Has the US lost its way?

Sunday March 3, 2002 - The Observer ^ | Sunday March 3, 2002 | Paul Kennedy

[vannrox]

· Paul Kennedy CBE, Professor of History and Director of International Security Studies at Yale University...

[woofie]

Paul Kennedy CBE, Professor of History and Director of International Security Studies at Yale University, is the author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers,and he's an idiot.

[Texaggie79]

[another cricket]

Has Paul Kennedy lost his mind or just his ability to reason?

A. Cricket

[dighton]

Hit with rotten tomatoes here.

[GalvestonBeachcomber]

'By what right,' an angry environmentalist demanded at a recent conference I attended, 'do Americans place such a heavy footprint upon God's Earth?'

Because we PAY for them!

[Bogey78O]

You think these people would check into the gross production of the US. Obviously we must be creating something the world wants.

[The_Media_never_lie]

for Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bill Clinton and John Kennedy made hearts rise abroad when they rejected narrow 'America First' sentiments and spoke of the needs of all humankind.

Bill Clinton? Is this a joke?

[Howie]

Sure spells like an Englishman, not an American. (centre, defence etc.)

[hinckley buzzard]

"...three times in the past century the world looked... toward American leaders..Wooodrow Wilson...Franklin Roosevelt... Bill Clinton... John F. Kennedy..."

The depth of this weenie's intellect is illustrated by his arithmetic skills.

Truly, the product of a well-organized paranoid trying to think. The flaws of logic and outright fallacies fly like dead leaves in the November wind.

[AAABEST]

for Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bill Clinton and John Kennedy made hearts rise abroad when they rejected narrow 'America First' sentiments and spoke of the needs of all humankind.

Bill Clinton? Is this a joke?

Every name listed is a "joke". We've just been fed an avalanche of bulls**t over the years so we now believe otherwise.

[eddie willers]

Paul Kennedy CBE, Professor of History and Director of International Security Studies at Yale University

So if you are thinking of sending your children to Yale.....DON'T!

[Mr. Jeeves]

We comprise slightly less than 5 per cent of the world's population; but we imbibe 27 per cent of the world's annual oil production, create and consume nearly 30 per cent of its Gross World Product and - get this - spend a full 40 per cent of all the world's defence expenditures.

Well, we defend 90% of the world and produce about 40% of its food, so which numbers, precisely, are out of whack?

Nice try, Professor. Thank you for playing the home version of Daschle Jeopardy.

[yooper]

"'By what right,' an angry environmentalist demanded at a recent conference I attended, 'do Americans place such a heavy footprint upon God's Earth?' Ouch. That was a tough one because, alas, it's largely true."

Alas, it is BS. America's "heavy footprint" is not embossed on the world because it's a "right"; it's there because America grew to such a weight due to it's heritage and values. The footprint is there because it is what's left when we walk about the earth.

Also, it should be pointed out that in the past, our "heavy footprint" left residual matter such as freedom, food, and shelter to many countries who were too "light" to walk about on their own. Now many nations who were beneficiaries of our largesse feel the need to trash us. It's akin to a spoiled teenager hurling invectives at his parents after they had spent 16 or 17 years raising them, at great cost.

(BTW, by what right does an "angry environmentalist" use the name of God in an intellectually bankrupt argument?)

[coffmg]

Sure we are only 5% of the worlds population. We use probably 40% of the worlds energy. Shock of shocks we only let 5% of the polution into the atmosphere. We must be saving the world from something. Like our technolagy will burn 95 % of the fuel we do burn. And as far as we buying all the worlds GDP. Well we pay a good price for everything. The world is clammering to sell to Americans. If America did not buy the rest of the worlds output they would have to trade it to the Africans for dirt. Every try to run a nation on dirt??????? We grow the world food. The rest of the world relies on North America to supply food. We honestly demand some value for the money we send them. But it seems right know we are the opnly ones sending them money right now.

[kaylar]

Unilateralist US policies on land mines, an international criminal court and Kyoto environmental protocols fall well below those expectations.

If we undercut ourselves economically, so the EU, India, and China have a perpetual advantage over us, surrender our national sovereignty to the UN, and allow the Third World nations to make our Constitution null by giving them the right to haul any of our citizens before the ICC for violating any law or treaty the UN cares to pass by majority vote (a UN dominated by those same nations that showed at Durban how they plan to fleece the west)...Then they'll like us.

I'd rather they hate and fear us.

[SAMWolf]

[Adrastus]

....needs of all humankind. That always means "Uncle Sam picks up the tab while we enlightened (read:empoverished or threatened) Europeans kick him in the crotch." It becomes pretty damn disgusting to listen to these people whine for US products, productivity and protection on one hand and fly birds at us with the other.

And as for the French, their greatest problem has always been who to surrender to next. May they all be peed on from a great height.

[Adrastus]

Damn, Sam. Now that's just downright good. My compliments, Sir.

[SAMWolf]

I knew that would come in handy some day.