SillyDog701

[brett]

Lorraine,

I think that maybe you failed to spot the fact that my post was (intended to be) completely ironic

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113

[Lorraine]

Yes Brett, I think I was aware when I replied the first time, however perhaps I was half asleep.
-Lorraine

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113

[Hatewa]

If America saw it self as simply "part" of the world, (which in reality, it actually is), it would behave quite differently—would respect and listen to other world leaders, would be concerned with the priorities of the whole world, rather than only hearing its own drumbeat and thinking that it has all the answers.
A country's behavior, as is an individual's, is determined by how it sees itself. So as long as America sees itself as "not part of the world", it can ignore the suffering of the rest of the world, and continue to believe that what is good for America, is good for all, except, of course, for the good things, which it chooses to keep for itself. That is how we can live with ourselves—crawling out of our plush homes, each day, sailing down the road in our SUVs' and BMWs' with a steak sandwich dangling from our mouth, while half the world is barefoot, starving and homeless.
So, we tell the world, (that we are not part of), we have the solution for everyone. You just do as we tell you, and you one day can be like us. Isn't that grand now?
And should you refuse to want to be like us, and stubbornly insist on being yourselves, we will bomb the living crap out of you until you realize just how wrong you are, and how right we are.
Hatewa

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02 (CK-SillyDog)

[brett]

So as long as America sees itself as "not part of the world", it can ignore the suffering of the rest of the world ...

Interestingly enough, since the commencement of the current hostilities, I have often seen it proclaimed that the US administration should immediately terminate all aid payments to those countries which did not (or do not) support its war mongering policies. For some reason, it appears to be a common misconception (among Americans) that the US is a generous provider of foreign aid when, in fact, the opposite is true. Most US’ers seem quite surprised to learn that, as a percentage of GDP, the US actually gives less in foreign aid than any other industrialised nation. For example, Belgium (population ~ 10,000,000) provides aid which (in actual $’s) amounts to a third of the total aid provided by the US (population ~ 300,000,000).

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 95)

[Lorraine]

If America saw itself as simply "part" of the world, (which in reality, it actually is), it would behave quite differently—would respect and listen to other world leaders, would be concerned with the priorities of the whole world, rather than only hearing its own drumbeat and thinking that it has all the answers.

America as you call it, we Canadians call it the United States of America or U.S.A., [as we also live in North America, believe it or not, mostly North ] think they ARE the whole world.

If Dubya had listened to P.M. Chretien as well as the United Nations concerning going to war, the election scene in the U.S. might look rosier today.
I doubt if Americans even know that the U.N. was formed to prevent any further wars. [Although Dubya says it's over, there were 99 U.S. soldiers killed just since April 1st.] This is more that Dubya's so called war which is over.

Most Americans don't even know that Canada exists north of the border.

When President Reagan was in power, he didn't know that we were the largest trading partner of the U.S. He said it was Japan. Then Dubya forgot to mention Canada when he was thanking all the countries for helping after the WTC tragedy.
Unbelievable.... Presidents, no less.
Why would they know anything about other countries when they don't know who their neighbours are, except of course Mexico and we know why the southern states know about Mexicans.

The only answer to their ignorance that I have been able to arrive at is that Americans are brainwashed in school to think they are the only people in the world, that is until there is a war. Americans are usually Gung Ho for wars now although, I must say that during World War 2, it was only after Pearl Harbour was blown up, that they declared war.

Of course since then, we have learned that President Roosevelt didn't want to go to war earlier because he was afraid he would lose the election. They supported the allies, yes, with arms and munition, anything that they could sell to make money, to the allied countries.

Of course,after seeing all the movies about World War 2, we know it was the Americans that won World War 2.

Too bad General Montgomery didn't arrive earlier, perhaps a lot of lives could have been saved.

Yes, the Yanks fought in the Phillipines, and bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they won alright.

Just watch how the Polls are for the elected Leaders of the U.S.A., it will probably give you some insight as to what will happen next.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113