American Leadership

I want to know, especially all of our foreign members, how you feel about America being the superpower of the world. Do you think we need to take more leadership? That we should back off? That you think there needs to be a change of leadership. I want to know what you guys think the United States' role in the world should be.

 

Id pick USA over any other superpowers in the world (ie: China / Russia) however I strongly disagree with US government and I would welcome new, perhaps a little less aggresive government.

 

The United States should be using its position as the world's sole superpower to put a stop to tyranny across the world and help those countries build up their infrastructure and democratic institutions so that they can be productive members of the international community. This does not mean spreading the American way of life. This means providing the means for the people of those countries to enjoy modern advancements like the people in developed countries enjoy and and allow those people to experience freedom from oppression.

Some countries can do this themselves but some are taken advantage of by strong dictatorial leaders. One example of a self-made success story is Mongolia. Mongolia, positioned between China and Russia was ruled by a single communist party from 1924 to 1990 when they had a peaceful democratic revolution. They now enjoy a mixed presidential/parliamentary system. They also have troops in Iraq so that they can gain experience so that they can participate in UN peacekeeping missions and have a greater impact in the world.

There are tons of examples of countries that need help.

 

I think America should just back off and stop helping other countries when we are the one the government has to help the most. They care more about other countries than their own. This is proof that the government is corrupt. I would not pick anyone else's government because right now, we are the most powerful but if the government decides to do something stupid, I'd rather create my own country.

 

Vote for Nader

http://www.christineborne.net/votenader.jpg

 

I'm still kinda pissed at Nader.

 

@Darktemplar_L - you're just as selfish as EonMaster is. Since I already posted what I would say to you here, i'll just link you to that post.
http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/showthread.php?p=140087#post140087

 

I live in Australia and i think the US government is contributing quite alot towards third world countries etc. But i think things like the Iraq war were a bad decision mainly due to the massive amount of money it is costing the government which could be spent on internal affairs (though i understand that a big portion of its economy runs off weapon production etc). I've visited America twice before and both times i felt that even though it is a rich country it still felt like a cheaper version of many European countries and Australia.

I hope America eventually has better relations with more Asian/middle eastern countries like Iran and Russia and above all China since China is the superpower in our region and its rate of growth is quite incredible. I hope that the democrats get in with Obama as president since he seems to be more diplomatic.

 

I, too, live in Australia, and although it's fun to pay out Bush, I honestly got to say that I reckon he's much more competent than people give him credit for. I'm not saying that he doesn't mess up that much, because that's plain wrong, nor am I saying it's not incredibly funny or anything, but just the fact that everyone thinks of him as being so stereotypically incompetent almost seems a bit slack to me. He's obviously extremely competent and fit for the job, otherwise he would never have gotten into politics, nor would he have been elected by his own party and voted in by the people, or more accurately, the people who could be bothered to vote.

However, the one thing that I really hate about him is that he justifies all his actions with religious backing. Not only is this one of the stupidest, spineless and non-political things he could possibly do, though he's not the only one to have done it, but it doesn't help anyone in any way, shape or form. Anyway, that's the base of a religious rant that I'd rather not get into right now, but using religious reasons in politics is both stupid and spineless and indicates that there's really no other way to justify what you're doing other than saying that your reasoning involves some divine super-being.

I also hope that Obama becomes the next president, as not only does he look more diplomatic while Clinton looks like some cheap motivational speaker, but I recall hearing somewhere that if he is voted in, and dont' quote me on this because I'm not sure of the exact situation, but it's something like the hostility between Middle Eastern nations and the United States would drop by an amazingly significant percent, due to his devotion to international relations, his take on Christianity (from what I recall, which was a while ago, he's not as forcefully Christian as Bush was), and even the fact that his name sounds like Osama, which I found surprising and extremely superficial, but after thinking about it, it does tend to make sense as it settles the paranoia, etc, etc. Anyway, a lot of that was just taken from memory, so if anyone could clarify any of it while I double check, I'd really appreciate it.

