For the Hate of America !!

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If someone could find our National Revenue, that would help alot with this point. I looked but couldnt find.
But lets take a look at the National Income. And take .1% of that. Thats alot of money. More money than any other country has givin out.(If you can correct me on that please do.)

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CIA World Factbook
GDP US of A purchasing power parity - $9.963 trillion (2000 est.).

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.1% of that amount of money IS a lot of money (that's why I differentiated between relative and absolute figures). The US of A has a population of about 280 million.
That makes a GDP per capita of:

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CIA World Factbook
GDP - per capita US of A:purchasing power parity - $36,200 (2000 est.)

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Let's make this easy. If you take the .1%-figure, you'll see that every American citizin gives about 36.2 USD/year (just an average), and that IS a lot of money.
Or, the US as a country gives about $10,136,000,000 / year. (Note: Bush added an extra 5 billion to that figure earlier this year).

Let's do the same math for some European countries:

Germany (they give almost 1% of the national income to '3rd world support' - I have these figures from a Belgium magazine that quoted a UN-rapport; couldn't find it on the net though).

With a GDP per capita of $23,400 (2000 est.): every German gives about $234.
Or, Germany (as a country, population 85 million) gives about $19,890,000,000 / year. That's almost twice as much as the States, with only 1/3 of the population.

Belgium (about .7% of the national income goes to '3rd world support')

With a GDP per capita of $25,300 (2000 est.): every Belgian gives about $177.
Belgium (as a country, population 10 million) gives about $1,770,000,000. That's less than the US, of course... Belgium only has 1/28 of the US's population...

In fact, Germany, France, Italy, the UK,...all give more money (relatively AND absolutely) than the US of A.

That's NOT more money than any other country has given out ;)

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We shouldnt worry about the starving kids in where ever. Lets leave that to the missionarys. We shouldnt worry about the Civil war in where-ever, lets leave that to the freedom fighters, or terrorist if your on the otherside of the fence.

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My personal opinion on all of this: I think the money we spend on other countries should be spent on our own countries. Belgium has one of the most sophisticated social-security systems in the world, but still there are some Belgians that aren't able of getting at least one decent meal a day (and I know for a fact that there are lots of Americans in the same case). I'm not saying we should totally ignore those other countries, but we should make sure we ourselves are fine before we start helping out others. If we'd totally ignore those other countries though, they'll come after our food/money one day. Plain and simple: those Africans may be poor, but the day they're coming after our food themselves, I'd run like hell (reminds me of that other story: if all Chinese would start jumping at the same time, an immense earthquake would destroy the earth...).

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We should, however worry about the Israelis. WHY? Isnt that the source of alot of the hate of America, as bimmer put so bluntly.
Well, this is a personal opinion but, My aunt is in the IDF, she lives in Tel-Aviv. Most of the time she stands in front of a Quickie Mart(Conveinient Store). Well, if the United States stopped supporting there independance, and their defences, my aunt may not have enough ammunition to cap the suicide bomber headed her way. Ya know, the bottom line is....we should support Isreals Defence, because the Martyrs Brigade, Hammas and all those other groups TARGET civilians. Much like the Terrorist Attacks of 9-11.

When Japan laid down a near fatal blow in Pearl Harbor, we didnt lable them Terrorist. We lost thousands and thousands of Americans. It was an honorable attack. They Targeted a military outpost. Yeah, there was some Civilians casulties, but that was not their main goal. Al-Quida on the other hand, was trained in Terroristic means of combat. I mean have you seen the training manuals for these guy....training them to pump cyanide gas into buildings, urban combat, how to build bombs, ect...

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As you said: a personal opinion. You know I don't agree, but I'm not going to argue about that over and over again...
Something else though: you mention Al-Quada. Just to make things clear: Al-Quada is Taliban (Afghanistan), and is not related to Arafat's PLO, or to Hamas/Al Aqsa...(although there may be some connections).

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But i have to ask my self....how many civilians died in Nagasaki, and Heroshima?

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I'm glad you mentioned Nagasaki/Hiroshima. I just hope that was a lesson learned concerning atomic weapons.

What most people tend to forget about WWII and Japan is that the Japanese during that time were a terribly repressive facist regime hell bent on enslaving all of Asia. The conservative estimates of civilians killed by Japan during the years leading up to WWII are 6 million+ . I do not care to think how many military and civilian causalities would have occurred if we had to invade all of Japan. They put the world in that position. Now the world sits back and forgets.
It is sad that people tend to generalize about Americans. What we need to do is end our dependency on foreign oil, keep out of others peoples business and let the chips fall as they may. As far as our response to 09/11 goes, these people attacked the WORLD trade center. Not only Americans were killed that day!
We as Americans have a lot we need to change. It is about time we focused on what is important, namely our citizens and their well being. We should not expel any more energy on other people’s ignorant misconceptions. This is of course just my take on the whole matter.

I may get a whole lot of Anti-Points for this post but ere it goes anyway

I just recently got back from a TDY to the Middle East (country omitted). I have been to several other foriegn countrys and I am an American through and through. That being said I am apauled to see the amount of misconseptions and ignorance showed in this thread. Dr. Toker especially. Your right about the US giving massive amounts of finacial aid to foriegn countrys. We do that every time we get involved in foriegn affairs but you sadly mistaken if you think that the US is the only one throwing around money.

