Politics America: Right or Wrong Direction

[ALIAS_RULES]

What a gross hyperbole.

[post="1002347"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

That is not a hyperbole. The vast majority of the world hates Bush. Trust me on that.

 

[Princess Jeanie]

That is not a hyperbole. The vast majority of the world hates Bush. Trust me on that.

[post="1004153"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

Trust you??? Trust that you can misrepresent (or not represent) general opinion. Nah.

 

[ALIAS_RULES]

Most of the world does hate Bush!

More Pics:

Wellington

Rome

Taiwan

Stockholm

Kuala Lampur

Bern

Sao Paulo

EVEN SCIENTISTS IN ANTARCTICA!!!

BAGHDAD

Madrid

ANTI-WAR protests in:

Greece

UK-Oct 31

Canadians-March to Ottawa Parliament Hill in -10f temperature. Canada did not go.

Canada-Toronto

MORE:
http://www.kmuplus.ch/fdemo_2.html


I can find more... As you can see. Not a hyperbole at all.

 

[Princess Jeanie]

Yes. We even have riots like that in the US. That proves that populations in different countries don't like us, hey some of us don't like us. Your pictures don't shock me, nor do they prove me wrong. An uprising in the populations doesn't prove a that the general population of the world hates us.

 

[Ophelia]

Oh, so the people in those pictures are expressing their love for us, right? I think not.

We are going to be decades mending fences with our allies after Bush gets voted out. :angry:

 

[ALIAS_RULES]

Boy do you have it all wrong. Let's start a thread here, and see if international people like Bush.

 

[Natalia]

The security of this nation should be put well, well ahead of our image.

Yes, but you keep forgetting that the US is in a unique situation. It is the only country who somehow effects every other country in the world. Why? Because it is the most powerful, and because it leads the Western world.

The plain arrogance of some of the people here to that fact is infuriating. For any other country to form an allegiance with America right now is an enormous risk, and yet it is something many countries need to do, or are compelled to do. Since Australia has shown the US support after September 11, we have been the target of many terrorist bombings (Bali, and a number in Jakarta, a plot to blow up an embassy near where I live in Canberra, and so on).

The image of the US is more than just about how people feel. It effects the national security of the US and other countries, so it is tied to national security. Why do you think national security is such an issue right now? Because America has an appalling image around the world. And if you don't believe me, get out there and see what the world thinks. Don't rely on the American press. I spend at least three months a year travelling to various countries, and the hatred towards the US is often quite confronting (especially in places like India). In Italy, France, England, and a lot of other countries I have been to, I have watched as American friends of mine are inspected and treated like terrorists and enemies, while I am waved through with barely a glance. I know a lot of Americans who have been shocked at the hatred directed towards them around the world.

If this is America moving in the right direction, I'd be really interested to know what the wrong direction looks like.

It is extremely ignorant to think it doesn't matter what kind of image you have.

I think people should pay attention to one of the Kerry quotes I saw on the news. I can't remember it exactly, but it was something like, "Stronger at home, respected around the world."

 

[scope]

the vice pres of the us was in dekalb, IL this past saturday night and there where ton of protest going on. to see pictures go to www.northernstar.info i think we need to get the monkey out of office. to all you people on this site that are my age (20ish) we need to get out and vote. our vote really does matter.

 

[PunkRockGirl]

It is extremely ignorant to think it doesn't matter what kind of image you have.

So why do people hate America so much? We are fighting against terrorism, but we look like the bad guys. I mean even you said:

Since Australia has shown the US support after September 11, we have been the target of many terrorist bombings (Bali, and a number in Jakarta, a plot to blow up an embassy near where I live in Canberra, and so on).

Shouldn't people blame the terrorist for the acts they commit?

I don't understand what did people expect us to do after September 11th? Nothing? Say that's not nice? We tried the UN.

:angry:

 

[Princess Jeanie]

Boy do you have it all wrong. Let's start a thread here, and see if international people like Bush.

[post="1004305"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

Why?? Because you say so? Seriously, show me a reputable international poll that shows that a majority of the world population hates us. I'm sorry but an AllAlias poll does not count as anything when you are talking about what the world thinks. BEFORE EVERYONE COMES AFTER ME, I'm just saying that we are a very small part of the population and hardly a good representation. You can already tell that most of the AA group is liberal or follows such beliefs...which probably has to do with the fact that most of us are 13-25 yrs. old.

I do think that our image on the world stage matters, but I don't think it should ever be put as a higher priority then our security. Like PunkRockGirl said, why are you blaming us and not the people who are committing the acts-we didn't make them do it.

 

[PunkRockGirl]

Security and the efforts against terrorism are first on my list.

George Washington said:
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace."

