Keep in mind, half of America is conservative. Most liberal “hippies” probably wouldn’t send their children to the middle east.
Well, they did. They’re there. Along with the Bretons and a fistful of Europeans.
I’m just saying, chances are most of the kiddies in the middle east have republican parents. Either way, the terror campaign the Bush administration ran was pretty effective at making people feel like treasonists if they didn’t send their kids off to war. Scaring your populous into fighting against a “common enemy” is an old and effective tactic. I wouldn’t blame the serfs, personally.
More random reflections, some of which may have some selective attention to a specific subject.
Thanks Conner for some of those links. The 1899 Filipino-American War was an interesting bit since I was born there and lived there during the Marcos reign until my mother got us out when I was 9. My father remained to serve the rest of his army duties. We moved around a lot and most of my memories as a child dealt with the machineries of combat with the occasional circus show (that was fun). My father is a proud Filipino due to the memories of untouched land he grew up in before all organized hell broke loose.
I think some of us are lucky like BotB mentioned, and if I may add a twist, lucky in an awkward position. Some of us don’t have to make a choice from choosing one racket over the other or who to side with in order to live and/or feed our families. But at the same time, there will always be that sense of “what can I or we do to make a difference”.
I don’t know if the “alternative perception” that the arts hold is even relevant anymore.
This is the kind of thinking that gets us in trouble. It’s a bit like stirring up an ant’s nest and wonder why you’re being bitten. 
Diplomacy is the ONLY option, and it has to be based upon equalitism and compassion. Over a million Iraqis DEAD since 2003. Would they agree with you?
Would 6 million Jews agree with you?
Oh and, about 100,000 iraqi civilians have been killed, not a million (http://www.iraqbodycount.org/). Your point still stands, but your facts do not. You also forgot to mention how many Iraqis were murdered by Saddam. Its not a small number.
We can sit here and count bodies if you’d like. It’s a pointless endeavor.
Another straw man argument. No one here ever discredited the soviet union’s involvement in WW2, nor propped up using the atomic bomb.
“Why no one trusts your unconstitutional military is far beyond my limited world view.” - So you understand why people trust our military? I think your own double negative confused you here.
You seem to define military intervention as aggeression in the case of the US, even when it involves overthrowing oppressive regimes.
Apples and oranges. As if the US went to Iraq for humanitarian reasons. Why are you so keen to argue this point with me? What am I missing here? Why resort to aggressive and costly interventions when all along we could have taken a compassionate position and provided aid, support and understanding?
Look, I can see why some of you think the way you do. America is a superpower, and when it uses its military, we naturally want to defend the “under-dog”, be it Palestine, Vietnam, or whoever.
There is some logic to this, the US does need to apply the same standards to itself that it does to countries it views as aggressive.
But at the same time, you can’t make false statements and use typical anti-american leftwing talking points shouting on about how evil the US is while completely ignoring actual oppressors like N. Korea, Russia, Iran, and all of the middle east.
No, not apples and oranges. Human lives. This isn’t a subjective comparison.
What are you missing? To borrow from Christopher Hitchens:
“”" (1) The overthrow of Talibanism and Baathism, and the exposure of many highly suggestive links between the two elements of this Hitler-Stalin pact. Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who moved from Afghanistan to Iraq before the coalition intervention, has even gone to the trouble of naming his organization al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
(2) The subsequent capitulation of Qaddafi’s Libya in point of weapons of mass destruction–a capitulation that was offered not to Kofi Annan or the E.U. but to Blair and Bush.
(3) The consequent unmasking of the A.Q. Khan network for the illicit transfer of nuclear technology to Libya, Iran, and North Korea.
(4) The agreement by the United Nations that its own reform is necessary and overdue, and the unmasking of a quasi-criminal network within its elite.
(5) The craven admission by President Chirac and Chancellor Schröder, when confronted with irrefutable evidence of cheating and concealment, respecting solemn treaties, on the part of Iran, that not even this will alter their commitment to neutralism. (One had already suspected as much in the Iraqi case.)
(6) The ability to certify Iraq as actually disarmed, rather than accept the word of a psychopathic autocrat.
(7) The immense gains made by the largest stateless minority in the region–the Kurds–and the spread of this example to other states.
(8) The related encouragement of democratic and civil society movements in Egypt, Syria, and most notably Lebanon, which has regained a version of its autonomy.
(9) The violent and ignominious death of thousands of bin Ladenist infiltrators into Iraq and Afghanistan, and the real prospect of greatly enlarging this number.
(10) The training and hardening of many thousands of American servicemen and women in a battle against the forces of nihilism and absolutism, which training and hardening will surely be of great use in future combat. “”"
Apparently I am, because I have no idea what the hell you’re addressing with that comment. I guess using factual evidence makes me lost.
Good luck with the whole equating human lives to fruits, its a solid intellectual argument that furthers your point (which is?).
What strikes me most is that you almost literally adopted US governments opinions on ‘dangers’ to the world. And the ‘world’ being the US continent. North Korea can’t have nukes because Western countries don’t trust Kim with 'em. Sure, fair enough. I don’t trust the US with nukes either, with good reason. Also, and maybe I got this the wrong way, but you say ‘we’ (I guess you mean your government) naturally want to defend the underdog… like Palestine and Vietnam?! Huh…?! After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, it were the Brittish and Americans who gave Palestine to the Jews. Just like that, overnight. I don’t doubt their best intentions (it saved the lives of tenthousands of Jews from the Holocaust), yet we shouldn’t overlook the fact that the US gave Israel weapons of mass destruction to stabilize their power in the Middle East. Who did they save again? It actually took a TERRORIST act to tell the world that Palestines were severely being oppressed by (US funded, supported and trained) Israelian aggression. As for Vietnam, the Americans came there to fight communism, not a thing more. Who did they save there? Not even their own dignity.