Yes we the US took down the taliban and in so doing we destroyed Aganistan's government. So to fix that we are restuctering their government. Big suprise that thier new governement will look like an off shoot of our own. But if you honestly think that we could do any less and adopt a lassie-faire attitude toward our foriegn policy then your mistaken again.

This country depends on foriegn goods as much as domestic, if not more. To not protect our intrests is to not protect our livelyhood. America could easyily go down hill fast if we ignored what happened in the world. Yes we are a super power and yes we police other countrys. But we do so with the support of the UN and we go not to fight for others freedom. When we send soldiers to other countrys we are protecting OUR freedom.

In spite of its weapons, the USA is a socially and morally weak country.
On the one hand, there are a lot of loyal flag wavers (maybe a little naive
and too blindly loyal), but there are many here who secretly (or
not so secretly) want to destroy it, because of various personal and
group resentments.

Don't forget the lesson of Austria-Hungary in world war I.
When they began to lose the war, the minority groups
tore tne nation apart. By the time the dust settled,
even those who had been of the "privileged" Austro-german
ethnic group thought of themselves as an "oppressed"
group. There was no one left who was loyal to the former
regime, so it was broken up into several smaller nations.

Every time a new president is elected, large numbers of people
from the losing side say "He's not my president!
The political parties are nothing but bubbling cauldrons
of hate. Rival ideologies have a "take no prisoners"
attitude.

The calls for "national unity" after 9-11 were blatantly
partisan maneuvering to silence the other party,
calling for the kind of "unity" where serious discussion
is squelched. The more external pressure that is put on
us from "terrorism" etc. the more angry and divided we
become.
:cool:

I 'gree rc, but I don't see how you can call the US morally and socially weak, as opposed to what are we weak??

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as opposed to what are we weak??

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I guess I mean we are divided.
:cool:

Heh heh, kewl, I'll give ya that, too bad too.

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Originally posted here by lobstermagnet


That being said I am apauled to see the amount of misconseptions and ignorance showed in this thread. Dr. Toker especially....your sadly mistaken if you think that the US is the only one throwing around money.

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Hmmm... direct insults to my intelligence. Boy, how I love that. Unfortunatley your statement doesnt hold water. I never stated that the United States was the only government that gave out money. I did however make an incorrect statement about the USA giving the most. I figured I was wrong on that statement, but i couldnt find the info I was looking for at google. So I asked the one guy I knew would set me straight. Negative. And he did. Maybe I was showing ignorance, but after all your only ignorant until, someone sets you straight. Unless your stupid, stupidity however, will never fade.


QUOTE] Originally posted here by lobstermagnet


But if you honestly think that we could do any less and adopt a lassie-faire attitude toward our foriegn policy then your mistaken again.

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We should do less! How many Terrorist attacks were there when the gov had a lassie-faire policy? How many people hated the United States when we kept to our selves.

Its like me when i was in high school. I would come into class, standing out like a sore thumb cause I was the only white guy in my classes. I would keep to myself, wouldnt say a word to anyone. Kept my head down, never really looking anyone in the eye. Well, maybe I wouldnt help the guy next to me cheat on his homework, however i wouldnt talk shyt to him either. I never got in a fight at that school. But surprisingly, as soon as I open my mouth and started being Social, is when all the problems started for me. So do I think America should be anti social? Yes.

I hope that makes my point a little more acceptable. Otherwise I think I should quit while I still have my 2nd bright green dot.

Does nobody agree with me on this? I find that hard to belive.

As an American and a US Marine i take grave offense when i hear anyone bad mouthing our country.. a few weeks ago i was in norway and the sentiment about sept 11th was shocking and others thoughts on our country/foreign policies..i heard things like it shouldve been expected and it was our fault and when some jerk said that it was "funny & you had it coming" i knocked him out and drug him out to the street and lumped him up...
our country has made mistakes, but so have all other nations.. i think if you were to weigh out the good and the bad we are still pretty darn good..
thats my 2cents
Leadbelly

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We should, however worry about the Israelis. WHY? Isnt that the source of alot of the hate of America, as bimmer put so bluntly.

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i understnad that this is a personal thing... but if we are not helping anyone... i say that includes israel. i think that in all situations, there are two sides of the fence. in israel esp. i mean the suicide bombers are fighting against israeli occupation... this is the only way they know how to fight.;... and as for the talk of targetting civilians... the USA blew up a wedding party in afghanistan... no one is sure why yet.

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As an American and a US Marine i take grave offense when i hear anyone bad mouthing our country.. a few weeks ago i was in norway and the sentiment about sept 11th was shocking and others thoughts on our country/foreign policies..i heard things like it shouldve been expected and it was our fault and when some jerk said that it was "funny & you had it coming" i knocked him out and drug him out to the street and lumped him up...

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we did have it coming... we were the only nation that didn't see it coming. sept 11th was as much our fault as it was whoever attacked us. we pissed someone off... we should have expected retaliation. we would have retaliated if the shoe was on the other foot... i mean, you beat up some guy cause he made you mad.... similar situation, ironically. we made someonemad... they beat us up.

edit: I also would like to express that i agree with Dr. Toker on the fact that we should be a little more antisocial as a country... this is one of the biggest causes of our nations troubles.