if you could speak to god what would you say?

[jerre]

if you dont let the compagnies in, youre considered to be a protectionistic market, and banned from the trade organisation (either under american pressure or not)

[Derelict]

I believe the term is "imperialist". NO the U.S. isn't even close to going to imperialism. We would've done it already. We just look out for ourselves and sometimes for others. We should attack Iraq if we want to be safe. It's that simple. Saddam is a ******** and he needs to get ousted. He's a threat to the U.S. otherwise.

[JR]

whoo hoo! well said!

[FoverF]

Brace yourselves, this may be long...

America is THE imperialist nation right now.

America is between Canada and Mexico (it hasn't invaded either of them lately, however). Both of it's borders are undefended (except for occasionally killing a few impoverished Mexican immigrants trying to cross the border; unless of course there's a lot of Mexicans trying to get into the land of the Free... Then they may have to use attack helicopters.).

But with NO THREATS TO IT'S TERRITORY, America manages to spend $380 Billion dollars EVERY YEAR on "defence". Might this also be the time to point out that America is the largest arms supplier in the world? That America spends more money on weapons than most country's GDP?

How many countries can rack up a score like America, though?Panama. Grenada. Cuba. Nicaragua. Colombia. Somolia. Serbia. Afghanistan. Iraq. Iran. Syria. North Korea. Angola. Libya. Lebanon. Phillipines. South Vietnam. North Vietnam. Cambodia. Dominican Republic. And that's just off the top of my head. Does anyone know exactly how many countries the U.S. military has fought in?

You cannot claim not to be an imperialist nation when you have fought an average of one war every two years. What do you call a country that fights a war every two years? Apparently, you call them "sir".

And not just a military imperialist power, it's a far more imperialist nation economically.
Saddam Hussein has been accused (by America, so expect exaggeration) of killing up to 50,000 people. That's a lot (you won't find me trying white-wash Hussein. He's a bastard, I know this, you don't need to point it out). But the U.N. estimates that the economic sanctions against Iraq and the continued American attacks have killed at least 1.5 MILLION people. Iraq had one of the highest standards of living in the middle-east. State sponsored education. Social medicine. Equal rights (legally, anyways) for women. Now it's an impoverished 3rd world hole. Saddam Hussein didn't make Iraq a 3rd world cesspool. America did.

Cutting off a country from it's only source of income, and bombing the power, water-treatment facilities, irrigation, telephone, and general infrastructure of a country generally does bad things. And this is the threat which America holds over other countries. The U.S. government insisted on RE-INSTATING the EMIRATE of Kuwait, after "liberating" it. No voting. No equal rights for women. No democracy. Just a puppet Emir who will now do whatever America wants. After all, what would happen to Kuwait if America refused to buy their oil? They don't have to look very far to see what American sanctions do.


And let's look at all the democracies that America supports in the Middle-East: Kuwait (oh, wait, they don't allow voting), Saudi Arabia (no, wait, they're a fuedal monarchy), Saddam Hussein (oh, wait, America doesn't support him ANY MORE), The Shah of Iran (oh, wait, that's why the Ayatollahs are there now), Israel (3.5 million voters. Population of 14 million. Guess how many Palestinians live there?), Qatar (oh, wait, it's an Emirate), Jordan (no, king there), Pakistan (run by the "elected" GENERAL Musharrif. Hey, don't they have NUCLEAR weapons, which they've stated the intention of using?), Turkey (who's killing off the Kurds, today, faster than Hussein ever did)., etc...

America doesn't bring freedom, America USUALLY supports the dictators. There's a REASON PEOPLE FLY AIRPLANES INTO BUILDINGS, RAM DESTROYERS, BLOW UP ARMY BASES KILLING HUNDREDS OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS, AND TRY TO POISON AMERICA. There's a small connection between these things. And I'll give you a hint: it has to do with SOME country being imperialist.

Economically, the threat of American embargo keeps a lot of countries in line. But when that doesn't work, there's always the World Bank, America's greatest tool for imperialism.

In exchange for loans (far larger than most countries want), countries must meet strict criteria.
They must privatize any state-owned industry, even if it's profitable (guess who's going to buy those companies?).
They must meet certain tariff/duty requirements on key products (what does America want to buy really cheap, and what can they sell here?).
They must re-form the government along certain guidelines (the U.S. is going to organize your government. BUt of course we're not imperialist).

And one of the biggest forms of economic imperialism is the subsidization of farmers. Sounds innocuous, doesn't it? That one policy (also shared by European governments), is probably responsible for more deaths in the world today than any other action.

Western farmers grow crops in benign climates (compared to most of Africa), with modern technologies, modern techniques, and then recieve BILLIONS of dollars worth of subsidies.
African farmers then have to farm in arid regions, with little technology base, with governments that have no money to subsidize with (remember the payments on that World Bank loan?). They are then expected to match the artificially low prices of western farmers. This isn't possible, and they simply cannot compete.

When you take away a country's most basic ability to feed itself, by spending billions to undercut their industry, they tend to have a hard time developing. But the World Bank will be right there to "bail them out", so long as they don't subsidize their farmers, don't run any major industries, and above all, KEEP THE PAYMENTS COMING BACK TO AMERICA. Africa cannot feed itself because the west is taking active measures to prevent it. But that's okay, America won't call off your debt, but they will sell you guns. Which is good, because they're probably supporting whomever you're fighting as well.

That's imperialism. Keeping countries under control, through whatever means necessary. Economic threats, keeping countries out when they're already down, keeping economically or politically useful dictators in place, destroying the entire economy of a country and killing millions in the process, or, if all else fails, bombing a country, sending in the Marines, and deposing the government.

The reason no-one claims Ireland is an imperialist state, is that they're not. The reason everyone claims that America is an imperialist state is because it IS. A country with no hostile neigbors (it's only invaded them 4 times, but not lately), and no real threats, who's only goal is peace, finds the need to strive for the most powerful military in the world. And most importantly, America USES that force as often as it sees fit (which is pretty darn often). Far too often to feign innocence when American troops are on every continent, and in dozens of countries all over the world.

[FoverF]

And if I could talk to God, I'd say:

THE LORD IS A SHEPHERD. But I am not a sheep.

[jerre]

i agree on about every point.
the Romans thought they were doing well for everybody too, bring civilisation to the provinciae. empires get destroyed from the inside.

[airplanemaster]

if i could talk to GOD i would ask for world peace. then i would ask if jesus will come to earth in a human form again.