How Stands the Empire?

Gee, the world doesnt like the U.S. Thats bound to happen when you are the most powerful. Yet when there is a "domestic dispute" in some country, we get called upon like we are police officers. Or maybe you could look at it as blind compassion.
 
What the article fails to mention is that American foreign policy is always in the perceived best interest of the US - Witness the previous American alliance with Saddam for example.
 
Interesting... wrong, but interesting.
 
It isnt so much that I have a problem with his views because everyone is entitled to have their views. No problem with that. But he says things like "we need a new foreign policy" and things of that nature without explaining what he thinks they should be. Now I may just not be familiar enough with this person to have read other writings of his which explain his views in more detail. But more times than not, I have to listen to people complain about something but give no explanation as to how to change it. Annoying as hell.
 
The United States has a serious weakness in foreign diplomacy. They seem to choose all the wrong words and express all the wrong intentions in everything they do. Bad communication skills will ruin even the "strongest country in the world."

Americans are not a people who are very considerate or polite. They are also a country completely oblivious to the outside world (less than 5% of Americans have actually traveled outside the country!!!) This translates well into their foreign diplomacy.

I'm not saying the US is the only country to have politicians who say stupid things out on the international stage. Being the "strongest country in the world" we should also be the absolute best at international diplomacy. Otherwise, we'd just be sticking thorns in our own bottoms!
 
Z Draci said:
They are also a country completely oblivious to the outside world (less than 5% of Americans have actually traveled outside the country!!!) This translates well into their foreign diplomacy.
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1. Our country is pretty damn big. You could say the same thing about the Russians or Chinese. It's not like we all live in Europe and countries are train rides apart.
2. Not everyone can afford to travel overseas. That doesn't make somebody oblivious nor ignorant to the outside world.

Before you judge me, I've been to at least nine countries in my lifetime, all because I could afford to go.
 
He didn't judge you, dunno where that came from.

America is huge so there isn't much of a reason to travel outside of it. For europeans if they want to ski, they go to the Apls, we go to the rocky mountains. They want beaches they go to the med, we go to California, Florida, Hawaii. Pretty much anything europe has to offer geographically we have in much closer proximity, and then some.

That said not travelling and experiencing other cultures does effect how you view the world. For someone in Europe who travels and sees these other cultures on a daily basis, they get used to things, but if you have never been anywhere but the states and mexico those cultures and ideas can seem very foreign and even irrelevant to you.
 
The question is how many Europeans have traveled outside of Europe? 70% of Europeans also have no clue about the outside world or how their domestic policy affects the world. Many of these countries were in bed with dictators such as Saddam Hussein. Other European nations have and continue to rape poor countries in Africa.

The United States although not perfect has made the best effort in its foreign policy to do the right thing. When the United States does the right thing it is many times in the interest of the United States which is perfectly logical for any nation.

Now some of you will say that people have different perspective on what the right thing is and the notion of right and wrong are influenced by cultural upbringing. Slaughtering subjects within your monarchy is wrong and should be judged as so by the world?s nations. Any nation that has a dictator that conducts such behavior should face a regime change. This is the job the United Nations should be conducting if it truly was a productive force.

I know there is a movement in many European nations as well as Japan to move to total passivism. This notion is totally absurd this is the kind of behavior that allowed men like Hitler to rise to power.
 
cvg said:
Z Draci said:
They are also a country completely oblivious to the outside world (less than 5% of Americans have actually traveled outside the country!!!) This translates well into their foreign diplomacy.
Click to expand...

1. Our country is pretty damn big. You could say the same thing about the Russians or Chinese. It's not like we all live in Europe and countries are train rides apart.
2. Not everyone can afford to travel overseas. That doesn't make somebody oblivious nor ignorant to the outside world.

Before you judge me, I've been to at least nine countries in my lifetime, all because I could afford to go.
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Yeah, exactly. You could probably fit a dozen European countries in the US. Pluse, as said, huge difference between hopping a short, cheap train to go a few miles than spending easily a couple thousand dollars just to get to Europe.
 
BUT IT'S SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING.

You guys just don't get it I think..

I could say the same about Canada, why should I go to the Alps if I can go to the Rockies?

:wall:
 
cvg said:
Z Draci said:
They are also a country completely oblivious to the outside world (less than 5% of Americans have actually traveled outside the country!!!) This translates well into their foreign diplomacy.
Click to expand...

1. Our country is pretty damn big. You could say the same thing about the Russians or Chinese. It's not like we all live in Europe and countries are train rides apart.
2. Not everyone can afford to travel overseas. That doesn't make somebody oblivious nor ignorant to the outside world.

Before you judge me, I've been to at least nine countries in my lifetime, all because I could afford to go.
Click to expand...

That all sounds like excuses for Americans to not travel abroad. My point was that Americans should be the most well traveled people in the world because they are the wealthiest, most powerful, and most influential--or so they say. If you are going to compare Americans to Russia and China, you are just lowering the standards for what our country stands for. It's like saying we shouldn't worry about kidnapping because we are doing better than Colombia.

I want all Americans to be more knowledgable about the world in general. I don't care what other countries are doing. I just care about how intelligent our people are. The truth is that we are blind and oblivious people. I can't stand that. Can you?
 
Ill put it to you this way in my travels I have encountered many more Americans in Asia than all European countries combined. If Europeans are so well traveled why are so few traveling outside of Europe?

Let?s think of Europe as one country since the people basically have the same culture and beliefs. Traveling from England to Germany the culture and belief system is basically the same despite small differences such as language. Traveling from the United States to China on the other hand one encounters a culture and belief system that is nothing like their own. Only travel in this way will make a person ?worldly? Europeans do not travel in this way as much as Americans. Traveling from England to Germany is similar to an American going from Chicago to New Orleans from a cultural and belief system stand point.
 
zenkidori said:
Renesis said:
BUT IT'S SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING.
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I don't see how that's true at all.
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You don't? Well, that's too bad really...

Of course there are lots of interesting places to visit in the US, that's why I've been there over 15 times. But there are things you just can't do/get. For instance, I found visiting old Maya villages in Mexico or doing a Safari in Africa to be very interesting!

Kansai22 said:
If Europeans are so well traveled why are so few traveling outside of Europe?
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I wouldn't say that. E.g. I did more trips to the US alone than to other European countries.

Kansai22 said:
Let?s think of Europe as one country since the people basically have the same culture and beliefs.
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Yeah, let's just do that! :roll:

Are you serious? Let's take the US, even though 280 million people speak the same language, there are still huge differences between, let's say, the Midwest and the so-called coastal elites!

Kansai22 said:
Traveling from the United States to China on the other hand one encounters a culture and belief system that is nothing like their own.
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Sure, but unfortunately most Americans will never do that in their lifetime. AFAIK most of the will never even go to Mexico or something like that...

Speaking about travelling, let's revive this thread:
http://forum.finalgear.com/viewtopic.php?t=4356&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
 
More Americans travel outside the US than Europeans travel outside of Europe that is my point. For example I attended school in Beijing for a short time. This school is the number 1 foreign student school in Beijing. Most non Asian students were from the United States. Germany had the most of any European country. The one thing I can tell you is that American Students out numbered all European students by far. In Japan Americans out number Europeans by far. Now Australians on the other hand are very close in number to Americans in Japan at any given time.

When I say we can think of Europe as one country I mean from a stand point of culture, values, and beliefs. Europeans as a whole have very similar values and beliefs. This is the same as an American traveling from Chicago going to New Orleans as I stated before. People in these places speak a completely different dialect, eat food that is different, wear different clothing, and behave differently.
 
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