done so, and then the US invaded anyway, with Republicans claiming to this day that they don’t believe that this elimination ever occurred.
Conclusion: The sooner we get rid of the likes of George Bush and Dave Reichert, and build a Democratic majority capable of legislating, the better.
RR, are you that nut on Northgate Way who puts up signs on telephone poles that say things like “Hang Republicans,” and “Kill Republicans?” You kind of sound like you could be him.
44
He doesn’t just talk about it, if you know what I mean.
I’m wearing a Republican right now.
RR, tell us all about your record. Tell me about how compassionate Democrats are. Tell me how Bill Clinton reacted when he heard there was a genocide going on in Rwanda. Seriously, tell me how Democrats “do it right.” What did Bill Clinton choose to do after he heard, on day 16, that there was a genocidal slaughter going that would last another 2 and 1/2 months and kill over 800,000 people. What did Democrat Bill Clinton do?
I can’t wait to have you educate me on the action he took. I want to hear how Democrats are so much different. So, what did Democrat Bill Clinton do? What action did he take upon hearing this news?
46
What he didn’t do it invade another country unilaterally. Different from Republicans.
What he did do is orchestrate a humanitarian intervention in the Balkans, despite unanimous Republican opposition.
In Rwanda, 500,000 people were killed in less than four months. Creating an effective international response, or even properly assessing the magnitude of the event, is pretty tough in that time frame. You know one thing Clinton did? He apologized. Bush never has for a fucking thing, not even after invading a nation where a massacre was not occurring, a nation that was not attacking us or planning an attack, a nation with no capability to mount an attack against anyone. GW Bush knocked over the weakling of the Middle East to show us how big a dick he had, that nonetheless has us pinned fucking down hemorrhaging $4 billion a month in the pursuit of nothing.
Uhh, that’s what’s different.
Success in Iraq, Republican-style:
removing the threat of nuclear weaponsstopping torturebeing hailed as liberatorssecuring munitionsdefeating insurgencyusing Heritage Foundation interns to rebuild Iraqi infrastructurebringing electricity and water distribution to pre-Saddam levelsavoiding Shi’ite theocracyestablishing a stable governmentstabilizing the Middle Eastmaintaining an international coalition of forcesweakening international terrorismwinning hearts and minds of Iraqis– paying off Sunnis not to fight us
– ignoring that Shi’ite militias constitute the national forces
– call anyone who attacks our troops in Iraq “al Qaeda in Iraq”
– torturing captured Iraqis to get them to implicate AQI or Iran
– make sure press writes all of that down
– ignore worsening violence against women degrading their status
– stay forever whatever the conditions there
@44 No.
@44 Let’s clarify something. When I post such comments, it’s satire mocking wingnuts who use violent rhetoric like Ann Coulter, Jonathan Gardner, and Mark Griswold, and there’s always an asterisk to make this intent clear. If you don’t see the asterisk, it’s not my comment. This applies only to human Republicans, of course. When I say that fucking voter registration felon mutt of Jane Balogh’s ought to be euthanized, I really mean it!
* Just kidding! Ann Coulter humor. I’m really a PETA sympathizer! I think all small furry animals with long pink ears and cute cottontails should be legally protected.
@46 You hypocrites criticized Clinton for stopping a genocide in Kosovo without losing a single American life in combat, yet your excuse for invading Iraq was to “save” the Iraqi people from Saddam. Which is it? Are humanitarian interventions okay, or not okay?
@46 Got a question for ya good buddy. If Republicans sincerely believe Clinton was wrong not to intervene in Rwanda, why hasn’t Bush intervened in Darfur? Hmmmm? I repeat, which is it? Methings Rwanda is nothing but a talking point for you hypocrites.
RR, I bet I’m more of a liberal than you. For example, I’m for giving African Americans generous reparations. I believe the U.S. government should give blacks their own nation carved out of about 3 southern states, and then be given 1 million dollars each if they will go live there.
According to the British publication The Guardian, Clinton was aware of the genocide unfolding in Rwanda and decided not to act:
“It was a very pragmatic determination. The administration did not want to repeat the fiasco of US intervention in Somalia, where US troops became sucked into fighting. It also felt the US had no interests in Rwanda, a small central African country with no minerals or strategic value.”
Since then, Clinton has expressed regret for his decision. It was a judgment call, and probably the wrong one. His call on Kosovo, which rightwingers miss no opportunity to criticize, clearly was the right one. Now there are calls for Bush to intervene in Darfur. Should he? I don’t know. The U.S. probably doesn’t have the ability to police the entire world, yet sometimes many lives can be saved by a timely intervention that doesn’t involve a massive commitment of troops or involve fighting a major war. Humanitarian interventions, in my view, have to be decided on a case-by-case basis, and it’s always easy to criticize later with the advantage of hindsight.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/.....31,00.html
That came out wrong. I don’t believe in giving blacks 1 million dollars each only if they will go live in their new homeland, they should get 1 million dollars whether they do or not. I think America would be a much better place if black people were rich.
