Posted on 10/28/2001 10:45:12 AM PST by clee1
Time for America to DOMINATE the world!
I know this post will probably provoke some heated reactions, but I am going to say what is really on my mind. I think it is time for America, or rather "the Ideals of America" to dominate the planet Earth.
This Nation was founded by immigrants/colonists that wanted to prosper and worship as they chose to, without interference from hereditary monarches in Europe. They tired of living a life where foreign Kings decided how they would worship God, major portions of their productivity were "taxed" by the landed Nobility, and their station in life was set by birth. All wanted to live in freedom and enjoy the fruit of their own labors.
The Founding Fathers stated this American theory of government in the following passage from the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Then, after winning our independence on the battlefield (take THAT, ya peaceniks!) some stumbles and false starts (Articles of Confederation), the Constitution was established. It created the framework of a representative (republican) form of government, in which the People would elect their representatives to do governmental business. The reasons for and definition of governmental business are stated in the preable to the Constitution:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The government's Powers were restricted and further defined in the Articles of the Constitution, and the first ten Amendments to the Constitution enumerated the specific rights of the People. The US Constitution established the means for a free people to live and worship as they saw fit. When asked what kind of government had been established, Ben Franklin replied, "A Republic, Sir, if you can keep it."
For 214 years, the People of the United States have kept it: by living, working, prospering, and yes, by sometimes fighting and dying for it.
OK. I can already hear the flamers - what about slavery, what about a women's right to vote, what about low wages, high crime, support for totalitarian regimes, etc, etc, ad nauseam. Hey! I'll be the first to say it: We are not perfect. We learn from our past and or sucesses and failures, correct our mistakes, and move on in life as we choose to. This has often caused desent, and has cost blood. We apologise for our errors and try to make amends. That is the American Way. Part of what urks our enemies the most is that we are so prosperous while adopting an open and tolerant attitude at peace and ferocious tenacity at war. You can do what you want until it affects me, then we have a problem. Attack us - you have made a serious mistake.
The ideals of America triumph over all others that have come against it. Western civilization IS better than Middle Ages fudalism. People the world over seek to come to America to live in freedom and prosperity, to be safe from constant threats, and to raise their children in peace. This is a fact and as an American Citizen, I for one am tired of apologising for it!
Sept. 11th, {my birthday 8^( } 2001, has made profound changes to American thinking and attitude. We are no longer talking about "lock boxes" and "prescription drugs" and "SocSecurity". We are now discussing freedom, safety, and the defeat of terrorism.
IMHO, I think Americans will be under constant attack from forces of evil unless we get with the program and eradicate these forces from the face of the earth. Terrorists, Leftists, non-constitutional monarchies, dictatorships, theocracies and oligarchies are all enemies to the American Way and should be eliminated by all the force we can muster. Diplomatic, economic, military and covert means should be used to destroy thes groups so that the world can finally live in peace and prosperity.
I say it is high time that we as Americans stop buddying up to tyrants and totalitarian regimes, and we toss them bodily into the dustheap of history. Countries like China and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are not our "friends", they are merely "trading partners" or in some cases just politically convenient to have around or leave alone. We should immediately revoke all support and trade with governments that are not democracies or free market economies, and deport their citizens living here. We will never again be safe until all the people of the world enjoy the benefits of democracy and a free market economy, and our duty as Americans is to help bring it to them any way we can while protecting ourselves from internal attack. I don't want to occupy the world - Imperialism and colonialism don't work either (Just ask the ancient Romans, and 15th to 19th century England, France, and Spain) - I just want it all to be made free; by force if necessary. Pax Americana should be the order of the day.
You are either with us, or you are against us. That should apply to our ideals as well.
C. Lee
Georgia
No, I don't think we should take on the world at once. We should state our case to the world, and support our case by all means at our disposal. We should stop supporting regimes antithical to our views.
BTW, how do you eat an elephant? -- One bite at a time.
AMERICAS IDEALS ARE OK FOR AMERICANS WHO ARE NOT SOCIALIST OR COMMUNIST BUT WE SHOULD NOT TRY TO PUSH OUR IDEALS ONTO ANY NATION THAT IS NOT WILLING FREELY TO LISTEN ........ THAT WOULD MAKE US NO BETTER THAN THE UNITED NATIONS AND IN SOME CASES IT COULD BE WORSE ....
