Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to No, what this is about...

Re: Yes and no . . .
D. Spires — (archived)

<What we are saying is, we still want to be in charge, but we want other people to pay for it. So are we the beacon of liberty, or are we just a benevolent protection racket? How do we wish to be seen? Do we care? It's not about being overbearing to our enemies, but overbearing to our friends.

Only three choices? How about as an intelligent leader who doesn’t mind if the nations we’re toting around carry a little of their own weight from time to time. You can blow all this up into a battle of semantics, or who-said-what-about-who-or-what-but-really-meant-this-which-they-clearly-did-not, but what it really boils down to is that the U.S. is large, and the bad guys fear us. This results in peace for the western hemisphere -- as well as stagnation for those who gather around us for proven protection. Sharing the bill is not a bad thing.

S_M got ticked, as a Canadian, because the US has precious little grounds for criticizing his nation for sending people overseas with the Americans to get shot at by Afghanis and Americans. Many Canadians have not forgotten this incident. Additional arrogance is no remedy.

I saw no “additional arrogance,” and I really see no need, desire, or requirement for the U.S. to ever shed any of its physical and moral superiority. We merely happen to be superior and, all things considered, I like to think we do a pretty damn good job of it.

As for war budgets, and as I touched on somewhere above, it will always be cheaper to murder, steal and harm than to solve the crime, try the criminal, and exact justice. Always. Ergo, the military budget of a successful nation on the global platform will, and must, be large, and for the most successful nation that has ever existed on this global platform, it just happens to be successfully monstrous.

And Einstein was incorrect. WW III was fought with words and boycotts, and we're in WW IV now. ROW seems to have a hard time realizing this.

As an aside, WW V will be the real monster, if we don’t get a firm handle on genome, protein function, nanotech and biotech -- which could very well result in total annihilation of all life in the entire Solar system, possibly beyond, or human perfection and immortality.

I also believe that if “the Almighty does not shoot craps,” the capability is likely still there.

Dan

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