Should the World see America as a Threat?

like they saw germany way back when?

Yes and yes.

There is no question that the US has become a dark and dangerous force,
much like the "empire" of the star wars films. It has lost all
respect for life, liberty and happiness in its institutional pursuit
of corporate power.

The US today reprsents slavery and enslavement. That is the sort of
government it wants to spread, is spreading and IS in its soul. The
world has long been aware that the US is a slave state, and in this
regard, is wise to the game.

Were i a foreign policy advisor to another state, i would suggest that
they focus entirely on the civil rights of their own people, empowering
their own citizens, and as well, making a public offer to accept
refugees and political migrants from the USA. There is a lot of quality
wood in america that will make itself scarce if they overturn roe.vs.wade
and other such things on thier adgenda.

For free, you can get a bunch of can-do migrants who are very positive
people by and large... just make sure the corporate america stops at
your borders and cannot own majority shares in local enterprise.

The way the U.S. is acting is very different to Germany of both WW1 and WW2.

The closest comparison I can compare the U.S.A. to, is the British Empire of the year 1900. The British fought a war from 1899-1902 against the South African Boer states in Southern Africa out of economic interest. The British did highlight the fact that the Boer states were violently racist and oppressive against indigenous Africans (compare to neocon protestations of 'nasty Saddam who oppressed his own people'), but the world condemned the British invasion because everyone knew it was for economic interests (Gold and diamonds, rather than oil in 2003).

It did spark a great deal of anti-British resentment in the U.S. and Europe who feared global instability, the immorality of violating sovereignty and the sight of Great Britain enriching itself through conquest leaving everyone at disadvantage.

The world was wary of Britain and feared it's power like the world fears the U.S.' today. The British situation resolved itself when the anti-war Liberal Party took power from the imperialistic Tories and British prestige and reputation was restored. I hope the Democratic Party can do the same for the United States.

with a twist of hitler thrown in.

Weaker nations are now racing to arm themselves against us instead of against China or the USSR.

And * has shown the world that if he chooses to, he will invade a country whether they have WMDs or not. So I guess they figure they might as well have WMDs.

When the most dangerous man on the planet (who says his god talks to him) has the most weapons and has stated that he wants to spread his form of government to the rest of the world, they damn well better be afraid.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

how should this empire in decline be any different?

S Defense Budget Will Equal Rest of Worlds Combined "Within 12 Months"


US defence budget will equal Rest Of the World combined "within 12 months"

By Guy Anderson Editor of Jane's Defence Industry

Defence expenditure in the US will equal that of the rest of the world combined within 12 months, making it "increasingly pressing" for European contractors to develop a "closer association" with the US, corporate finance group PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says.

Its report - 'The Defence Industry in the 21st Century' by PwC's global aerospace and defence leader Richard Hooke - adds that "the US is in the driving seat", raising the prospect of a future scenario in which it could "dominate the supply of the world's arms completely".

The US defence budget reached US$417.4 billion in 2003 - 46 per cent of the global total.

Less than two per cent of the US defence budget is spent outside its home market, the report notes, and of this around one per cent goes to UK contractors.

http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jdi/jdi050504_1_n.sht...

Food First

It is difficult to reconcile with reason ... the magnitude of the defense budget. But it is especially difficult to reconcile with the limitations of its capabilities. The Army is stretched to the point of breaking ... and that because we conquered a fifth rate power and are trying to occupy its lands.

For a budget of that magnitude, we should be pulling this off with ease and grace ... but we are struggling, and on top of that relatively little has been done to secure the homeland from "terrorist" attack. Clearly, our defense dollars must be poorly spent ... it cannot possibly be claimed that we are not spending enough.

How does one reconcile a discrepancy of this magnitude. Corruption. Pork. Waste. The defense budget has once again become the most effective means of migrating dollars from the middle class to the corporations.

We could spend 2/3 of this and produce an invincible, well cared for military force. Now ... how invincible do we really need to be? If our alliances were worth a damn, we could get by with considerably less invincibility. But our recent penchant for expansionist policies makes us an unreliable ally ... the Bushistas must plan on going it alone.

If we were serious about security, we would invest as much money in the processes of peace as we do the machineries of war.

The military industry is one of the largest industry and by far the most powerful industry in the world. And they want to keep on expanding and they are expanding rapidly. After the cold war a lot of calls where made for arms reduction and lots of attempts were made to either stop increasing the defense budget or to even decrease it.

Since the wars have erupted, they have a blank cheque to further increase their fields of operation. It has nothing to do with security. Iraq shows that they have serious security problems which are still unsolved. But the companies in the military industry are doing great. They are even doing many times better than during the cold war.

You are right about the allys there aren't that many left and even the UK which is the closest friend to the US spend significantly less on their military.

When the world gets low on energy resources and ignorant lazy Americans have to start doing without, there's going to be trouble.

If they're smart, they'll be arming themselves with things like advanced cruise missles to take out American carrier groups- because come 2015 or 2020 or so, there's no telling what this country might do.

A poll recently conducted in Australia came up with the following:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Our-new-nightmare-the-United-States-of-America/2005/03/28/1111862327556.html?oneclick=true

Our new nightmare: the United States of America
By Tom Allard and Louise Williams
March 29, 2005

Australians are as just as concerned about United States foreign policy as Islamic extremism and regard the US as more dangerous than a rising China, according to a new poll.

<Snip>
Fifty-eight per cent of those surveyed viewed the US positively, compared with 94 per cent for New Zealand, 86 per cent for Britain, 84 per cent for Japan, and 69 per cent for China.

And this is from one of your closest allies. I wonder how a similar poll would look from, let's say, one of your 'enemies'. Booosh's cavalcade of disasters has the world pissing their pants.

If I were in another country, I would be terrified of what this unpredictable, hostile, violent, bullying nation was going to smack the world with next. I'd be longing for the days of the Cold War. At least then we had "checks and balances" in the world. Now it's all neocon violence.

I am ashamed of my country.

The Bush Junta and Defense Contractors and related industries.

much as it saw Nazi Germany as a threat?