Debate How do you feel about the U.S government

I want to know if you trust the U.S government? Why or why not?

 

Boy, you're just asking for a flame war, Alla...

Anyway, I don't particularly dislike the U.S. government, but I have a major problem with the Bush Administration. Even conservatives agree that this is the most secretive administration in a very long, and government + secrecy is NEVER a good thing. There's Ashcroft, who's detained a few hundred Middle Eastern men for over a year without revealing their identities or giving them access to a lawyer, there's Cheney's still-unresearched profits in Iraq as a result of his contacts at Halliburton, there's the anti-gay views many of his advisors have shared (Though, to his credit, Bush both applauded the Supreme Court ruling and said he'd likely oppose an amendment banning gay marriage), his policy of "saving forests by burning them", which he tried to do after the Oregon fires, and also trying to drill in Alaska, his trying to blur the separation of church and state by trying to give government money to "faith-based services"...There's just a long, long list of stuff that I take serious issue with.

 

I understand why some people would be mad at the Bush administration. I mean, even I disagree with somethings, or rules they have put down. It's so hard to please everyone in a society like ours. I don't particularly trust the government, but sometimes you don't have any other choice but to listen to what they have to say. In that whole case with Saddam owning plutonium to make bombs, and then Bush coming out with it, it's just kind of hard to say who is to trust and who is not!

 

Frankly, I'm surprised Mr. Bush hasn't been shot yet. When this all is over, I wouldn't be surprised if members of his government are tried as war criminals.
The Bush administration has turned the Land of the Free into the Land of Fear. I haven't gone into America since 2001 because some of the stuff I have heard scares the hell out of me. Something about being locked up for not doing anything, without being told the reason for the arrest, then being denied a phone call and no one even being told about my disappearance ... kind of Gestapo, but I've heard of people it's happened to.
Also, the government keeps changing the reason for this "war", if you can call it that. First it was "weapons of mass destruction", then to overthrow Saddam, then to look for terrorist connections, or some BS like that. What have the results been? No WMD found, no terrorist connections, nothing. There's one real reason underlying this, and it's a three letter word. The first is an O, and the last is an L. Fill in the blanks.
Why is it that 4000 hungry children leave us per hour from starvation while billions are spent on bombs, creating death showers?

 

i agree, but i live in america...and i dont totally agree with him. and i do think he wants his hands on their oil supply. all it is is imperialism all over again. and we all know how that turned out.

 

this isn't a debate
this is just a stupid question.

<Even the stupidest question can spark a debate, and this one has done so quite admirably. Objection OVERRULED. - Ark>

 

I am currently trying to restrain myself from blowing up.

I cam to the US about a year and a half ago. I lived in the Arab world, so I did see a lot of atrocities that were committed by previous US governments. The most notable, of course, are the sanctions on Iraq, which, between 1991 and 2003, killed half a million Iraqi infants, and served no purpose whatsoever. I also witnessed invasions, raids and bombings that the US government (s) supported (not nice for a 14 yr. old to be woken up at 2:00 AM and see a huge explosion 2 miles from his bed). The current government seems to be going the same way.

THe problem with the US government is that it presented to proof whatsoever for WMD and attacked anyway. If Iraq was no immediate danger, imminent threat, it had no business attacking. Iraq is not the only country with a bloody dictator: so that's no legitimate defense. When you just attack a country without any proof, it's bad enough. But when you then admit you had no reason for attacking, it's much worse.

Terrorism, itself, is created by such actions. When attacks like the one against Iraq take place, the anger of mothers who lost their children converts into an outburst of anger. For a terrorist, it doesn't matter whether the victim is civillian or not: the victim is American.

Globalization is yet another big problem. It causes hatred.

The most important thing that the US government has to do now is to say again and again,and repeat, that it has no problem with Islam and Arabs. I'm still not convinced, since I've seen a lot of descrimination against myself.

The only thing that this government is doing right:The Middle East. Although no one asked Bush to get involved, he is still taking the right steps. i lived very close to the cities where the conflict was raging, and I think the approach by the Bush administration is good.

Still, I want him to be impeached for the Iraq attack, which was for no reason. As I said, saying we rid the world from a dictator is not good enough, since some of our allies are dictators.

 

mordeth....i hate to break it to you... but britain was one of the leading imperialist countries, along with france, spain, and italy, and germany

 

.. will you *look* at my sig miko?

and why exactly do you think I care about britain?

 

*bows low* forgive me, mordeth.

 

I think "most" of them is correct, not all of them.

I don't want to sound like a stupid hater, but it's difficult for me to accept that some Americans are still aware of what their government is doing. The reason for that is that most Americans have never been outside the US, and because the media is SO biased. 75% of Americans supported the sanctions against Iraq... Is it reasonable to think they're all criminals?

 

hello, my name is miko, im from the us, and i dont like what the government is doing. some do, but after the weapons inspectors found nothing, in my opinion, they should have left. im part of the 25% that doesnt agree with them. from what history has told us, all that will come from this is the us will completely take over, then set up a 'puppet government'. the us will control the government, pulling the 'strings'. its not right for any country, truly, to rule another. no matter the circumstances.

 

exiztone,
I never said news were biased outside the US. They are just as biased.

 

USACentrism

OK flamers get ready, cuz this is a huge fire i'm starting. Oh - and please read to the end (the conclussion) before starting your reply.


OK.. here we go.
*AHEM*

First there was geocentrism: The universe turns around the earth
then there was heliocentrism: The universe turns around the sun

And then there was USAcentrism. What the...?

