(Or Five Things Everyone Must Know About America)
The Americans admit it themselves and I agree: They are a bunch of oblivious folks too engrossed in their struggle to obtain the American Dream to pay heed to anything else. They have too much of a blind faith in their democratic values and in their elected leaders. Therefore, they do too little to keep a check on the activities of these leaders. Resultantly, they pursue policies which, despite being in negation to the American values, go unchecked—even supported at times.
This post attempts to introduce to them—and to all of my readers—some of the dark policies pursued by American politicians.
- America created the biggest and most dangerous terrorist organization—Al-Qaeda. Yes, America created Al-Qaeda. When the Russians invaded Afghanistan in the late 70s, Al-Qaeda emerged as an international Jihadi movement against the Soviets. It was funded directly by the Pakistanis and Saudis and indirectly by America, which channeled its military hardware and other logistics through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate. For more details, read this Wikipedia article.
- America created the Taliban. Again yes, America created the Taliban. Ahmad Rashid, a widely acclaimed Pakistani intellectual, writes in his book, Taliban, that: “The Taliban originated when the CIA with ISI recruited radical Muslims from around the world to fight with the Afghan mujahadeen against the Soviet Union.” Ahmed Rashid also estimates that after 1982 more than 100,000 Muslims from dozens of countries received political or military training in the CIA-backed camps of Pakistan and Afghanistan. For more details, read this Wikipedia article about Taliban.
- America sold arms to Iraq and urged it to use WMDs against civilians in Iran. During Iraq’s war with Iran, many American policymakers, arms suppliers and makers benefited immensely by selling large amounts of weaponry to Iraq. These weapons included chemical agents like cyanide. In addition, America also encouraged Iraq to use chemical weapons against Iranian civilians and helped Iraq develop its chemical weapons arsenal. For more details, read Iraq and Chemical Weapons: the US Connection by Daniel E Boles.
- America helped Iran to start its nuclear program. During the Shah’s period, America signed two agreements–the Atoms for Peace Program and the U.S.-Iran Nuclear Cooperation Agreement–with Iran to urge it to start its nuclear program. These two pacts, which would help Iran build up to 20 nuclear reactors, brought the US corporations as much as $6 billion in profits. However, after the Iranian revolution of 1979, America stopped backing Iran and its nuclear program. Resultantly, the program remained suspended for some time. Today, however, Iran is still trying to pursue what it calls a peaceful nuclear program. For more details read this Wikipedia article and this report written from an Iranian perspective.
- America is the only country to have used WMDs against civilians. Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki? American bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man, killed 66 and 39,000 innocent civilians respectively. This Yale University website has a very good report.
America also used Depleted Uranium (DU) in the Gulf War, in the Balkans and allegedly in its recent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. DU is a highly penetrating, toxic element which can cause an increase in cancers and severe birth defects. The use of DU not only affected American war veterans, but has also thousands, maybe millions of innocent people in areas it was used. DU is considered to be a WMD and its use is prohibited by many international agreements. For more details, read this BBC report, this Information Clearing House article, this Sunday Herald report and this report by Prof. M. Miraki, an Afghan expatriate [WARNING: This last report contains extremely graphic images which most visitors may find disturbing].
America’s use of the herbicide, Agent Orange, not only caused health problems and damage to its own veterans in Vietnam, but also to millions of Vietnamese who live in areas sprayed by this toxic agent. Currently there are 150,000 Vietnamese children with birth defects caused by Agent Orange. For more information, read this BBC report, this Wikipedia article, and the Department of Veterans Affairs website.
With all these hideous crimes, I fail to find a reason why Americans still back administrations which are not only against American values, but also against the common human morals; which kill indiscriminately and which only think of their own personal ends and those of a few corporations. This makes Noam Chomsky’s claim that thought control is conducted to spread a matrix of necessary illusions, true; and, the necessity of ‘an intellectual self-defense’, inevitable.
Links Worth Visiting:
- Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies (Noam Chomsky)
- Campaing Against Depleted Uranium
- International Petitions to Ban Uranium Weapons
Tags: America Bush Iraq Afghanistan Al-Qaeda Taliban Vietnam Iran Depleted+Uranium WMDsAdd to: blogmarks | del.icio.us | Newsvine | Raw Sugar | reddit | Simpy | | Yahoo My Web
MyScribbles: Write-ups of an Afghan 
“They are a bunch of oblivious folks too engrossed in their struggle to obtain the American Dream to pay heed to anything else.”