 

well, i am pro hilary as she has much more experience than obama, but i would just be gald with a democrat

and about Bush, i havnet heard him use a good justification for any of his action as of yet

 

I think the United States should back off. America had to back off years ago already. This country is the most powerful one in the world, and because of that there are more injustice in the world. This country takes care of everything, even questions that does not belong to him. More the USA acts and take care of the world, more there are problems. And there is less justice.

What about China ? Well this country becomes more and more powerful. And I see the injustice everywhere where China uses its influence. More a country becomes strong, more injustice there is. That's universal.

The USA can be the most respected country of the world just if it uses its influence for good, not for bad like in Iraq. And it does not cost a lot to be respected. Look at the hate the uSA gets around the world because of the bad things it did and do now. Where does the terrorism (the islamist one) come from ? From the fact the USA did bad things to some arab countries. That's just an example. This country is respected by fear. And by envy too. The whole world want to live in the USA. The welfair in this country has a price : it seems to me that the country lives well thanks to the fact the rest of the world feels bad. That's an impression.

A lot of people surrounding me went to the USA. People there are cool. I hate the US government. And if the govnt makes something bad, I feel like a hate toward the whole american people. Don't blame me please. Personally I want to go there for a little trip. One week is OK. I don't hate USA. Just the govt. I personally meet a lot of American people each day thanks to my job. Indeed, they are cool persons, may they be ordinary people or businessmen. They laugh, make jokes easily. I like them

PS : I am for Barack Obama. Hilary Clinton is a dangerous woman, hypocrit. Just watch the last documentary of Michael Moore, and you'll understand ....

 

You know, its just the matter of having one superpower. No matter who it will be, it will be hated. Thats why there should be more of them to keep strategic balance as well as spheres of influence. Be it russia, china or whatever, one is needed. Even tho when the ussr and usa were in the cold war, the world was a bit more equal. And no, the superpowers are not stupid as to actually attack one another.

 

you know paragon, helping 3rd world iw fun and all, but there are a lot of people in the US that live like 3rd world countries

 

I'd much rather have one superpower that helps contribute to the rest of the world, even if they have made some poor decisions in the past, than two superpowers locked in an arms race. Even if everything was a bit more equal, which I find fairly hard to believe, everything was poised on the edge of war, so other fields would have suffered fairly significantly, not to mention all the paranoia and suspicion that was being spread by both sides.

 

Haha not even close. The poorest of the poor here are better off than most people in 3rd world countries. Because even homeless people in the US can go to a soup kitchen and get free food and there are programs designed to try and help the homeless out and get them jobs. In those countries the government cannot and will not care for them.
Many people complain about unemployment problems in the US. The US has a measly 4.6% unemployment rate while there are countries in Africa with incredibly high unemployment rates like Liberia (85%), Zimbabwe (80%), Burkina Faso (77%), Djibouti (59% in urban areas, 83% in rural areas), Zambia (50%), and Senegal (48%).


@marinefreak - Saddam was a brutal dictator who, in the late 80s, had a military campaign whose only goal was the mass slaughter of Iraq's Kurdish population (a campaign that claimed the lives of over 200,000 Kurds), had jails full of prisoners who had been tortured to death for speaking out against him or just for there being suspicion that they were speaking out against him, his government was responsible for the disappearance of thousands of Iraqi citizens every year, and between 2000 and 2004 he sent $20,000 to the families of each Palestinian suicide bomber which resulted in this four year period having the most suicide bombings in Palestine/Israel.

So why exactly was taking him out and then trying to help the Iraqi people a bad thing? And don't say because we went in for oil because the US uses more oil then they get in Iraq just by driving around. And don't say because we went in based on false reasons because doing a good thing for bad reasons is still doing a good thing.

