How much of the answers to these questions are true?

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by MrFun


Protect democracy -- are you alluding to our "white burden of little brown brothers" policy, or the policy of supporting anti-communist dictatorships??

Or are you talking about both policies?

both

they protect our democracy

Jon Miller

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Pekka
But Japher is correct. We can make these lists of any country. What's the point? It's clear bias.. anti-US trash people. They consider US bashing a hobby, which keeps them occupied because they can't afford to do anything else. Losers.

What's annoying is that they devalue the things that are valid criticisms.

[Adam Smith]

Originally posted by Japher

Question 11: Aside from Somalia, which is the only other country in the world to have refused to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?
A: The United States of America.

What does that have to do with anything? I would like to see the justifications for this, as I am sure they are good and worthy of more explination than this.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child would prohibit international adoptions without the specific consent of both biological parents. This would effectively halt adoptions from countires where children are abandoned e.g., China. The US is by far the largest destination for international adoptees. IIRC there are about 5000 adoptees each year from China alone. Those 5000 little girls are certainly happy the US did not sign this treaty.

PS: This is at least the third time I have responded to this uninformed bullshit. I'm getting tired of it.

[Japher]

Thanks Adam Smith, I thought there had to be a better reason than preventing us from executing minors.

[Jon Miller]

it is also porrly written, and is not followed by a good portion of it's signies

we at the least follow it in spirit

Jon Miller

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Cruddy
Agent Orange for one.

Agent Orange was not a weapon, per se. It was not known at the time of it's early deployment to have long-term effects on humans exposed to it and was believed to be safe for short term direct exposure. It was intended as a defoliant to deny the enemy concealment, not to directly attack the enemy.

[Japher]

Is napalm considered a chemical weapon or a defoliant?

[Kropotkin]

Originally posted by Japher
That is not a contradiction of ideals when talking to a patriot.

So, it's a normative statement? In that case it has little or nothing to do with reality (neither has the article, for the same reason).

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Jon Miller


both

they protect our democracy

Jon Miller

So we use racist ideology and puppet dictatorships to protect democracy.

But it's not like that brings up glaring, fundamental contradictions or paradoxes, right?

[SlowwHand]

What it means is sometimes one has to pick the lesser of two evils.
Utopia only exists in some people's mind.

[MrFun]

Utopia is unrealistic -- that's obvious.

But using the cliche "choose a lesser evil" is an overused justification to commit "legal" crimes against humanity in the name of "democracy."

What a hoot!!!!

[Japher]

MrFun, your sounding like Boris; war is murder and can never be justified.

While this is a resounding fact, the overused cliche must be used. In a democracy that recognizes that a(n) untopia is an unrealistic pipe dream you will always be faced with "the lesser of two evils" in order to create a "better" - not perfect - world.

[Dr Strangelove]

Name one person under the age of 18 executed in the US in the past one hundred years. We always wait until AFTER their eighteenth birthday.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Japher
MrFun, your sounding like Boris; war is murder and can never be justified.

While this is a resounding fact, the overused cliche must be used. In a democracy that recognizes that a(n) untopia is an unrealistic pipe dream you will always be faced with "the lesser of two evils" in order to create a "better" - not perfect - world.

So we can justify crimes against humanity through the dictatorships we support?

Maybe the better solution is to set up puppet democracies, and not puppet dictatorships.

[st_swithin]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
No matter if any or all is true, the only option to none of it happening is to turn to isolationism.

Once again people show there's no trick to judging, after the fact.

Isolationism's a great idea - we could build a great big city with a wall around it called the Forbidden City and refuse to speak to or trade with other countries.

Then we could watch the empire collapse upon itself like a dying star after abruptly self-destructing from the inside through misleading propaganda and self-righteous leaders.

Then we could shoot at protesting college students in the middle of Times Square.

Anybody else see 28 Days Later? Great flick.