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Politics : Proof that John Kerry is Unfit for Command -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (13954)	9/30/2004 8:50:10 PM
From: cirrus	Respond to of 27181

You make some good points. ...the UN members are made up of many countries that are enemies to the USA and these countries will ALWAYS vote in a manner that will cause harm or embarrasment to the USA. Not always. Bush got UN approval for Gulf War I and Bush II got approval for the Afghanistan campaign - or there wasn't any opposition that I recall. I'm sure there are other areas of general agreement, just as there are areas of disagreement. Let me sidetrack for a bit. Do you root for the NY Yankees? If you are familiar with baseball you know that the Yankees are thorougly hated in some circles for their arrogance and willing to buy any player they want. Admired for their rich baseball history and tradition, but hated nevertheless. In a way, that's the way it is with America. We are admired throughout the world for our accomplishments and everyone wants to live here, but we are hated because we are rich and successful beyond any sense of proportion. We are the elephant in the room. Whenever the elephant moves everyone else has to accomodate the elephant. No matter how nice the elephant is no one really wants the elephant in the room. In my travels and talks I have seen much the same attitude towards America. Coke and McDonalds are everywhere. You may have seen some Iraqi insurgents wearing Phila 76er jerseys. Iranians watch American sitcoms on their illegal sat dishes, then go to anti-American rallys. It's hard to describe the ambigious feelings about America, but they're there, and they're real. Foreigners also point out what they see as discrepancies in American talk vs action. We execute the mentally retarded, for example, then shout about human rights. We talk of peace, but we seem to be constantly at war. Count the number of military actions by America in the last 20 years. Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Somalia, Grenada, Panama... they may have been for just cause, but they give other countries the impression that we walk around with a big stick. We talk of WMD, but we are the only nation to use nuclear weapons on another nation. We invaded Iraq because Saddam could not account for his WMD, yet our own anthrax was used against us. We talk of our concern for people, yet we are the only industrialized nation in the west that does not provide universal health care for its citizens. I could go on and on, but the point is that foreign peoples do not see us as we see ourselves. Of course, some who read this will say: f+ck them! OK... but we get half our oil from overseas and so many other products, televisions, titanium ores, shoes... like it or not we live in an interdependent world. George Bush recognized this four years ago when he promised a "more humble" forign policy. Unfortunately, he fell under the spell of the neocons and went the other way, towards an arrogant policy. I see I'm out of space here and haven't addressed your other points. Yes... the UN is screwy at times, but do we really, really want to dissolve it? Do we really expect the UN to rubber stamp our decisions? The US abandoned the League of Nations after WWI and the result was WWII. Do we really want to abandon the forum the UN provides, however imperfect it may be?