That’s right, ignorance and liberalism (really the same word) have allowed every war to start.
Translation from Wingnuteeze: It’s all Bill Clinton’s fault.
56 BS
That’s such a brave stance to back a weird “solution” to I-am-not-sure-what problem that has no chance of ever happening. I don’t know, but it seems to me that the “problem” to solve is that of successfully integrating non-whites into our society after centuries of slavery, racism, and opprotunistic exploitation of racial divides for partisan gain. But you might have a point–on Pluto.
In a similar vein, think when the aliens arrive we should definitely incorporate their medical practices into ours.
Wow…cmiklich (#1) like nearly all Republicans are completely stupid and never understand the world and actual facts…only arguing from ignorance, “belief” and superstition. Europe did not cowardly give in to the Nazi’s…if cmiklich ever read something other than the Bible, like a history book, he’d realized MOST of Europe was fighting Hitler, England for YEARS before we eventually joined the fight when it was half way over already. Remember, the ONLY reason we beat the Germans to the bomb, and even HAD a space race with the Russians later was because of the German scientists we gathered up. Remember, the Russians lost MILLIONS fighting Germany, far more than the United States. This ‘eastern front’ is what depleted Germany and allowed the Allies to ultimately win. If not for this, we “might” have eventually won, but it would have been YEARS longer. This retard (Republican) ignorant self centered child like view of world is WHY Republicans are dangerous.
Trying to make the case that the Bush Administration is the cause of America’s unpopularity in Europe is patently absurd. Anti Americanism has been a phenomenon in Europe for years, dating back to the 70’s at least. It peaked during the early 80’s when the Reagan Administration ratched up the stakes during the cold war and deployed nuclear cruise missles into Germany, which eventually helped END the cold war. The French, who couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag without the help of the US, have been ungrateful step children for decades. So how can you claim that Bush, as much as I can’t stand him either, is the cause of our unpopularity in Europe? We have been unpopular in Europe since Bush was doing cocaine as a college student!
WE Left Europe due to over taxation, we had a a Boston Tea Party. We will change this state for the same reason, and with a contiuance of the Washington Tea party we just saw in the last election.
It’s true we’re wealthy and successful, which is pretty much why they hate us. But that’s okay. We’re one of the friendliest countries around, too. We’re the good guys. I’m stickin’ to it.
Yo David @ #59.
Actually, uh yeah, Europe did give in cowardly to the Nazis. They negotiated, and negotiated and re-re-re-negotiated all through the late 1930’s until, oops, too late. (Kinda like what Barack Osama and Mrs. BJ wanna do: Great. Little Nevilles running around waving white flags.)
And, the Soviets? Golly, they thought the Nazis were their friends. Dumb@sses.
(Exactly like anybody who thinks a Muslim can be their friend. The WORD MEANS “SUBMISSION”! It doesn’t mean “peace, love and understanding”. Submit or DIE! Exactly what Hitler’s platform was.)
BTW, Patton was right: We should have let the Soviets and Nazis eat each other’s carcass until they were bloody stumps. Then we wouldn’t have had to wait 35+ years for a MAN (dictionary definition: Somebody w/ a sack, i.e. REAGAN) to get into the White House.
Dave: ’tis not I who needs study his history. The USSR only just barely made it through 1941-1942 BECAUSE OF FDR’s misguided support. And because of FDR, and Truman, the Soviets were emboldened and the Cold War was realized.
Moral: (Just like the wise man said) PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.
Now we’re back to arguing over WWII.
All this bloviating is misdirection. “Lok over there,and we’ll stop talking about what a loser Bush has made us.” The FACT is that you can look at polls all over the world, and beginning with the Bush administration the regard with which people in pretty much every country on earth hold the US has plummeted to previously-unknown depths. People the world over do not trust us. They fear us. They think we operate from bad motives (which, since Bush took office, we do exclusively). The damage that this militaristic, power-mad, secret-prison-torturing administration has done to the US credibility extends beyond the abysmal numbers and may well be incalculable. The next Demcratic president will be piecing together our shattered image from Day 1.
The good will the USA built up over a century and a half as a nation who is a beacon of hope and freedom, the nation who takes in immigrants gladly, and the nation who uses its great power to protect the weak and promote justice throughout the world has been entirely lost.
And that is not even open to question. The numbers speak for themselves. And it doesn’t matter what George Patton or what Angela Merkel thinks.
Oh, and cmiklich: Islam means “submission to the will of God” on an individual basis. Tell me how that differs from the Christian conception of Man’s relationship to God. You’re not ignorant; you are just a propagandist.
Hey Daddy: Gotta get some REAL love.
Jesus commanded to go into every village and place and preach the WORD. If the people in that place do not accept the WORD, the Christian is to walk out of that place, wipe the dirt off his sandal and proceed on.
Islam says to do the same thing. Except. If the folks in town don’t cotton to the message like, instantaneously, to slaughter all of ’em.
Y’see, Christianity is a lot like conservatism. Success can really only be on the individual level (it is as individuals we are judged by God. Not by Country or skin color, or …).
