Suffering in the World Caused by the USA.

I think i'll report you too. I don't like your post. Once again, shades of nazism. Troll.

 

The US is just on the list of Great society's that ravish the world. And if you think of it any of us that are members on message boards are the problem by being needless consumers.

 

Which ones?

Such as?

Such as?

I'm just trying to gauge what you consider 'suffering' On what spectrum, as it were.

I tend to think the same as, Karen_J: Just look at a map of the world, and think about all the areas where the US has little or no involvement or significant influence.

But, I am willing to change my mind.

Should we balance that with how much suffering prevention it does? - vaccination programmes, humanitarian aid etc...

 

Pinochet, Gaddafi, and Mubarak to start the list.

 

What part of the suffering they inflicted did the US support?

 

Are we going off dictators that were backed only by the US? Pinochet, Gaddafi, and Mubarak, for example, were backed by many other western nations.

 

I'm thinking an ongoing support, rather than, perhaps, supporting them into office. Hindsight being a wonderful thing.

But, again, I'm willing to change my mind.

I'm thinking just focusing on the U.S, as the thread isn't - for e.g. - 'Suffering in the World Caused by the UK'

 

The US provided the majority of Egypt's military budget during the Mubarak years, I believe.

I don't have the time right now to get any further into this conversation, but it is an interesting one and maybe I'll weigh in next week if this thread is still kicking around.

 

I look forward to it. Hopefully.

 

*fingers crossed*

 

The major conflagrations and the domination of one group of people by another throughout history has always been about increasing the riches of the offenders. Nothing new there. The US has just perfected the increased reliance and belief in the accumulation of wealth to the detriment of other peoples/countries based on greed. Witness what most of us here understand. Democracy is waning, that is =rule of the citizens. With the recent supreme court decision that money is free speech, the control of this government has now been usurped by the organizations that have the most of it. And sadly, the money spent on advertising/shilling for the greedheads is predictably effective. We've done some things well and we've done some things to be ashamed of. Right now I believe we resemble metaphorically, an Escher drawing that depicts a snake eating its own tail. They've (greedheads) divided us and conquered us exactly as planned. As far as suffering we've caused----we've caused some as most others have, although I believe we should have been in the forefront in leading the world to be a peaceful, equitable state that all could enjoy. Not much chance of that now, with the bought and sold government we now have. We're still causing harm to others and I'm sure that there will be more to come. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ rules.

 

I think that to tackle this topic in a forum you have to make classifications about different degrees of involvement.

There's consequences that result directly from a primary source of interference and then there's actions that happen after that which one could argue might've had a high chance of happening regardless and can't be pinned on U.S. interference.


You also have to acknowledge difference between interference by the U.S. Gov't, or interference by a private entity (company/person) on a region in the world.

Keep in mind that in some places of the world, they make no distinction between actions of the Gov't and actions of private individuals, and so when a private company does something underhanded they blame the country as a whole rather than just the individual.

You can see why they'd think this if their own country/culture ties their understanding of the world to the idea that Gov't is responsible and reflective for what's in media, business, and private citizens actions. They have no grasp on concepts of limited liability and freedom and therefore criticize the U.S.A. unfairly from their biased view of the world.

 

Gas please calm down

That quote doesn’t seem to be in the OP, but it does mention what the poster thinks the US has done wrong, and another person posted “The road to hell is paved with good intentions...”


And as is very clear I was replying to that - I mean any discussion of what has been done brings up why it was done., and I was giving my view in that context.



The OP asks “how much of the suffering in the world can be traced back to the USA” but doesn’t seem to be about who caused the most amount of suffering in history so in fact your take is the wrong response, although it was one I personally found interesting.

If there is something you don’t understand I’d be happy to explain.

LOL - You guys? Are you saying me and my friends personally?



Also I’m on record as being very critical of imperialism and of the British Empire in particular saying -” The empire was based on widespread exploitation and was brutal and malicious.”


Thing is that in the UK the supporters or apologists for the empire come from the right for example Niall Ferguson’s Empire(1) while more critical views come from the centre and especially the left (such as Simon Sharma and Eric Hobsbawn)


To me imperialism is a bad thing and has wreaked havoc on many places for example the European imperial powers partition of Africa has had tragic consequences for that continents history that still rumble on today.


*


(1) Interestingly Niall Ferguson wrote on the American Empire called Colossus , in which he says “Many parts of the world would benefit from a period of American rule”.
Here is a review of it from the left http://www.monbiot.com/2004/06/01/empire-of-denial/
The books
http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Demise-British-Lessons-Global/dp/0465023290/ref=la_B000APQ8G0_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381998193&sr=1-5"]Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power: Niall Ferguson: 9780465023295: Amazon.com: Books
http://www.amazon.com/Colossus-The-Price-Americas-Empire/dp/1594200130/ref=pd_sim_b_8"]Colossus: The Price of America's Empire: Niall Ferguson: 9781594200137: Amazon.com: Books

 

Egg

And I was right here saying how fucked up the policies were toward Afghanistan and Iraq alongside many Americans while lots of other Americans were calling us anti-American pinko terrorist lovers for arguing against them or the way they were being handled. And in the real world I was very involved with the stop the war coalition.

It not as simple as saying ‘you British’ or ‘you Americans’. And if you read my posts you'll find i try to qualify things, I try not to say all Americans but ‘some’ or ‘many’.

I’m not saying that all Americans have supported every action of all US administrations that resulted in suffering to others – that not how it works.

(Try looking up Mark Twain and US involvement in the Philippines)

 

Your NOT ANTI AMERICAN -- YOU LOVE YOUR COUNTRY AND ARE SPEAKING THE TRUTH!!!!!!

All of it in my opinion!!!!!!!!!!!! -- THIS COUNTRY FORCES THIER VIEWS ON EVERY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD....... ITS A DISGRACE!!!!!!!!

Thats cause they DO NOT KNOW what this country really does to the world!!

 

Dude111 is pissed! I'm glad most newer topics on this forum do seem a little more enlightened.

But, I'm trying to point out that Nixon entwined the value of the dollar, with Americas Military force. We either give middle eastern countries protection for taking our dollar, or we kill them for wanting to trade with gold (Gaddafi)

Therefore, even Liberal/Democratic spending is way overblown for a country who relies on paper debt, as a currency. A lot of what the government has done in the past 100 years, is unsustainable. We can work toward making some things sustainable, but, not under the same criminals that robbed us blind to begin with..