I don’t think that’s true, atleast not more than in any other country. It’s just that to get a clear picture of what is being committed in their names Americans have to spend time and effort looking beyond the media – time that most people don’t have.
We should have allowed the Russians to simply conquer Afghanistan How dare we interfere! And Iran, a country 3 times the population of Iraq, should have been allowed to conquer their neighbor. Yes, we tried to help a friendly government (the Shah) and stopped helping when the crazies took over. And yes, I remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Do you remember Pearl Harbor???
Plain and simple, thank goodness the United States has been around for the last 100 years to clean up the many messes throughout the world.
“With all these hideous crimes, I fail to find a reason why Americans still back administrations which are not only against American values,…”
Because the alternatives were and continue to be, worse.
A lot worse, and everyone on the planet seems to forget what we have done for all of you.
But first, none of those are secrets, we are not as dumb or uninterested as you are led to believe.
#1 and #2 weren’t thought out too well, but we didn’t know enough about the nature of the people we were helping.. now we do.
and we are paying for our mistakes.
By the way.. if it wasn’t for America you’d probably be named Ivan.
The second part of # 3 is bullshit
# 4, there is nothing wrong with helping another nation create something of this nature, we had no idea what the future would hold (granted, this was a huge blunder) We have done the same for many nations.
# 5 was absolutley needed, otherwise we were looking at a prolonged war with hundreds of thousands dead.
Fat man and Little boy probably did more to stop continuing attempts at conquest than anything ever has in history, it puzzles me why not many see this as clearly as I do.
if not for this.. how many more Hitlers?
I also notice that you post nothing of the good Americas has and continues to do around the world. Why don’t you write about how wonderful your world would be without America?
Try thinking things through before you post.
And come up with an original thought as well.
#1 and #2 are bullshit also.
Re #5…”innocent”? What history of WW2 did you read? I suppose something Chomsky suggested.
Funny how stuff comes back to “bite you in the ass”. I suppose there is an important lesson in that anything and everything is possible and if it can happen it probably will happen. Governments change and even though you might start out with good intention, somebody will eventually stand up to pervert the situation.
#5 was actually NOT necessary, if you knew anything, last poster.
Japan was ready to surrender, except that the US wouldn’t let them keep the monarchy. That was their only stipulation, but we bombed them twice.
Though there is some truth in much of what you say, unfortunately, you have fallen into the trap that most humans do in that you fail to acknowledge that in every issue there are shades of gray. With the diversity that exists in our country, to lump us all into one group is an oversimplistic explanation which you seem to use as a convenient crutch.
“America” is not one entity. It is an organic set of governing principles living in the very rights of its citizens. To allow the individual the ability to direct their life in the fashion of their own choosing, to be able to enjoy the rewards and benefits of hard work and to be able to freely voice opinions and make a difference from the roots up is the central directive of our founding principles. Though many of us do not always agree with every move that the elected officials have made, we do not play stupid with this “blind faith in our democratic values” as you state. No where else will you find a more inquisitive set of forays into the issues of today than in America, where the slogan “question authority” can be boldly displayed on a bumper sticker…and without persecution I might add.
You cannot lay the blame for Al-Quaeda on America, no more than you can lay the blame of atrocities of any war upon the shoulders of civilians. Yes, America did bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the souls of many were lost in horrific ways that day. Indeed many to this day still suffer from it. In a world where an eye for an eye only leads to continual conflict, can you blame our government for wanting to finally end the domino effect that war had escalated during WWII. The world had long been spinning out of control. We tried to stay out of it. We were living quite happily…many of us denying the effect that Hitler would have on us on our “safe” soil here at home. But when Pearl Harbor was attacked, we had to get involved.
In the future when you think of America and you feel the need to lay blame on us, remember that the line between black and white is subjective to one’s own outlook on existence in general. One’s religious views, personal experiences, and one’s cultural influences all play a part leading each person to a different definition and read on reality and likewise what their government has “really” done. Don’t let your innermost basic love for humanity be smothered out by the traps of these such frameworks which only allow for black and white thinking.
