Why are shoot first and ask questions after presidential candidates seen as wimps by americans?

Question

Why does a presidential candidate who sounds like an intelligent thoughful person when it comes to warmaking seen as wimps by americans?

I speak of a person who says he will take action agaisnt aggressors, but just that he or she would make sure that they will ask if a few questions first to determine who the real culprits are before going off half ****** like a loose cannon......why does it get interpreted as wimpish by americans to be reasonable ??

Does this go back to our cowboys and indians shoot from hip wild west heritage?

Answer 1

Because most Americans today have never served in the military or have served during a combat situation.

For your second question... no, the United States has not always been this way. We were very isolationist before WW1 and WW2 and entered both of those wars much later than the European nations did.

Answer 2

Read the link below on the psychology of leadership. It doesn't completely answer your question, but it is a good base.

There was a recent study I am still looking for on google, but it descibed how people may tend to favor simpler, more agressive policies to complex, passive ones. In many cases, this is useful. If Lincoln or FDR had dithered and debated the complexities of their respective wars, who knows where we'd be?

That said, many or even most wars are pretty complex. There are no real good or bad guys. Look at Kosovo war. From the media coverage, you would think the Serbs were a savage race and the Kosovars as pure as driven snow. It was more complex than that. But if our politicos argued the ins and outs in detail, their debates would be 6 hours long.

Look at this very website. Who is more likely to win the coveted 10 points? The long, complex, subtle argument, or the sound bite that would fit on a bumper sticker? Often the latter wins. I am guilty of it myself.

My argument would be that the US has never paid a price like other countries have, so we don't think out the consequences all the time. Yes, 9/11 was a tragedy, and Pearl Harbor war terrible, but there are countries that lost populations in the millions. Are the European countries cowards? Maybe so, but 2 world wars that basically destroyed your continent will make anyone gun shy.

Answer 3

Well would you like the president to wear a white tank top and drive an elevated truck with stars and bars on the back? Would that make them less wimpy to you?

Answer 4

Because intelligent and restrained discourse is out because of media, and, the general mentality of I'll get mine and the h*ll with everyone else.

Answer 5

I didn't know they were. Perhaps you have just led a very sheltered and safe life and have a wrong impression of how the world really is.

Answer 6

Because that's the way Wimps answer the question.
They even answer Whimpy.