Domestically you can do whatever you want. On an international level, you have to play within the global rule. On a smaller level, you can pretty much run your household anyway you see fit. Outside of the house, that kind of egocentrism won't get you very far. You'd be alienating yourself from most everybody. If you didn't care what others thought, then nobody would want to work with you. Acting without regard to others will eventually lead you to be ignored or stepped on. Like it or not, the US is dependent on other countries for raw materials and labor. Our corporations thrive off of other countries, bringing large cash flows back to the US. Cutting the resources and income from foreign countries would cripple this country. If we really pissed off the world, US military dominance could be tested with say the untiy of Europe and Russia, or gasp China. Evaluating the long-term effects that our actions have on other countries is a very salient and real point. It may seem off the wall right now but historically international politics can change over night. Most of Europe, the Middle East and even Chile have let their disgust be known. If we keep on pushing the envelope then things will get ugly. Our government during the Cold War acted in conjunction with Western Europe. Today we've got the UK and Poland. As soon as Britain has elections, Blair is toast and then we've lost the UK. We need to be congnizant of the international scene.
Not all of us thought it was the best decision. Very close to half of the country thought GWB should not have been the president. Those are the people apologizing and rightly so. Many of those of us that voted for Kerry believe that apologies are in order for us allowing a man who will go down as one of the worst presidents in history to have four more years in power.
And, as has been stated earlier, more people also voted AGAINST him than any other president in history.
Whoa, nobody's apologizing because America held an election. They're apologizing to the 5.8 billion non-Americans because the person elected as the Leader of the Free World is also the most corrupt, dangerous and intellectually devoid person in White House history. In short, a politician who will almost certainly ostracize, endanger and/or ignore a *huge* majority of those 5.8 billion people. No, Americans don't *need* the approval from our friends and allies around the world. But it sure would make things easier. Apologizing for a dangerously misinformed American voting bloc is a step in the right direction. When half of Bush's voters think Saddam was behind Sept. 11 and 40 percent still believe that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, it's time to re-evaluate our role in global politics.
Intellectually devoid? Wow, I'm sure glad you've met him Dr. GreenVegan ...When half of his voters think one way that ALSO means half of his voters DIDNT
Perhaps "intellectually devoid" was a big strong. He's probably not even r****ded. And I get your point on half of Bush voters NOT believing the White House bullsh*t about WMD, 911, Saddam, etc. There are millions of intelligent Republicans who cast their votes for Bush with deliberation and pride. And that's awesome. But that 25 million American voters *DID* believe the spin is an embarrassingly sad statistic to show the world.