That is so sad. I live in America, but I hate it. I mean, how stupid can George W Bush be? If he hadn’t’ve invaded Iraq, the Iraq War wouldn’t be happening right now! I wish Bush was never elected. Period. I still hate Kerry, but somebody else could’ve run. I just…I’m scared of the terrorists. And I believe you when you say America created al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Because we did! It’s as simple as that. Our country now officially sucks.
Sanity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki is more akin to 9/11 than to Pearl Harbor.
i’m getting really tired of reading so much ant-america crud. if you don’t like living here in america them move!! better yet,join the dam*ed iraqi movement.if public hangings were still legal in america we wouldn’t have so much of the ant-america sentiment coming from americans.we did away with public hangings though..maybe this should be rethought.a traitor is a traitor..
if you hate this country so much that you construct a “over seas terrorism is the fault of the U.S.A” scenario, then it’s time for you to move Hank!!
Congratulations to signatoryxo and alga!!! For your oversimplification in understanding complexities and the contorted path down which “myscribbles” has led you, were this a game show, you surely would have won grand prize! Now go read “The Anti-Chomsky” reader.
Congratulations to signatoryxo and alga!!! For your oversimplification in understanding complexities and the contorted path down which “myscribbles” has led you, were this a game show, you surely would have won grand prize!
Now go read “The Anti-Chomsky Reader”.
Yes, we people of the U.S.A. completely fucked things up and now take full responsibility for the error of our ways.
As everyone knows, a problem can only be solved properly by those who created it, so…
We will shortly correct the situation by various measures, including nuking Iran and North Korea into glass parking lots. Please be patient with us, as it will take some setup time to do this properly.
I repeat: we take full responsibility. Please stand back and allow us to correct our mistakes.
@Sanity: Remember Pearl Harbour? Indeed, but have you thought it strange that FDR was complicit by inaction in the Pearl Harbour attack: lead into this at http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=408
But yes I guess you’re right, it’s so good to have had the US around for the past 100 years to fix up all the messes, like a democratically elected government in Chile (Allende – his assasination reulting from the CIA destablisation of the Chilean grovernent is the real 9/11), fixing the peacful nation of Cambodia by bombing the shit out of it illegalyy during the Vietnam war (resulting in the goverment’s destablisation and the advent of the Khmer Rouge), fixing the 2000 people (to death) during the illegal invasion of Panama.
Actually, no. Now I think about it. The US is the worst thing that has happened to this world.
The US is not a ‘thing’ that has happened to the world. It is a country, just like any other – but with a crucial difference: for most of the past century it has been the world’s sole superpower. Thus, it is not that the self-interested foreign policy, the complete lack of concern for human life, the elite control of society or anyof that is unique to the US, its just that since the US is the world’s superpower, these flaws manifest themselves widely and deeply.
But it as pointless (and as wrong) to go around saying ‘the US is terrible, we’ve made a mess of the world’ as it is to respond to actual analyses of US policies with a blanket retort of ‘anti-Americanism/terrorist sympathiser/if you don’t like it, move out’.
The point is most, if not all, of US foreign policy ‘mistakes’ have served the interests of private power – take Iraq for example, or the many coups in South America and around the world (Iran, for instance).
But the US is, in many ways, a democracy and so the system *can* be changed. But that won’t happen by booing and hissing or by ignoring, but by taking the time to understand where it has all gone wrong, and how to fix it.
For those of us who are not US citizens or residents. It certainly feels like something that has happened to us. I’m sure the original inhabitants who were on the unpleasant side of the Monroe doctrine and Manifest Destiny also felt that the US was happening to them.
I don’t think that the US is a democracy – in the words of Mussolini, “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” This sounds like a pretty good definition of the situation in the US (remember, Mussolini was uniquely qualified in discussing Fascism).
Democracy depends on three crucial things (given the infrastructure exists):
1. Intelligent citizens (your’s are no less intelligent than ours, but ours are pretty mediocre)
2. Well informed citizens (my experience of the US media was one that demostrated not only poor quality of information, but further a strong level of misinformation – this make the recipients worse than ignorant)
3. Disinterested citizens (in the sense used by John Ralston-Saul – the sense connoted by interest in self-interest, vested interests etc – so a citizen who make choices not purely for themselves or their interst group)
I know of no country that acheives all three, and the US is particularly weak in 2 and 3 and on the basis of your election in 2000, you don’t event manage the necessary infrustructural needs.
