Our growing rift with Europe

Boston Globe ^ | 6/5/2003 | Jeff Jacoby

[Jorge]

" .. your argument that 9-11 can be blamed on authorities not guarding our borders against illegals is senseless." -- Jorge --

I guess the idea about the Constitutional requirement of our government guarding our borders is nonsense.

I already said I don't disagree with the Govt guarding and protecting our borders.

But it's obvious you are not interested in actually reading my responses to you, or even addressing my stated positions on any issue...as much as you prefer assigning me those positions you are most comfortable ranting about.

Clearly you are not interested in honest dialogue but only see these threads as a place to vent your personal grievances. Pathetic.

[Steel Wolf]

"Do you [Buckeroo], by chance, have any idea what the word 'empire' means?" -- Steel Wolf -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By, all means, instruct me.

Sparing us the dictionary reference, let me toss up a few names for comparison.

Roman Empire, British Empire, Japanese Empire, American Empire.

What, if anything, do they have in common? Power, sheer military power. The reasons, means, and shape all vary, but they were all military giants. Empires use this power to take land, and incorporate it into their own. This often leads to colonization, but at a minimum requires the subjecated to learn the language of the conquerer. Servitude is involuntary, that is once a land is conqured it stays conqurered, people can not leave or enter at will.

You can't have an empire of the willing any more than you can have a voluntary prison. If people choose to learn English to do business, that's a far cry from banning their own language in public. Us having troops in dozens of countries isn't imperial if they were invited to stay there. Aside from Germany and Japan, we have no uninvited long term occupations.

If you want to go back to the westward expansion, manifest destiny, etc, then I think you could build a case for imperial American motives. Hawaii was colonized, and we had similar intentions for Cuba and the Philippeans. There were elements of our distant past that were imperial in nature, but they were far stronger then than now.

In fact, America bears little resmblence to a classical empire, nor will it in the future.

[Buckeroo]

OK. We get to pay mandated taxes for wars all around the world and no security about our borders. Good comment.

[Buckeroo]

Article I. Says, "To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions." I guess this means in Kosovo, Iraq or Japan or South Korea or Panama or Taiwan or Chile or Germany or anywhere but America.

[Billthedrill]

Did we kill this thread or what? ;-)

[Billthedrill]

We get to pay mandated taxes for wars all around the world and no security about our borders. Good comment.

Why, thank you. I thought it was a good comment too. But I didn't really say "no security about our borders," did I? That was yours...in fact, the threat to our borders is of a different nature than that threatening Europe's. It is in my view questionable whether uncontrolled (and it is, essentially) immigration can be supported here indefinitely. This does not mean sealing the borders with concrete and machine guns (I like machine guns) but it does mean deporting illegals and denying them the goodies that make illegal immigration so very attractive. Legal immigrants I don't have a problem with. And it is certainly one of the duties of the federal government to control that. What the Europeans do about the Muslim illegals I really don't care much as long as they pick up their own tab.

As far as taxes for wars all around the world, yes, we do. The issue is small wars there or big ones here, IMHO. That's the advantage of hegemony - we get to choose.

[Buckeroo]

I guess everyone went off to threads that lavish accolades upon GWBush for saving us, here in America. I apoligise for my behavior.

[Billthedrill]

Aw, heck, I always have a great time talking with you. See ya!

(Now off to lavish praise on Dubya. Mebbe we can get him sainted...yeah, that's the ticket...Saint Dubya of Texas...does that scan or what?...)

[Skywalk]

*yawn*

So, if you hijack a thread to spew leftist/paleo boilerplate and blame all the world's ills and attitudes on the US and people lose interest and that means they worship Bush?

"Hey, I'm important, I'm important! Why aren't you morons listening to my truth?!?"

Does that sum it up, Buckeroo?

Dude, the only things I agree with you on are domestic freedom, reduced taxation and controlling immigration. However, your attributing all these US wars/actions to the CIA is outright paranoid.

You really do sound like a leftist, because they have all day to list their grievances with the US or the West, but ignore the fact that there are other historical actors in play at any given moment on this planet. You somehow gloss over the REAL existence of REAL totalitarianism, be it communist or Islamist.

Perhaps you should calm down and come back when you're ready to at least be BALANCED in your criticisms. Until then, you're a Raimondo clone.

[Jim Noble]

Why the alienation after America bailed out Europe twice in world wars? You would think that our nation with its historical foundations rooted in the tenets of individual liberties, freedoms and rights would be cheered around the world

Because Europe chose fascism in the 1930s and 1940s, and we took it away.

Now, they finally have the chance to get it back, and this time thay have a better than 50:50 chance to take Britain, as well.

No wonder they hate us for spoiling their dreams.

[Buckeroo]

---

"You [Buckeroo] really do sound like a leftist ..." -- article

---

Now, that is a scary comment. Are you saying I sit on the left side of Hillary Clinton or her right side. How about your archnemisis, Rush Limbaugh, which side do I sit upon ... the left or right?

[LibKill]

They are afraid of us and for good reason too.>

This is as it should be. They wouldn't know the meaning of respect if it jumped up and bit them in the @ss.

So let them fear us. It's the next best thing.

[Skywalk]

lol Scary? Do you feel a chill wind blowing through the halls of FR?

How is Rush Limbaugh my archnemesis?

I'm not saying you ARE leftist, just that much of your rants sans the references to domestic freedom sounded like it was taken from leftist talking points. I think it comes from when those clinging to an aspect of their ideology then re-write history or take someone else's 'history' in order to keep the integrity of their worldview intact.

Meaning, lots of libertarians turned from harsh critics of much of the world into sycophants for the Pals and other terrorists by shifting blame onto the US. So you sounded like a leftist in the way you argued US foreign policy.

I KNOW that you aren't a leftist.

[Jorge]

OK. We get to pay mandated taxes for wars all around the world and no security about our borders.

It might not be enough for your taste, but to claim we have no security at our borders is childish.

Besides when it comes the war on terrorism...there are thousands of miles of borders, airports and countless potential targets that need to be protected..that it is literally impossible to have complete security against terrorists.

Bush is taking the right approach. We have to go after the terrorists and take the offensive in this war.

[happygrl]

it's the decline of Christianity, the inability of differentiate right and wrong, that is behind this: if you cannot see the difference between right and wrong, then there is no wrong, and then there is nothing to fight against.

YES! THAT is the cause of their decline.

[CGVet58]

Good morning, Sir,

thank you! Allow me to likewise express my great admiration for "The Brits", as we say here. From Churchill to Thatcher, right up to the fine accounting given by the Black Watch in the Gulf, I see Greatness and Heroism.

I for one, am damned glad to know that I can count on my cousins from across the pond - and wherever the Brits stand (and whom the stand against...), I consider it a most high honor that I can take my place in the line alongside them.

Juan
CGVet58

[BunnySlippers]

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