To The World, We Americans Are nothing more than Xenophobic Killers.

[Broadslidin]

As it should be:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/opinion/02herbert.html?th&emc=th

[Freedom_from_Chains]

1. Which is why the rest of the civilized world is currently partitioning

us off. They are all setting up alliances with other countries that don't include the US. Within 15 to 20 years we will have attained the status of a third world country.

Hell, the only reason they are still doing us the courtesy of talking to us is because of all the nuclear weapons we have. They are terrified that our crazed ideology will select one of them to make a target out of.

[izzie]

3. Well I lived in SA and the "Southern " boys called the Arabs this

" Sand M-----" I do not even like to say the name. Odd as these Arab people were hiring these men to work for them.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

4. So why do you think that was

Except we all to a certain degree talk bad about our employers.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

2. This must be the superior Christian moral values I keep hearing about

'Well, I saw them bloody my buddy's nose, so I knelt down. I said a prayer. I stood up, and I shot them down.' "

[Broadslidin]

5. and this is "The Land of Jesus" in God we trust...

Nuts

[marmar]

6. Muy interesante...

I was on a plane this weekend, seated behind two very Republican-sounding men who were having a typically narrow-minded discussion of world affairs, talking about how China is not to be trusted, and Europe isn't to be trusted, and how the U.S. version of democracy is the only acceptable one.
Maybe it's just that their eyes are closed, more likely it's just the power of denial, but it's shocking to me that anyone is that clueless these days.

[demnan]

7. I don't blame the soldiers

as unattractive as I find their actions. Soldiers are trained to fight and kill. I blame our government for lying us into this impossible situation. You have to wonder, though about people who instinctively wish to inflict pain on others. What do they do to fuck up your mind when you join the Army?

[radwriter0555]

9. I do blame the soldiers. They make the choice to do what they do... They

aren't any different that the people under hitler who were 'just following orders'.

Humans, even US soldiers *are* still endowed with free will, aren't they? They make the choices to do what they do.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bridget Burke]

11. Or the soldiers could stay in the USA & make war movies....

Just like your namesake.

[Burma Jones]

12. Come on, you can do better than that

This is what I would say: We are a big and powerful nation. We got that way through economic might. All that might bought us a big military to defeat the WWII Axis. The military DOES do a lot of handing out candies, metaphorically speaking. What folks have to understand is that we have to train soldiers to KILL PEOPLE. If you think it's better to not have a military at all, you are hopelessly naive, even Sweden has a pretty beefy (per capita) military.

If you don't like what the military is doing, then elect people that won't have them go and do these things. The military will do what the civilian authorities tell them. But do not think that we will be well served by having Marines that are indistinguishable from University of Vermont students - you gotta go to the Air Force if you want that......

[CJCRANE]

14. The US Military

is designed to "knock down" military targets using overwhelming firepower. This is not appropriate in a peacekeeping/nation building role.

[CJCRANE]

13. I read before

that Wesley Clark specifically warned that the US military is not useful in a peacekeeping/nation building role and should not be used for that purpose. His opinion is that the US military is designed to "knock down" conventional armies and nothing more.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[radwriter0555]

8. well the americans represented by bush, sure. The rest of us aren't.

*sigh*

[LoneDriver]

16. This country was settled by conquest

From the indigenous peoples and our neighbors and nothing has changed.