As far as ignoring goes, that’s all the rest of us can hope to acheive. Even though you have such a profound effect on everything that we can do, we have no say. So my solution is that espoused by Vaclav Havel (the now president of Czechia) when he was a disident. I live my life as if I were a member of a free open and democratic world (even though this is clearly not true when I actually open my eyes).
G. Roper, you say that you (standing in for Americans) take “full responsibility” and then you ask the rest of the world to “Please stand back and allow us to correct our mistakes”.
I’m not sure whether you are being ironic or if this is an actual comment. One thing that I know for sure is that I have met people that have said something along these lines to me plenty of times before.
The obvious thing that these people miss is that the only way to learn from your mistakes is to be taught it is wrong. This usually takes the form of some punishment. An example that we are generally very familiar with is that of criminal offenders. Citizens that for whatever reasons become criminals at some point are not allowed, by the rest of society, to simply go back to their regular lives and correct their mistakes on their own while the rest ‘stand back’. It just doesn’t work that way.
It is thought to be important for the individual and for society that people that make mistakes pay the consequences. And this is a very necessary process for a healthy society, particularly for Americans.
Just as the individuals in the society shouldn’t take justice in their own hands and beat the criminal offender, so shouldn’t other societies attack Americans in any form. Nevertheless, I do think the world should take seriously a punishment for the United States’ wrong doings. Just as the court would decide on the punishment of several years of imprisonment for a criminal offender.
I have to add something to my previous post. I said I think the world should consider more seriously imposing penalties on countries when they do something wrong and not just sit back. Perhaps needless to say but for the sake of sanity, this I believe should apply to the United States simply as much as to any other country. Not more, not less.
ok so you say in #3 that the US encouraged Iraq to use WND (which they did to kill 500 innocent civilians during peace time) yet say in #5 that the US is the only country to ever use WMD, i thin k you should move to somolia or a similar country cause we all know that every country but the US is perfect.
i’m getting really tired of reading so much ant-america crud. if you don’t like living here in america them move!! better yet,join the dam*ed iraqi movement.if public hangings were still legal in america we wouldn’t have so much of the ant-america sentiment coming from americans.we did away with public hangings though..maybe this should be rethought.a traitor is a traitor..
No. Fuck you. Loving America enough to want to change it isn’t traitorous, leaving America when it needs real Patriots is.
America isn’t a “love it or leave it” country. America is a “love it and change it” country – or, at least it used to be before all you chickenhawk idiots started running around with your puny little small-minded, selfish “mandate”.
Hello, all.
Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to comment on this article. I know there are a lot of questions in your minds. I will soon return with a post answering all of those concerns. Stay tuned.
Well you really poked the republitards didn’t you. Good for you!.
I love the “love it or leave it” bit. It’s like we haven’t progressed at all in the last 40 years isn’t it? I guess that’s what conservative means. Somebody who does not want any progress at all and is content to live in the past.
“I fail to find a reason why Americans still back administrations which are not only against American values, but also against the common human morals”
At least two-thirds of us don’t, according to the latest polls. 🙂
Heard of “Not In Our Name”? How about the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004?
There’s a reason that stuff was, on the whole, kept secret or lied about by the Administrations which committed it. Because they knew that on the whole the American people would disapprove. By lying and producing great clouds of disinformation — and with the complicity of a very weak and corporate-dominated media — they managed to prevent the majority of Americans from knowing what was really going on.
Of course, some Americans actually like this kind of stuff, but please don’t blame the majority of us for the actions of the extremist nuts, even if the nuts *are* running the country. We don’t blame ordinary Afghans for the Taliban or the warlords. (Well, except for our extremist nuts, who do.)
we bomb japan (FDR allowed japan to attack so to use it as an excuse to enter a war americans otherwise at the time did not want to get into) but we are angered the government didn’t protect us on 11.09.2001. yes, we helped trained many of today’s enemies to combat the russians. my generation is now paying for the pathetic and fucking humiliating decisions of my parents’ – the babyboomers’ – generation. (Or whoever was in control. I’m the firstborn, only 20, my parents are 55 and 60.)
This guy is an Afgan living in Pakistan. Most likely a pashtun loser. Get a life moron, your country is doing great without you. Come back to Afganistan and w’ll kick your butt in public.
Sorry, falks. What he said is all true.
I agree 100% with this post. The US has done more to fuck up this planet than any other nation, peiod. The evidence is there if you’d only open your eyes.
