Well US politics do influence world politics quite a lot.
Have a look at our own Aussie PM of around 12 months.
Been over to the US getting his marching orders on several occasions already. ![:P]()
Lol...and so it is with most countries....and the ones that dont? (cuba, venezuala, etc ....) well they seem to get labled "terrorist" or whatever.
I agree with you rridgely that nato is weak. But you have to remember that the US agreed to play by the rules of the UN, and when they didn't get their (Bushs) way, they entered into an illegal war. Attacking Iraq was illegal by world standards. And the only ones that though sadam (madass? lol) had wmd were the US or those that relied on the US intelligence (which appears after the fact to show that there was NO intelligence suggesting such). The current iraq war was a knee jerk reaction and opportunist reaction to 9/11. I think that most of the world agreed with the afghanistan war. In fact, i think that if the us had not gone into iraq, the afghan conflict would be long over and they would got everyone of those crazies by now. (BTW, I have friends serving in both wars overseas-support the troops, not the war
).
I agree with what you said about the first gulf war. It was about oil, and nobody minded the US going in (and totally destroyed the iraq army) and saving world oil supplies. Which is exactly my point. The governments all support the economic (masked with the word terror or war on drugs or whatever) flexing of the us...because as humpty pointed out, thats who our government leaders take their marching orders from (currently, as they did from england once, and rome another).
Keep in mind that north america was a (tribal) land once too, as is/was much of these middle eastern countries (though there is oil in them, so they can be converted by the US and others.
). A good example in somalia. When they started dragging dead troops behind jeeps on camera, the western forces high tailed it out of there (no oil, bad PR, = get out, who cares about democracy, we can send relief financially to look good).
General Scwartzkopf is a very smart man. People should have listened to him the first time. They wouldnt have the problem now.
I am curious why the US doesnt invade Korea? Same situation, and better technology, closer to getting the big bomb. Most believe it is because a) the us is spread too thin now,
china, c) korea would be a harder fight then iraq is.
As for the banks, if you let a corporation, any corporation run unfettered by laws or regulations, time and time again it has been shown that they will suck the surrounding area dry, make as much money as they can, regardless of the consequences, and leave everyone else holding the bag. What the government needed to do was apply PROPER regulations....ones that enabled people to purchase homes, credit, etc, but within an acceptable mandate. By loosening the rules too much, banks gave credit to every tom, d*** or harry that couldnt really afford it. Reminds me of a joke I saw one time. A picture of french fries from mcdonalds with the capition "Because not everyone will grow up to be a rocket scientist".....A bit condescending, but true. Some of us will have to learn to live within our means and accept that we cant all drive a Lexus and have a 50 inch plasma in our 3000 square foot house. ![:P]()
And people seem to forget that government regulations enter every single aspect of our lives. I pay school taxes, my kids go to school. Those that don't have kids still pay school taxes. Sucks, but such is life. My taxes subsidize university tuition. If my kids never go to university, i still don't mind paying, because i like to think its good that others will have the opportunity to attend.
Oh, and until recently, the republicans had both the white house and the senate, so they ran pretty much loose in their ability to push the bush agenda. I read a blog the other day that had someone complaining about the dems having both, and i (though i would lean democratic if i was in the us) had to agree. We have in canada right now a "minority" government. Basically we have 4 major parties, with 308 seats in our house of commons. the Prime minister runs the show with his party (the conservatives currently) with the other three parties actually holding more seats then the conservatives, so if they band together over a really important issue (or sometimes frivilous ones) they can affect the laws and how they work. Personally, i love it. It keeps some great checks and balances and forces all involved to "play nice" a bit. We have quite a bit different system then you do in the us, but i dont know if its better or worse. Maybe neither.
I still would have to disagree about palin. I can only speak for myself, but if i had the choice between hillary and mccain, i would choose mccain, but if he had palin with him, id go hillary. But that could just be me. As for mccain and bush, i totally agree, and think that that message got lost in all the hype about both palin and obama. I personally think mccain is very intelligent and honorable. I just dont agree with some of his economic and military strategies, but thats a personal thing. But never throw the baby out with the bathwater. ![:P]()
As for abortion, gay marriage, etc....i think pretty much everyone is sick of that talk. The smartest thing our conservative government did with those hot potatoes is that they pretty much left them alone (except for a single free vote on gay marriage). They appeased their christian right to a degree, and then moved on to the things that most people care about-law and order, financial stability, etc. Our current PM, though he seems to have the personality of a clump of grass, has been pretty good at building coalitions, building his party back up and almost getting the majority (hes 12 seats away) and has made a few very good moves politically. I was never much of a conservative thinker, but i intently watched him every time he spoke, and during our recent leader debates he said some things that were extremely tactful in the face of jibes and such by his political opponents. Hopefully obama is the same kind of leader and will work with the other party in the us to get things done.
Anyone else got thoughts on the us election? I love hearing other points of views, politics have fascinated me for about 15 years now. ![:)]()