WooHoo! We're the 96th least peaceful nation on the earth!

Thats pretty impressive, when you think about it. There are those who have repeatedly told us how "evil" countries like Iraq and Iran are, and how "good" countries like the US and Israel are, and yet this scientific study shows that those 4 countries are all on the bottom of the scale, right next to each other...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ May 30 2007, 01:42 PM) [snapback]452201[/snapback]</div>

Any survey backed by Jimmy Carter is a crock. If any of the countries in the top five were invaded they would expect the evil, non-peacful countries that have a military to come rescue them.

 

Israel is way down on the list because the Palestinians have suicide bombers and launch rockets into civilian areas on purpose.

I guess to make our ranking higher, we should not get involved in Sudan to stop that genocide. I say let them live with their ranking. That will teach them. Probably shouldn't have stopped Germany or Japan either. That probably put us higher on the list in hindsight.

However, it is neat that you can toss about 6 million people in ovens and commit atrocities that even 60 years after the fact are still horrible to talk about in SE Asia, and still rank high on the list. Way to go Japan and Germany!

 

At first I was thinking, what a croc. But yeah, that is almost expected. We spend a lot of money on the military in this country, a part of that has nothing to do with the current war, but our duty to protect Japan, our military holdings in Europe and elsewhere, and such. Really, that is why Japan and Germany probably rank so high on the list because their military power is limited by either law and/or by history so they can't naturally spend as much on military spending (and the slack is picked up by the US, and the article picks up on that near the end). Some of that stuff is unavoidable being the last superpower in the world. I wonder where we would be without the Iraq war, though I doubt we would crack into the top 50 anyways. Also included was the incarceration rate, which is really high in the U.S., mostly due to drug offenders. My younger brother is incarcerated for drug offenses and the system is basically frothing over from such 'crimes'. And the US also has a high crime rate compared to other developed nations due to several factors. So, yeah, we rank low.

I don't personally think that this study says a whole lot though, nor is it of much value.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Army5339 @ May 30 2007, 03:08 PM) [snapback]452221[/snapback]</div>

The idiocy of this study is confirmed by the organization that published it.

Your points are so valid - i wonder how iraq would have ranked during saddams rule and where is venezuala today?

Your Israel insight is so dead on - if a country defends itselfs that makes it less peaceful - but if a "country" elects a well defined terror organization to lead it that makes it peaceful as long as they are not at war - and how do you define organized crime in the palestinian terrortories :lol: tell me, do you think having a mickey mouse knock off espousing murder and hate gains them points or not :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(05_SilverPri @ May 30 2007, 02:58 PM) [snapback]452210[/snapback]</div>

I looked at the names of those 5 countries and they all seemed like places I would want to avoid for the most part; thought they might be nice to visit, I imagine that those places are the last ones you would want to be in in time of war.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ May 30 2007, 03:24 PM) [snapback]452236[/snapback]</div>

Do you mean why do we still have troops there more than six decades after going to war with them? Ask the Democrats in Congress - they are so eager to withdraw out troops after 4 years in Iraq, I think they forgot about our troops still in Japan and Germany and for that matter South Korea - why dont they want to bring them home too?

I happen to agree with you to some extent here - please do not make more of this than you have too - i think we should charge other nations for defending them or even renting our military to them - like with the tsunami relief efforts - how much did we spend on using all our military assets then?? why not have the UN pay us back?

truth be told - we dont need to protect japan and germany - our military fixed their problem for them and we democratized both of them - at a huge cost in terms of American lives and money (could have been different if we PRE-empted hitler) - and now they can stand up on their own - kind of how iraq might turn out if we give them a chance............. i am glad truman or fdr did not stop when the going got tough......

 

Who are we protecting them from? Are we acting like their police force? Are we the subject of constant bombings and shootings?

There's a HUGE difference between Iraq and Germany/Japan...

Also, Berman i would be real interested where you fall on the political spectrum... mind taking the test i posted here?: http://priuschat.com/Political-leanings-t33957.html