By the way.. if it wasn’t for America you’d probably be named Ivan.
Hmm… And what is wrong in being named Ivan?
Was it over when the germans bombed pearl harbour?
Sanity saids, I remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Do you remember Pearl Harbor???
Now I can understand American values, if you are in war kill everyone that you think your enemy, even children and civilians.
No, actually Britain used chemical weapons against civilians too. Winston Churchill order the use of Mustard Gas at the tail end of the first world war, which he knew would affect the Kurdish civilians.
Well, from what I read in the scribble and the comments it all depends on whether one sees the cup as half full or half empty.
Most Americans see ‘the American cup’ as half full and as said have ‘too much’ of ‘blind faith’ in their democratic values and elected leaders. They tend to see their presidents as heavenly beings who can ‘never ever’ do things wrong and can ‘never ever’ lie to them.
I only hope that soon they would open their eyes to the world outside the US; the world which is not Bush’s personal property. I hope they would know things on time rather than late…
US phones are taped and they don’t know it, US creates and funds ‘anti-communist’ extremist-Islamic groups and they don’t know it, US supplies ‘Saddam ruled Iraq’ with weapons in the 80s and they don’t know it and Rumsfeld is warmly welcomed by Saddam to Iraq in the 80s and they don’t know it, Clinton lies about his deeds as the US president and they don’t know it, US invades Iraq for oil and not for WMDs and they don’t know it, US installs ‘puppet dictators’ in form of Shah in Iran and they don’t know it, US hides ‘Haditha massacre’ and they don’t know it, US oil giant UniCol funds and forms Taliban and they don’t know it, in 1996 high ranking Taliban officials secretly visit Washington to meet UniCol officials and they don’t know it, Rumsfeld directs AbuGhuraib tortures and they don’t know it, Bush shares oil contracts with Saudi and Bin-Ladan families and they don’t know it, CIA runs secret jails and torture cells across the world and they don’t know it, US replaces Taliban with a puppet cabinet of extremist mujahideen, who are worse than the Taliban; in Afghanistan and they don’t know it, Bush hands over US ports to Arab companies and they don’t know it, US is ruled by politicians and businessmen, not ‘leaders’; and they don’t know it… Why does the American public have to ‘wait’ for all these secrets to disclose before they know how the world works.
Talking of the ‘cold war’, they never ask themselves the question that who in the damn world gave the ‘Capitalist East’ and the ‘Communist East’ to settle their battles in ‘BATTLEFIELDS’ of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan… and make a mess of whatever gets into their hands. Why don’t they realise that Not all the people in the world agree with US’s definition of democracy and ‘liberation’.
The US isn’t responsible for everything bad that has ever happened to the world but I believe that the cold war foes especially the US are responsible for a very very big part of it.
The Iraq war, Iran and North Korea crisis, Palestaninan – Israeli clashes, global terrorism are all different phases of the ‘war for global domination’, the war for cheap resources, the war for stronger economics statistics. Politicians and businessmen have a long history of sacrificing “human lives and values” for their political and business gains regardless of their origin, religion or party.
“1. Intelligent citizens (your’s are no less intelligent than ours, but ours are pretty mediocre)
2. Well informed citizens (my experience of the US media was one that demostrated not only poor quality of information, but further a strong level of misinformation – this make the recipients worse than ignorant)
3. Disinterested citizens (in the sense used by John Ralston-Saul – the sense connoted by interest in self-interest, vested interests etc – so a citizen who make choices not purely for themselves or their interst group)”
I don’t think #1 or #3 are particularly important.
What matters is #2 – well informed citizens. The fact is that currently, the people who sell the Republican party of the Democract party to the public are the same people who sell cars and cosmetics to the public – the PR industry. And when you watch a car advert, you can be sure that its aim is not to try and inform you about the car. Its aim is to *persuade* you to buy the car – an important difference.
That is why for an actual democracy, rather than just a notional one, a free and independent press is necessary. Since the US doesn’t have that, it is not a democracy.
Another important requirement for democracy is that citizens have a real choice about who they elect, again something missing from the US one-party system.
I would say that another critical requirement for a real democracy is that the elected leaders are not immune to the law. They are the servants of the people, not the other way around, and they must act under the law as must the people. So when they are found to have broken the law, they must be punished under the criminal justice system like anyone else. Leaders who are ‘above the law’ are, for good reason, associated with fascist dictatorships.
