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Originally Posted by alansmithee
They don't have to like us. I'd prefer if they don't, makes it easier to deal with them. But they will keep taking our money, which makes them little more than sycophants, groupies, or whores take your pick.
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Hardly a shock that some non-Americans dislike some Americans.
"They keep taking our money" - what do you think the US government (and armed forces) would do if any of your major trading partners (like China) decided to dump all of their US$ reserves? Or refused to trade with you anymore? If you thought the 30s were bad, you'd better PRAY that it never happens. The Chinese national bank PWNS the US economy. If they dumped their dollars you would see double digit inflation in the US for a generation.
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Originally Posted by alansmithee
There are two major industrialized nations that have English as a primary language (US and UK). Canada is greatly English-speaking, but from what I know from my visits there is that French is the official language in at least one province. In Europe, on the mainland there is no country who primarily speaks English. I don't see what benefit English has over other languages inherently, except for the fact that you can easier deal with US and UK. IIRC, French used to be considered the "universal language". It's definately the primary language in more countries. Also, english is considered one of the more difficult languages to learn. Yet it's the one that most countries choose to focus on.
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English is first language for about 1/3 of the people in the world - for the same reason it's the language in the US. The clue is in the name of the language
India
Australia
Half of Africa
Canada
England
The US.
India is the worlds largest democracy, by the way. And the worlds fastest growing IT based economy. And home to a billion people.
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Originally Posted by alansmithee
I'm sure this all comes off quite a bit arrogant. Well, it is. But many of the posts in this thread seem to boil down to "we like the people (read-their money) but we don't like their administration (read-their having self-interest)". It seems like world opinion wants the US to be a world welfare agency/ATM machine without having it's own interests. And that's ridiculous. All the UN/WTO talk is silly from a US perspective-those bodies are nothing more than a way for the countries who have less power to try to exert authority over countries who have more power. Why should the US listen to the UN? Seriously, what benefit comes from the UN toward the US that couldn't be gotten outside of it? But for France for instance, there's great benefit to having US (or China or Russia for that matter) held under the yoke of UN authority, because otherwise they lack the power to be able to reasonably influence the US.
I mean really, the world hates the US because the US doesn't pay attention to them? Maybe the rest of the world should start looking more internally instead of worring so much about the US.
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TRANSLATION (from a European's perspective) = We's rich. We's powerful. We's gonna shit in your water, and fart in your air. If you disagree that we are entitled to do this we's gunna bomb your asses into the stone age.
Just remember, America, that all the goods you take for granted are made by the people that you shit on every day. One day they will tell you to fuck off, and your economy will be toast.
If you don't believe me, ask the Romans, The Mongols, The Great British Empire, The Soviets.
History does not repeat itself, but it certainly RHYMES.
