When 99.9% of Americans come from other countries...?

Question

Why do you never seem to care what's done in your name beyond your borders?

From the oppressive regimes propped up in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Africa to the lost wars of Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan?

There seems, to an outsider, a lack of critical analysis and confrontation on American media of your governments actions.

Don't you see an irony in Donald Rumsfeld selling chemical weapons to Saddam and then causing an absolute nightmare scenario because of bullishness - that we're American, we're right, we will win and causing tens of thousands of innocent Arabs to die.

Tens of thousands of Americans died in Vietnam but millions of Vietmenese died. A thousand plus Americans die in Iraq - while tens of thousands of Iraqis die. There's a similar relationship with Israel and the Palestinians. The death squads in Latin America of Pinochet and the rest.

Now - to those who are fuming, I adore America and a lot of Americans I meet, but the crux of my question is why?

Answer 1

Hmm. Aren't you guys in Iraq and Afghanistan too? What are you doing to stop Tony Blair from making Britain the 51st State of America (in the words of the British group "New Model Army")? You are living out the culmination of the Thatcher revolution and Bush is the culmination of the Reagan revolution. It is quiet interesting how Blair has gone from being Clinton's buddy to Bush's buddy without blinking an eye and is still in power. Technically he could be removed!

What accurate source of information do we have? Or you have, for that matter? Are the British so aware and caring of the rest of the world? How do you explain the lies I just heard BBC tell about Cuba! Cuba did undergo capitalist reforms already in the early 1990s! How do you explain your presence in Iraq and Afghanistan?

I fought like h*ll to keep Bush out in 2000. Most leftist women weren't dumb enough to vote Nader (even when we agreed with his policies) because we knew it was a vote for Bush. Mostly men allowed themselves this luxury and we have paid dearly. Gore won as documented by Palast and would have won hands done were it not for Nader.
This was despite the fact that the Gore campaign was run like they were paid to lose. What do you do when your elected official cheats his way in? I don't think you would be asking this had Gore or Kerry been elected?

Like in the UK the US had massive anti-war demonstrations. There were also many movements against the wars in Central America in the 1980s. In fact, in this context US Catholic Bishops and others were labeled as "terrorists" for their opposition to the wars in Central America. Since we do not have the history of officially colonizing the Middle East most Americans lack a historical knowledge of the region. And, accurate information is hard to find. We obviously had anti-Vietnam war demonstrations, as well. And, of course, the French were in there first - as someone has already noted. Elsewhere we may say the British were there first. Advisors were sent into Vietnam early on.

Remember the Red Scare in the 1950s? Schools, academia, everywhere were purged of leftists in the US (and I believe Britain as well). And, yet more have risen up again. But, the left in academia has been purged again as US public Universities are essentially privatized because grant monies and private contributions keep them going. No one was interested in my research in the truth of these sorts of things. They prefer a foreign national, for instance, who illegally bought his way into an academic position. Right wing friends of mine are employed as academics due to the grant monies they administer. Money rules the universities. Fundamentalists control the local school boards. Still opposition arises due to the essential common sense of Americans.

And, sit and think a bit about who last did the sort of "number" the US is currently doing. It was called the British Empire (also to a lesser degree the French Empire). But, where you talked about "white man's burden" we talk about "anti-communism" and "anti-terrorism".

As for our being primarily from overseas: most Americans were chased out of their homelands due primarily to religious persecution and serious economic problems. In some cases Europe emptied their prisons of poor and political prisoners and sent them to the US. So, it should be very surprising that they are friendly to most of Europe at all! We actually fought a revolution against Britain.

Having had the misfortune of recently moving to Switzerland where people are totally unaware of any world outside of Zurich and maybe New York I am very happy my ancestors were run out. If you want to look for an ignorant backwards place it is Switzerland. And, they have never been as neutral as they have claimed. There is no socialized medicine here, 21% of the population have only 9 years of school and there are no benefits of capitalism while nothing socialist. A bunch of backwards peasants and greedy bankers - that's it. I have lived in Paris and Copenhagen and never knew that Europe could be so backwards. Now how do you explain that?

