American influence crumbling

[HUGGY]

Osama is taking us to the American holocaust.

No...Obama is going to make sure we all have health care including you ya fuckin wackadoodle. They will fix your brain and you will be thankfull.

how's he gonna do that when im out of the country ???? enjoy your Lobotomy. you need one bad !!!!

Well hells bells sport. If you are out of the country then you can probably just step into any hospital of your choice and get on with you much needed therapy. It's only here in the USA that we suffer from the vampires, leaches and ghouls that deny health care.

 

[namvet]

No...Obama is going to make sure we all have health care including you ya fuckin wackadoodle. They will fix your brain and you will be thankfull.

how's he gonna do that when im out of the country ???? enjoy your Lobotomy. you need one bad !!!!

Well hells bells sport. If you are out of the country then you can probably just step into any hospital of your choice and get on with you much needed therapy. It's only here in the USA that we suffer from the vampires, leaches and ghouls that deny health care.

vampires, leaches and ghouls and Osama yeah your right. congrad. move on to 1st grade school

 

[HUGGY]

how's he gonna do that when im out of the country ???? enjoy your Lobotomy. you need one bad !!!!

Well hells bells sport. If you are out of the country then you can probably just step into any hospital of your choice and get on with you much needed therapy. It's only here in the USA that we suffer from the vampires, leaches and ghouls that deny health care.

vampires, leaches and ghouls and Osama yeah your right. congrad. move on to 1st grade school

Man that fuckin stung! I hope it doesn't leave a mark

 

[The_Halfmoon]

It's the progress of globalisation that's all. Globalisation results in a "flatter" world (not a Flat Earth of course) and that means that economic power and political influence will eventually find its own level. The US is possibly the last superpower.

Ironically enough the BushCheney Administration which touted the military invincibility of the US actually exposed its limits. Corporations don't care about national interests or political influence unless they can be exploited, so corporations are driving globalisation.

Unlike early in the 20th Century when the United States was undergoing massive growth in its economy and corporations enlisted the power of the US military to colonise countries in the North-America/South America/Caribbean axis, corporations now have little use for US military power, it could well be that the invasion and occupation of Iraq is the last blatantly obvious use of US military power to secure corporate interests in another nation.

Other previous imperial/colonial powers enjoyed growth, stability and then decline, all due to geopolitical forces at work. It's happening to the US now, the 21st Century will be a global century, you're watching history being made.

I like your optimistic view, and I agree with the points

but it still seems like energy resources and their control may cause more conflict down the line. Of course, war has proven to be bad for business and bad for the economy, so it's in everyone's interest to look for a less violent world.

 

[The_Halfmoon]

I think tales of our demise are grossly exaggerated

- US is the sole Superpower...no, make that Mega Power
- We are the richest country in the world by far
- US culture is the dominant culture on earth

Yes, America is and remains the world's sole Superpower, despite the past nine years.

America is doing its best to repudiate its status, but its too hard to do so. No other country comes close to America.

that's true, but influence isn't just about having strength and culture.

You have to prove to other countries that your being the superpower is to their benefit. Russia hasn't bought into that, and the EU is moving away from it. And clearly the US is too dependent on China to go against its interests now too.

 

[The_Halfmoon]

I think anyone that has ever shopped at walmart is responsible for the dimming of the influence america once held. It is selfish traitors that leap over dollars to save dimes that have brought this on. The neo cons have dumbed you all down and now you complain?

I almost thanked you for your post, until you blamed America's decline on the "neocons". IMHO it was Walmart and the mad rush to relocate too many factories overseas, including high-tech. The economic lead we had on the world went away due to simple greed by Wall Street, CEOs and the Corporate Boards.
Congress was bought-off to prove that they are whores, who don't care about domestic jobs, or our standard of living.

As to our "decline", I hope that means no more "foreign aid" and no more playing the "worlds cop". Let the rest of the world start paying for their own security.

Well allow me instead.

I didn't studder. It started with Reagan and the firing of the air traffic controllers. The neo cons stole the republican party of which my family for the three generations I can remember were proud members of. Most of the legislation giving advantages to those companies that shipped our jobs overseas were sponsored by the neo con elements in congress over the last twenty years.

I think you may like this article. It breaks down America's "empire" into three distinct periods, and as you said the final period is the Reagan period.

The Third Stage of American Empire

The central aspect of this third stage has been the rise of the 'movement conservative.' Not to be confused with the breed of conservative that included Nixon and Rockefeller, the movement conservatives held American nationalism and evangelical Christianity as a dual-headed state religion. They spurned concepts of détente and international cooperation. They were and remain radicals in every sense of the word, seeking to deconstruct the American social state that had been in place since the days of FDR.

