Leave it to the US
to make everything about us. The older I get, the more I understand why a good portion of the world awaits with bated breath for us to sink into the ocean with the weight of our own importance. That, and they laugh a lot
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I agree with you on some points: but what if the country in question doesn't want help?
But that's where it gets tricky -- do you listen solely to that country's government or to its people? In theory it would be best to listen to the citizens, but as we've seen time and time and time again that hardly ever happens.
Look at the fuckin Rwanda incident. Mass genocide and the American public didn’t even now it! It toke a fuckin movie, almost 10 years after the fact to bring attention to it.
Good point. And then there's the mess in Kosovo (sp?). Americans are traditionally, I think, happily oblivious to everything that doesn't directly involve us individually, and even then it's a very selective kind of acknowledgment. Can we say slavery, anyone? Japanese internment camps? The needless cross-country Indian exterminations?
The thing is, sometimes I wonder if we're really intentionally that self-centered (ie, we figure something happening in Rwanda or Kosovo doesn't affect us so we ignore it) or if it's just an isolation era holdover. I think we're very gradually beginning to realize that the four-year-old mentality (If I can't see you, you can't see me) has no place in the modern world. Now whether it's just a post-9/11 trend that'll fizzle out or it'll actually keep going, who knows?
The problem with America is that it gets involved with other nations for greedy reasons. But isn’t the other country getting in bed with us for the same reason.
Yeah, but look at the countries we ignore who could really benefit from interaction and then look at the countries we choose to get involved with. Of course we seek out the greediest bastards around because they're just like us. They inevitably have something we want, be it oil, territory, U.N. backing, whatever. What do starving underdeveloped countries have to offer us? Nothing. So we don't even bother with them.
This is why we have the right to elect our government. If you don’t like the way the government is going, Vote the crappy people out.
I TRIED. Oy.
America to some degree has to "poke" their nose in other countries business but I am only talking about when it involves the welfare of humans.
But we both know that never happens until we see some kind of potential benefit to us.
We often try to cloud the reason we are going to do anything with any country with some “greater” message.
Iraq needs a democracy > WE WANT OIL OMG GIMMEGIMMEGIMME
More or less, anyway.
Their was only reports until we got into Germany about the concentration camps. Hell even some of the fuckin Germans didn’t even know that their were there!
Well of course a super powerful government wouldn't lie to its citizens and try to cover up what's going on in its own borders! But come on, even if there were only "reports" about the camps, if you were the leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world, wouldn't you feel compelled to look into them just to make sure?
This is turning into the longest comment ever. haha
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