(Edit PS - Among others you forgot Patrice Lumumba in Congo and more recently and most shocking of all the kidnapping of the democratically elected president of Haiti Jean Bertrand Aristide. For this latter France and Canada worked with the US. The disinformation is so great on Haiti that almost no one is aware or cares about this latter case in either the US, France or Canada (other than the US Congressional Black Caucus). BBC did do a good interview with Aristide as did Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. And, while I warned as many as I could against the Iraq war since Saddam was the last secular ruler trying to hold fundamentalists at bay (which is the context in which he used chemical weapons), he was a dictator and owning a dictator is like owning a pit bull. I suppose this is why most bought the lies. He must have double-crossed Bush et.al. on their cut in the oil deals. The only reason France didn't go in is they had their oil deals already with Saddam. But, do you know history yourself? The British Middle Class, the concept of childhood and Teddy Bears were all built on the back of British Imperialism. It's just that the US took over from Britain after the Second World War! Still all governments are dabbling in politics and fighting over resources. Tell me what government has their hands clean, and an educated, thoughtful population. Canada does not have the former and Switzerland has neither. For a totally different "take" on this, arguing populations are entranced see www.trance.edu)

Answer 2

'Why do you never seem to care what's done in your name beyond your borders?'

Key word here is SEEMS. I do care what happens outside of my borders, which is why I try and keep up the news. But! Here's a kicker. People in other countries are the same way. They could care less what happens outside their borders, because it doesn't affect them on a daily basis. So claiming it is only Americans is, ignorants for one. And just moronic for another, since it's a global thing.

'From the oppressive regimes propped up in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Africa to the lost wars of Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan?'

Why is this a question? It's a statement. So I don't really get what you are trying to state here. Perhaps rethinking this and reposting a real question would help?

'There seems, to an outsider, a lack of critical analysis and confrontation on American media of your governments actions.'

Obviously you have never watched a Presidential Debate. The American media reports stories that sell. If the story won't make an impact, they won't report it. Try watching CNN sometime, they are very critical of the government.

'Don't you see an irony in Donald Rumsfeld selling chemical weapons to Saddam and then causing an absolute nightmare scenario because of bullishness - that we're American, we're right, we will win and causing tens of thousands of innocent Arabs to die'

Never knew he sold anything to Saddam. Do you have proof, or is that a guess?

'Tens of thousands of Americans died in Vietnam but millions of Vietmenese died. A thousand plus Americans die in Iraq - while tens of thousands of Iraqis die. There's a similar relationship with Israel and the Palestinians. The death squads in Latin America of Pinochet and the rest'

Usually in a War on foriegn soil, the civilian populace looses more lives than the Military, because they don't have the proper way to treat casualties. Think about it, if you were a guerrilla, who would you target? An Advanced Military outpost that has more Firepower than you, or your local Movie theater with only civilians?

'Now - to those who are fuming, I adore America and a lot of Americans I meet, but the crux of my question is why?'

Why what? Why aren't people in the world nicer to each other? Have no clue. Why don't you start.

Answer 3

Unless you were born somewhere in the Middle East/ Africa your people came from somewhere else too. No one is sure exactly where Adam and eve were born. Why would you think we don't care. No sane person would want to sell another country weapons that could destroy us. We have an arrogant cowboy for a president and his inner circle think they are still in WW11. They won't listen to their own generals or put the American people above their greed. Why war in any country? Will we all just keep fighting until we have destroyed the earth?

Answer 4

First, WMDs were found in Iraq. We could find the rest of them but that would mean going into Syria and I'd rather not. Second, you don't think we should be in Afghanistan finding the man who orchestrated thousands of our deaths? What do you think we should do, then? Throw up our hands and say, "Oh, well." Do I like the idea that we sell weapons to other countries? No, it always comes back to bite us. We shouldn't support regimes in other countries for the same reason. But we do need to fight back against the terrorists. Our inaction after they attacked the USS Cole is what brought us an even bigger attack on 9/11.

Answer 5

I am an American, sorry to say. I greatly appreciate your question because most of my countrymen are unaware of these things. That is how Bush got elected. People are focused in their own lives & their own opinions and irony only strikes them when it occurs in their daily lives. The vast majority of Americans don't look outside their own county lines, so the idea of viewing the rest of the world is beyond the scope of their vision.

Our Government (& our media) is a travisty to justice & everything that this counrty was founded upon.

Answer 6

what about the people that always lived in america the native americans,probebly would not have big mouths & respectad other countrys its all because through history you just distroy the culture that was ther before you just about wiped out you have no history & will be rememberd for destroying every thing you touch & being war mongers , you start it but can not finish it all mouth no trousers

Answer 7

Not sure why you think the US is much different from some European countries.

France was in Vietnam before us
England went crazy over some rock in the ocean

Answer 8

Say we never did any of that. Say we allowed the world to become destabalized in the favor of the USSR. When the USSR blockaded oil from the middle east, where do you think the world would be? All those ICBMs would have destroyed everyone.

Answer 9

More like 90% of Americans were borne here. So from the first line your data is bogus, as is your question.

Answer 10

Its part of the military industrial complex first sell them arms then build better weapons to take them away with. Eisenhower warned us of this and no one seemed to listen.