*taken from a non posted reply that just went on and on.
Regarding american, the people, and our attitude.
But… the lesson learned will change the f them blow them up, we are america, whoo hooo, attitude that even dems and libs, and certainly the uneducated have, into one of uhh… lets stay out of this. WWII we didn’t want to get involved, we kicked rear and saved the day in our minds, vietnam… we were fighting a philosophical, and prestige battle, a battle for our way of thought vs the opposite. We won it for now, but lost the “conflict”
80’s we skirmished when safe and easy, *bombed libya, supplied weapons, bought countrys goverments, when it was fight time we shyed away… but further cemented the image that many others had of us as a dominant overlord, selfish and uncompromising, we created the terror problem in the sense that we attacked a segment of the worlds population, as a cowerdly rich bully, while supporting the Jewish state, that honestly, should never have existed, I am not anti or pro jew, but palistine gave the German Jews haven, and the powers that be stole a won and currently posessed piece of the earth from those who owned and shared it. So we are hated.
Here we are, the weak, theoretically, inferior in war and power people strike back, in a terrible and immoral way. (killed innocents) however we rally, go america, bomb them, whoo hoo!! Iraq… well um… yeah they may have terrorists there, the goverment has a grudge, there is that oil thing… Kick thier asses too!!! Whoo hoo bagdad in no time, wow look at our guys kick those pickup driving sorry excuse for an opposition forces rear!!! (by this time I was wavering in my support for the action, I originally couldn’t wait for it, yeah get them we’ll own them, till I realized… this feels good for america, we are kicking ass… but … what does that make others think, people that we need… people whom we want to hate us less, perhaps help prevent another sept 11th… hmmm… And so I cringed as we swept in, praying all the time that no weapons of mass destuction would be deployed, and no terror retaliation would happen. Heck I belived the idea that the people would be happy to be rid of saddam… and they were… until I looked up the last bit of history of Iraq, and realized it was slapped together for global interaction ease, and is actually 3 different countries, all who don’t like one another due to the fact that they are slapped together, and forced to battle for power…
So here we have it.
The lesson to be learned is that war is a last resort, america is the top dog for now, but only as long as trade and global respect is had. We must give in order to maintain our status.
We will again shy away from conflicts, and withdraw globally due to financial reasons, and the fact that there are other contenders, we will trade and use countries that are enslaved to us, and friendly, perhaps finance a coup in venezuala again, (tried failed) and will slip into an abstract member of the global makeup.
Due to our wealth and the opportunity for higher learning, our developement of new tech will make us a player, only for as long as it takes for china or india to duplicate it.
My point is that we will become less proud, due to other influences, not our own awakening. Hence we will forever have the stigma of a bully, knocked down a notch, and one that needs to be kept in place.
America’s time of glory is at its end, unless we change our self image, and attitude.
:wally