@Samir Souleyman - Islamist terrorism comes from the desire of a small minority of the people to be the leaders of the Islamic world. They are using their twisted version of Islam to try and justify it but all they really want is power. The movement really started growing during the Soviet-Afghan War where the United States and Saudi Arabia brought in the weapons and money that the Mujahedin needed to beat the Soviets while Pakistan acted as a middleman and organizing center. But then the Islamists, being the power hungry pieces of **** that they are, started to speak out lots of anti-US and anti-Saudi Arabia rhetoric. Thus the United States cut their funding to the Islamist Mujahedin but continued to help the moderates. This is also when Pakistan got nuclear weapons so they US cut their funding to Pakistan because of that. Saudi Arabia on the other hand sent one of their head intelligence guy to talk to one of the big organizers of the mujahedin who was saying anti-Saudi things and he said to him "**** you and your family" and cut their aid.

Then when Saddam attacked Kuwait and Saudi Arabia asked the US for help, bin Laden (who had been in Afghanistan providing funding for the Arab jihadists there) said that he had an army of 60,000 and he could protect them against Saddam. But the prince he talked to said that there were no caves in Kuwait and they would have nowhere to hide from Saddam's army. So they turned bin Laden away and this is when bin Laden became really radical and anti-US. It's because he was embarrassed by his own government and they hurt his ego.

 

I'm scared of other countries that have super weapons like nukes, lightning storm, scud storms, particle cannon, iron curtain, chronosphere, psychic mutator and psychic dominator

my country (Philippines) isn't ready for wars, because were a neutral country

as for leader ship, although America could/would make Philippines more prosperous, its leadership isn't as appealing


and yea, Philippines is a 3rd world country

and as i read this thread

it comes to mind that peace may never be attained

 

@Ursawarrior - how do you feel about the US having troops in the Philippines to help combat the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf? There are about 2000 US soldiers there.

 

, erm i just read on the news that obama defeated hilary?


Gratz, obama!"

i wonder if hilary will become the running mate...

 

@Paragon
I am aware that Saddam was the head of all of these atrocities and i'm not arguing that we went in there for the wrong reasons. What i am saying is that i don't think that starting a war which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people is better than stopping a man who killed hundreds of thousands of people and you could even say the majority of the damage had already been done by him so this just starts the cycle again. Plus it ultimately cost the US around 2 trillion dollars regardless of the cost to other countries.

@Ijffdrie Woo! But i really doubt Hillary will be put as a running mate due to all the damage she has caused by trying to stay in the race and creating quite a big split in the democrats. On the other hand she might just be picked to get a larger majority of the white middle class vote, since anyone else wouldn't be nearly as well known.

 

@ Paragon : In Iraq before the invasion of this country the people there were not allowed to do anything with the presence of Saddam. There were no freedom of action and speech. Now with the intervention of the USA the people are "free", I mean the situation there became paradoxal, it's the anarchy. There were less blood before Saddam than afterwards.

I reminds you that in Gulf War 1 the USA came there to destroy everything, every basic, fundamental organisation and structures which supplied the country in energy and food. The uSA destroyed factories which produced milk, and anything else. Don't tell me I am wrong, I watched videos.

The goal of the USA was to make this country so poor to affamate the citizens. Why that ? All that because of ONE man ? Really ? And the embargo, what's this ? Why this ? Why had the USA punished ALL the Iraqis just to punish the Iraqi government ? Why had the Iraqis had to pay the price of ONE man ?

And now the USA wants to free Iraq .............. that's nonseless. The USA are there for bad reasons (oil), and that's why the growth of the hate to the USA is so important. Not only in the Arab world, trust me.

It's really too bad that because of the governments the citizens must pay too for the mistakes

PS : I hope the situation there will be improved thanks to the presence of the next president, Barack Obama. But frankly I don't think he will be able, even allowed to make something FOR the Iraqis. He will be surrounded by rapaces and men with teeth of sharks.