Isolationism or Kill 'Em All?

[vraiblonde]

I waver between the two.

On one hand, the thought of some little no-load dictator keeping a country enslaved boils my blood and makes me want to send a nuke his way, regardless of what the UN has to say about it. If the UN had any authority or integrity, these freaks wouldn't even BE in the UN.

On the other hand, I feel like WE managed to overthrow our fascist government back in the day so why can't they? Americans are the mongrel dogs of the world and, as far as heritage goes, we're the newbies on the block. Yet we've evolved into the ONLY super-power in the world. How does that happen? And why should we GIVE our largesse to countries that can't seem to get their own act together?

So there you go - one part says kill the tyrants and overthrow their governments for the sake of world peace. The other part says to hell with them - don't give them money, food or military aid and maybe they'll become extinct.

Any thoughts?

 

[Heretic]

I say kill em all and by default we will be the only ones left and therefore will be isolationists. Man that was deep wasnt it?

 

[vraiblonde]

Originally posted by Heretic
Man that was deep wasnt it?

I didn't mean kill all the civilians - just the dictators.

 

[Penn]

Well, I've got one major concern, and that's North Korea.
Yesterday's Washington Times ran an editorial stating that the "intelligence community" has determined the N. Koreans are perfecting miniturization of nuclear warheads to fit on their limited-range missiles!

Don't that news give you a whole bunch of warm fuzzies?

$hit! They've got more ways to go now; they can hold the entire Western Pacific nations hostage, sell the warheads/missiles to terrorists, or unleash a small-scale war against Japan, S. Korea, or even the Western US, if they don't get what they want.

My opinion is to wipe that stupid little administration off the map!!

Send the message to the rest of those jerk-### little nations, see what they can expect if they want to try the same thing.

 

[jlabsher]

Is this the same "intelligence community" that was "fersuredude" where the WMD were located, how many there were, blah......

Well Vrai, they figured out our secret plan. We were doing it the slow sneaky way, trying to turn the world into fat, lazy, tobacco loving, welfare drawing, capitalist Americans. Al Quaida caught onto the fact that by exporting our values we were turning the poor disenfranchised youth of the world into wannabee 'mericans who want fast cars, beach bimbos and bigger burgers.

Now we have to go back to the drawing board. Maybe we can invent some killer viruses and show how our way of life and medical community that charges more than one months wages for much of the world for one office visit is superior. Then they'll come back to us.

 

[Penn]

Originally posted by jlabsher
Now we have to go back to the drawing board. Maybe we can invent some killer viruses and show how our way of life and medical community that charges more than one months' wages for much of the world for one office visit is superior. Then they'll come back to us.

Heck, have you ever heard the quote about "trying to get blood out of a stone"?

Most of these third world nations are so poor, all we'd do is run up a trillion dollar debt from these people, and then have to bring them over to Duke Medical University(recall the case of the Mexican Immigrant girl they botched the operation with), and have it spread over the eastern seaboard.

I don't get warm feelings over the state of medicine in this country.

 

[demsformd]

I say that it is the purpose of this nation to promote democracy and freedom all across the globe. If we do not stand for freedom over there, we do not stand for it here. So, as vrai put it so eloquently, kill 'em all.

 

[Frank]

Originally posted by vraiblonde

On the other hand, I feel like WE managed to overthrow our fascist government back in the day so why can't they? Americans are the mongrel dogs of the world and, as far as heritage goes, we're the newbies on the block. Yet we've evolved into the ONLY super-power in the world. How does that happen? And why should we GIVE our largesse to countries that can't seem to get their own act together?

But if you read enough of the American Revolution - and not to brag, but I have - in many ways we were just damned lucky to stage a revolt at a time when England was SO overly extended that they could hardly focus their full attention against subduing a revolt in the Colonies. We were always just this close to losing everything, and at the time of Yorktown, the British had most of the South, had held New York since the beginning of the war and had most of the eastern seaboard all the way up and down the coast. If we had NOT won at Yorktown - and ironically WITH the timely assistance of the French Navy - we WOULD have lost.

Maybe these people CAN fight for themselves, but they need a "France" to give them the support at the right time.

 

[vraiblonde]

Maybe these people CAN fight for themselves, but they need a "France" to give them the support at the right time.

That's EXACTLY what Larry said when we were having this discussion the other night.

 

[Bruzilla]

I don't think that Isolationism is the right word. I think that Mind our own business or kill 'em all would be more appropriate. I don't think that we should isolate ourselves from the rest of the world, but we shouldn't be meddling with other countries unless they pose a direct threat to our national well being.

I thought we should have gone into Iraq not because of any WMDs or terrorist connections, but because Hussein was beant on taking over the Arab countries and making himself the new Mohammed. This would have given him control over many of the world's economies, and would have led to far more disasters than any terrorist could dream of.

I think we should ignore all the saber rattling from North Korea. They're broke and not getting their support payments from the Soviets anymore, and China is pretty tight with their foreign aid. So a nation that is controlled by intimidators just do what they do best to get money from the US... they intimidate.

As for tin-pot dictators, I think we need to stay out of their business. If a country really wants to get rid of a totolitarian government, they will do so and install a democratic government. If a dictatorship gets toppled by the US, or dropped from within, and is replaced with just another dictator, then it's not worth the effort to get involved.