Can we truly believe everything written in wikipedia? My history is not that strong but I believe in the saying that history is written by the victors. There may be more than meets the eye.
great site. i notice that you were able to put some scripts like feed burner or feed subscription at the sidebar. i this not allowed in wordpress?
Pearl Harbor does not justify the use of nucleur bombs! And what could have made America use napalm in Vietnam!
Apart from all these atrocities, the United States is plundering and destroying most of the world’s resources!
If America really cares: why didn’t they militarily get involved in – Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo and Uganda! It is only greed and the plutocracy that rules that drives America! The rest, most, of the other Americans – are too busy trying to survive in the materialist world that America has been made to be!
I agree wholeheartedly with the points in this article! Way to go! The world needs more people telling the truth like this.
Nishant
i have no bad feelings for american people.. most people are good.. no matter where they live..
but some of the one man show policies USA govts acted upon were and STILL ARE wierd….
Is there any patriotic american here who can justify the invasion of iraq? I know you cannot justify it unless otherwise with stupid answers that ‘Saddam was a threat and this that’… just saying that person x is a threat doesnt make him a threat… and it DOESNT AT ALL justify to brutally murder hundreds of thousands of innocent people..
SO, please dear americans.. learn from your mistakes.. and try to look beyond what your organized media tells you…thanks
guys, also read Azad’s comments above… worth reading!
@ Eric,i do not agree with ur point abt the atomic bomb being used against Hiroshima as necessary…. rather it was just an attempt to show American dominance in the world
And about the other 4 points,very interesting… but i wudnt blame America for them,coz after all who knows what the future does hold !!!!
What would any of us have done differently in these 5 situations?
The truth of what’s happening is twice as bad as the half of it we see, the rest we must find out for ourselves or become dust in the process of not doing anything.
Look, I’m a citizen of the USA and I love it; I don’t want to live anywhere else. I’m not some patriotic cheerleader and I’m not some malcontent whiner. I consider myself a very normal US citizen in that regard.
I think the importance of a blog entry like this lies with the facts of the matter. I like the subtitle “(Or Five Things Everyone Must Know About America)” is really the whole point here. It’s not important if they are “dirty secrets” or whatever. If the statements are true then they should be known and publicized – period.
Yes, there are shades of gray. Yes, the USA has done great things for world as well. You should remember the shades of gray when you evaluate the actions of the USA in the present. Remember the great things that the USA has done when you evaluate those same actions – and never forget that the country has made mistakes as well.
There is no shame in making a mistake, so long as it is recognized as such and measures are implemented to avoid making similar mistakes in the future.
Americans know nothing about whats happening in the world.
They don’t know about history.
Bush thinks he is a messenger of God, but he is the right hand of the Satan.
He wants to play the police in the world, but can’t care for its own people/
Millions of americans are homeless, hungry and very poor.
Why do they spent all that money on war?
The leaders of America are warcriminals.
Look, I’m an average American guy. I never voted for Bush, and I never wanted our servicemen and women to invade Iraq or Afghanistan. I won’t dispute the facts (well, most of them) listed on the original entry. Our country, over the years, has made a number of serious mistakes in judgement.
But average American people are not in the situation room at the Pentagon. Our system of democracy is such that we make the best choices available to us, for our own country. This past election, I was on the losing side, and it pains me. But that is our system. We believe in it, because it represents ideas that we all hold valuable and dear. If we didn’t believe in it, we wouldn’t live here.
Here’s the real scoop: a lot of us would like to leave the rest of the world to tend its own garden. A complete withdrawal from all countries, and a pouring of our resources back into where it’s most needed: reform for our own society and political systems, help for our poor, healthcare for everyone.
But I fear that would be no solution, either. Because as history would prove, we’d be called upon again by good people for our help across the world, and basic human decency would dictate that we heed the call.
I’ll make you all a deal: I’ll try to understand you more, if you show the same courtesy to me, and not condemn me on sight.
Although I am an average American, I would not like to see you suffer, or your country, or your family, or your friends. I hope you can say the same of me. Bombs and violence in the name of religion are not going to make the world safe for our children again. Let’s stop carping at each other and start working.
