Why the World Needs America

dogtowner

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not short but well done

and there is no quick snip that covers the jist so I'll include the concluding paragraph as a teaser to coax you into checking it out.

If and when American power declines, the institutions and norms that American power has supported will decline, too. Or more likely, if history is a guide, they may collapse altogether as we make a transition to another kind of world order, or to disorder. We may discover then that the U.S. was essential to keeping the present world order together and that the alternative to American power was not peace and harmony but chaos and catastrophe—which is what the world looked like right before the American order came into being.
 
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American power may had keep the world together in the past. But we now need more support from other powers like China.
 
Under whoes direction? China is still a Communist dictatorship and I wouldn't trust them.
 
Under whoes direction? China is still a Communist dictatorship and I wouldn't trust them.
When doing with a major power smaller countries have to accept them. China is the major power of the 21st century. At least for Australia but I suspect the rest of the world, what China does will influence us most. Whether you agree with the direction is not important although you can try and change it. Just as we were friends with the USA and even England in the past while differing on some policies so we will have to do this with ith China this century.
 
Aus22, Cruella, Dogtowner, et al,

We (America) have gotten use to having it our own way for so long, that we really have little experience with a world that is any other way.

America is the Top Gun. But it is not seen around the world as "The Honest Broker." The rest of the world knows that it is not in the best interest of the US to be a signatory to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
or the
Rome Statutes of the International Criminal Court. Why, because our Policy is to do what we want, when we want, wherever we want, to whoever we want. Like the movie said: "Badges! We don't need no stink'en Badges." We can't break the law if we are the law (World Police). The US helped write the Vienna Convention and the Rome Statues. But they became a little too inconvenient for us - so America "unsigned." However, let some other country, not on good terms with the US (like Israel), color outside the line - and the US Secretary of State is the first one to call "foul."
I can understand why some are a little apprehensive of China, but the fact of the matter is, China (with its huge population) is the next great emerging market. And America has outsourced a vast majority of its manufacturing and production capacity. So, we are not going to be able to capitalize on that market. We've become a small business, service based economy, supported by greedy financial institutions that are so corrupt that they nearly bankrupted the nation.​
Maybe China is not the best Power to takeover from the US; but then, are we still a trustworthy nation, economically strong enough to maintain a Super Power military. If the economy declines, so will our military influence abroad. And it is through that military influence abroad that we are able to maintain that double standard that we call the "Rule of Law;" one for America and one for the rest of the world. Maybe it is time to let another nation lead; and be the world police.​
Most Respectfully,
R
 
Aus22, Cruella, Dogtowner, et al,

We (America) have gotten use to having it our own way for so long, that we really have little experience with a world that is any other way.

America is the Top Gun. But it is not seen around the world as "The Honest Broker." The rest of the world knows that it is not in the best interest of the US to be a signatory to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
or the
Rome Statutes of the International Criminal Court. Why, because our Policy is to do what we want, when we want, wherever we want, to whoever we want. Like the movie said: "Badges! We don't need no stink'en Badges." We can't break the law if we are the law (World Police). The US helped write the Vienna Convention and the Rome Statues. But they became a little too inconvenient for us - so America "unsigned." However, let some other country, not on good terms with the US (like Israel), color outside the line - and the US Secretary of State is the first one to call "foul."
I can understand why some are a little apprehensive of China, but the fact of the matter is, China (with its huge population) is the next great emerging market. And America has outsourced a vast majority of its manufacturing and production capacity. So, we are not going to be able to capitalize on that market. We've become a small business, service based economy, supported by greedy financial institutions that are so corrupt that they nearly bankrupted the nation.​
Maybe China is not the best Power to takeover from the US; but then, are we still a trustworthy nation, economically strong enough to maintain a Super Power military. If the economy declines, so will our military influence abroad. And it is through that military influence abroad that we are able to maintain that double standard that we call the "Rule of Law;" one for America and one for the rest of the world. Maybe it is time to let another nation lead; and be the world police.​
Most Respectfully,
R
Rocco, I think you are right that The USA like most world powers had double standards. . It refuse to sign most international treaties. However it did lead the world in some reforms. I suspect China will do the same while keeping for itself the right as a great power to ignore many treaties.
 
The article is a towering conceit that cannot be supported by the facts.

In his excellent book "Rogue State", William Blum provides chapter and verse of the lies and viciousness of an evil empire that is thankfully on the way out, many due to the greed and stupidity of the elite.

"...This is an indispensable guide to the domestic and foreign policies of the US state. In Part I, Blum analyses the US state's use of terrorists, particularly those who fought in Afghanistan, and its use of mass murderers like Pol Pot. In Part II, he analyses the US uses of weapons of mass destruction - bombing, depleted uranium, cluster bombs, chemical and biological weapons. In Part III, he analyses the US role in the world, its relationships with democracy and elections.

