United States of America - World Police or World Saviour

[Slant]

So pretty much, Europeans realized colonialism was ending, but just as one last fuck you to all the native peoples who dared to resist your rule you poisoned the well on the way out and laughed as these countries inevitably struggled to deal with the problems you created, just so you could sit back and delude yourselves into thinking that imperialism was somehow a good thing. And then we the big retarded USA stumbles in trying to set everything right in our typical brute force, inelegant way, you just thumb your noses at us as if this wasn't your fault all along.

We didn't poison anything. Europe just left, as asked, or sometimes revolted for. So, there you have the British, having established a working colonial system, exploiting the colony but at the same time bringing some semblance of civilisation to those countries. The local population rebelled against them and made them leave, they leave and now you say the British "poisoned" them so they were set up to fail?

Nah man, the world doesn't work like that. Consequences mean that for your actions there are consequences. If you think you can do a better job than Britain to run a country and the British leave, it's up to you to do a better job, not Britain.

And yes, we are thumbing our noses at the US, because they also seem to think they can do a better job than Europe did, and they're failing spectacularily at it. For all the oppression Britain gave to the world, it's not them that's hated globally by third world countries. It's not Russia. It's the country that last bombed them that they hate. And current US politics seem to employ bombing as a friendly greeting. Maybe the US should change that... but who are we to listen to. We're not the mighty US, the only super power, the salvation of humanity and all that other jazz...

See, for all their faults, when the British were pompous about having an Empire where the sun never sets, they actually could pull that one off and be arrogant about it. The US? Not so much...

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This sounds bold from someone whose country just 30 years ago was ripped in half, with one part being protected by American forces, and another occupied by Soviets. You totally showed all those colonies how it's done!

Yeah... and while we were doing all that, we still had a better life than people in Africa today. And that's me comparing a country that failed hard living a better life than a country that's independent and got all it wanted. Perspective, my friend, it will help you in decyphering this one.

[Vargulf the Happy Husky]

can we be United States of America - Monster Under The Bed ?



OOH UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - SWAMP MONSTER BOOGALOO!

[stabetha]

I believe most of the civilized world is fine with the US acting as a world police. While Obama did a lot of things right. Including his stance on a hands off approach to the world. It showed the world that nobody is ready and willing to take up the world peace keeper role. Only recently has China said it would like to start filling a part of that role.

Look at any atrocities committed today. Everyone wants the US to step in and do something. The US gives neighbouring countries ample time to say that, "Hey we will help our neighbour out." Instead they just watch as the house next to theirs burns down and when their house catches fire. They get mad.

Turkey is such an infuriating example of this. They let ISIS do pretty much whatever they want as long as they don't bother them. Yet they 'help' by bombing Kurdish forces fighting against ISIS.

The world is in a fucked up place. We are due for another border changing war.

dropping 26,000 bombs in 2016 was a "hands off approach" ?

[Slant]

dropping 26,000 bombs in 2016 was a "hands off approach" ?

Italian car drivers honk as a friendly greeting, the US drops bombs. It's all the same really, different cultures, different customs.

[May90]

I understand your point, but every single person alive at the time knew that the World War One was bound to happen, sooner or later. European nations were on an arms race since the late 1800s.

From what I know from that period, it was pretty much the opposite to this. People had much poorer access to the relevant information, sciences and art were booming across Europe, a certain level of cosmopolitism and globalism was established - overall, from inside a typical European country it would seem like truly prosperous and peaceful times have come, and there were even voices saying that Europe is past all wars. The elites probably felt something big coming, but I doubt anyone truly realized the scale of what was about to happen. Then, one politician got killed in some random place, and the world suddenly exploded, with even Chile getting itself involved.

Yeah... and while we were doing all that, we still had a better life than people in Africa today. And that's me comparing a country that failed hard living a better life than a country that's independent and got all it wanted. Perspective, my friend, it will help you in decyphering this one.

Africa, sure. What about the US, Canada, Australia? Some colonies have failed miserably, some others surpassed their former overlords.

