Why Do We Put Up With It?

Midas Mulligan Magoo:

The UN is a bureaucratic figurehead which serves NATO's purposes and allows for the illusion of a global quorum. The UN's existence is very much a form of psychological national defense for the U.S. and in truth paves the way for a ton of U.S. black ops which would likely be far more transparent if such an organization did not exist. Not saying it is perfect, just saying it is a lot more useful for American geopolitical interests than you might think.

Dying's For Fools:

Damn, I was hoping that the thread was why do we put up w/ Associates/VPs.

End the UN.

hahaha yea I was thinking the same thing.. Oh well

ProdigyOfZen:

Midas, I can say that the general public does not "hate" americans. Whenever I travel especially in south ameica i feel like a rockstar or michael jordan walking down the street because people pay so much attention to me anywhere i go. That is strictly because I am not brazilian or peruvian or colombian etc. They are more than willing to talk to us "americans" and love hanging out with us.

At least that has been my experience travelling abroad.

My experience has been similar. Though my travel is limited so far, people generally are interested in me and like me while at the same time despising the U.S. gov. In one country one of the local kids asked me if I was a movie star lol.

Meridith23:

US alone is responsible for terrorism that came back at it in full swing. You may not like it but indeed US led terrorists with full support. Now is the pay back time..and to think, so many innocent people are suffering for the mistakes committed by so-called "super power"

1. REALLY poor taste: it's the 4th of July, so just on principal - go fuck yourself. Seriously, shame on you. Name ten countries combined that have positively altered the course of human history more in the last two hundred years than has the US. I'm waiting............yeah, I didn't think so. The US has been driving the evolution of the human race for several hundred years. Mistakes get made, bad people get elected, and rights are expanded, but wholesale negative judgement of our society is a total disservice to humanity.
2. The U.S. has gotten into bed w/ some pretty bad people over the course of history, but no worse than anyone else, and always in the context of a larger, ethical effort - it was usually ouf of necessity, and the other options had been exhausted. Consider some of the truly AWFUL civlizations we have had to kick the shit out of b/c they would destroy everything decent. Learn your history.
3. In the case of the Mujahadeen, we did them a favor by helping them keep the Russians out. At the end of the day, most MENA nations are glorified primitive, tribal, corrupt, heroine fueled kleptocracies whose only current redeeming quality is that they sit on a massive amount of natural resources that they barely have the wherewithal to develope: we could have easily killed them off and taken what we want......REMEMBER THIS, ALWAYS. We could have also let the Russians slaughter them, and waged the proxy war through someone else. I was doubtful at first, but this whole last decade of war really WAS to make the region better than it had been: for our good AND theirs. If not, then why are the Chinese allowed access?
4. Osama took advantage of the post Soviet chaos. He could have contributed to the rebuilding of the society. Instead they launched this silly jihad bullshit, and he bought disgrace upon his family, and death upon himself. I'm probably the nicest guy you'll ever meet, and I'll say it: Osama got what he deserved, and although I'm not the type to dance in the street celebrating, I didn't lose any sleep over it. If he was trying to 'unite' the people of the MENA countries, he did a piss poor job.....and we are doing the closest thing to the 'right thing' that can be done in the region given the sheer futility of introducing modern civilization AT ALL in most regions there.
5. If you disagree with the US's superpower status, go troll on reddit and stop taking up space on a FINANCE site: if we're so weak, who the fuck is going to face off against us? Just name one country that could go toe to toe down the full spectrum. That's right. There isn't one, not even China....who by the way, is every bit dependant on the US as any other developing 3rd world nation. They hold some debt, so what: The US physically warehouses trillions of dollars of their and everyone else's gold...what's to say we don't just keep it if everyone stops playing ball? We play lip service for the sake of diplomacy, but make no mistake: we're humoring them. In a few generations, the UN may yet live up to its stated purpose, but for now, the US is the leader of this clown car that is the current global system, and you'd better pray that we stay in that role as opposed to whoever it is you think is trustworthy and competent enough to do the job: trust me, they're not. End of story.
6. I swing fairly liberal by many people's standards [on some things, conservative on others] and disagreed with some of the last president's decisions, but I am also willing to acknowledge with clearer eyes than many the full history of the region: this whole terrorism thing is a reflection of the deeply ingrained pathology of that region, and not the US. The US did what it HAD to during the cold war: Al Qaeda, the Iranian idiots, and the rest are doing this because they are caught up in venal selfishness and foolish ideology, or a combination of the two. And now, even their own citizens have had it and the region is imploding into revolution and civil war.

If you think that the US deserved 911, then I seriously would like to give you the gift of a knuckle sandwich courtesy of the dozens of friends and family over there now, taking a bullet for you here. On behalf of the people that I and many others lost that day, I'd suggest you take a look in the mirror and ask yourself what you're trying to gain/prove with this erronious thinking - I'm suggesting basic intellectual honesty. In fact, I suggest you get professional help.

Here's the other thing: the US is not god and cannot run the world to prevent bad things, but when it intervenes, everything gets blamed on them....so it's a lose/lose situation. I'm not saying we're perfect, but we are the most benevolent empire in history: you think we hadn't considered nuking some shithole thugocracy over there to make an example of them? Compare this with the Romans, just to illustrate. Most of the hyperbole is easy to write off, and we tolerate it for the most part. But today, in the name of common decency, I ask you to shut up and take this elsewhere.

Very sincerely,

Some guy