He looks at the notion that 9/11 is explicable only in terms of evil. He cites the Pentagon's own Defense Science Board, which quoted, and contradicted, Bush when it said, "Muslims do not `hate our freedom', but rather they hate our policies." He writes, "This idée fixe - that the rise of anti-American terrorism owes nothing to American policies - in effect postulates an America that is always the aggrieved innocent in a treacherous world, a benign United States government peacefully going about its business but being `provoked' into taking extreme measures to defend its people, its freedom and its democracy."

He writes, "Throughout the period of the Cuban revolution, 1959 to the present, Latin America has witnessed a terrible parade of human rights violations - systematic, routine torture; legions of `disappeared' people; government-supported death squads picking off selected individuals; massacres en masse of peasants, students and other groups, shot down in cold blood. The worst perpetrators of these acts during this period have been the military and associated paramilitary squads of El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, Haiti and Honduras. Not even Cuba's worst enemies have made serious charges against the Castro government for any of these violations ..." Now the US state is encouraging Florida-based Cuban anti-communist terrorists to help Venezuelan fascist to overthrow President Chavez.

Blum concludes that, to the US state, "'democracy', at best, or at most, is equated solely with elections and civil liberties. Neither jobs, food or shelter, nor education or health care are part of the equation. Thus, a nation with hordes of hungry, homeless, untended sick, barely literate, unemployed, and/or tortured people, whose loved ones are being disappeared and/or murdered with state connivance, can be said to be living in a `democracy' ... provided that every two years or four years they have the right to go to a designated place and put an X next to the name of one or another individual who promises to relieve their miserable condition, but who will, typically, do virtually nothing of the kind ..."

http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-State-G...3743/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332529575&sr=8-1

Any one who thinks that the US has been a beacon of good and hope for the rest of the world is a dupe or a fool.
 
The article is a towering conceit that cannot be supported by the facts.

In his excellent book "Rogue State", William Blum provides chapter and verse of the lies and viciousness of an evil empire that is thankfully on the way out, many due to the greed and stupidity of the elite.

"...This is an indispensable guide to the domestic and foreign policies of the US state. In Part I, Blum analyses the US state's use of terrorists, particularly those who fought in Afghanistan, and its use of mass murderers like Pol Pot. In Part II, he analyses the US uses of weapons of mass destruction - bombing, depleted uranium, cluster bombs, chemical and biological weapons. In Part III, he analyses the US role in the world, its relationships with democracy and elections.

He looks at the notion that 9/11 is explicable only in terms of evil. He cites the Pentagon's own Defense Science Board, which quoted, and contradicted, Bush when it said, "Muslims do not `hate our freedom', but rather they hate our policies." He writes, "This idée fixe - that the rise of anti-American terrorism owes nothing to American policies - in effect postulates an America that is always the aggrieved innocent in a treacherous world, a benign United States government peacefully going about its business but being `provoked' into taking extreme measures to defend its people, its freedom and its democracy."

He writes, "Throughout the period of the Cuban revolution, 1959 to the present, Latin America has witnessed a terrible parade of human rights violations - systematic, routine torture; legions of `disappeared' people; government-supported death squads picking off selected individuals; massacres en masse of peasants, students and other groups, shot down in cold blood. The worst perpetrators of these acts during this period have been the military and associated paramilitary squads of El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, Haiti and Honduras. Not even Cuba's worst enemies have made serious charges against the Castro government for any of these violations ..." Now the US state is encouraging Florida-based Cuban anti-communist terrorists to help Venezuelan fascist to overthrow President Chavez.

Blum concludes that, to the US state, "'democracy', at best, or at most, is equated solely with elections and civil liberties. Neither jobs, food or shelter, nor education or health care are part of the equation. Thus, a nation with hordes of hungry, homeless, untended sick, barely literate, unemployed, and/or tortured people, whose loved ones are being disappeared and/or murdered with state connivance, can be said to be living in a `democracy' ... provided that every two years or four years they have the right to go to a designated place and put an X next to the name of one or another individual who promises to relieve their miserable condition, but who will, typically, do virtually nothing of the kind ..."

http://www.amazon.com/Rogue-State-G...3743/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332529575&sr=8-1

Any one who thinks that the US has been a beacon of good and hope for the rest of the world is a dupe or a fool.
Stalin you are right point out that the USAa did act in its own interests, But sometimes these coincided with the rest of the world as in world wars,Of course it was late in entering each world war and has been in many minor wars that were not in its own or anyone else interests. It is not a pure democracy but it is clse to it. China will also make mistakes when it takes over as super power, However we need a super power
 
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