Is the image of the United States in "free fall"?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ May 18 2006, 03:20 PM) [snapback]257664[/snapback]</div>

I yield to your technicality. Just out of curiosity could you provide some links to some global editorials using "scorn" today?
Have a nice day.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ May 18 2006, 07:01 AM) [snapback]257412[/snapback]</div>

What?????

I am, as you call it, a "lefty". My ideals and values are ALL about caring for other people. I joined the military to serve our country, I became a doctor to help people, I care about the environment and want to save it (thus, the Prius, an electric lawn mower, cloth shopping bags, etc...). Your statement is false and misguided. We lefties care about things other than ourselves. That is why we want universal health insurance, a rise in minimum wage, etc...

It's funny because we always wonder what it is like to be you. That's what makes this all so fascinating.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RonH @ May 18 2006, 09:00 PM) [snapback]257779[/snapback]</div>

Hi RonH,

Gladly...
The Christian Science Monitor
Chicago Tribune
Guardian
London Telegraph
New York Times
New Zealand Herald
Sydney Morning Herald

it should be enough just for today, all you have to do is type 'scorn' in a search window.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ May 18 2006, 08:41 PM) [snapback]257799[/snapback]</div>

Damn you're good. Are you by any chance a lawyer? And did you actually look at the links?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RonH @ May 18 2006, 10:05 PM) [snapback]257808[/snapback]</div>

international law and political science, formerly in a diplomatic core in several embassies around the world, now involved with humanitarian organizations, hence my proclivity for world events I guess, sorry for coming across with too much self-satisfaction, especially when pertinent to international discourse.

I did look at the links tough...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ May 18 2006, 10:15 PM) [snapback]257842[/snapback]</div>

We're not worthy.

 

Well said!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ May 18 2006, 04:44 PM) [snapback]257679[/snapback]</div>

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ May 18 2006, 11:15 PM) [snapback]257842[/snapback]</div>

Heh, that's one of those neat nebulous jobs, at least from my perpective, where it's not really clear what EXACTLY dsunman does, but sounds interesting as all hell!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ May 19 2006, 01:05 AM) [snapback]257900[/snapback]</div>

...it's not really clear what EXACTLY dsunman does...

gee, with top secret file about me on your desk, you know exactly what I do :lol:

going through logs of my international phone calls, oh crap, even all the domestic calls, you know everything...

CALLING ALL MEDICS!

What are the best pills to supress fear? :lol:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
some uexpected commotion in the office, this morning.

Sweetie, close the door, call me a taxi on the double, cancel all apointments for the day... I'm out of here :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ May 18 2006, 10:15 PM) [snapback]257842[/snapback]</div>

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but this bugged me all night. The London Telegraph link contained:
'branding the allegations made in Brussels as "exatious and trivial"' amongt the scorn. What is exatious?

 

It's only in a free fall because of the popularity of Bush-hating/bashing... With the technology available to people today, bad press spreads farther and faster than in the past.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ May 19 2006, 12:02 PM) [snapback]258075[/snapback]</div>

one more accolade for Dumbya, spreader of shity and bad press :lol:

farther? you mean to those people out there...somewhere else... :lol:

faster? yeah, not everyone has 3/4'' optic pipe running directly from the Pentagon's bunker like you do, smelting all the REAL facts. :lol:

 

It would seem that Bush and Bush lovers would just love having state-run news/television/press... there's one thing for him to be jealous about in Iran!

EDIT: Oh, wait... there's Faux News!

 

I'm a little late to the party, but I'd just like to point out for those who have forgotten, that a book called The Ugly American by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick was published almost exactly 50 years ago. It asked the same question, and posed the same answers. What the Left, who loves to hate the United States, fails to acknowledge, is the fact that since WWII the United States single handedly installed a democracy in Japan, hepled to finance the rebuilding of Europe and safeguarded it from Soviet expansion, defeated and dismembered the Soviet Union, thereby creating more than a dozen grateful democratic countries, preserved South Korea and helped it become one of the most economically successful democracies in Asia, saved Kuwait from the tender mercies of Saddam Hussein, liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban, and screwed up though it may be, Iraq today announced the formation of it's first democratic government since before the construction of the hanging gardens of Babylon.

Sure it's been a rocky road and many things might have been done better, but for the crowd that thinks that sticking a bone in your nose is the cultural equivalent of putting a man on the Moon, I would like to submit that you are wrong.

Jeff -- Prius Chatter of The Year!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jeff Beaver @ May 20 2006, 06:48 PM) [snapback]258599[/snapback]</div>

With all due respect, I don't know anyone who would challenge your stated facts about our gracious ability in positively shaping global events. Nobody is perfect, you must agree with that I suppose. One must strive for improvement.

