[quote=""IndyBrit""]Luukje,
There is no one who is going to unite the different factions of the U.S. There are too many pieces to the puzzle, and they just can't be fit together. We need to learn to live with disagreement and with the fact that every action we take will offend someone but we need to move forward anyway. On important issues, compromise is a concession of somebody's priniciples.
The war in Iraq was not started for all the wrong reasons. I didn't agree with starting the war, but it was started to rid Saddam of WMDs (a bad term needing a new name). Everyone thought he had them - Clinton, Kerry, Russia, Britain, etc. It's curious that you think Afghanistan was a "good" war.
Islam didn't target the US as a symbol of progress and freedom. They attacked the US because we were fiddling in the Middle East, and Osama was ashamed that Saudi Arabia allowed us to step in and defend them.
Bush has been spending money like crazy. However, he didn't create the deficit, Clinton didn't end the deficit, and the next guy won't end the deficit either. It's curious that Enron gets berated for inflating earnings during the Clinton years, but Clinton gets no blame for touting inflated tax income that was based directly off of the inflated corporate earnings. The tax receipts of the late 90s were a scam just as corporate earnings of the time were a scam.
Bush has not alienated former allies. Our "former" allies (in truth - they are "current" allies if I'm not mistaken) began hating us long ago, and they will hate us in the future. The world will not suddenly love the U.S. because Obama is in office.
"We might be a bit more educated." That is silly European arrogance speaking, which I will ignore because there is plenty of silly American arrogance that gets touted as well. Let's just say that, while the American education system is not perfect, the differences in education between Europe and America are not as great as advertised, and in many cases favor America.
Your laundry list of problems beginning "rich got richer..." and ending with "wall on the mexican (sic) border" are 1) just your impressions, and 2) have nothing to do with Bush. We were litigious before Bush, the wall has not been built and Bush wants to integrate illegal aliens into the U.S., 3) the "ultraconservative christian minorities" have never been weaker in the U.S. than they are today, and homelessness in the U.S. is a very small problem. Don't know what our homelessness is compared to Europe, but I do know that our poor are far better off than the European poor, our unemployment is lower, and our median income is higher. I would rather be "poor" in the U.S. than anywhere in the world. Also - regarding the "environment" - our air and water are far cleaner than Europe's, and with a few exceptions Europe has not put their money where the rhetoric is regarding CO2 emissions, which is about the only environmental issue where Europe is even marginally better than the U.S.
The world is a very old place, and many of the issues you seem to believe are recent have in fact been around a long time. I wonder whether you were politically aware in the late 70s. Read some of the literature from the 70s about world population and natural resources. The notion that the world has regressed and that things used to be better is an old notion, and yet things just keep getting better.
Peace - and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
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Nice to read a reply.
First of all, I hope you find something to unite on. I know you cant agree on everything. And a compromise where everybody looses is a bad one. In a good agreement, everybody will get something he wants, just not all. Being united has been one of the great strenghts of your country. Being able to overcome those differences and find a common goal to move forward on is very important in my opinion. Saying "it wont happen" is rather negative, while a little more optimism is just needed.
All I wanted to say, whatever the reason for starting some war - because all wars are terrible things -, is that iraq didnt gain anything for the US. The cost, for Iraq and the US are huge, in human life, in money wasted, in goodwill spilled. And it didnt gain you anything in the world, just a lot of unhappy allies and more hate from those that allready hated you.
Afghanistan is a 'good' war, despite the terrible cost, because it made the world a little safer. There is a long way to go in afganistan, but we might just make it a safer place. And that will never happen in Iraq.
Just my opinion, but its an ugly pointless struggle in iraq, nothing to be gained, everything to be lost.
Islam doenst target the US. Some fundamentalist factions are targetting the US, indeed for its politics in the middle east AND as the symbol of world progress they hate. All of these topics are way more complicated than we can state in a little discussions this, but I thinh in next couple of years, the US need to make it more clear, their enemy is that small portion of islam fundamentalists and not islam.
Ive vististed some major cities around the world the last year, and how normal is it, that in all these cities the US embassy has to be guarded like some fortress?
WHat did europe do for the US the last 100 years? Very little. The 20the century was the rise of the superpower the United States. Two world wars ruined Europe, Japan ambition was put down in WW2, and the rise and fall of the USSR, the only one to challenge the United States, made Europe the being squeezed between the then superpowers, threatening each other with nuclear missiles and massive conventional armies. If WW3 would have become reality, it would have been fought in Europe. not a pleasant thought.
We were a whole lot happier being on the side of the US than under communist rule.
And im not looking forward to world politics being dictated by china. Thats why I would like to see a president that thinks on Europe the same way, and doenst go his own way all the time.
Europe has been trying to claim his own part in the 21 century and the United States should be our natural ally and partner, because we share so many common grounds, ideas, languages, religion, etc...
Thats why my "impressions" were an example of how the United States and Europe seem to be drifting apart. It are just things the media pick on, but its not like it used to be. Environement, immigration, terrorism these are hot issues in Europe to, but we should be standing together in these, and I got the impression Bush just wasnt interested. I hope the next president will be.
It doenst matter of we or the united states are the worlds worst CO2 emmisionist, but together we are NR1 for sure. So lets do something about it.
THe "educated" thing was me being ironic.
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Though the better developed countries are above this average of 8,8. e.g. Germany is 10.9 which is almost half of the US