Kerry also voted to go to war only he denied military funding. Think of how many more US solders would have died.

We need to be prepared.

 

[ALIAS_RULES]

He voted against funding because Bush refused to allow the UN time to participate. That's why! He isn't about a unilateral war effort.

Shouldn't people blame the terrorist for the acts they commit?

I don't understand what did people expect us to do after September 11th? Nothing? Say that's not nice? We tried the UN.

Well maybe if your governments stopped acting like total arrogant retards, bombing whatever country they wish, and causing conflicts with all these others, then people wouldn't hate you so much. Why don't you think there are terrorist attacks in Canada?

 

[Spike]

Listen we had the world on our side after 9/11. People loved us and were willing to help us at any cost. The international support for the war in Afghanistan was amazing, but Bush and his administration screwed it up. If conservatives wan to play the "Shouldn't we blame the terrorists" card then I'd like to ask them a question. Where is Osama Bin Laden? Didn't Bush vow to do whatever it took to catch him? I don't remember fighting a War in Iraq based on false pretenses counting as "whatever it takes". Wasn't he that one guy who was sorta responsible for 9/11 and consequently the War in Iraq? Why don't we catch him I think that would be a nice morale booster.

 

[Natalia]

Shouldn't people blame the terrorist for the acts they commit?

Of course the terrorists should be blamed. The reason people find it so easy to blame America is because the US government comes across to the rest of us as arrogant bullies. The kind of attitudes some poeple here have expressed, like, "Why should we care what the rest of the world thinks about what we do?", are at the core of the problem. It looks to the rest of the world like America doesn't care who they hurt, as long as America benefits. Rightly or wrongly, that's the way it looks.

Even when things are done with best of intentions, there have been too many inexcusable blunders. I will use the example I used before. In Iraq, the US tried to make themselves out to be saviours and protectors. In front of a huge crowd of Iraqis, they pull down a statue of Saddam. What's the first thing they do? They wrap the American flag around it.
Now, if you were an Iraqi citizen, that would look to you like the troops were invading and conquering. And it did. It didn't matter that somebody told them to take the flag down. The damage had been done. I can't believe they were stupid enough to be waving the US flag around in the first place.

It's not just what the US government is doing, but also the way they are going about it.

Seriously, show me a reputable international poll that shows that a majority of the world population hates us.

Get out of the US, and you will have all the proof you need. Like I have said, I travel to at least half a dozen countries every year, and there is enormous anti-American sentiment. I know a lot of Americans who have had trouble in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, etc. My father works for a huge multi-national company and is based in India. He works with a huge number of Americans who travel the world with their work, and they have problems everywhere they go. Watch the news. Those protests taking place in every corner of the globe are anti-American, not pro-American!!

It's not the fault of the American people, but of your leaders. If Bush is voted back into power, the resentment felt towards the US is just going to get stronger.

Why don't you think there are terrorist attacks in Canada?

Exactly. Any country who aligns themselves too closely with America is in trouble. That is evidence enough that the US is not exactly everybody's favourite place at the moment.

George Washington said:
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace."

Okay, no offense, but I don't think it's appropriate to use that quote in this situation. When he said this, the world was a different place. Wars were fought about territory, about which country got to rule the land. This is a different kind of war. Saddam was hardly about to invade the US by sea, hoping to claim the country as his own!
And Bush is more than prepared for war. He's making wars in other people's countries, not preparing for an invasion!

 

[IsabellaOfSweden]

Notice how everyone around the world dislikes Bush. There's a reason for that.

[post="1002333"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

Yes, I heard on the news that every single country in europe except poland dislike Bush, and that it was very close between bush and kerry there. In Asia there was only one country supporting Bush! I think it was Indonesia.

-Isabella

 

[Natalia]

Ugly sentiments sting American tourists
By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
As an A-list celebrity, actor Vince Vaughn employs an array of weapons to cope with hecklers, from a Saharan wit to a waiting limo. 

But during a movie shoot recently in England, Vaughn found himself repeatedly reaching for the same comeback. Three totemic words from the attic of history: the Marshall Plan.

"I'd say one in three conversations wound up the same way, basically that 'America is the devil.' So I'd ask folks to think about the Marshall Plan a bit and get back to me," says Vaughn, 32, referring to the Allied blueprint for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. "In the end, though, I just had to tell people, 'I'm not having this discussion anymore.' "

But if you're heading overseas, be prepared to have it. Again and again. If the past 100 years were widely considered the American Century, this new one is fast shaping up as the Anti-American Century.

Just ask tourist Colleen Frost, 33, who hopped into a cab recently on her first day in Berlin. An English-speaking driver demanded an explanation for what he called "America's megalomania."

