The United States - too powerful?

bobblepuzzle

They have the strongest military force, largest economy and the currency of choice...

So, what do you make of it?

I think they've helped Ireland a lot and helped protect us from the old Soviet Union (despite Irelands idiotic "neutral" stance in WW2). The American multi-nationals have created thousands of jobs here as well... should we give them a break?

It seems to be the cool thing to bash the US these days...

Latchy

It seems to be the cool thing to bash the US these days...

Americans are pretty good at bashing 'their ' own country ,go back to the civil unrest / student riots from early 60s to early 70s , nothing recent about that .

bobblepuzzle

Latchy wrote: »

Americans are pretty good at bashing there own country ,go back to the civil unrest / student riots from early 60s to early 70s , nothing recent about that .

I think you completely missed the point, the thread is not about Americans bashing Americans. its an international perspective

bobblepuzzle

Latchy wrote: »

Americans are pretty good at bashing there

I would also like to correct you, it's their... okee dokee

Latchy

Cmdr Keen wrote: »

I think you completely missed the point, the thread is not about Americans bashing Americans. its an international perspective

Ahh Americans are ok in my book , most of the ones I've met anyway and I love lots about American culture , music , way of life , of which we consciously or subconsciously adopt and also allowing for the fact that millions are of European decent anyway

On the internationl front ,well I guess recent military interventions haven't gone down well with the wider international community but then it's mainly non european countrys who see America and Americans as the enemy .

Cmdr Keen wrote: »

I would also like to correct you, it's their... okee dokee

Okee dokee I would have noticed that error ( inserts image of smokey bear )

bobblepuzzle

Latchy wrote: »

Ahh Americans are ok in my book , most of the ones I've met anyway and I love lots about American culture , music , way of life , of which we consciously or subconsciously adopt and also allowing for the fact that millions are of European decent anyway

On the internationl front ,well I guess recent military interventions haven't gone down well with the wider international community but then it's mainly non european countrys who see America and Americans as the enemy .

Okee dokee I would have noticed that error ( inserts image of smokey bear )

Way of life? I've been to America many times and there are some very desperate people there., the homeless etc. They have no way of getting out of their mess, and the government doesn't support them ie no social welfare...

Latchy

Cmdr Keen wrote: »

Way of life? I've been to America many times and there are some very desperate people there., the homeless etc. They have no way of getting out of their mess, and the government doesn't support them ie no social welfare...

Yes of course and that's well known and goes without saying .It has a lot of poverty and destitute people for sure , never thought otherwise and it always had
But America is still the first port of call for many people,immigrants of all nationaltys who are lucky enough to get in .I was refering to the overall view of Americana ,how we absorb their music ,movies ,tv ( hollywood is al tinsel and phoney and all that for sure yeah ) and how we who can afford travel on holiday to paces like NYC , Florida ,etc . We do owe a lot to America and how many young Irish people will be still thinking of trying to get in there in the new year and years to come ?

Eliot Rosewater

If we're to have a superpower then I much prefer it's a country that has a strong internal democratic ethos, rather than some autocratic regime like Russia or China.

The US gets a lot of criticism, some of it deserved, but a lot of the time I think its critics lack any sense of perspective. For instance, people criticising their country's involvement in Cuba, all the time forgetting that were they in Cuba they wouldn't be to criticise the Cuban government. So all sense of ideological loyalty aside, the US at least has freedom of expression and freedom of political preference.

Many of those criticising the US for its human rights record support countries that lack these fundamental freedoms. Their lack of perspective leads to a kind of hypocrisy, in my opinion.

Overheal

Cmdr Keen wrote: »

Way of life? I've been to America many times and there are some very desperate people there., the homeless etc. They have no way of getting out of their mess, and the government doesn't support them ie no social welfare...

Theres social security and unemployment, but to avail of these things you need to be willing to work. The ones that have given up are homeless because they dont have any ambition to go farther. The ones that do remain on the streets that dont want to be can avail of the system to get back on their feet. I recall reading the account of a guy who deliberately set out to be homeless with nothing but $20 in his pocket; a year later he was well on his way to getting back above the poverty level.