Conflict in Iraq has not finished, it's hardly an culminating endeavor of ours. It's a debacle, not a success in my mind, debate about Iraq has nothing to do with leftism, conservatism or any other philosophical affiliation, it's an open discussion based on reality, not predictions, suppositions, premonitions or good faith etc.

Errors have to be acknowledged and ameliorated.

Respectfully,

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ May 19 2006, 11:02 AM) [snapback]258075[/snapback]</div>

With the technology available today, the right information gets out quicker than in the past. Meaning we can make a decision on many topics quicker and easier.

The one reason the German people got dupped by Hitler in 1933 was that Hitler controlled the newspapers and there were no 'bloggers' to give out disenting information. Same way China supresses the internet or North Korea has no internet for the masses.

Yea, bad press is out quicker but so is good press and the truth.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jeff Beaver @ May 20 2006, 05:48 PM) [snapback]258599[/snapback]</div>

I will only comment on the above quote...

(Count to 10, count to 10......... :angry: )

The 'Left' does not, and I will capitalize it for you so you can see it clearly, DOES NOT, hate the United States. We love this country, like you. We want the same things. Democracy, freedom, security. You would be crazy to think otherwise and I really wish that the Right would stop assuming that.

Let me ask all those on the right this question....why do you think that the Left or Liberals or Democrats hate America???? Why do you assume we are un-Patriotic just because we don't like George W. Bush?

I never assumed you were un-Patriotic when you Clinton bashed for eight years. You wanted a change in government in 1994, you got it, now we want a change in government. It's that simple.

 

First off, I'm a supporter of our democratic ideals (especially the separation of church and state.. but that is a different discussion).

However, I'm not a fan of hubris and believe that foreign policy errors have gone on far too long to be ignored as a mere side effect of freedom... such as supporting corrupt dictators/kingdoms who favor the US simply for supporting their regimes. I'll give you the example of Saudi Arabia.

The problems we face today could've been prevented with better foreign policy... and even Bush admits this:

"We must shake off decades of failed policy in the Middle East. Your nation and mine, in the past, have been willing to make a bargain, to tolerate oppression for the sake of stability. Longstanding ties often led us to overlook the faults of local elites. Yet this bargain did not bring stability or make us safe. It merely bought time, while problems festered and ideologies of violence took hold."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20031119-1.html

I'll leave you with an example of another book written by a conservative catholic author... you can get an idea of what his book is about by reading the first review, which gives an overview of the author's points/arguments:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157488862...5Fencoding=UTF8

 

"Is the image of the US in freefall?"

In terms of some of our policies, sadly, yes. In terms of the US in general, I don't think so. Sadly our current administration is probably one of the least respected leaderships in the world today (IMHO). But for this US citizen, I have had no problems traveling to other countries and have volume 2 of my passport nearly filled.

As a country, and as individual citizens we do much to build our reputation, an earlier poster mentioned the reconstruction of Japan, and the Marshal plan in after WWII. These are but two things we can and should be rightly proud of. Last fall I was overseas when Pakistan was hit with a deadly and destructive earthquake, the hotel I was in carried Al Jazera, they broadcast an editorial that I'll try to quote from memory. "...After this terrible earthquake, who was the first on the scene with aid? It was the Americans... Where was Bin Laden? Where was Al Qada? Why do we only hear from them when they call for killing? ...It is time for us as Muslims to ask ourselves who are our real friends..." Needless to say, after hearing that, I couldn't have prouder to be an american.

But, does this mean we can sit on our laurals and broadcast to the world "Look at us, we are the greatest, etc." or even worse "you're either with us or against us"? NO WAY! Because sadly, we are also capable of doing great wrongs. We have in the past, and we probably will in the future. The difference is to recognize when we do something wrong, stop doing it, and make amends for our mistakes. We recognized that slavery was wrong and abolished it. We finally recognized that women have the same God given rights as men and made it into law. When Rosa Parks brought racial iniquities into the public light, we started a work still in progress to eliminate them. But the greatest wrong any citizen can do is to not do anything when we err.

As I was coming of age in the 60's, the slogan of the day was "America, love it or leave it", someone much wiser than me pointed out that our country is a work in progress, much like raising a child. If you love that child, you will correct him or her when he does wrong.

Right now we see many anti-american demonstrations going on around the world, it is time for each and everyone of us to sit down and ask why. The easy way is to just dismiss them as anti-american rabble rousers. The smarter way is to explore why they are going on, could not some of it be by our own cause? Are they all just bin Laden wannabees that want to harm us? And how do we as individuals work to improve our image? How about recognizing that all people have the same basic wants and desires as us, as Opus the penguin said in a classic Bloom County comic strip "Even comes have moms and daddies". And if you do travel abroad, check out this site first http://www.businessfordiplomaticaction.org/index.php many good pointers.

OK off of my soapbox now