Ignore ‘actual’ oppressors? All of the Middle East? Name six countries without the help of an Atlas, please. Russia? How is Russia any worse than the US? In my (biased) eyes, the US is just as much an oppressor as Russia. Or China. It’s easy to point to others and say: hey guys, THAT’s the oppressor! That doesn’t change anything about the US’ aggressive negotiation tactics. I know quite some people in Russia with opposite statements as yours. They are just as right and wrong as you are. There are no goodies and baddies, the world is not a Spaghetti Western. It’s ALL and ONLY a matter of perspective and I understand yours as an American. But don’t be surprised that outside the American continent exists a world that doesn’t agree in the least with the US’ foreign politics. There never was a war on terror, there was a goose chase of a madman, supported by stupid Europeans and Australians, for the sole reason that the madman sayd this: “you’re either with us, or against us”. That sounds the same as Napolean, Charlemagne, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, etc etc etc…
Hopefully in 50 years time we can put all this into perspective when China conquers the world. 
This whole tirade is based on the assumption that I said the US favors under-dogs, which is incorrect. when I said ‘we’ I meant us, everyone here, normal civilians. No shit the US doesn’t defend Palestine or (North)Vietnam. Do you take me to be that big of an ignoramus? My point was that we (again, me and you and everyone here) are naturally inclined to want to defend the underdog, like Palestine. But in this act we somehow ignore the fact that (for example) Palestine elected in Hamas, a terrorist organization hell beant on murdering innocent Israel civilians. We get blinded by Israel’s wealth and power and see them as the evil doers for defending their mother land against religious zealots.
Six? Easy. Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan. I could on if you’d like.
How is Russia worse than the US?! Do you read the news? They invaded Georgia (Ossetia)! Georgia is a democratic and soverign nation who tried to defend against separatists on their own soil, and Russia fucking bombed them. Russia also poisons its dissenters: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6178890.stm
I honestly, don’t really care what perspective people in China and Russia have against the US, as their countries are total propagandists. China fucking regulates the internet! http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html…75AC0A9649C8B63
Free health care.
Pot, meet kettle…
If you want to know what’s going on in Russia, ask anywhere but in Russia.
If you want to know what’s going on in China, ask anywhere but in China.
If you want to know what’s going on in the USA, ask anywhere but in the USA.
If you want to know what’s going on in Europe, ask anywhere but in Europe.
And so on.
Okay, I got the wrong idea because of your use of ‘we’ since you used it before when you referred to the US government, so I apologize. Same goes for six countries in the Middles East, but I made the remark because of your bold statement ("all of the Middle Eastern countries) which is, very simply, untrue to the max.
I don’t watch American news, no. Obviously not. Johann sayd all there was to say on that subject. I’m sorry, but you don’t know anything about Russia or China to say anything about it. Your take on the Georgia incident says enough. Did you know the president of Georgia is a personal friend of George Bush? Perhaps one of many reasons why American news on that matter was as biased on the subject as Russian news.
Nope… and i wount even bother to start explaining you “how it went down”… i just dont have time for it right now. But belive me when i say i am a lot more informed than you. I speak fluent russian btw, i know the Russian political situation and background of Georgian war and no, Russians did not do the right thing.
Really?
Getting back slightly on topic, I was just wondering how true this is throughout europe?
I mean in England, while they’re not exactly the majority, we can still regard our newspapers like the guardian and the independent as being credible news sources available in every newsagents.
Honestly, I’ve always been pretty proud of the british media in comparison to other countries, but just wondered what the situation is throughout the rest of europe.
And did you know that Russian “king” mr Putin hates personally Goergian president? Did you know that he has personal feelings of hate towards Shakashvili? He just doesnt like the guy!
And btw, Medvedev is just a puppet who even tries to talk with the same intonation as Putin, and does an impression of him on every step, everybody knows who runs Russia in reality.
Did you know that mr Putin said that the biggest geopolitical tragedy of 21 century is collaps of USSR? He obviously misses those days.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia are on Georgian territory, its their country and their business. Russia said they are protecting their citizens? that Georgians killed 2000 civilians?? Where is the proof? There were found only minor civilian casualtys. And how did russian citizens arise in those regions in the first place??? Well i tell you how: Russia just started to massively hand our passports of Russian Federation to people of those regions, just like that, here, we give you a passport. And btw, Russia could never launch such a full scale war out of the blue, it needs a lot of coordination and they were well prepared way before Georgians did anything.
And if Russia is so big guardian anglel then well, it did not stop them from killing 800000 out of 1000000 chechens when chechen people wanted indipendence. And if you think that South Ossetia or Abkhazia will get indipendence the THINK AGAIN! They will “volunteer” to join Russia soon, you will see. At least Georgians offered them autonomy on quite a big scale, Russians will never offer them that.
And those Ruissian “peace keepers” in South Ossetia and Abhazia… they were no peace keepers but provocators whos only mission was to destabilize the situation. By the way, Georgia and Abhkazia were making very good progress by mediation of Merkel.
Free health care.