How Important is Being the Most Powerful Country?

Yeah, and Samuel Huntington's not biased.

 

Yes and no. Technically, he who has the biggest toys still calls the shots. In other words, China only holds economic power over us because of the goodness of our own character as a nation. If we decided to be bastards and drop a couple of nukes in their backyard, I think that economic power over us would go away pretty quickly. All that debt suddenly wouldn't mean (*)(*)(*)(*).

Of course this would create all kinds of other problems. But it would still ultimately boil down to "might makes right." Which is why anybody that thinks it's wise to ever deliberately scale back the military no matter how big it is, is a fool.

 

No older siblings for me, though I know how much it sucks to be near the very bottom of hierarchies.

They should be. The U.S. is second tier in dozens of ways. That doesn't mean ours is a country of losers. Nor does it mean the peoples of other countries are for not having the #1 GDP on the planet or the #1 ranking in various measures of military assets and capabilities. Plenty of people consider their countries exceptional or superior - using whatever excuses and rationalizations are available in defense of such attitudes.

I have no intention of having a totally laissez-faire approach to foreign policy in West Asia. I would want the U.S. to intervene in support of Israel under a number of different scenarios. I just don't think it's at all responsible for us to unconditionally support an ally that needs us a lot more than them as it aggresses against Palestine and violates human rights. Regimes in other countries should know we will back those whose cause is most just on a case-by-case basis - not those who are most cooperative with our own government.

My terms would be something like this:

- Mutual recognition and acknowledgement that both Israel and Palestine have a right to exist
- Partition of Jerusalem, with the west going to Israel and the east going to Palestine
- Equal rights for and protection from discrimination against Jews and Muslims in Palestine and Israel, respectively
- Guarantees of free access for visitation of all holy sites in each half of Jerusalem
- Guarantees of allowing work-related travel and free trade between the two countries
- The green line / 1949 armistice borders shall be accepted by both sides
- Palestine no longer demands refugees from previous conflicts be accepted back into Israel
- Israel no longer demands Palestine not be allowed to maintain standing armed forces
- Israeli forces may not invade Palestinian territory in retaliation to terrorist attacks
- Palestine must actively suppress and fight against terrorist groups operating in its territory
- Palestine must allow an international peacekeeping force to operate within its borders until tensions ease
- Palestine will be given generous foreign aid from other countries for several years to assist in development
- Both sides must let an independent, third party evaluate and settle the two countries' long-standing water disputes
- If either party stubbornly deviates from these terms, their country will be invaded and its regime replaced
- If the terms persistently fail to be met, the peacekeepers shall be instructed take over and govern instead

 

Being the most powerful guy in the room fails when your intelligence and moral character are so obviously lacking.

 

"We" do not benefit from "our" superpower status, only our illegitimate ruling class does. But if we took our country back and put real Americans in charge, no one could push us around, like the OPEC countries have been doing for decades, charging us dozens of times what their oil is worth and getting away with it despite their 3d-rate militaries. A military seizure of the jihadist oilfields would drive the price of gasoline down to a dime a gallon. But the petrocrats who own the "American" oil companies also own our foreign policy. Since these traitors make all their loot piggybacking off the illegal cartel's price-fixing, they make sure our military is useless to the American people.

 

When you refuse to use or consider alternative energy sources, whining about high oil prices fails.

Invading and stealing resources from other countries is what barbarians do. We could now be free of our need for Saudi oil if we hadn't been such hardheaded (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)s about alternative energy sources for the past 30 years.

 

We are locked outside that room. Only Diploma Dumboes, Heirheads, Greedheads, Greenheads, Multiculties, Sweatshoppers, Chickenhawks, and Bootlickers are allowed inside. Doom their room. Only then will we have room to breathe again.

 

Indeed...

 

Only weaklings let themselves be overcharged. The rabid Arab rabble is incapable of inventing oil technology, so it doesn't belong to those who occupy that territory. Fight fire with fire; there is nothing wrong with getting down to the level of our savage enemies in order to defeat them. They smell cowardice in Americans who think like you do.

Alternative energy is a different issue. Besides, the drain on our economy by bullying price-gouging takes away the money we need for research. Multiculties are unfit, so you deserve to be overrun by the sheiks and savages. But real Americans should disempower your kind, because we ourselves don't deserve to have to submit to Islam or to any of its hostile acts against civilization. Only decadent types think that imperialism is uncivilized. It protects civilization, so your weakling thinking is a contradiction.

 

Are you suggesting we declare war on insurance companies, oil companies, plumbers and auto repairmen...just to name a few "gougers"?

And what about grocers? 12 bucks for a can of coffee? I declare WAR!!!!


Arabs don't bother me....

 

First we have to discredit the ruling class. Its illegitimacy makes us an occupied territory. I strain against the chains preventing me from calling for violence, but (1) not enough people will attack it until absolute hatred and disrespect for the "successful" is the prevailing attitude, and (2) it may collapse on its own if it can't get enough suckers to sacrifice themselves for it.

 

Successful can mean many things. If your goal is to deceive 50 people into giving you their savings thinking they are investing them, and you get 50 people to do it, you are successful. Hitler was successful in killing millions of Jews.

I don't find much noble in the term "successful". And it's my opinion that nobody earns a billion dollars honestly.

But why discredit the ruling class? Why not put our automatic rifles to good use?

 

I just think you're using too narrow of a definition of might.

China's might in military means isn't too shabby either. We haven't attacked them because a) it's not in our best interests and b) there is no 100% effective missile defense system. A nuclear war with China would result in us losing at least a half dozen major cities.

China's economic approach is just smarter overall, because it's cheaper, and it's harder to demonize.

When you have a military that spends 5 times more than the next biggest spender, that really is time to scale things back. Plenty of past empires have shown the folly of overextending and overspending in military aspects.

 

You really had to go and give us one legitimate reason not to disarm just yet, didn't you?

 

rah, rah, sis, BOOM, bah

 

Bugs bunny, bugs bunny, rah rah rah

More importantly, I saw dunce boy blasting coal companies today. With a 1 trillion dollar stimulus, I ask again, why didn't dunce boy try to transition coal companies into nuclear- power plants with a government secured loan? Why give one trillion dollars in a corrupt manner to political donors when the money could have been spent transitioning the USA to 60+% nuclear power?