It has nothing to do with Americans’ so-called “freedoms” – instead, it has everything to do with the military destruction of their countries. The politicians that ultimately control the US military care little about the soldiers they command to fight in their capitalist conquests of wealth and resources. And they certainly could not give a damn about the innocent civilians in places like Libya, Pakistan and Yemen. They are not concerned with how they are perceived by much of the globe; they are only concerned with maintaining their imperialist advancements and control. You are either “with them” or “against them”; there is no middle ground.
The US military apparatus operates like that of a pathological killing machine with lust for war. The history of the United States more than backs up this assertion, especially when we consider the fact that since the US’s “founding” in 1776, this country has been at war 216 of those years. That’s right, out of the US’s 237 year existence it has been engaged in military conflict 216 of those years.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Colin Powell was asked, in 1991, about the number of Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US Gulf War against Iraq, he simply stated: “Its not a number I’m terribly interested in.”
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
eatyourveg wrote:It strikes me that the reason America is why it is has a lot do do with psycho behaviour being so heavily rewarded.
That is exactly the reason why. The pychos are in charge, literally.
It's the Anglo Saxon business model in action. The British Empire was no better in its heyday - always fighting some meaningless conflict somewhere. The US are doing exactly the same.
While the economic system requires perpetual growth it will necessitate conflicts around the world. Here's an interesting article from Truth-Out: Beyond Growth or Beyond Capitalism
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools - Douglas Adams.
jonny2mad wrote: we also seem to be in a state of constant war
We are a wannabe-poodle of the US, which is always at war. We don't even qualify as an actual poodle anymore.
And whose fault is that? With approximately one quarter of the USA's population one would expect the defense forces of the UK available to NATO to be about one quarter of those maintained by the US, but you have decided that other expenditures are worth more then a strong defense.
Try to collect your monthly check when the country is being invaded.
Will the USA come bail out your butts a third time?
vtsnowedin wrote:With approximately one quarter of the USA's population one would expect the defense forces of the UK available to NATO to be about one quarter of those maintained by the US, but you have decided that other expenditures are worth more then a strong defense.
Or maybe USA's defence force is ridiculously over budget? There is a serious problem in the US when one contrasts defence and health. Many many thousands of Americans die every year of whole preventable ailments but unfortunately the government prefers to spend on defence (which spends much of its time killing foreigners, inciting hatred of the US and getting service personal killed) instead of providing decent health care to all citizens - like most developed countries in the world.
vtsnowedin wrote:With approximately one quarter of the USA's population one would expect the defense forces of the UK available to NATO to be about one quarter of those maintained by the US, but you have decided that other expenditures are worth more then a strong defense.
Or maybe USA's defence force is ridiculously over budget? There is a serious problem in the US when one contrasts defence and health. Many many thousands of Americans die every year of whole preventable ailments but unfortunately the government prefers to spend on defence (which spends much of its time killing foreigners, inciting hatred of the US and getting service personal killed) instead of providing decent health care to all citizens - like most developed countries in the world.
The defense budget is like an advertising budget. You know half the money is wasted but don't know which half. As to health care in the USA we have been over that before . There is plenty of health care in the US just much of it is provided privately so does not show in the federal budget. You are equating government control and payments with quality and availability.and you are wrong on both counts. But not to worry the system here is heading towards single payer government controlled and provided healthcare like a run away train. We will soon have the rationing, wait times and lack of adequate facilities you seem to enjoy. I would note that the local hospital in Burlington Vt does a brisk business treating Canadians from Quebec that choose not to wait their turn in the Canadian system.
vtsnowedin wrote:The defense budget is like an advertising budget. You know half the money is wasted but don't know which half.
Yes, you know that half the people you kill are innocent but you don't know which half.
Except that half is not the right fraction. I just heard that about 100,000 Vietnamese have been killed SINCE the Vietnam war by hitherto unexploded ordinance left behind and scattered far and wide, by the Americans.
and US 'vets' kill themselves at the rate of roughly one an hour.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
under Bush, the 1% captured a disproportionate share of the income gains from the Bush boom of 2002-2007. They got 65 cents of every dollar created in that boom, up 20 cents from when Clinton was President. Under Obama, the 1% got 93 cents of every dollar created in that boom. That’s not only more than under Bush, up 28 cents. In the transition from Bush to Obama, inequality got worse, faster, than under the transition from Clinton to Bush. Obama accelerated the growth of inequality.
Source uses IRS figures
Reasons to despise not just the US: many minority world nations try to emulate this, ermm, growth.
One of the comments is spot on:
the results reflect the logical outcome of capitalist development in the absence of any significant social movement. As long as we are in thrall to ideology, the party in government makes little difference
Oh, and the 'republicans' (!!!!!!) will win the next POTUS election.
Last edited by emordnilap on Thu Dec 04, 2014 12:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
vtsnowedin wrote:The defense budget is like an advertising budget. You know half the money is wasted but don't know which half. As to health care in the USA we have been over that before . There is plenty of health care in the US just much of it is provided privately so does not show in the federal budget. You are equating government control and payments with quality and availability.and you are wrong on both counts. But not to worry the system here is heading towards single payer government controlled and provided healthcare like a run away train. We will soon have the rationing, wait times and lack of adequate facilities you seem to enjoy. I would note that the local hospital in Burlington Vt does a brisk business treating Canadians from Quebec that choose not to wait their turn in the Canadian system.
Plenty of private health care over here if you want to pay for it! If you can't then there's still treatment available. For most medical problems another few weeks isn't life threatening just 'inconvenient', for the life threatening ones the NHS does an amazing job ime.
we also seem to be in a state of constant war