Ronald Reagan, the first president of this third stage, was the avatar of these movement conservatives, who first began to become an organized entity in American politics during the campaign of Barry Goldwater. Reagan was their perfect man: Confident to a fault, dedicated to the enrichment of the wealthy corporate class while deconstructing Roosevelt's social safety net by any means necessary.

Reagan established the forked-tongue policy talk adopted by the present administration: Speak about the end of large government, gut entitlement programs wherever they can be found, while simultaneously cutting against the grain of the 'small government' ideal by vastly increasing the military and intelligence apparatus of government with trillions of dollars of taxpayer monies.

This cash, as it did during the rise of the first and second stages, vastly increased the power and reach of the military/industrial/petroleum combine. The movement conservatives, funded by this combine, pushed for the deregulation by government of business in every aspect of commerce, none more pointedly than within the media. Over the course of this third stage, that combine purchased 99% of the news media, ensuring that an uninterrupted commercial advocating for empire would be broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Competing messages were all but shut out.

 

[The_Halfmoon]

With Iraq, America needs to stay there for at least another 20 years if not longer...

We're still in Germany and Japan, so anyone who didn't expect that is a fool.

yah, but at least the germans and japanese stopped fighting when the war was over

 

[The_Halfmoon]

you don't think they'll be able to extricate before that? I'd think they'll have no choice but to do so.

You've been there 6 years already. You need to build up at least one if not two generations of Iraqis that know what peace is, so that the old guard slowly die off, and peace becomes the norm. Dunno if you will ever get over the hatred of the three main groups though.

Look at Germany and Japan - you're still there after 65 years, and they were a lot easier to manage than this lot..

that's a gross misunderstanding of the situation, I have to say. The Iraqis do want peace, but the US handed the guns over to the Shia militias which Iran is controlling. Lord knows for sure who's arming the Sunnis, but it's probably Saudi Arabia.

The US would have to eliminate the influence of Saudi Arabia and Iran, and that's simply impossible at this moment. Or in 20 years, or in 70 years.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Osama is taking us to the American holocaust.

No...Obama is going to make sure we all have health care including you ya fuckin wackadoodle. They will fix your brain and you will be thankfull.

i already have insurance that I like. Obama will force me to buy a more expensive policy or else slap a hefty tax on me.

 

[logical4u]

Osama is taking us to the American holocaust.

No...Obama is going to make sure we all have health care including you ya fuckin wackadoodle. They will fix your brain and you will be thankfull.

Will they (gov) unlock the shackles long enough for us to see a doctor or will he check the shackled lines periodically?

 

[The T]

Osama is taking us to the American holocaust.

No...Obama is going to make sure we all have health care including you ya fuckin wackadoodle. They will fix your brain and you will be thankfull.

i already have insurance that I like. Obama will force me to buy a more expensive policy or else slap a hefty tax on me.

And send your ass to JAIL for non-compliance...

 

[Old Rocks]

If you folks didn't have hyperbole, you wouldn't be able to talk about anything.

 

[namvet]

don't ya just luv it when a good post goes ta hell in a hand basket ????

 

[The T]

If you folks didn't have hyperbole, you wouldn't be able to talk about anything.

Too bad that many from both sides don't see this, eh?

 

[The T]

don't ya just luv it when a good post goes ta hell in a hand basket ????

B-E-A-UTEEFUL Site to behold.

 

[The T]

With Iraq, America needs to stay there for at least another 20 years if not longer...

We're still in Germany and Japan, so anyone who didn't expect that is a fool.

yah, but at least the germans and japanese stopped fighting when the war was over

And too many in this nation alone expect the Islamic Radicals we fight to do the same by appeasement. It'll NEVER happen.

 

[The_Halfmoon]

We're still in Germany and Japan, so anyone who didn't expect that is a fool.

yah, but at least the germans and japanese stopped fighting when the war was over

And too many in this nation alone expect the Islamic Radicals we fight to do the same by appeasement. It'll NEVER happen.

They're fighting for Islam, and their dignity. That's a bad mix, specially when you throw in an enemy that WANTS to die. And no, the Kamizaze don't hold a candle to the Muslims, because they may have been brave but they were not total zealots

 

[Intense]

yah, but at least the germans and japanese stopped fighting when the war was over

And too many in this nation alone expect the Islamic Radicals we fight to do the same by appeasement. It'll NEVER happen.

They're fighting for Islam, and their dignity. That's a bad mix, specially when you throw in an enemy that WANTS to die. And no, the Kamizaze don't hold a candle to the Muslims, because they may have been brave but they were not total zealots

They Were Each confused about God in Their Own Way.

 

[uscitizen]

Consider that many in religion mostly want others to die for their cause.

I never saw any priests or preachers with guns in their hands in combat.

 

[Intense]

Consider that many in religion mostly want others to die for their cause.

I never saw any priests or preachers with guns in their hands in combat.

It's a Corruption of Principle.