Elmarnieh wrote:
Its something I tell myself for your sake actually. You're too smart to not come to this conclusion without having been conditioned or perhaps some deep seated biological need for authority.
In other words, you think your conclusion is the only one any right-thinking person could come to without "conditioning". It's simply zealotry.
Quote:
"The Founder's fear of standing armies was silly, nonsensical, doesn't fit with modern times anyhow"
Right, in modern times armies have never backed a single leader and comitted atrocities agaisnt their own people. You and I know neither of us could list all the nations and times this has happened. Why do you state that which you know is false?
Because if you don't have a standing army, someone else will come in and do the same thing. The fact that some armies have engaged in military coups doesn't change this; that's in a large part a climate of those militaries that doesn't exist in ours. The only countries that can get away with not having a military are essentially barren rocks in the ocean with precious few resources, and in remote locales, or are otherwise too small to effectively defend themselve in the first place.
Quote:
"It is not harmful to our economy, foriegn relations, or safety in any way."
Any way?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/24/theobserverhttp://www.thenation.com/doc/20011015/johnsonI am sure you've read both before though so again I ask - why do you state things which you know are false?
Because A) the simple fact that we have enemies is not evidence that the military harms our foriegn relations, and B) neither is the argument that we've employed it in ways others don't like.
What you're really claiming is that our
policies may have harmed those things, so no, I don't "know it to be false".
Overall, we benefit in all of those areas from having a powerful military. In all of those areas we'd be worse off without it because we'd have been conquered piece by piece long ago once we moved past the point where assembling a militia had any hope of defending the country. We wouldn't even be having this conversation.
Both of those things you cited..
Well, where is Bin Laden now? So he's pissed at us? Well, guesss what happened to his sponsors and protectors in the Taliban. They're holed up in Pakistan trying to figure a way to get their country back. All he can do these days is inspire incompetants to go try to blow up a plane with their shoes and underwear.
South America? Aside from the fact that most of what you're talking about was in relation to keeping the Communists from taking over those countries and doing far worse, they learned to play ball. Do we have major problems wih South America these days? No? Just one blowhard in Venezuela making desperate claims about how our secret weapons cause earthquakes.
I'm not seeing any harm there. The point of foriegn relations is to secure benefits for your own country, not to make everyone like you.