The Road to America

[dean_acheson]

Originally Posted by AntEater

The US is just a nation like everyone else (ok, a tad bit larger), guided by self-interest and internal politics. If it is seen to be in the interest of the US government to be helpful, they will, if it is not, they won't. There is no benevolency here, otherwise the US wouldnt have become so powerful...

Again, if this is your opinion, and shared my a majority of Germans, than I find it tragic.

The United States IS NOT just a nation like everyone else.

Please, pardon my confusion, but can you name me any other state in which, at its creation, a Constitution was drawn up, expressly stating that all power lies with its citizens, who agree that the government will have certain responsabilites and duties, and that plan for government was then sent to the citizens of a then non-existent United States, through a ratification process, at which point though majoritarian rule, was such a government established. A government based on the idea that power should be decentralized thorough checks and balances so as to forestall a King or Dictatorship?

Does your country have anyone even comparable to a George Washington? Someone who could have grabbed the reins of power and did not, as well as clearly establishing the supremacy of the civilian government over the military? Did your country ever fight a very bloody civil war, which to a large extent revolved around letting those that were the most powerless be given the civil rights of the rest of society?

Please, if I'm mistaken on this, I'm sure that you will correct me.

I love my country very very much. In fact, I think it is the greatest country in the world. Not only because it is the land of opportunity, and because it is a country that changes itself anew every day, but because it is a place where it is considered in good taste to create a "Marshall Plan" or to help rebuild a Japan. I love the traditions the United States is based on; life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness, and the fact that we are a country that does give a damn what other people have to say. In fact, policy makers here, as well as the public at large spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about what other countries and people think, for God's sake, does any other country, with the possible exception of Isreal, catch as much vitriol at the United States at the UN?

I agree with much, and disagree with much that happens in our country, and in the way that our country is presented to the world, and some of the actions that our goverment takes in the world (the war in Iraq is not one of them), but I would never agree that the United States is a country 'just like any other.' Such an exercise nhilistic realitivacy (sp) is not only depressing, it is wrong.