PD, I’m going to respond to some of the points in your post – “4plexowner, you seem to have a lot of anti-American sentiment.”. Please don’t take this as an attack on you or your beliefs. My intent is to offer another perspective on the events that you refer to.
“The United States is the most benevolent superpower in the history of the world. Every other country or Empire with similar resources for their time invaded, raped, slaughtered and subjugated whomever they could reach.”
I’m assuming this is in reference to Iraq. By the UN’s own definition of warfare, America started an aggressive war when it invaded Iraq. How do you define the events at Abu Ghraib prison? Does it bother you that NO officers have been convicted of wrongdoing in that matter? What about the US troops who are currently being investigated for the murder of an Iraqi family with the youngest child being 1 year old? This murder (if it was murder) occurred about six months ago and has been covered up since.
“They certainly did not help a defeated country set up self-governance and encourage future autonomy.”
Again, I’m assuming that you are referring to Iraq. After destroying a large part of Iraq’s basic infrastructure in an aggressive war America then tried to create a puppet government there. No-bid contracts were given to government-connected corporations to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure. After spending 100’s of billions of dollars on this rebuilding effort, numerous reports indicate that Iraqis have less electricity, clean water, access to healthcare, gasoline, etc today than they did before America decided to “help them”.
“The US could easily have claimed half of Europe after WWII, the Russians certainly did.”
Once you realize that the banking cartel starts wars because it is good for their business, history takes on new meaning. WWII occurred in part as a result of the banking/financial games that were played in WWI.
“We also could have pillaged Japan, yet we walked away after a short occupation.”
America remained in Japan after the war and still has troops stationed there today. We were instrumental in rebuilding their war-ravaged country and we implemented the quality control measures that allowed Japanese industry to prosper in the world.
“We could easily have claimed Afghanistan as a territory and could even now be requiring English in the schools. The same goes for Iraq.”
I find it interesting that America only tries to occupy and control countries that have oil. Afghanistan doesn’t have oil so America isn’t interested in claiming it. In Iraq, on the other hand, America is building 14 major military bases and president Bush recently stated that future presidents would have to decide when the troops would leave Iraq (meaning they will remain through 2008 at least). Pakistan and North Korea are allowed to have nuclear weapons but Iran can’t have them. Again, notice that neither Pakistan or North Korea have significant petroleum reserves but Iran does.