[Zecora]

United States of America - World Police or World Saviour

It's neither, ESPECIALLY not the latter of the two. The US has a long history of strong-arming other countries into doing whatever the US wants, spewing trash culture across the globe, spreading pollution, starting wars, forcing through trade deals, pushing GMO's and chlorine-washed chickens and generally sticking their fingers into the business of everyone else.

On top of that you get bullshit like "We're the home of democracy", "We're the best country to live in", "We are the world's wealthiest country", "We saved you in WW2" and other self-glorifying crap that anyone can see is false by way of a quick glance.

Then there is the constant factionalism and hatred between the disciples of two parties that everyone but Americans can clearly see are both right-wing parties, a hatred that you spew out and infect the rest of the world with.


And you wonder why so many people don't like the US? Most of us frankly expected better from you.


Yeah, we know that there are plenty of nice, hard-working and perfectly likeable Americans. And we don't hate them, we feel pity for them.

The United States of America isn't "World Police" and it CERTAINLY isn't a "World Saviour" or "The Healer". But on a forum where telling people how stupid it is to ban Kinder Eggs is considered "Bashing the US" by certain mods, I don't expect I can honestly share what I think the US is without getting banned for having that opinion. So I'll settle for a milder version:


The US is a problem.

[Deleted]

From what I know from that period, it was pretty much the opposite to this. People had much poorer access to the relevant information, sciences and art were booming across Europe, a certain level of cosmopolitism and globalism was established - overall, from inside a typical European country it would seem like truly prosperous and peaceful times have come, and there were even voices saying that Europe is past all wars. The elites probably felt something big coming, but I doubt anyone truly realized the scale of what was about to happen. Then, one politician got killed in some random place, and the world suddenly exploded, with even Chile getting itself involved.

Obviously, when I meant "every single person", I meant the liberal and authocratic elites. Yet, they knew the scale of what might happened, even the French were arrogantly yelling that no one would stop their "huge army" and that the war would end in six months. The shock was when everyone found that technology and military strategies led them into a trench slugfest without an end.

[Slant]

Africa, sure. What about the US, Canada, Australia? Some colonies have failed miserably, some others surpassed their former overlords.

Yes, the colonies that basically overwhelmed and repressed the native population with European settlers. You're kind of making my point for me, thank you very much. Those were "Colony 2.0" projects and it was European thinking and manpower that made them a success, not native skill at governing themselves.

[Macaquerie]

We didn't poison anything. Europe just left, as asked, or sometimes revolted for. So, there you have the British, having established a working colonial system, exploiting the colony but at the same time bringing some semblance of civilisation to those countries. The local population rebelled against them and made them leave, they leave and now you say the British "poisoned" them so they were set up to fail?

Christ, you're talking about these countries as if they are children trying to run away from home. The British (and French, Dutch, Portuguese, whomever) had no right to be there to begin with, and they have the arrogance to set up a system that benefits only themselves while daring to call it civilization. America has never done that, you can argue that our attempts at setting up democratic systems in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed, but it wasn't for lack of trying. We didn't cynically play off different ethnic groups against each other to cement ourselves at the top, and we never walked in and just stole resources outright. We might be clumsy and stubborn, but you can't doubt the sincerity of our intentions. If that makes us a terrible country, then so be it, but it's definitely not up to Europe of all places to judge us.

[stabetha]

Does anyone here know any history before the 1900's? The Middle East has been in a near constant state of war for over a century, long before "the west" ever got involved.

[Deleted]

There is something that really bugs me when it comes to the way the USA is viewed by many foreigners, and some people in our country as well.

America gets this negative attitude when it comes to how we behave in the world. We are called the world police and are criticized for it; however, exactly where would we be without America? American hemogony is very likely what leads to our current times of less wars, and little major global conflict (compared to the past) we aren't without issues in the world but without us, and if we weren't so involved in the world where exactly would the rest of the world be?

We are the world's greatest deterrant being that we are the world's wealthiest nation and the world's most powerful nation and the world's only superpower.

When the issues with Libya began we didn't immediately act and were urged to by Europe, where many of the countries were previously complaining of our "world police" like behaviour.

Frankly America is the healer, extremely important, under appreciated when doing their job well, vilified when things go wrong.

I'll remember this post when you start talking about European colonization. It was a good thing after all. We should do it again.

[Slant]

Christ, you're talking about these countries as if they are children trying to run away from home. The British (and French, Dutch, Portuguese, whomever) had no right to be there to begin with, and they have the arrogance to set up a system that benefits only themselves while daring to call it civilization. America has never done that, you can argue that our attempts at setting up democratic systems in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed, but it wasn't for lack of trying. We didn't cynically play off different ethnic groups against each other to cement ourselves at the top, and we never walked in and just stole resources outright. We might be clumsy and stubborn, but you can't doubt the sincerity of our intentions. If that makes us a terrible country, then so be it, but it's definitely not up to Europe of all places to judge us.

I'm not saying the world should thank Europe for colonisation. It created a lot of fucked up problems we're still dealing with today. But blaming Europeans for leaving is definitely not justified. And calling the US the savior of the planet and basically jerking off to the US anthem is absolutely uncalled for, considering the vast amount of problems they've created since the end of WW2.

Just to add two further points: I'm not calling the US a "terrible country". I'm calling it a country. What is terrible is how the US is jerking off to a mirror all the time. And yes, it is absolutely up to Europe to judge the US. Why? Because we've been around the block a lot longer than the US have. Because we're able to judge them, because no one else will. Because we're neutral. And above all, because we are at this point in time, morally obligated to call the US out for all the bullshit they do to the world.

Make no mistake, just because the US thinks the planet is its sandbox doesn't mean you get to play around wherever you like and pretend you're justified. You're not.

[GennGreymane]

[bufferunderrun]

Europe just pulled back because it was in dire strain, Germany was annihilated with Italy, France was invaded and conquered, Uk was saved just thanks to uncle sam but still was on life support, Belgium, Austria, Netherlands and pretty much anyone was on it's knee, Spain just had a civil war.
All the former colonial powers were on their knee and had no power or resources to keep the colonies, look what happen in vietnam or later algeria? If Europe had the gal to keep the colonies ton of small wars (mostly supported by USSR) would have crippled any chance of raising from the ashes of ww2.
WW2 made on thing clear, without large territories, strong economy and a production capability comparable to USA or USSR europe would become history and that is why EU project was created, the european federation able to stand it's ground against the new competitors.
But it failed so the USA had to shoulder the entire "west" and still need to continue to shoulder it while in the "east" ussr collapsed and china took the role, with a big difference, China don't care what happen 10 miles away from it's border, in the case of NK if the pig go to far i expect china to kill him swiftly and annex NK directly.

[Acidbaron]

I mean, you initially said that you can't think of any case of the US interfering anywhere and bringing stability. Regardless of the motives of the government, or the way the process was handled, you have to admit that there have been such cases after all. You may criticize the nuclear bombardment of Japan, or involvement in the Korean War, or not getting in Europe fast enough in WW2 and giving Soviets a much bigger chunk of Europe than they should have gotten - but, ultimately, Japan, South Korea and Western Europe are exemplars of stability and peace, and they weren't such before the US got involved.

As for the motives, of course, governments don't spend taxpayers' money on wars out of altruism. But, personally, I am more interested in the results of one's actions, than in what was going on in their heads while taking them.

Correct i put a bit too bluntly, the stability in Europe was however a joint effort since there were governments in place.

[koontakent]

USA did a good job in world war 2 but have been total dick holes from that time and instead of helping other developing countries they've just slammed them into the ground so no other non-white power could ever rise.

Good for white people bad for the rest of the world.

The problem is every empire collapses at some point and the way it's going when the USA loses it'll drag the rest of the world to hell with it.

