this arrogant, patriotic, anti-Iraq-war country chain email that's been going around

Great Debates
1

Received this in my inbox, and judging by the past forwarding messages, is really making its way around:

I am completely speechless, because if this email is implying what I think it is, than she is one of the last people I would expect to send it to me, so before I write back an angry GD-style response, I wanted to run it by the big dogs.

From the sounds of this, it is supporting an attitude of turning your backs on every single country who didn’t support us in the war. Personally, I think that there’s a very good reason that 90% of the world didn’t support us or not want to get involved, and that THEY aren’t the assholes for doing so. In so, it is also implying that the United States is the world’s authority on what is right and wrong, and if anyone disagrees with us on something, they should go to hell. This is just the kind of talk that encourages other terrorist groups and countries to want to go to war with US.

Anyway, although I am sure this thread is going to turn into a debate over the rights and wrongs of this chain mail (and thus in this forum), I really wanted to know if there is some kind of sarcastic overtone or point to this email which I am stupidly missing.

2

The flaw in the logic of this letter seems is it implying the US should support the military adventurism of countries that supported the US in the Iraq war. I noticed that mentions Poland. My ancestry is Polish. So if Poland decides to attack a neighboring country that didn’t support the US in Iraq, should Bush send in US soldiers to help the Polish soldiers?

“We owe you and we won’t forget.
To the nations on List 2, a final thought. Drop dead.”

3

Is this an old thing? You’d have thought that the sort of person who would send that would also be the sort of person who would have firmly removed Spain from list one by now…

4

I got the same e-mail three months ago and pitted it. I did get one interesting factual reply:

That was my favorite addition to the logical flaws.

From that thread, I also learned that dismissing isolationism out of hand is wrong, because it works if you believe and clap your hands.

5

Seeing a President work “Yo, boys” into a speech would be amusing in itself.

6

It’s odd though. The email seems to dislike the Iraq war (implementing a hasty withdrawl), yet also wants to punish any country that dared to oppose the war in the first place. :dubious:

Although I do think the idea of meddling less in the affairs of other countries and caring about our own is a worthwhile notion. With all the money we’d save, I bet we could afford Universal Healtchare in our country.

7

This is my favorite part:

Really? I’m going to be generous and count ALL international activities here: maintenance of embassies, military and economic aid, etc.

Total federal budget outlays were about $2.2 trillion. According to the IRS, 1% of that went to international activities, or about $22 billion. The war in Iraq has cost over $300 billion so far, I believe.

For some reason, people think that the United States (or any industrialized nation, really) gives out mountains of foreign aid relative to the total budget and it’s just not reality.

8

Could you link to the pit thread? I did a search before posting, but was unable to find another thread on this email.

9

Just think, though. If we were to eliminate foreign aid to these List 2 countries we could eliminate hunger and homelessness in America. Don’t ya’ see?? I’m sure the letter writer goes to bed every night worrying about the plight of the underprivileged Americans.

10

Yeah, that’s basically what iamthewalrus(:3= told me, although the Iraq figure continues to get larger.

That was the only piece of factual data offered, and I’d just as soon not reopen a Pit thread when we can try and get some facts here. But if you search for threads started by me, you can find it.

11

Can’t tell you perzackly why I think this, but I get the feeling this has at least two seperate authors, like somebody came across a parodic bit and improved upon it. It doesn’t seem to have any particular distinct point of view, kind of an unnatural blend, like if there’s a fly in the booth when you transport.

12

The line that brought tears to my eyes, what with its stirring words that remind me of FDR’s first inaugural address (“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”)as well as Lincoln’s first inaugural address (“the better angels of our nature”) was

"It is time for America to focus on its own welfare and its own citizens. Some will accuse us of isolationism. I answer them by saying, "darn tootin! "

I would follow a president like this to the ends of the earth with that kind of rhetoric! :rolleyes:

13

Does that mean aid to other countries or, you know, unnecessary wars in general? Because, one’s budget is 10 times greater than the other. Have a guess. :stuck_out_tongue:

14

I can’t understand why we’re still ragging on those countries that didn’t support us. For the most part, they didn’t support us because they didn’t buy our certainty about huge stockpiles of WMDs–and they were right.

Yet the response is not, “Gee, perhaps we should apply some skepticism to the claims made by our government, especially since so many nations were able to see through the bullshit.” It’s “Fuck France!”

That must be some damn tasty Kool-Aid, with so many people drinking so much of it.

15

You sure about that? The way I read Faux news, the reason those other countries didn’t support us was that they made bucket-loads in the Oil-for-food debacle. :dubious:

16

The following week’s speech wouldn’t be as fun:

My fellow Americans,

You remember last week how I made a big speech about America withdrawing from the world and how we were going to go it alone? Well, things didn’t work out as well as we had hoped.

After I made my speech, some of my advisors who I hadn’t discussed it with beforehand pointed out to me that the United States has been dependent on overseas oil production since 1970. I guess we were all reminded of this when OPEC announced it was raising the price of crude to $75 a barrel.

I have discussed possible responses to this plan but things aren’t looking good. Our military options are limited. After our unilateral withdrawal from NATO, our former allies have turned to Russia and China. This new alliance has placed the OPEC nations under its “protection” and declared it will not allow us to threaten their sovereignty. These nations of course have real Weapons of Mass Destruction not pretend ones, so we cannot attack them without being destroyed ourselves. The unfortunate example of what has just occurred to the former state of Israel is a stark lesson to us all.

So while I’ve mocked economic sanctions in the past, I was willing to give them a shot now. However, I’ve discovered our economy has been in a downward spiral since we closed ourselves to foreign markets. With the massive inflation and unemployment we’re experiencing already, we can’t afford economic warfare as well.

In desperation, I even tried using diplomatic means to resolve this crisis. So far, I’ve received over one hundred responces telling me to “get stuffed” in a variety of languages.

So our only chance now is to throw our nation to the mercy of the world and ask for their help. If every nation were to offer us just one percent of their annual government budget, we could weather this crisis. If one percent’s too high, we’ll take half a percent. A quarter of a percent? Please - I’m begging here.

Then I guess I have no other option except to announce the United States’ unconditional surrender to the world. I will be contacting the new United Nations headquarters in Paris and submit our nation to their control. I, for one, welcome our new colonial overlords and hope to work with them in an administrative capacity.

I guess it turns out that the United States needed the world just as much as the world needed the United States. Who could have imagined that the 95% of the people on Earth who aren’t Americans were important?

God bless America.
Thank you and good night.

If you can see or hear this on a computer, television, or radio, thank a teacher. A teacher in Japan or Korea that is, who taught the guy who designed it.

17

Apparently many Americans think that they are fighting for freedom abroad, but that freedom does not include freedom to disagree with the US govenment. This email shows the ugly side of patriotism. Sieg Heil!

18

I propose forwarding Little Nemo’s post to the senders of the offending message. Yay or nay?

19

This sucks, some people are going to pounce on that and claim that this is how americans really feel. I have no real rebuttal, but jesus. I guess you can’t live in a country like ours where we are constantly claiming to be the best at ‘everything’ and not expect attitudes like this (love us and follow us or get out of our way) to crop up now and again.

20

You forgot to say “darn tootin”. What kind of speechwriter are you? :confused: