America, what do you think?

Question

When people always think of America, they think freedom, greatest country, land of opportunities, but have you ever thought of the history of this country? All the wars, violence, protestings, scandels, crimes, etc. I just wonder about America and if it is great...I don't know, what do you people think about America, and it's past times?

Answer 1

AS there will always be wars and the threat of wars, greed, power lust and the deviance of man, consider the most successful experiment in human government in the history of man, is the United States of America.
Ben Franklin noted It's a republic, if you can keep it! What passes for Americas left is trying to destroy that concept. You note problems as old as man, and ignore a 225 year savings grace? America has had less wars and civil strife than ANY of the old world civilizations can remember or claim. By virture of history of the world or other ideologies America has been and still is the Greatest success to date.

Other than that I can tell you nothing!

Answer 2

I'm American. I believe there's good things and bad things about America, just like ANY country. There is a history of war and violence in virtually every country in the world. America is still a very young country, to be sure, and we are really going through a period of social change right now. The political climate all across the world is also changing. America, like everywhere else, is affected by things going on not just inside its borders, but outside as well. (terrorism, anyone?) Read up on the history of virtually any country in the world, though, and you'll see similar bloody histories, especially during the first founding centuries. America has a unique position - we're young, politically powerful, and have a VERY diverse population. We have a lot of land, a lot of money, and we don't have a terribly long history to ourselves.

I don't believe that America is the "greatest country" - but I believe it is and can be a great one. We have far more freedoms than those in many other countries around the world - though one could say the same of Canada, and most of Europe, and Japan... But in some things, we still lag behind. We've grown arrogant in our position as the #1 world power. We push into wars we have no business in being and ignore the problems at home. We have massive debt. We have out of control crime. Much of the world looks down on us these days for our actions.

I believe America, today's political climate notwithstanding (since we can't yet see the end, and we do have an administration turnover at least once every decade) is no better or worse than any modern, industrialized country in the same economic boat.

Answer 3

To better understand America, look up it's budget in the World Almanac.

Two areas where America spends too much on is social services and the military.

Eliminating these would save taxpayers a bundle.

Continuing these only gets more and more hardships.

Hardships? About twenty five thousand wounded soldiers coming back, where will they wind up? Who will employ them?

They wind up under social services.

So, it's a never ending cycle of wasteful spending.

Having made this important point, past American history in summation would be interesting to see how effective America could be by fighting ALL past enemies in one battle.

The Native Americans, The British, The Americans (Civil War), the Fascists, the Nazis, the Japanese and now the...........(you fill in the gap)

Would take the real bombs to get rid of all at one time. You think?

Answer 4

We enjoy a level of freedom in this country unsurpassed by any other civilization to ever exist in the world. There are going to be shortcomings in a free society, but your post ignores that scandal, crime, and war exist in almost every society. Do you want a complete lockdown of citizenry? It will not deter crime or scandal. To prove this I point to the old Soviet Union. Scandal was rampant among government leaders, and the haves were definitely oppressing the have nots. The Soviet Union had a widespread black market. Black market = crime. As for war, while I will admit that Vietnam and Korea were mistakes due to the purely political nature of those two wars, other wars we have been involved in such WWI and WWII were very just. Protests are an acceptible for of political dissent so long as they are peaceful, and the fact that people are allowed to protest is a definite sign of freedom. I am not an America love it or leave it type person, but if you think some other place in the world has more freedom, less crime, or less of any of the other things you mentioned, then perhaps you should immigrate for your own peace of mind. For myself I am proud to be an American, and yes I do believe this is the greatest country in the world.

To the person posting about Red States. It was not only red states which elected Mr. Bush. I would also submit that the terms Red state and Blue state are just devices designed to separate people, and apparently for you it works. For me I don't see Red or Blue people, instead I see Red, White, and Blue standing together as Americans. As for Mr. Clinton, he was completely against fighting terrorism, this is evident by his every action regarding the subject. In this day and age we can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to the threat. I for one am very glad that 911 did not happen on his watch, because given his responses to the first bombing of the World Trade Center, and the attack on U.S.S. Cole to name just 2 incidents of many, I have no reason to believe that he would have acted in the best interest of the American people and their safety.

Answer 5

Every individual always thinks that their country is the best. One often hears "Well, we're not perfect, but we're the best there is." People refuse to believe that the nation they live in could be intentionally guilty of crimes, wars, deception, etc. Got news for ya: Every nation follows geo-politics and therefore most are guilty of some crap or another. You don't have to hate your country to realize this, you just have to open up your eyes a little.

Still wouldn't wanna live anywhere else.

As for freedom, I can't think of a single thing one can do in this nation without some sort of government or corporate involvement. Either you gotta pay this tax, fill out this form, get this license, pay this fee, notify this person/office, follow these rules, do this first, etc. Anybody who thinks we're free hasn't really thought about it, or they have a different idea of freedom than I do.

Answer 6

It is true that the history of this country does show some great abuses of power, but America always tries to address the grievances of the past, even if poorly, and slowly, and often not to the satisfaction of the aggrieved. There has been a lot of nastiness in American history, but America has also done a lot of good. Its a mixed bag.

Answer 7

Take learning history out of the schools(was told we would learn from
our past mistakes. Not!} Ethics should replace history. No doubt as
someone said this country is going down the tubes, we should keep our
nose out of others business. We can't even help ourselves with all our
money and technology.

Answer 8

I know they haven't opened a new school in California in 30 years & u can't get an education there. I don't think of freedom over there, they have more people sticking their nose in other peoples business then any other country, but you can own a gun if you want!

Answer 9

Well the value and reputation of America has gone down the tube since those red states elected this God awful president into office. Bring back the Clinton administration, and we'd be a happy place!

Answer 10

It would be difficult to find a country that has not had some of these things happen. Whether or not the US is great is a matter of opinion. Being an American, I think we are great in spite of these things, and in some cases, because of them.