Pete_Cavan

Cmdr Keen wrote: »

I would also like to correct you, it's their... okee dokee

I would also like to correct you, the thread name should be "The United States, too powerful"... okee dokee

Overheal

GisforGrenade

Don't really mind America, what really scares me is China. There are now two super powers in the world one at least pays lip service to democracy, the other could not care less and shows you that capitalism does not necessarily equate to freedom. China is all over Africa because it doesn't care if it has to deal with a democratically elected leader or a power hungry despot whereas America will generally avoid the power hungry despot, well unless someone is silly enough to democratically elect a socialist government then the CIA get involved.

ValJester

GisforGrenade wrote: »

unless someone is silly enough to democratically elect a socialist government then the CIA get involved.

The only example that comes to mind is Chile, and it should be borne in mind Alliande had every intention of acting dictatorially.

Clawdeeus

I think alot of the anger comes from it being very powerful; people blame the powerful for problems regardless if said problem are vastly more complicated/ were created long before the rise of said power.

Further, its very power means it will be involved in nearly every conflict (to varying degrees); one or both sides in every conflict will inevitably seek its help/approval. Not a good, or necessarily bad thing, just the way things work.

For me I wouldnt mind a mutli-polar world; however that i very dependant on who shares the top spot with the US.

PanchoVilla

As a U.S. citizen, my main objection to the Federal government is it's foreign policy and support of brutal dictatorships across the globe. The Federal government is responsible for the suppression of democracy around the world and then has the nerve to claim they are bringing democracy to countries where they installed dictators in the first place.

The following website lists some of the dictatorships the U.S. supported in the last eighty years or so. Oddly enough, Saddam Hussein is not on the list.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

GisforGrenade

ValJester wrote: »

The only example that comes to mind is Chile

What about Guatemala and Nicaragua? Ever hear of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the Iran-Contra scandal, where Reagan sold weapons to Iran to illegally fund the Contra's fighting against the democratically elected government. Democracy is all good as long as it isn't remotely socialist seems to be the recurring theme. Also instead of Allende, Chile got to be ruled by a lovely man called Pinochet but hey at least he wasn't a communist.

marglin

i agree with gisforgrenade, it's a perverted form of democracy where you tell the rest of the world they have the right of self-determination, as long they determine that they should pick someone friendly to american business interests.

on the other hand having a democratic sole superpower(china's not quite there yet, america still dwarfs it in terms of gdp and military strength) hasnt been a bad thing as nations will copy it to be more popular and because it seems to work. we know its not simply a case of being democratic=rich but thats what it looks like

america is the evil empire and evil empires sometimes do really evil things, but tbh they'd be my evil empire of choice given the contenders

also even though we europeans love to deride their culturelessness, they have given the world an awful lot in terms of music,literature,science, the arts etc not to mention the very thing that made all this discussion possible..
d'interweb of course!

digme

Cmdr Keen wrote: »

They have the strongest military force, largest economy and the currency of choice...

So, what do you make of it?

I think they've helped Ireland a lot and helped protect us from the old Soviet Union (despite Irelands idiotic "neutral" stance in WW2). The American multi-nationals have created thousands of jobs here as well... should we give them a break?

It seems to be the cool thing to bash the US these days...

No you mean they have the largest debt,their economy is shoppers.

Clawdeeus

digme wrote: »

No you mean they have the largest debt,their economy is shoppers.

He is still right though, their economy is still 4 times larger than the next down (being china).

And their debt asa % of GDP is less than the rest of the Western world. Except for Australia I think.

wes

Sure, the US is great for those of us in Europe, but for the people they bomb in invade, not so much. From there point of view, hating the US is perfectly reasonable. Personally, I wouldn't be a big fan of any country bombing where I live, or providing bombs for someone else to do so.

comeraghs

USA .... A-OK!

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I think 'threat to world peace' is often used as a synonym for 'threat to US interests'.

djsomers

US can be as powerful as they like. It don't matter a damn to most people on the planet day to day. They couldn't invade Iran or Syria because of Israel, not that they will anyway. Yawn.