Islam is a lot like the democrats & liberals in general. Believe in the power of government (and government only) or die. That includes the liberal religion of statism, i.e. un-Christian communism.
I lived in Europe for quite awhile…three years of that in Germany.
What the Western Europeans hate is the knowledge that they are disappearing, and their future is no longer their own.
The first problem is that the construct of Euro-Socialism …or as the French would prefer to call it, “the third way,’ between Capitalism and Socialism, was never actuarially sound. Even without their declining birthrates, they sold Socialism to the people by making promises that could not be eternally kept. The place was like a Ponzi scheme….ultimately it had to come tumbling down as the diminishing number of real workers (as opposed to the legions of pseudo-employed state workers).
But the other problem was those declining birthrates. The Western Europeans bought in to the ‘population boom’ myth, and lowered their own fertility rate to about 1.1 children per woman….halving their number of fertile females every 30 years. Right now France is about 15% Muslim, but the fertility rate for that 15% is nearly 6 children per women, while the fertility rate for the traditional women is still just over 1. The overall rate, 2.1, will sustain the French population (not many western European countries can say that) but 50% of the children being born today are Muslim. The future of France will be Muslim…if they are unlucky, a Caliphate.
So the Western Europeans have a lot to be unhappy about right now, and though they may choose to be unhappy with “Booosh,” most of their problems are of their own making.
And they are pervasive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T....._director)
http://fjordman.blogspot.com/2.....n-and.html
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050627/scroggins
http://www.brookings.edu/opini.....han02.aspx
http://www.brookings.edu/opini.....han02.aspx
http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....5tebxi.asp
I think that everyone worldwide can agree that song was awesome. Acknowledging its awesomeness should be a litmus test for the Supreme Court.
In Rwanda, 500,000 people were killed in less than four months. Creating an effective international response, or even properly assessing the magnitude of the event, is pretty tough in that time frame. You know one thing Clinton did? He apologized
Oh come now, it was never THAT difficult. Belgium was the country whose colonial policies had led to the whole genocidal mess, and the UN decision to use them as “peacekeepers” was never bright. This situation has been brewing since 1959 and the Belgians knew it. It hardly snuck up on anyone.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/rw.html
But even after the Belgiques cut and ran after ten (10) whole casualties, the UN response was to dither. And that was normal for them. The EU countries who had spent centuries cultivating their African colonies never have wanted to take responsibility for them.
And despite the fact that the EU community was the cause of this mess, they were no more able to do anything about it than they were able to fight genocide on their own doorstep in the Balkans until we intervened because the EU had taken their ‘peace dividend’ long before this, and had so few deployable troops they wouldn’t have been effective here or anywhere else, something the advocates of ‘multilateralism’ should consider. For the most part, the EU regards multilateralism as the US doing the hevy lifting militarily for any EU problem.
But what IS IT with this leftist penchant for trying to extract apologies from everyone? Stalin always used to do that in the Gulag, and Pol Pot did that even when he knew he was going to kill his own people by the millions, even after they apologized.
http://www.amazon.com/Pol-Pot-.....0805066624
goldy……..what an idiot you are! as usual. why am i still surprised that you would actually EXPECT anyone to believe your “stories”?
so this ‘guy’ told you this….uh huh….why then IT MUST BE TRUE!!!! why this is just as good as a NYT survey…and just as unbiased.
did you bother to tell him that you were a mooch who begged for money to survive [cause working is for fools] and then took ANOTHER vacation??? hmm…..no?
but on the point…..once again you are an idiot. you are so used to talking to yourself in the mirror or one of your many sock puppets that you really are this ignorant.sad, really.
my husband is german…and i don’t care what some [made up] ‘guy’ told you on a plane. guess what ? the germans really really hated us during WW2….should we have said “oh well, the world is just one big popularity contest…we better not ruin our standings! jews? what jews?”
and if we had worried more about our popularity than what WAS RIGHT then we would have really been able to say “jews? what jews?” don’t you think?
and this crap
“Since squandering the near global goodwill lavished on us in the tragic aftermath of 9/11, the US has become a nation without political allies.”
that isn’t affection for us you complete idiot…it was pity. and it means nothing……
would it have been better if we had just sent people over to germany to walk up and down the barbed wire fences outside the concentration camps during WW2 to “lavish goodwill” on the internees? i mean…we could have told them they looked so good thin…right?
besides….you of all people are now holding the GERMANS up as the moral authority? you know, the people that started both WORLD WARS?
get real goldy….and you might want to get a job while your at it. i have a strong feeling you are really going to need one soon……..
a couple of history lessons wouldn’t hurt either…….
“Daddy Love says:
44
He doesn’t just talk about it, if you know what I mean.
I’m wearing a Republican right now.
oh yeah…that’s really funny. i just love that hitler/serial killer humor. god…you liberals are truly creepy and yet moronic at the same time. it’s like garlic ice cream. it just doesn’t work.
but then, neither do liberals…….