Bush has done it again

[MiscX]

i agree, "beware the tyranny of the minority" is a good phrase, and quite accurate.

sdtPikachu... look at what you wrote:
"America let them seize power, and there was no-way they would have got such a total stranglehold on the country if it wasn't for America. Hence: America placed them in power."

First, you say American let them seize power, and then you say we placed them in power. I'm sorry but those are two separate things. Us placing them in power would include us PLACING a particular group into power, and as Jin said, we didn't do any such thing. And let's just say we let them seize power. That's different from us putting them there -- they took it themselves. And if it's such a big deal, why didn't any other nations, or the United Nations try and stop us?

Conservatism and liberalism are both always going to exist. Anarchy? "If people were human enough to face up to responsibility, anarchy would be the best form of government there is." Aha, no. Sadly we don't live in such a great world where people feel this way... and true, I believe that we should have a much smaller government but there should be one nonetheless. I don't even know where to start on this... nations without stable governments are all called "power vacuums." People will try and grab power because people are always willing to be led if it results in a more comfortable lifestyle for them. There are tons of people who have different ideas of what "responsiblity" is. Some people don't feel they're responsible for anything.

"I'm glad you are so certain of this. Why bother asking them to surrender when you can just kill every last one of them? Cos as you so rightly say, peace never works, and we should just annihilate everything, and give all our money to the military, yeah?"

yeah, i said peace never works. no, i was referring to the peace talks in the middle east, where it seems that nothing gets accomplished unless there is some heavy military backing to it. peace talks have accomplished things historically, however they haven't (historically) in the middle east. how long have they been "trying" for "peace" there?

also, every president in the history of the world has preached nationalism...

Jin, you also seem to know very little about Hitler. After WWI, the German people felt worthless. Hitler was a patriotic German, he didn't like that. He felt Germany was being screwed by the Treaty of Versai (sp?), which they were. He preached nationalism, made people feel good about being a German, and that's why they followed him. To show that Germany was a great nation, he conquered other countries. He showed the Germans that they weren't worthless, or weak. The holocaust wasn't in his original intentions. He was in a world of ****, and had no way out, so he needed a scapegoat, and he happened to hate Jews.

Bush is the same way. We get hit with a terrorist attack, Bush tells us that we'll get even, and being an American is so great. Telling us it's so great to be an American, and that we'll end terrorism. Americans feel we're the best in the world and we can take on anyone. While we more or less can, we can't do it all at once, and we can't do it without the loss of hundreds of thousands of men. We have 3 countries who are close to going to war with us, but does anyone care? Of course not, cause we all believe waving our flag will solve all the problems in the world.

yes, EVERY president has told Americans to feel good about being American, and you know why? Because we live in AMERICA! Why the hell would the leader of a nation say "hey... we suck. boo, america." Makes a lot of sense? Yeah, right. By your logic, at LEAST Bush Sr., Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Nixon, Eisenhower, and Truman, who were involved in some sort of war/hostile negotiations are like Hitler. Yes, we all know Hitler used the problems of Germany and nationalism to help himself. But to say that Bush is like Hitler... you miss the entire point. Oh, and it's spelled "Treaty of Versailles". Americans feel they're the best in the world because that's what we SHOULD feel. In theory, you should live in the best country in the world, and that's why we live here. If we thought this country was terrible, we wouldn't live here anymore.

I find it really disheartening that you're so predicting the downfall of the United States, gekko. If Al Gore was in office, you think he'd do much different?

I think you all have it backwards (except maybe Jin). when we were attacked, I didn't sit like a mindless drone and wait for the President to say "be proud to be American" and then all of a sudden have a sense of purpose. I saw the attack and said "whoever did this better pay." And that's what the president does. He responds to the American people's wishes. Al Gore would have had to have done the same or commit political suicide. Remember, in America there exists a thing called "popular sovereignty" -- THE PEOPLE ARE KING. Maybe they don't teach you that in foreign countries.

and if you think one man can destroy this country, you're dead mistaken. That's why we have separation of powers, and checks and balances. unfortunately you all seem to be in the dark on how the us government operates. the president doesn't declare war, CONGRESS does. in america we don't have a unitary system like the U.K., for example. In America, we have federalism. We have a system where people are ELECTED to represent the people (who are king). Yes, our government is inefficient but it is IMPOSSIBLE for one man to destroy this country.