"He wanted to know what I would think of my country if my brother or boyfriend was killed in a war," says Frost, a dental hygienist from Santa Fe. She says the ride was over before she could provide an answer for the disgruntled cabby.

How times have changed.

A mother lode of goodwill fostered in the decades after the defeat of Nazi Germany has been reduced to dust in recent years. A growing number of foreigners see some of the United States' political decisions (pulling out of the Kyoto Treaty on global emissions) and personal choices (Americans' penchant for gas-loving SUVs) as at best unilateral and at worst selfish. The confrontation over Iraq is just more fuel on a bonfire.

From Spanish plazas to Parisian metros, American tourists are being quizzed, grilled and even spat on by people who do not approve of the Bush administration's drive for a war against Saddam Hussein.

As a result, a declining number of Americans (54% today vs. 79% a year ago) believes that the USA enjoys a favorable image abroad, according to a recent Gallup poll. And a majority of Americans (64%) cite a fear of unfriendliness as the top concern of traveling abroad during wartime, according to a survey in the February issue of Conde Nast Traveler.

Anecdotal evidence from across Europe indicates those fears are not unfounded.

"I've spent 100 days a year for the past 30 years in Europe, and, generally, people always managed to differentiate a government's action from its citizens," says Rick Steves, a Seattle-based tour operator who specializes in Europe.

"But I have never seen this level of frustration in my lifetime. They just can't understand our push for war, especially the younger generation."

Steves says the current climate is in stark contrast to the "breathtaking" we-are-all-Americans sentiment that gripped Europe on Sept. 11, 2001. He is not discouraging his clients from traveling abroad now, and cancellations have been few. That said, his Web site features a flurry of concerned exchanges about overseas travel. Steves urges would-be tourists to pack the right attitude.

"Being defensive does no good. You have to keep things in perspective and listen," he says. "At its best, travel remains a vital force in promoting understanding."

And is it ever needed. If European criticism of the United States was previously limited to newspaper headlines and kaffeeklatsch debates, the tug of war over Iraq has unleashed a torrent of frustrated invective on the streets.

Much of such vitriol is aimed at the Bush administration. That has never been more in evidence than during the weekend of Feb. 15, when more than 6 million people in roughly 60 countries hit the streets in some of the largest anti-war protests since the Vietnam War.

But sometimes this antagonism filters down directly to the American tourist.

Laurel Scapicchio and her 13-year-old daughter were waiting for a train in the Paris metro a few weeks ago when their conversation was interrupted. Two men in their 20s overheard their American accents and shouted, "Pigs!"

"It brought us back to reality," says Scapicchio, 42, a freight forwarder from Saugus, Mass., who was on her first trip to the French capital. "It was a little spooky. But we shrugged it off. It wasn't personal. It was just because we were Americans."

European tourism officials, who are battling a 19% drop-off in U.S. travel since a record 13.1 million visited in 2000, discount such incidents as aberrations.

"I am certain that a number of American visitors will be asked about the U.S. administration's policy on Iraq. But if indeed there have been some unpleasant encounters, I strongly believe that they are few and far between," says Patrick Goyet, vice chairman of the European Travel Commission in New York. "Furthermore, speaking as a European and for the vast majority of my fellow Europeans, I consider any such behavior idiotic and embarrassing."

Be ready for harsh words

Nonetheless, many Americans abroad have stories to tell. Their warning? Expect the unexpected. While living in Spain recently, Jane Kelly, 20, recalls a friend being spat on for being American.

  Tips for blending in   

Concerned about being a magnet for anti-Americanism during your next trip abroad? Bruce McIndoe, CEO of iJet Travel Intelligence, offers his tips for staying under the radar:

Avoid American fast-food restaurants and chains.

Keep discussions of politics to private places, not rowdy bars.

Take a rain check on wearing clothes featuring American flags or sports team logos.

Keep your passport out of sight.

Keep cameras, video equipment and maps tucked away.

Soften your speech; Americans typically overshadow their hosts in the volume department.

"In any country you're going to get people who do this," says Kelly, who was studying at the Madrid campus of Boston's Suffolk University.

However, fellow student Kate Perlis, 20, says the atmosphere was charged. "It seems that the only English a lot of people there know are the words, 'We hate Bush.' "

Joshua Eckblad, 28, an American high-tech manager living in Madrid, has had similar experiences. Daily he faces the comments of Spaniards who "feel free to say anything against America, who think Bush and his people know nothing about the world."

His sister, Vanina, 27, an architect living in Paris, has fared no better. She says that the other day a man on the street "told me to go back to where I came from."

Such run-ins can cause some visitors to contemplate retreat. When Linda Severson, an American who has lived in Brussels for two years, was visiting Amsterdam recently with her mother, the pair found themselves at the Hard Rock Cafe, surrounded by anti-American protesters.