I want to adress an issue: That most of the american people do not even THINK outside the USA. Well, gladly, the internet is breaking some barriers, but the people who actually use it for expanding their horizons is very limited.

Well, at least we're in a community who has opened its TV entertainment horizons to the far east but anyway.

My point is, it's so depressing to see the usa cable channels filled with stuff about pop stars o the like (E! entertainment anyone?), while the only thing known about other countries comes from either the occasional trip to Cancun or whatever - or news channels who give events that aren't new anymore.

I can compare the majority (ok maybe I'm generalizing) of american citizens with the hobbits in the Lord of the Rings.

They live inside a safe land called "The Shire", and don't give a **** about the outer world because they never experienced any problems with the pple from outside... but then comes a foreign Black Rider, killing a considerable amount of their own (9/11) and they BARELY begin to try to understand the world outside their limits.

Let's take a look at some examples:

* Ecology and illegal hunting of whales and such
*American companies destroying the environment or simply banning foregin companies with fake "dolphin safe" campaigns
* the situation of illegal imigrants dying daily in the southern border because they were hunted systematically by some white supremacists
* the political and economical situation of various countries in latin america
* the constant anihillation and/or absorption of small companies by huge transnationals like walm&rt
* The thousands of children deaths everyday caused by CURABLE diseases (because the governments have been given condomns for their "development" instead of medicines - thanks, IMF! )
etc
etc
etc

So many things to learn!


And then I look at people... those regular families of hobbits who can only think about hollywood, or girls who stop eating at all cuz they're "fat", or women reading the daily horoscope or learning simple "white magic spells" to attract the opposite sex... (or even worse- buying crystals to improve their karma so their life doesn't suck anymore... or ppl watching jack&ss on the TV just because it's fun... or fat ppl eating hundreds of burgers per month and then complaining because they weren't told they'd get fat....

So, I look at all these hobbits. And that's their world. Britney spears or whatever...

Makes me want to throw up

... darned hobbits... they're not guilty of their ignorance - or are they?

*sigh*
DarNed hobbits. To think that's the most powerful nation in the world... and that it's those same hobbits (who barely read books or newspaper but watch TV more than 6 hours a-day - to say the least) who choose the ruler of this country with the greatest quantity of massive destruction weapons - gives me the creeps.

Yeah yeah i know... ignorance and indifferentism is a global phenomena. But don't you think the US citizens SHOULD have a greater level of culture because being the most powerful nation in the world implies at least a MINIMUM civic responsibility?

Now why all this american society bashing? Oh yeah we were talking about the biased media and its impact on american society.

Oh - i forgot! Didn't I mention that the most popular family in the US is the Osbournes?
Ah, how enlightening. What a beautiful culture! (yeah right)

 

thank you luvweaver, i am now offically ashamed of my country... I WANNA LIVE OVERSEAS!!

 

that's a start miko

 

Uh... don't you think it would be more effective if you organize ppl (student group perhaps?) to begin studying foreign affairs (or even internal country corruption) and later do something about it? How do you think greenpeace came to be?

That's the beauty of being part of a country you don't like. You can start changing it!

 

loveweaver,
I actually disagree with you on quite a few issues. Don't get me wrong, I'll flame the US society a lot in my post. But you seem to be a victim of UScentrism yourself:
1- All countries are centered around themselves. The US, of course, is exaggerating, but not to a much greater extent than others. I've lived in 4 different countries. When I lived in the Arab wolrd, everything was about the "Arab nation", when I lived in Greece, everything was about the European Union. When I lived in Armenia, it was based around Russia and Armenia, now I live in the US, it's solely based on the US.
2- Financially, the actions of big companies can be defended in 2 specific ways: 1- they are the rules of business, I don't think Nestle is doing less than Walmart, 2- it has been done, and is being done, by every single county.

I propose, for now, YOU COMPLETELY FORGET about whales, dolphins, and companies, and concentrate on what the US is doing to PEOPLE.

Madeline Albright, in an interview, said that the 500,000 Iraqi infants that died between 1992-2003 were (I quote) "worth the cause". The cause being pressuring Saddam Hussein to resign. Funny, hu? Hussein didn't resign, and eventually a war ousted him. Those deaths were purely useless.

Take a moment to contemplate on that again. I've seen the msot terrible videos and pictures. As a 16 year old living in America, sometimes I am ashamed of the people around me. Have you ever seen a 1 pound baby with blue lips, because they couldn't feed him at the hospital? Take a moment to reflect on that massacre, and think: Was the US government better than Saddam Hussein?

Another big problem with US foreign policy is the fact that... IT BUTTS IN EVERYWHERE. You see, the US has the same approach towards other countries as colonialists have: the other countries have to be taught democracy. Well, guess what, they NEVER ASKED for it.

Another thing that makes me angry (some people might get offended by this): the US claims it is a neutral partner in the middle east process. Just tell me how a neutral partner can denounce everything the Palestinians do, then sell warplanes, train pilots, and suppport every attack which kills civilians by the Israeli side. My goal here is to say that the US is clearly one-sided, and it looks for its economic benefits first.

Here, to conclude the efects of globalization: In one of the Central American countries, the US tried to intervene to improve the situation of farmers. They took the pigs of the farmers away, and gave them American pigs. Only problem: the American pigs needed a lot of food, the cleanest water, and other luxuries which are still denied to a substantial proportion of the humans in the world. The farmers couldn't provide all that, the pigs died, so did some of the farmers because of starvation.

Now sleep on this.

BTW: I never thought my first day on these forums would engage me in a full-out political discussion.