OT (or is it?): American Imperialism
I was just browsing the newspapers when I saw a mentioning of "Bush squeezing oil out of VASSAL STATE Iraq". I'd thought about this b4, about American global commercial/political/military imperialism. Saddam refused to let WMD inspectors enter his country... and what do the US do? Invade the country... WITHOUT A UN MANDATE. Ok, for Afghanistan, they had one, but for Iraq? The UN was still voting!
And look to the current situation: murders, kidnappings, bombings, urban warfare, etc. Before the invasion, Iraq was stable - opressed, but stable.
A few days back I noticed a small mention in the newspapers of a controversial Iraqi politician who "would rid the Iraqi Parliament of Saddam loyalists". Well, excuse me, but I believe that about the entire Shi'ite population of Iraq were Saddam loyalists... and they comprise about 20% of the Iraqi population. To "rid the Iraqi parliament of Saddam loyalists" would mean shutting TWENTY PERCENT of the ENTIRE IRAQI POPULATION out of parliament. And then what? You could very easily end up with a situation where the Shi'ites are being restricted in many aspects of life - due to laws passed in parliament - which were made by Sunni politicians - which were the only politicians in the parliament. But would the US interfere in case of discrimination like this? I can imagine the official reaction:
"The Iraqi parliament has voted to pass these laws. They were created in a democratic fashion, and we will not interfere with democracy."
Hypocritic son of a *****.
And in the end were there any nukes or WMDs in Iraq? No, just several poorly maintained facilities with radioactive material - which is currently irradiating the population, and the US has not done ANYTHING to prevent it.
Sometimes, I really wonder: why do we allow the US to exert this much influence on us? Why does the US have to interfere everywhere in the world? Why do we still have a f*cking NATO if the US comprises over half of its entire military strength? Why do we allow the US to force us? Why do they have nukes stationed in Europe that almost nobody knows about? Why do US multinatitionals intrude our lives? McDonalds restaurants are to be found everywhere in the world - from Rio to China. In the waning days of the Soviet Union, McDonalds opened restaurants in Moscow. Why? What is it that the US have to demonstrate their power to themselves in every possible way?
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O'Neill: I have something I want to confess you. The name's not Kirk. It's Skywalker. Luke Skywalker.
-Stargate SG1
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