You are being too kind, Apdst.
Most of these people, though able to walk upright, speak and read, are simply mis-educated. What they have learned from their familiar sources is wrong. Thus, even in the first world where information is easily available, we have anti Americanism from people who seriously ought to know better.
while i'll agree that there's plenty of mis-educated (with a very liberal definition of that word), i must remind you that criticizing action made by the american government isn't anti-american, particularly if they're made in the hopes of perpetuating american ideals such as liberty and democracy. the argument that any criticisms of our government is antiamerican is exactly how germans kept people in line.
In this latest crisis with the rioting Egyptians, as we can see, it's not the fault of the Egyptians, or their governments, educational system, culture, etc., it's the fault of the Americans. And they say this with a confidence only the woefully uniformed and stupifyingly ignorant can muster.
of course we can't claim that this is entirely the fault of americans, mubarak himself is egyption in fact. however as americans we should take a critical look at the results of our actions around the world. the tentacles of the US spread all over the place, so our actions have repercussions everywhere. if we arm and provide aid to an illegitimate dictator, we are at fault for aiding the oppression in that country, even if you think we're doing it to aid them.
These responses encourage the idea that civilized man isn't far removed from the cave. We can teach people to read and write, and a monkey to distinguish colours in order to get a piece of fruit, but it's still far removed rational thought. They press a button saying "The Americans did it" only because its easy and they get instant reward, from the likeiminded other monkeys.
What they don't appear to realize is that is that it is in the interests of everyone that Americans succeed in their foreign policy efforts. If they fail we'll all suffer as a consequence.
that statements makes me wonder what you think our foreign policy efforts are for. if you think our efforts are to extend liberty, democracy, and the associated prosperity with it, i'd ask you how does arming and aiding illegitimate dictatorships the world over accomplishes that? on the other hand if you think our foreign policy effort are to get us cheap resources and labor i fail to see how that is in everyone's best interest, with all the poverty and slavery going on in the world that we support. (a reminder, just a few days ago before the protests heated up, mubarak sent police into the factories in cairo to tell people to get back to work, people that are starving because they can't afford food. that is slavery)
Many supported Nazism during WWII, the Communists during the Cold War, and will not even say an unkind word against the Islamofacists of today. Yet should the Islamists take over Egypt and the Middle East, these same people will also blame American foreign policy for their policy failures. They never support the Americans in their endeavours but only criticize with their 20/20 hindsight, even if it means misrepresenting the facts in order to do so.
Put up the barricades, cease further emigration and allow the Islamists to take control of the Middle East and then Europe. We can watch it all on out big screen TV's.
this again is a form of conditional democracy. you're all for democracy as long as they put a pro-US government in place. this isn't democracy at all. if you believe in self determination and free will, you have to allow these people to pick their own leadership. if the people don't like the idea of a foreign power having so much military power in their part of the world more than likely they'll put in a leadership that will oppose that. imagine how much more likely they'd be to have a democratically elected leadership that is pro-US if after WW2 when the western powers were forced to give up their colonies in the area, instead of the US funding a puppet dictator, we allowed the people to be self determining.
please don't take my statements lightly, i believe in america and our ideals. it's just apparent that we don't project those ideals all over the world. we have military bases in 75 foreign countries, imagine what kind of government we'd elect if china, russia, iran, and north korea all had military bases in canada... if you truely support the idea of liberty and self determination rather than the divine providence of american military might you have to allow people to do what they want, even if it's not exactly what you would do.
