Brian Eno Article Regarding US Policy

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Someone needs to tell Mr. Eno that the USA currently ranks #6 on the United Nations Human Development report which ranks standard of living worldwide of all countries. In Europe, unless you live in Sweden, Norway, or Switzerland, you do not have a standard of living on average as good as the USA. There is no other country that is more engaged with the rest of the world than the USA. Making friends with Saddam will not make the threat he poses to the world go away. Appeasment does not work. The world learned that the hard way over 60 years ago. As for the rule of law, how about the enforcement of 17 Security Council resolutions passed under Chapter VII rules in addition to the conditions of the 1991 Ceacefire Agreement.
 
his arguement is about as old as sting2's robotic blabbering of the 17 rules iraq is breaking.

though, like i said, eno's views are certainly nothing new, what americans need to realize is that they are *shock* nearly as prominent as theirs. *double shock*

*shocked*
 
and on another note, everyone gets so pissed off at me when i point out similiarities between these times and pre world war 2 times, but why is it ok to treat saddam like hitler?

there is absolutely nothing in common between the two other than the fact theyre both dictators. the difference being one was INCREDIBLY stronger than the other AND one was actually a threat to international security. i have a hard time containing laughter whenever i hear dubya saying hes one of the worlds most evil men.

whats the matter georgie? didnt daddy give you enough oil to play around in?
 
Cow of the Seas said:
and on another note, everyone gets so pissed off at me when i point out similiarities between these times and pre world war 2 times, but why is it ok to treat saddam like hitler?

I think I agree with what you are saying here too. I am curious though, what exactly do you find similar about the times. If you do not wish to explain, can you link me to the threads where you have explained this?

Thanks.
 
you know to be honest, i cant remember when i posted them or which threads. sorry.

i do not think bush is as evil as hitler, as hitler will go down in the books as probably the most evil man in history.

well maybe not. there were a few roman emperors who werent the nicest of guys either.

at any rate, hitler and the nazi regime should probably never be compared to anything else. i have compared them to the americans in some ways in the past, and i have learnt that that isnt the best thing to do. its actually quite offensive, and i apologize to anyone i offended.
 
What really gets old here is people who attack the messenger rather than the message. No one has made any literal comparison between Saddam and a prior dictator. I find Saddams failure to either turn over or prove he destroyed, thousands of chemical and biological warheads to be an extreme threat to the world given his prior use of such weapons.
 
Ummm... was that article about Saddam or about the ceasefire agreement? Tsah tsah... I?m out to dance. Have a nice day.

"Europeans tend to regard free national health services, unemployment benefits, social housing and so on as pretty good models of human progress. We think it's important ? civilized, in fact ? to help people who fall through society's cracks. This isn't just altruism, but an understanding that having too many losers in society hurts everyone. It's better for everybody to have a stake in society than to have a resentful underclass bent on wrecking things. To many Americans, this sounds like socialism, big government, the nanny state. But so what? The result is: Europe has less gun crime and homicide, less poverty and arguably a higher quality of life than the U.S., which makes a lot of us wonder why America doesn't want some of what we've got."

Problem is that European politicians have been cutting down the social services for the last ten years. America had Reagan, we had Thatcher, the nineties, so called social democrats and upcoming right wing extremists.
 
Brian Eno = a brillant composer, muscian and collaborator.
Brian Eno = also an atheist.

I dont agree w Mr Eno's polictical views but think he is a brillant artist:|

DB9
 
What Brina Eno's point in terms of standard of living was that given the vast ammount of wealth present in the US there should be no slums with thrid world conditions, or vast numbers of uneducated and undereducated people, or vast numbers of homeless people. Keep in mind that the standard of living recorded is the average standard of living. One Bill Gates ballances out a few dozen homeless people. Unless they were going by a median, and even then there are far too many living way below the median. Heck even take literacy, the US can spout about Castro all they like but it still doesn't beat the fact that Cuba has a higher rate of literacy than the States. Face it the US has far too many problems to declare itself the world's savior. Everytime I hear this patriotic messianic shit coming from the lips of US politicians it makes me want to vomit. Clean up your own back yard before you start criticising the rest of the world Mr. Bush.
 
United Nations Human Development report is based on multiple factors and the USA ranks #6 on that list. Thats a fact. All of the conditions Eno pinned on the USA exist in Europe as well.

I don't recall anyone declaring themselves the worlds savior. But there are a few countries, the USA included, who have realistic foriegn policies that will achieve a better more secure future for the planet as a whole.
 
Realistic for who, STING2? For their own interests, not for the planet as a whole.

Everyone is realistic. The most powerful only have the right to say they are the most realistic.
 
Its in the interest of the planet that Saddam be disarmed. The most effective Foreign Policy to achieve that goal is the one that is being pursued by the USA. Others may have a different opinion, but I was stating mine.
 
American forign policy in the past gave us Trujillo, the Samozas, Batista, Mobutu, Pinochet, the murderous National Guards of every Latin American country, The Shah of Iran, and the Taliban, the Contra-War...

There is significant historical evidence that US forign policy has not always aided the rest of teh world.
 
It has in the sense that Communism was prevented from taking over the planet and another World War was prevented from happening because of US efforts during the Cold War.
 
Oh yes, communism. The greatest threat to mankind, even greater and more horrible than fascism...

:|

Marty
 
To many people who experienced it, it indeed was worse.
 
oh come on, that wasnt communism. that was still fascism with a different mask, we all know that.

but i will agree with sting2 that the ussr's form of communism was downright evil.
 
not entirely healthy, but ive heard some decent things about cuba lately. china, well their human rights record is appalling, and north korea well theyre a bunch of asses lately.

id say cuba is about the only communist country in the world that appears to have something going for it.
 
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