SO I SAY IF THEY WANT TO BE FREE LET THEM WRITE THEIR OWN CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS OR SOME FACSIMILE OF THE DOCUMENT WITH THEIR OWN IDEALS OF WHAT THEIR FREEDOM INTERPRETS NOT OURS
ALTHOUGH I FIND YOUR IDEA INTERESTING IT WOULD NOT BE VIABLE TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD IN THE NAME AND IDEALS OF ANY COUNTRY OR NATION
AND A BUMP TO YA FOR FREE THINKING
Not so. Our biggest disadvantage is not being able to locate our enemies.
It's like the movie Jurassic Park. It ends with the implication that man has a truly formidable competitor now, the revived dinosaurs. That's ridiculous. To take care of that threat all we would require is bigger guns, (which we already have). I'd like to see a T-Rex eat an M1 tank!
On the other hand, a virus (like HIV or smallpox) is a true threat. Not because it is big and powerful, but because it is so small and inconspicuous we can't locate it.
Terrorists are viruses. The minute they are located, they are dead. The problem is that it is very difficult to locate them.
Luckily, they are much more like a cold virus than smallpox or Ebola. They have the ability to disrupt and inconvenience.our society. They do not presently have the ability to destroy it.
I appreciate your clarification and do agree with you.
Yes, yes... You are correct in the details. I'd hoped my point was sufficiently clear without having to get into a detailed discussion of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Thanks for your reply.
For the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Empire, the disappearance of the Republic resulted in going from hundreds of insatiable thieves plundering them (the Roman Senate) to a single thief with a built-in incentive for keeping the Empire solvent (the Emperor). When they had good Emperors, it worked very well, much better for most than the Republic. They problem, of course, is that the character of the Emperor was pretty much a toss of the dice.
Whilst making an omlet, it is unfortunately necessary to crack some eggs.
Fine, but let's see how gungho you are for imperialism when it's your turn to have your eggs cracked.
That's what we were in a particular economic and historical setting. To think that freedom, strategic survival, and the maintenance of such an economic system are mutually compatible 225 years later is delusional.
There are lots of well-armed governments of nations of small farmers who would much rather be farming the fertile ground of Illinois and Kansas than, say, the useless scrublands of the Middle East or the crowded terraces of China.
We occupy the best piece of real estate on planet earth, and if you think others wouldn't overrun it but for their inability to do so ignores every bit of human history available.
Not to take steps against nations who aspire to destroy us, but have yet to encroach on our land is irresponsble. You assume that we would be left alone if not for our foreign policies. Now our land has been attacked, and the wolves are circling, and our need to manage the global free-for-all with both carrots and sticks is greater than ever.
Nuclear-tipped ICBMs will soon be the rule rather than the exception. We had better be proactive because the distance and low-tech weaponry of the past which have protected us are now part of another historical era.
Maybe if they had a few Jedi, things would have been different. All they had was Cicero. :)
If a draft is ever instituted, I'll be in line immediately. Where will you be? Chewin' on a buffalo wing, I'd imagine.
And if we withdraw to our present borders and allow the rest of the world to be taken over by inimical governments, someday we will face a war of the US against the rest of the world. I like the idea of isolationism, but isolationism in the world of today is just a form of extended suicide.
I believe this quote is from Lenin or Stalin. They broke millions of eggs, but somehow never quite got around to making a omlette for their people.
Breaking lots of eggs doesn't inherently cause an omlette to come into existence, although sometimes it is indeed necessary. Application of military force of itself is not a solution to a problem.
I don't know how you extrapolate from my sentence "a country of small farms" to the 18th century. We were a country of small farms up until World War 1. I don't know exactly what your political philosophy is other than a sort of knee jerk conservatism, but this developing imperium of one world consumerism isn't going to work. Eventually some islamic nationalist is going to explode a nuke inside Israel or inside the New York City to Washinton D.C corridor. Then we will neutron bomb Islamia, and then they release foot and mouth disease in Ames, Iowa, and then...etc. That is doom.
No, the Roman Empire (and the Republic before it) as well as the Greek Athenian republic were not perfect - not by a long shot. But they WERE better than the tribal warfare survival-of-the-fittest fudalism that prevailed before and after Rome.
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