US citizens, why don't you start by cleaning your own house first?

Question

Before you start criticizing other countries for their terrorism or human rights records, shouldn't the US government clean their own house first?
For example, over the past 50 years, the United States government:

1-Supported and actively organized coups d'etat against numerous third world countries, just to defend US bussiness interests and selfish geopolitical aims.
This includes many democratically-elected governments.
Some examples are Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973, Argentina 1976, Iran (Persia) 1953, Haiti 1957, Brazil 1964, Zaire (congo) 1965, S.Korea 1979, Grenada 1983, Venezuela 2002 (failed attempt), and many more.
In my country, Argentina, 'black lists' with dissidents to be killed were actually written and given to our local death squads by the CIA, during the 1976-83 dictatorship.

2- Is known to practice 'low-intensity warfare', a set of war strategies that are actually very similar to terrorism itself in practice. This can be seen in the recent 1990's Sudan bombings, in recent bombings of civilian populations in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the support you gave to the Nicaraguan Contras to fight the gov. of said country, during the late 1980's. The 'contras' were an illegal guerrilla group, and were properly qualified as "terrorist" by the International Court of Justice.

3- Engaged in unfair economic blockades against countries that didn't bow to US bussiness interests. (example: Iraq, Cuba)
The excuse for doing this was 'dictatorship', but it's an hypocritical excuse, since other dictatorships enjoyed active US support during the same time frame.

4- Still supports numerous dictatorships around the world, specially if they are free-market and let themselves be puppeted by US policy.
Thsi includes S. Arabia, Pakistan, Qatar, Ethiopia, among others.

5- Mantains illegal "black prisions" with no right to trial and mild forms of torture, in many places in Europe and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

6- Has engaged in active industrial espionage over the past years, thanks to the Cold-war era Echelon network.

7- Has, as a country, poor democratic credentials itself, with only two parties that look very similar and a media that's comprised of mostly large corporations that usually don't dare to damage the interest of their partners.

My country, of course, is not perfect either... but we are not trying to be world policemen.
We are all in this together, we should try to change things to make them more fair. I'm criticizing the US gov. simply because it's the world's only superpower, and with that comes a large responsability.
Other countries have their crimes too (The UK, France, China and Russia come to mind), and we should not forget about those either.

It just sickens me to my stomatch when I hear the US president talk about "democracy" and "promoting human rights", when they haven't even apologized for what they have done and are still doing, and people like Kissinger are allowed to walk the streets freely when they should be on trial for crimes against humanity.

Answer 1

I completely agree with you. You cite important events, too, which is good. Unfortunately, they mean nothing to some of the pig-headed answerers here. Your question, in effect, illustrates its point via the negative responses you've gotten.

Answer 2

You my friend, have been watching too much TV.

1. I have heard nothing about the first one so i will not comment on that one

2. These tactics you talk about. You use the word similar. That is a word that can mean almost anything in the sense that it could mean that the US uses guns like terrorists. But even if they do, what is the harm? Do they hurt terrorists?

3. I am pretty sure there was more of a reason than dictatorships, but that is all you heard.

4. What is wrong with dictatorships? The US does not hate dictatorships. The US hates governments that torture and kill civilians for no reason.

5. Ok, why are we supposed to believe you on this? Wait, what do the prisons hold in them? Bad people huh. Yeah, i think i am fine with that.

6. They also have engaged in creating the internet.

7. I agree with you on this one, but what can be done? Nothing is perfect and it is a lot better than almost every country on the planet. There is a HUGE difference between the political parties.

Ok, now my turn. The US provides food for almost all the countries on the planet. The US created the UN (not really a good thing anymore). The US ended WWII. The US ended the threat of a nuclear war for a few years. The US sends the most disaster relief to any country that needs it. The US protects nations when they need help, what other countries do that?

Please stop the hate

EDIT: Thanks for the bad rating, what did you want me to do? Lie to you? Ok whatever, i understand, not really, you already made up your mind and nothing anyone does can change it. Even though the US has produced so much more good than bad, you insist on hating it. You my friend, sound like a terrorist, a liberal, or even a lousy foriegner (i have met good foriegners).

EDIT 2: Wow! I got a positive rating! Rock on! Sounds like i am not alone, nor will i ever be!

Answer 3

You definitely have a point.

A certain southeast asian country had its president ousted in 1986 (CIA instigated "bloodless" revolution") just because he wanted to make his country de-Americanized. This country was second to Japan in terms of economic progress, now it's second to the last (the last being Bangladesh) in terms of everything.

70% of this country's population is dirt poor, literacy in the English language is rock bottom (there was a time when the people of this country spoke English and two local dialects). Most of the people know what happened in 1986, they were definitely hurt by the betrayal of the US government with regards to this matter.

However, you should remember this age old saying:

There are no permanent friends or permanent enemies....only permanent interests.

The US has to maintain its interests first before the interests of other countries. Whether you like it or not, that's cold hard reality for you. The best that you can do is just express your opinion. That's about all of us can do. The US government won't apologize for its actions.

Don't get me wrong. I believe the American people are still good decent human beings. It's the US government policies and politics that sometimes leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Peace.

Answer 4

O dam another liberal, we are damed if we do and damed if we don't, right now the people are crying for us to go into Darfu to stop the killing, it was on the news. I no why doesn't your country do it for a change, then when the world gets pissed at you for not doing it just right, then your country can get pissed on for awhile. And what country are you from anyway, is it worth anything or can it do anything besides criticize, when it dose nothing to help the world. Talk about cleaning house. I'll take my country any day even with it's mistakes. I no your a Canadian, that would be a good job for them go help Darfu. or where ever your from.

Answer 5

What would other countries do if they would have had the power of the USA? I would bet almost every other country would have tried to take over the world. USSR was trying to, we stopped them. Nazi Germany tried to and the US stopped them.Why shouldn't we try to nip things in the bud instead of letting rougue nations get powerful and then trying to stop them. Why shouldn't we protect business interests? Both countries in trade benefit.

Answer 6

We will this November! and I am all too well aware of this rogue CIA cell ...aka terrorists
EDIT:
Forgive melt...she knows not what she says...lives in a world of lies called the republican party..Melt you say the "oil for food" propped up iraq? tell that to the 1 million Iraqi,s who died as a direct result of it..many to young to even know they were Iraqi

Answer 7

some answers here r certainly as pathetic as Bush himself!
Who needs USA help? what does it involve? Invading foreign countries out their natural resources?
Pls keep the help for yourselves, u badly need it!!!!

Answer 8

Yes, but we don't raise our children to strap bombs on their bodies and blow themselves up. Europe also has business interests in these areas they have protected. The Oil for Food scandal propped up Iraq. Guess what? There's lots of bad people in the world, that doesn't mean you have to sit in your house and cry instead of take an active roll in preserving your way of life.

Answer 9

A lot of Americans agree with that!

Answer 10

Because we're tired of having to clean up eveybody else's mess when they b*tch and moan because they need our help. We'd prefer to just take care of stuff before it gets out of hand. But the next time YOUR country needs aid after a disaster, I'm SURE the people of the U.S. will be happy to do something else with their money besides bail your sorry a$$ out.