"We were looking down at all the demonstrations and signs that said 'Kill Bush, not Iraqis,' and we just sat there stunned," she says. "We felt a little homesick."

During Vaughn's stay in England, he found himself criticized on all those levels. Like a boxer countering each blow, he shot back with the best responses he could.

Sometimes the complaints left him speechless, like the time he was told " 'America had no culture' by a kid wearing a Kobe Bryant T-shirt and listening to rapper DMX."

But one incident really stung.

"Man, it was bad," says the Rat Pack-y star of Swingers. "These girls saw us and were kind of flirting, and they kept asking us if we were American. Finally we said, 'Yes,' and they just took off.

"One girl turns and says, 'We were hoping you were Canadian.' Canadian? Since when was it cooler to be Canadian?"

Contributing: Ellen Hale in London, Noelle Knox in Brussels, Vivienne Walt in Paris, Jody K. Biehl in Berlin and Laura Bly

 

[Itz tha Dreila]

He voted against funding because Bush refused to allow the UN time to participate. That's why! He isn't about a unilateral war effort.
Well maybe if your governments stopped acting like total arrogant retards, bombing whatever country they wish, and causing conflicts with all these others, then people wouldn't hate you so much. Why don't you think there are terrorist attacks in Canada?

[post="1005097"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

Yeah exactly. We're making ourselves targets.

 

[Alias_Addict47]

Yeah exactly. We're making ourselves targets.

[post="1015304"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

Ya, that's bad

 

[agnes bean]

Wrong, definitly. As long as we have The Patriot Act, there is no way we're heading in the right direction.

 

[ALIAS_RULES]

One other thing, Americans were VERY ANGRY when the US was attacked. Imagine how Iraqis feel now that MOST of their country has been destroyed by more than 10 YEARS of war. Imagine that.

One attack angered Americans so much. It showed that America was not invisible. But look at the Iraqis who have suffered for more than 10 years through US bombing campaigns. It's ridiculous.

The problem is that many Americans take war way too lightly. It's really stupid because they do not see the value in human lives.

Bush told the US's allies, hey, if you don't fight, you don't get to help in the Iraq restructuring. This creates the impression that he was there just for the profit. Bush refused to allow the UN to participate after Baghdad fell. That is the type of president you have. One who thinks he OWNS the world. Bush is isolating American allies.

It's also funny how of all the ministries, they didn't care about the nuclear energy ministry at all, and they only defended the ministry of oil. I mean, the intel Bush received clearly stated that Iraq was not involved in 9/11 in any way, and it said that there were no links b/w Iraq and Al Qaeda. Bush still lied to the public and said there were. What message does this create to the world? American soldiers defending the oil ministry only, and not caring abuot any place else?

Do you actually think that this is the way to decrease anti-american sentiment? I can assure you that if you do, you're wrong.

Kerry can definately handle the war on terror better.

It's an interestting point that the ministry of oil was the only one protected while the US was bombing.

It was excellent to see how Bush is not even giving his soldiers proper funding. Soldiers are being forced to BUY their own protection.

Kerry made an excellent point when he showed how the Bush adminstration does not even talk about Bin Laden anymore. I hear conservatives saying, "we have to defend our country!" Well, you had your chance. The war in Iraq is not a war on terrorism.
The 9/11 commission showed that the INTEL Bush had said that there were no links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Bush has 200x more troops in Iraq than he does in Afghanistan... uh hello, does anyone see a problem there? No links between Iraq and Al Qaeda, yet the US has over 200 000 soldiers in Iraq and only like 20 000 in Afghanistan.

It's also interestting how the US has no soldiers in N. Korea, and no soldiers in Iran. You know though, Iraq is the gold pot. In the 9/11 commission's report, the committee found that Bush had told his advisors to "prepare for a war on iraq" with possible plans to "occupy the oil wells." I mean, it's so funny how people are not piecing this together. THIS is what your president is about.

-Bush was unable to answer any of Kerry's points. He just stayed silent when Kerry mentioned that the ministry of oil was the only one protected. He just stayed silent about the fact that the 9/11 Commission found that the intel he had said that Iraq had no links between Al Qaeda, and didn't explain why he so adamantly stated that Iraq did. He never answered why soldiers are being forced to buy special protection. He didn't explain to the American public why he moved the troops to Iraq and paid Afghan warlords to try to track Bin Laden when they were fighting against the US just weeks earlier. You had Bin Laden cornered, yet you left him. Is that how you handle a war on terror?

Think carefully. PLEASE.

VOTE KERRY!!!!
VOTE FOR DEMOCRACY!
VOTE FOR PEACE!
VOTE FOR EQUALITY!

Kerry is your man.