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Remarks on the Decline of American Empire

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Re: Remarks on the Decline of American Empire

#41

Post by millermp12 »

ramzyo wrote: post #25
elliotec wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does he need to be notable? Maybe he's just some guy on the internet with an opinion like you and me.

Well I guess that I implicitly expect opinionated front page HN content to come from someone whose opinion is more informed than mine. I’m not sure what to take away from this post, given the lack of supporting evidence for the assertions made. Currently I’m at “huh, interesting opinions, who is this guy and how did his post make it to the front page of HN?” Of course this is just my interpretation of why things get…

"Well I guess that I implicitly expect opinionated front page HN content to come from someone whose opinion is more informed than mine."

Maybe not. But he is more informed on this subject than the average HN reader. Or was HN created just for you?

Re: Remarks on the Decline of American Empire

#42

Post by millermp12 »

sandworm101 wrote: post #2

>>>1. US foreign policy over the last decades has been disastrous -- trillions of dollars and thousands of lives expended on middle eastern wars, culminating in utter defeat. Lost me in the first paragraph. It hasn't been "thousands" but tens or hundreds of thousands dead. Thousands may be how many american military lives have been lost but that is certainly nowhere near the actual cost of any war. Such little assump…

In Europe and the US, our religious 'fanaticism" doesn't involve beheadings and bombings.

Re: Remarks on the Decline of American Empire

#43

Post by duderific »

bmm6o wrote: post #18
api wrote: post #10

To me the lynchpin is the monumental catastrophe represented by Iraq War II and the entire decades-long Middle East quagmire in general. It's been nothing short of national suicide, especially when one considers what else might have been done with all that money. We almost literally set the surplus of an entire American generation on fire and watched it burn. The neocons are the worst villains but not the only ones.…

Not only was the disaster entirely predictable, they themselves predicted it. For Gulf War I, Cheney (then Secretary of Defense) explained why they left Saddam in power - that removing him would create a power vacuum and a civil war leading to regional instability. Gulf War II - with Cheney as VP - has exactly this outcome, leading us to dump blood and money (ours and others) in the desert sands.

Gulf War II was advantageous to Cheney, as he had been the CEO of Halliburton, and still had ties in the defense industry. As we know, Halliburton and other similar companies ended up with billions of dollars in US Government contracts supplying food and personnel for the Iraq war. Probably one of the greatest unenforced conflicts of interest in the history of the United States.

Re: Remarks on the Decline of American Empire

#44

Post by sporkologist »

njarboe wrote: post #31
Fluid_Mechanics wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Combined with widespread gun ownership and ethnic enclaves...

Machetes work just as well, if that is all you have (see Rwanda). I imagine rocks and sticks could be used if your civilization has not got to the universal machete ownership level.

That's like comparing a Ford Fiesta to a Formula One car.

Re: Remarks on the Decline of American Empire

#45

Post by apoorvkumar »

seanot wrote: post #40
soperj wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does what happened in Vegas happen with Machetes?

Was there evidence presented that the Las Vegas shooter was motivated by hatred for some group (political or otherwise)? I guess I missed that in the papers.

You're saying a person (deranged or otherwise) did what he did without malice towards his fellow humans! That's some seriously warped observation.

Re: Remarks on the Decline of American Empire

#46

Post by timthelion »

bluetomcat wrote: post #8
mc32 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One hopes neoconservatism is good and dead. It was an ambitious ideology which presumed everyone in the world shared western values or wanted them. I think the American public tired of this neocon hawkishness and I'm hopeful we see a change in our foreign policy.

> It was an ambitious ideology which presumed everyone in the world shared western values or wanted them. Eastern European here. After the fall of the iron curtain, what we really craved for was economic cooperation with the West, liberty of expression and civil and property rights. Instead, we got US-sponsored liberal NGOs to steer the public opinion in certain directions, NATO military bases to protect us from evil…

I would argue that the disillusionment in the Czech Republic not only the fault of the Americans, but also the fault of the former communists, who remained in power for the most part. During the privatization process the countries assets were sold to the corrupt ex-communists and westerners for pennies on the dollar. There is as much evil and profiteering from within as there is evil from outside.

Which NGOs are you talking about? What have these NGOs done to harm the countries?

Re: Remarks on the Decline of American Empire

#47

Post by timthelion »

api wrote: post #9
mc32 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One hopes neoconservatism is good and dead. It was an ambitious ideology which presumed everyone in the world shared western values or wanted them. I think the American public tired of this neocon hawkishness and I'm hopeful we see a change in our foreign policy.

It was a delusional ideology that presumed that democratic systems can be imposed on another country by military force. This wouldn't work even if social democracy were the best possible system. To understand why just invert the circumstances and imagine China attempting to impose a (even superior) political system on the United States following an invasion or via foreign intelligence meddling. Do you think that woul…

It also doesn't work, because you cannot impose democracy. Imposed democracy isn't democracy.

Re: Remarks on the Decline of American Empire

#48

Post by timthelion »

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #38
sandworm101 wrote: post #2

>>>1. US foreign policy over the last decades has been disastrous -- trillions of dollars and thousands of lives expended on middle eastern wars, culminating in utter defeat. Lost me in the first paragraph. It hasn't been "thousands" but tens or hundreds of thousands dead. Thousands may be how many american military lives have been lost but that is certainly nowhere near the actual cost of any war. Such little assump…

>> trillions of dollars and thousands of lives expended on middle eastern wars > Such little assumptions belittle the value of non-american lives ...and american lives as well: I'm always surprised at how in some cultures it's considered acceptable mixing money and human lives in the same sentence as if they were somewhat comparable items. On top of that, human lives are often listed after money, yet nobody seems to…

Are you sure that money and life are not comparable? After-all, people spend all of their lives making money. People die of hunger. And to be killed is not so much a matter of a loss of life, everyone is mortal after-all, we will all die, it is a loss of time. And time is money, and money is time.

Re: Remarks on the Decline of American Empire

#49

Post by rgbrenner »

ramzyo wrote: post #25
elliotec wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does he need to be notable? Maybe he's just some guy on the internet with an opinion like you and me.

Well I guess that I implicitly expect opinionated front page HN content to come from someone whose opinion is more informed than mine. I’m not sure what to take away from this post, given the lack of supporting evidence for the assertions made. Currently I’m at “huh, interesting opinions, who is this guy and how did his post make it to the front page of HN?” Of course this is just my interpretation of why things get…

He made it to the front page because people here read it, thought it was interesting, and gave it a point. The fact it's on the front page means nothing more than that. Any reputation youre attaching to it doesn't exist.
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