Ahh, how quickly you forget the Iraq war. The government as a whole can, has been, and will be coerced, scared, bullied into submission. If it can happen to entire populations of people then dont be so quick to say it cant happen here. Actually, it happens here quite a bit.. TARP anyone? Patriot Act?
These acts are becoming ever more necessary with the increasing threat of terrorism. Violence and war evolves, so a country needs to evolve along with it. If we stick to our doctrine of liberty and privacy, terrorists will raze this country to the ground. For anyone to say liberty and privacy is more important than human life is kind of scary.
It isnt the politicians themselves but the money interests behind them that make the calls. You dont get into office because of your ability to stand for whats right/be a moral example.. you're put there to further the interests of the highest bidder(s).
I'm sure that's how it is for some of them, but not all of them.
Just do some research on the money involved in the Iraq war and the private entities profiting from the whole thing.. a war for profits is really all it was. Over a hundred thousand civilians lost their lives in the Iraq war... for what?
Oh no, people took advantage of a situation and profited from it! That's capitalism. Either you love it or you loathe it.
And FYI, Saddam killed hundreds of thousands of Kurds before we got there. We saved their asses from complete annihilation and extermination.
I appreciate your faith in the good ol' US but you need to take off the camouflage underwear and stop looking at our system through these apple pie tinted glasses. We wont become Nazi Germany, but I definately think these sorts of measures are a precursor to war/in the event of future war. How imminent that is, I have no idea, but pissing off China with war games right on the edge of their waters, constantly chattering about Iran, and now North Korea.. it seems clear to me we are looking for trouble.
First of all, China is up to their **** claiming they own all of the China Sea, despite the 12 nautical mile rule that every nation obeys. They started all of that. They were the ones threatening other small nations that the water is theirs. That is why the President started strengthening ties with Australia to combat this growing pressure. We didn't start this crap at all. And we're the only ones that are carrying exercises on the edge of their waters? So are they, and they started it first.
Iran was the one who started the whole crap about the Hormuz Straight. Not us. And...
, we're protecting China's interests by patrolling the waters and safeguarding passing ships! How evil we are!
We have a tendency to create huge enemies out of little countries for dubious reasons, mostly market driven as well as for physical regional influence, which of course is to keep our foriegn markets safe.
Again, this is capitalism. You love it or you loathe it. No one had to do any business with us if they didn't want to.
The fact that the US spends more on it's military than the next seventeen nations combined should give you some thought as to our intentions. I mean its one thing to have the biggest military in the world, but common. What causes a country to think they need an apparatus of that size? Have you ever wondered why our police departments across the country have all been militarized?
How many people around the world hate us? Too many to count. That's why our military needs to be so powerful. People hate our lifestyle and how we do things, but we aren't going to let them put a stop to it. Our military protects our interests and human lives. The strength of a nation is its army. The strength of an army is its soldiers. The strength of soldiers is their families.
Our version of the dictator is/are the economic assassins we have in our country, and it's a double-edged sword as we are starting to see (and should have seen coming a mile away if we had paid attention in History class). Greed knows no nationality.
It's an up and down cycle. We just made 200,000 jobs last month and unemployment is down to 8.5%. The people making millions of dollars aren't just sitting on their money. They are reinvesting and making the world turn. They earned the money they made, and they are the ones giving us jobs so we can work. I thank corporations and rich fat cats every day for giving me a job. If you don't like the capitalist system, maybe it's best you live somewhere else.