I am a man from the Old world. As a child, i have learned to see the world with open eyes and mind. I have allso been learned to make a diference between right and wrong. I’l get lots of knowledge in history classes. As a teenager i loved USA, for the Elvis, CocaCola and McDonalds etc. America’s way of living, was something to wish to have for all people in the world. I was young,naiv and stupid. I am old man now, with lots of life expirience and visdom.
America’s way of living is worst example of kapitalisam in the world, first for their own citizens than for the world in self.
From the begining of building USA as a state,USA had imperialistic intentions. Everywhere in the world, where USA can have a economic interessts, thei will in the end use a military force to get benefits of it. Thru the history, American administration and military forces have killed millions of peoples world wide. Innocent peoples,women and children.Why?
Because that we have to learn and accept America’s way of living. And if we don’t? Latin America, South America, Wietnam, Korea, Iraq etc. are lots of examples how USA by force try to rool the world. And fellow Americans, you ask, why we(the rest of the world) hate USA. Not you ordinary man or women, we feel sorry for you, because you are uninformed, unejucated. Your knowledge about rest of the world is zero, therefor your arrogant behavior. I feel sorry for 9/11, maybe this was only a part of the bill you payed to history.
Forinstence, your president and administration still “try to find” Usama Ben Laden. Here is a possible place to find him.
Bosnia. Why? Think after? Oh, sorry fellow american, i forgott that you are not informed, not ejucated. You have no chanse to count two and two.
P.S. I am sorry for bad english, this is not my natural language
its all lies.. hate Americans, Filipinos are tied with Americans, I hate it, just hate the thought, we’re still not free after all.. its independence day of America but for me this day marks the beginning of our solitary confinement but your article is hypocritical, fallacious, a harangued calumny! as if you were there when it happened.. But its good though.! nice! ^_^
Some varied opinions here I see…
Good list. One day the oppressed will wipe the illusions away from their eyes, maybe.
Growler has hit the heart of the issue here, I think. Our system is such that we do things to try and help our own interests a bit too much, but it’s only because they’re the interests we can view the easiest. If you don’t take care of yourself, then other people won’t A) Ask you for help or B) Think that you can help them, since you are weak. I propose a “buddy system” for countries. In the system, countries that are strong will get paired with countries who are weak; countries that are having trouble with their infrastructures will be paired with governments that have existed for much longer; countries that are fighting will be paired up so that when they decide not to help each other, both will suffer. This will enstate a sense that everyone is equally important in helping each other. Once the buddies are aligned, then possible treaties between buddy groups can be discussed—but only if all of the other buddy countries agree, by a vote. When everyone is aligned by treaty, then we can have a true sense of what it feels like to be a world of caring people. Until that time, unrest will reign, and we can never be truly happy about ourselves.
For future reference:
1. America is a republic. There is a difference between a republic and a democracy. The principles of democracy may or may not be at work here, depending on where you stand, but anyone who refers to this country as a democracy is betraying a lack of education.
2. Speaking of which, as a professor, I do not accept students’ work if they cite Wikipedia as a source. Of course, it is a fine resource, a starting point for further research, but not a primary source. Citing it in this essay gives the impression that you have only shallowly searched for your facts, and did not care to verify them.
3. You are making sweeping generalizations about the personalities and mental attitudes of nearly 300 MILLION people. There are 30 million people in Afghanistan; do they all think and act alike? No? Then don’t accuse me of thinking and acting like everyone else in America, the current government, or the government of 50 years ago.
My congrats on engaging so many Americans in you blog. My apologies that so many of them are dumbasses.
Just to take a moment to engage Ev – I doubt this fool is a real professor, just another internet wannabe who tries to pretend to have ‘wisdom’ the mere mortals can not comprehend.
Wikipedia is more important than being just another source. It is the closest thing to a ‘united nations’ of the web. What the collective agrees is reality there has some real meaning in the world – perhaps a very much more significant meaning than what some other profs at your college spout out after a few glasses of wine at the local.
Most Americans are too busy to tackle the media monstrosity that ‘manufactures consent’ – that don’t make it noble, right, or worthy of the American label.
We live in interesting times.
Too bad your post is filled with anti American hate filled garbage and lies. America is not the only country to use WMDs against civilians, your buddy Saddam has also but you leftist hippy freaks of nature like to forget that fact. If America hadn’t used the bomb in 1945, millions of American soldiers would have died invading Japan so that we could win the war, but then once again you freaks don’t like it when America wins. If you don’t like the fact that America is a capitolist nation with more freedoms then anywhere else in the world, you are more then welcome to get out and find your socialist dream elsewhere.
