Wars USA goes to liberate other 'people'? Your thoughts and beliefs

I agree if a country wants a US base, then why not. I hope they never leave Kosovo, they actually have plans to make Bondsteel (the base there) biggest in Europe. The people there want them to stay for the next thousand years, to keep peace and protect from future possible attacks. (mainly serbia lol)

As for Germany, I cannot understand why they can't have a fully blown army with them being a damn good ally of US now, they're as Western as you can get at this point, majority of them love Americans. (same with Japan) Let them have armies and they will help us around the world where they're needed.

 

Fuck that.

We should never be the world policemen again. It didn't start until after WW2, and look where our country is now.

We don't have the money to police the world, and all it gets you is anti-americanism around the world because how we intervene in places where we have no right.

Because it doesn't stop at "defending" countries, lol. We stage coups to overthrow regimes we don't agree with. We invade countries because we don't like their leader, though they pose no threat to us directly. Its simply retarded, and we are heavily paying for it now with more to come.

Its amazing how different our country is now then is was before Korea. I mean two wars at the same time? Jesus Christ. Time to change our foreign policy, starting by pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan by January 2011. Take Ron Paul's approach and have a non-interventionist foreign policy. Stop with the US bases, stop trying to make America into an Empire. It was never supposed to be that.

Denny, the first line of your post is spot on.

As for Germany and Japan not having armies, IDK if its the U.S. preventing it. I think their constitution prevents anything outside of defense forces and police forces. It prevents nukes as well, no? After WW2, they wanted no part of any war anymore, and I can't blame them. Both of them don't have the best history.

I like to study America from the early to mid 1900s. I think that was America's prime and Golden age, with a peak during the 1920s before the crash, and then after WW2 and before Korea (the little amount of time we had there). Its been down hill ever since we decided to go into Korea, then Vietnam, etc...

Just protect our home land. That is all that matters. Our national interests and national security. The other side of the world isn't too important to those causes. There are plenty of other countries right now that have the power to police their region. Go after the high priority targets and training camps with intelligence and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) like we have been doing for a while and has been extremely effective. Those targets/camps are vital to our national security.

 

The days of Fortress America are done. We can't dismiss the problems of the world by relying on the protection of our oceans anymore. Our military might is only one leg of the three that make us a superpower. It's the one used as a last resort.

Our political power is the second. People need to know that if we intervene, what we want for their people is the same power of the citizen we have here. I think we've demonstrated it in Iraq and need to find a "Third Way" in Afghanistan between our idea of a representative democracy and the tribalism of the Pashtuns, Tajiks and other ethnic groups. However, our real power is economic. When you become a peaceful member of the world, you get all the benefits of free trade and the economic system which we run and protect. When you're out, it's tough to enrich your country.

I'd love to be able to turn our backs on the world and let the maggots fight it out among themselves. However, if we do that, then the forces of opression win. I don't want to face a world run by Russia and China. I want the world run by the ideas of Western Europe and North America.

 

That is exactly it. What WE want for them. Who are we to tell them what they should or should have. I've seen articles where Iraqis were saying "We don't want you or your 'democracy' here" or "take your "democracy" and go" or stuff like that (sorry, was a couple years ago).

I don't want it run by Russia or China either. But I could care less if it is run by the West or not. The people should do whatever the hell they want. We can openly disagree and condemn opression, but its not our place to kill American soldiers and civilians (along with waste a TON of money we don't have) to try and impose our will on the world.

Like I said, national security, and national interest. We tried the world police thing, and now half of the world strongly opposes America, doesn't think America stands for all that is good anymore, and we are flat broke with a financial system in shambles. It is time to try something else.

I'd also argue that at the rate we are going, there will really be no superpower anymore. I think that the EU, America, and China will be on an even ground (which may already be here). Hopefully by then, when we will have to finally respond to someone, we will realize to just stay out of people's business.

China and India will pass us economically in a few decades. The EU has matched us economically (but it took them almost a whole continent to do so, which makes me LOL). And military, well, if they spent 20% of their budget on defense, they'd probably have a large military also. But as China grows, I also believe their military will match ours, as they are already arguably the second strongest military in the world (they spend the 2nd most money on it).

I mean, we haven't invaded Iran or North Korea like Iraq and Afghanistan even though they effect our national security (more than Iraq for sure). We haven't stopped oppression in Sudan, Burma and so on. We have given aid, let the UN do what they can do, and openly condemn and call for a stop to this madness. I would strongly oppose sending in American troops to do the work.

 

we helped them write them.

I don't think we should invade the country to stop the violence. And I think it should be more than just America's problem.

 

Yeah, I think you are right. I don't know if any Japanese person even had a say in it. But there have been some Japanese tweaks since then.

 

Denny, why can't they change it though? Both Germany and Japan are our strongest allies (right after UK), so it would make sense if they had strong military.

 

I dunno. Look at CelticKing in this topic. He doesn't seem anti-american at all. He seems rather thankful for the American intervention in his country. I've heard from many different people about how much they like having America on their side. It's generally from groups that have dealt with being beat down, and them being powerless to stop it. Many Poles that are grateful for us as an ally, thankful we are by their side, because of their fear of Russia to the east.
I'm not pro-war. I'd love, like Denny said, if we could just pack up and guard our borders, and build up missiles, knowing full well a whole army isn't going to be able to land on our shores to attack us. But there seems to be a morla obligation to help those that can't help themselves. I wish we could help more than we do, usually. I wish we had smaller, more elite forces we can send all over, to help in all of the places named earlier, as opposed to sending very large, not as well trained forces into a few places, like Iraw and Afghanistan.

I agree it is more than America's problem. But if we know that what happens in, say, Africa affects us as well sa France, adn France choses to do nothing about it, does that mean we should allow it to affect us, because someone else isn't going to do anything? Do we sit by and watch France sell hundreds of thousands of machetes to one side of a genocide, and say well, I guess that's how they handled it. No need for intervention there. Can we afford to?