[bison91]

There is something that really bugs me when it comes to the way the USA is viewed by many foreigners, and some people in our country as well.

America gets this negative attitude when it comes to how we behave in the world. We are called the world police and are criticized for it; however, exactly where would we be without America? American hemogony is very likely what leads to our current times of less wars, and little major global conflict (compared to the past) we aren't without issues in the world but without us, and if we weren't so involved in the world where exactly would the rest of the world be?

We are the world's greatest deterrant being that we are the world's wealthiest nation and the world's most powerful nation and the world's only superpower.

When the issues with Libya began we didn't immediately act and were urged to by Europe, where many of the countries were previously complaining of our "world police" like behaviour.

Frankly America is the healer, extremely important, under appreciated when doing their job well, vilified when things go wrong.

I don't believe in this. Look, America became super power right after ww2 when you entered Europe BECAUSE you seen opportunity there in making money (which u succeeded). You didn't went there to liberate, it was only about money. Just like today. That's why u are wealthy, coz u take from others to make your self stronger. Everything else is just a propaganda. Means you are not spiritual leaders.

There shouldn't be todays problem like people who don't have job and its always about 5-10 percent of these people. Why? Because its in your interest. The difference between poor and rich is just super big and every year it grows. People don't respect each other. I say that you could make it much better and safer place, unlike it is today where we have terrorism that can reach every region. I think there should be much more help to working class, but you wont do it, because the rich are afraid to lose 1% of their money. Social programs are fake. Maybe you could make it better, but instead your rich people are running all around the world gaining even more money for themselves.

[kamuimac]

There is something that really bugs me when it comes to the way the USA is viewed by many foreigners, and some people in our country as well.

America gets this negative attitude when it comes to how we behave in the world. We are called the world police and are criticized for it; however, exactly where would we be without America? American hemogony is very likely what leads to our current times of less wars, and little major global conflict (compared to the past) we aren't without issues in the world but without us, and if we weren't so involved in the world where exactly would the rest of the world be?

We are the world's greatest deterrant being that we are the world's wealthiest nation and the world's most powerful nation and the world's only superpower.

When the issues with Libya began we didn't immediately act and were urged to by Europe, where many of the countries were previously complaining of our "world police" like behaviour.

Frankly America is the healer, extremely important, under appreciated when doing their job well, vilified when things go wrong.

no you are called world's biggest terrorist or worlds biggest warmonger - definetly not worlds police

police doesnt start 1 war every 5 years in different parts of globe.

[Skroe]

I'm not saying the world should thank Europe for colonisation. It created a lot of fucked up problems we're still dealing with today. But blaming Europeans for leaving is definitely not justified. And calling the US the savior of the planet and basically jerking off to the US anthem is absolutely uncalled for, considering the vast amount of problems they've created since the end of WW2.

Everything shitty the US did is justified by servicing the end of the Soviet Union. Legitimately everything.

The Soviet Union was an existential threat to Western Democracy. Destroying it short of Nuclear War was worth any cost. Did every action contribute postively (or constructively) to that goal? Of course not. A good number were counterproductive. But all were part of a larger Grand Strategy Framework: First contain the spread of Communism, second roll it back, third stab the USSR through the heart.

Without the United States to stand against it and rally the West and build bulwarks elsewhere where it could, sometimes through immoral means, the USSR would have conquered the world. Or they would have conquered enough of it that the US would have intervened in its third hot war in Europe in a century, this time with Nuclear Weapons.

[GennGreymane]

America, Fuck Yeah!
Comin' again to save the motherfuckin' day, Yeah

America, Fuck Yeah!
Freedom is the only way, Yeah

Terrorists, your game is through
'cause now you have ta answer to

America, Fuck yeah!
So lick my butt and suck on my balls

America, Fuck Yeah!
Whatcha' gonna do when we come for you now

It's the dream that we all share
It's the hope for tomorrow
(Fuck Yeah!)

Don't like it? Well I dont give a darn! *sun glasses*