America is a capitalist nation, but ther is no freedom.
Gay people can’t marry like in Belgium for example.
You suffer from all those fanatic religions.
45.000.000 americans live in poverty.
Americans are the worst informed people in the world. All your info on TV is coloured and manipulated.
We feel pitty for your lack of knowledge.
And can you tell me why the US forced my country and others to store nuclear missiles? to use them against whom?
#1, that’s correct–socialized to think about the daily stresses of work and bills, and paid well enough to afford distraction during the small amount of the time we’re not working.
And Rogue Jew, the “love it or leave it” argument is crap. “Love it, leave it or try to make it better” is the way I look at it.
I’m a Muslim Arab, and I confess from the bottom of my heart that the USA is the most freedom-giving and helpful country in the world. If not for America, we would die right away. America keeps us living. America protects the Gulf. America gives helpful donations every year to my country Egypt; otherwise, millions of citizen would have died. America gives and in turn takes. Many countries take but not give. Millions of people from around the globe apply each year for the American lottery for a permanent residency. America has cultivates the majority of creative minds, giving them a change to innovate, while in their own countries they live and die without being known. There’s no country in the world that has given that much to humanity as has the US. There’s no doubt about it, and statistics say it all. America, if not the fairest of all, it’s still the best of all.
Absurd. By the way, I just realized you were afghan (I didn’t know if that was always your title sorry 😦 ). Anyways, so am I. I look forward to forward posts. Sorry for the redundancy, I’m tired and I have an exam early in the morning.
growler has a lot of great comments and I agree with a lot of that. I don’t want to see anyone suffer and I wish the world could take care of its own problems. But the world never stops to seem to call on America to take care of situations, be it military or aid. Before you condemn us unilaterally, consider the aid doled out by the US all over the world. There will always be a need for someone to be the
I do think some misteps have happened in the middle east but I think many of them could have been avoided if the middle eastern countries had been able to manage their problems in their area.
Many people have posted accurate rebuttals so I don’t need to as well but I do have a few things to say.
If you feel this way My scribbler, why do you want to come here for of all things – an education?
When it comes right down to it, a good measure of the freedom and opportunity a country offers is whether people want to leave this country or people want to move there. The US has a HUGE backlog of people who want to come, HUGE.
Some poster above talked about no freedom – are you kidding me? YOu clearly haven’t been here and are just buying some party line. America is the land of opportunity.
Poverty in the US is very different than poverty in many places in the world. Fanatic religions? Uh ok, whatever dude.
I’ll tell you what – anyone who actually buys the original post and some of the comments, come live here and then post it.
And look at the people who even partially agree with the OP and are Americans – that’s just another great part of being American. You can talk all you want and disagree all you want. People here love to voice their opinions! It’s a good thing to here people disagree and I love that about our country.
No I’m not oblivous to everything else as I pursue the American Dream – you know why? Because the American dream isn’t that hard to achieve. Life isn’t hard here, opportunities, jobs and education abound. I do look outside myself to see what good I can contribute. I’m sorry for the pain in the world but the life we live here in pretty darn fantastic and I wish that for all of you, in whatever form you find fantastic. I’ve got a degree in political science and was in grad school in a journalism program, so I don’t consider myself oblivious.
The literacy rate here is very high, colleges are everywhere – loans are easy to get and there is a spot for everyone somewhere in the collegiate system here.
I’m proud to be an American. Say what you will but people are still willing to risk their lives to move here every day.
Peace be with you all.
“Everything that has a beginning has an end”
You do make several great arguments, and I’m sure you can tell by the comments that many of them create quite a heated discussion. Americans (myself included) on the whole may know these things, but I’ve always considered them the past. While I don’t agree with…well, a damn thing that this “country” has decided in the last 4-6 years, I’ll still try to get my voice heard in order to make the changes that I feel are right. I hope that you continue your work- I love your writings.
Eternally…
most of the posters that post anti-usa comments seem to believe that amrica isn’t a democracy because it’s not a a socialist country…am i right? aren’t you really saying that until america is a socialist nation that it’s not worth crap???
sorry..i’m against the socialism thing whether progressive or otherwise..and so is most of america’s citizens thank god!!
Nice respond in return of this issue with genuine arguments
and telling everything concerning that.