The Hatred of America

Thu Sep 02 09:25 ~ - Subject: Cultural Divides: I often want to ask the people of th U.S....

Anonymous Foreign Female said: Do you see what I see?

I watch the US political process with shock and awe. Daily I see people here on the cork behaving as if they're opposing cronies of rival primary school bullies.

"My guy's better than yours" Yours is stupid", yours tells lies", "No he doesnt, yours does", "My guy can fight better than yours can"...et cetera.

Quite possibly the jibes contain certain truths ...but I can't quite shake the feeling that many people would support 'their guy' not because he truly is the better contender but because he simply gets their support no matter what...out of habit, history, tradition, laziness, ignorance....Lord knows what.

It's so very disheartening. As an onlooker to the electoral process of the most powerful nation in the world, a process in which only US citizens get to cast a vote, yet the influence of this nation extends far beyond it's geographical boundaries influencing the lives of every citizen of the world in so many subtle and not~so~subtle ways, legal and illegal, it is all too easy to become frustrated, depressed....angry.

I don't believe that the election of one man will put an end to a system entrenched in corruption, greed and an intrinsically evil disregard for human life the world over.

Despite all the tub~thumping and banner waving, for the greater part of the world there seems little difference which party ends up in power. Both parties are beholden to the people who put them in office and those people are not teh US citizens (and that's *not* a reference to the fact that half of them dont bother to vote)...the people who put the president in power are the corporate powers and special interest groups. Essentially we are witnessing the world's biggest auction ..and what a godawful spectacle it is.

In the post modern era as I've underlined before, it's been the Liberal Democratic presidents who have launched the majority of wars.

(Truman=Korea..Kennedy/Johnson=Vietnam, Carter=Afghanistan)

This is an imperialist power, the modern day equivalent of the old crusaders, "liberating" the heathens who 'know no better'..the moral equivalent to those oft~reviled Popes who would send people like Columbus to conquest parts of a world the Papacy considered wholly its own. We look back in disgust at the greed, corruption and arrogance, yet so many remain blind to what happens today.

I can't fathom it. I can see the naivete, the hope, the true belief in all that is good...or, rather, what Ought to be, in the majority of the people. I see the hope for a better world and the firm belief that their country, tho mighty, is one of good heart.

I cant understand *WHY* they still allow themselves to be so deluded, particularly in areas of foreign policy. Perhaps its a reluctance to look beyond the cultural imperialism of mainstream media. The parade of propaganda which filters through the daily news programmes is shameful...still more so that so many swallow it unquestioningly after having been duped so alarmingly over such non~existent issues as WMD.

So the US wants to save the world? Free the people? Why hasn't it "liberated" Darfur by attacking the Sudan? What about the Congo or Zambia? Do most Americans even know of what's happening in Africa?

Global supremacy is the ongoing mandate no matter which 'team' is in power...and it's an attitude endemic within the people. One only has to see the crowing and ill~informed swaggering exhibited here daily.

Brezinski, Carter's erstwhile national security advisor, hero of the Bush administration, and a particular favourite of Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, advocates the US primacy and its priorites as being the economic subjugation of the Soviet Union, Cetnral Asia and the Middle East...I found the language used in this quoted passage disturbing:

"...The three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintan security dependence among the vassals to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together".

The Grand Chessboard: American primacy and its geostrategic imperatives"

Zbigniew Brezinski

The author admits he was using language which harkened back to another age, but there seems little difference. I do not feel the age of Enlightenment is upon us.

There are issues of the greatest import...education, environment...kyoto, the concentration of power through corporate America, the corruption of both parties by money, the disintegration of urban centres, social justice for all US citizens, the failed "war on drugs" and WHY 45 million of you have no health care...I hear only Nader is addressing those issues?

Most importantly for me...(and I'm sure much of the rest of the world also) is not whether Bush or Kerry wins, but the issue of the system they typify and exemplify.

I don't know what's worse..the behaviour of the greatest power on earth or the lesser countries who support and pander, cowering and obsequious.

My second eldest daughter (a very bright and astute young lady) happened to walk in as I was watching the Republican Convention ...I imagine the Democrats' was much along the same lines.... She watched for a minute, laughed with delight, watched a little longer...hesitated and finally said "This *is* a joke, isn't it? She had thought it political satire.

I only wish it were.

My reply:

No. I don't see what you see.

"I don't believe that the election of one man will put an end to a system entrenched in corruption, greed and an intrinsically evil disregard for human life the world over." - Anonymous Foreign Female

The foreign and defense policies of Ronald Reagan resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the freeing of approximately 122 million people in Eastern Europe.

The state of Israel would cease to exist if not for American protection, and about 5.5 million Jews would be in grave danger.

Nearly 23 million Taiwanese would be denied freedom if not for American protection. More than 48 million South Koreans would be living under a dictatorship if not for American protection. USA action led to the removal of the Serbian dictator Milosevic, who was responsible for the murders of hundreds of thousands of people in the Balkans.

The USA and Britain removed the Iraqi dictator Hussein, who was responsible for the murders of hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East. And we have also removed the terrorist Taliban government in Afghanistan.

America is sending $15 billion to Africa to help victims of AIDS.

American action in Central America, Grenada, and Haiti has kept millions of people out of totalitarian regimes. Of course, all of this has cost every American taxpayer big. And thousands of American servicepeople have lost their lives protecting people overseas.

Source of statistics: FoxNews, Bill O'Reilly

How can generations of American sacrifice be viewed as an intrinsically evil disregard for human life?