i can understand your frustration but try to look at it another way. europeans look at america as the other, for example, whereas i believe we are just an extension of the judeo-christian culture that spans continents and millenia. i spend a lot of time abroad and europe has its share of problems as well. no place is perfect and the problems we face as americans are global ones and we are going to have to solve them together.
I'm sorry For something I didn't do Lynched somebody But I don't know who You blame me for slavery A hundred years before I was born GUILTY OF BEING WHITE I'm a convict Of a racist crime I've only served 19 years of my time GUILTY OF BEING WHITE
Do you deny that there are about 3 times as many democracies now as there were when Jimmy Carter was in office?
The problem I have with articles like this is figuring out what they are advocating for? Do they want us to bomb our enemies back to the stone age? Use nukes? Maybe completely flatten Fallujah and Ramadi while slaying everyone in there? Engage in kidnappings and beheadings like Al Qaeda? We hold our troops and our military to a higher standard because we are better than the enemy. Of course we restrain ourselves because we at least believe we are civilized unlike our enemies.
Probably is true, but I find our foreign policy funny. We ooze the desire for everyone to have a democratic society, but when those democracies elect folks like the wack job in Iran, Hamas, Chavez and his socialist brother in Bolivia, then our government cries foul.
This is another young Republican spew who assumes that White America is the best thing since sliced bread. At least he skirted the melting pot and "racism doesn't exist" line and got to the heart of the matter. His party doesn't have that many minorities, and The Decider has the Republican Man's burden to make some tough choices. No. This is another frame to assume that the good ol days of America will rise again. It's perpetuated by the idea that Vietnam was lost because of the rallies the Constitution affords. "If only we" had our full might. It's that flaw that allows these dreamers to look past Wolfowitz, Rummy, and Bush's idiotic and negligent planning and oversight of the Iraqi war. Suddenly these oversights are the result of some "minimalist" agenda...Abu Graib was ends to justify the means....rah rah rah... The writer is definitely smarter than his leaders. He has the "vision" to see two wars in Iraq. Promote him.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan? Really? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050300488.html http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02796352.htm What kills me about these kinds of arguments is that the autocrats in power want to claim credit for a century of American and worldwide effort that led to the spread of democratic ideas throughout the globe while they are simultaneously doing everything possible to tear down those institutions that made it possible as fast as they can. During WWII there were but a handful of democracies. What came out of that war, including the United Nations, Nuremberg, and the Marshall Plan, led to many countries yearning for democracy, even in many of those that were under Soviet influence for decades. The concept that the idea of democracy is stronger than any military is lost on the current administration. They have approached problems tactically (and with the wrong tactics) instead of strategically. I have little doubt that Iraq had the capacity to become a democracy, but it has to be done on Iraqi terms. Our adventure has probably set the process back decades, in spite of the window dressing a half-full parliament brings. 9-11 was the greatest opportunity since WWII to spread democracy, to show the world how powerful the idea is... instead, we squandered good will and a century of work by invading Iraq. And now supporters of this irresponsible policy seek to justify it by appealing to the results of generations of Republicans and Democrats and even (gasp) foreigners who worked so hard. Disgusting.
