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Post by Mr. Daniel on May 13, 2013 8:56:27 GMT -5
Earlier in Why We Fight (a part we didn’t see), Senator McCain claims that America is the greatest force for good the world has ever known. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? How would we even know if this were a true statement?
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Post by boweng on May 14, 2013 10:20:48 GMT -5
I would actually concur with McCain because I think we are one solid nation that tries to impose good on other nations and frequently as we possibly can. For example, during World War II, we stayed neutral for majority of them war and then we decided to enter the war to support the Allies. Our purpose for entering was to help our allies and to support the side of the war in which we were siding with. We were completely against Hitlers intentions and his army, thus we entered to help all of the innocent people dying due to Hitlers rule.
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Post by Nick Dowdle on May 14, 2013 10:26:59 GMT -5
In the movie the helicopter pilote/gunner made a statement along the line of "we wern't shooting at people we were just shooting at little dots". This statements displays that even the soldiers who do some of the most handouts crimes have a conscious. This relates to Senator McCains statement because it shows how Americans actually care for the actions they are involved in. The United States essentially cares about the welfare of other countries and the overall welfare of the world. For example in the movie they speak about Vietnam (a war that we were never officially involved in). By putting ourselves out there to help our allies is displays our leadership. It appears that the leadership we show in America is unlike any the world has ever seen. The United States is a "think tank" made up of people from all over the world and therefore integrates the entire world. It is unlike any other country ever seen, and is therefore the best force the world has ever seen
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Post by hannahmichalek14 on May 14, 2013 20:36:02 GMT -5
I completly agree with senator Mcains comment on this issue. Our nation is filled with loyalty and common good amongst the people. As nick mentioned, this movie shows a great deal of how the soliders responded to the fighting going on. They claimed how the fighting was shooting "dots" and how they felt guilty for doing this. Our country is a strong nation that raises people with a good consciences, like the soliders mentioned in the movie. I know not everyone is good, but majority of America has not only a good impact among the poeple living in it, but the countries surronding us as well
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nico
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Post by nico on May 14, 2013 23:53:16 GMT -5
The thing is is it right for america to impose what we think is good on other nations as frequently as we can. what if an other country started a war with and changed the way we lived and opperated because they were trying to impose what they thought was good for us. Also in WW2 we did enter the war to support the alleis and their beleives or stop hitler from killing people. we went to war because japan attacked us and then we fought against the nazis because they had to declare war on us due to a treaty. in fact one of our Allies was the oppesive goverment of the soviet union that killed far more people then the nazis ever did.
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Post by peterm on May 16, 2013 9:19:34 GMT -5
I would actually concur with McCain because I think we are one solid nation that tries to impose good on other nations and frequently as we possibly can. For example, during World War II, we stayed neutral for majority of them war and then we decided to enter the war to support the Allies. Our purpose for entering was to help our allies and to support the side of the war in which we were siding with. We were completely against Hitlers intentions and his army, thus we entered to help all of the innocent people dying due to Hitlers rule. I have to disagree with this. First, to say we are a solid is false. The constant disputing between Democrats and Republicans has led to several domestic problems including the current funding cuts due to the inability to compromise. As for the example of WWII, not only is it out of date, it's also incorrect. America didn't enter the war inorder to support the Allies, they only entered after the attack on Pearl Harbor. If we look at something more recent, we put Saddam Hussein into power for personal gain, only to later throw him out of power when he threat American interests in the Middle East. |
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nico
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Post by nico on May 16, 2013 20:40:47 GMT -5
As I alluded to before America had made many bad mistakes. Including putting oppressive dictators in power to replace rightfully elected leaders in South America because it was too are advantage politically and America has started wars. But America has also done very good stuff for the world like help aid African countries and send supplies along with Volunteers to Haiti after the earthquake. Also help countries like South Korea from becoming under the control of crazy communist dictators. So if America is not the greatest force for good the world has ever known. Then what is? I can’t think of any other countries do you guys have any ideas.
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Post by peterm on May 17, 2013 8:53:10 GMT -5
In the movie the helicopter pilote/gunner made a statement along the line of "we wern't shooting at people we were just shooting at little dots". This statements displays that even the soldiers who do some of the most handouts crimes have a conscious. This relates to Senator McCains statement because it shows how Americans actually care for the actions they are involved in. The United States essentially cares about the welfare of other countries and the overall welfare of the world. For example in the movie they speak about Vietnam (a war that we were never officially involved in). By putting ourselves out there to help our allies is displays our leadership. It appears that the leadership we show in America is unlike any the world has ever seen. The United States is a "think tank" made up of people from all over the world and therefore integrates the entire world. It is unlike any other country ever seen, and is therefore the best force the world has ever seen Well having a conscience is important and says something about the morality of America, it doesn't the actions they did commit right. "It's not who we are on the inside, but what we do that defines us." No matter what we think about what we did, we still did it. That includes the chemical warfare in Vietnam, the bombing of innocent people, and, though we did support they in the beginning, we pulled out. We let the communists win. We gave up on the Vietnamese. And just because we are a nation made up of immagrants, doesn't mean we are intergrating the entire world. In the recent years, we have seen a rejection of Muslim culture in our country. We see ignorant people burning the Koran and other acts against those we aren't accustom to and we don't want to intergrate them into the "American Culture." SO, we might be a great force, but a great force for what? |
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Post by peterm on May 17, 2013 9:05:12 GMT -5
As I alluded to before America had made many bad mistakes. Including putting oppressive dictators in power to replace rightfully elected leaders in South America because it was too are advantage politically and America has started wars. But America has also done very good stuff for the world like help aid African countries and send supplies along with Volunteers to Haiti after the earthquake. Also help countries like South Korea from becoming under the control of crazy communist dictators. So if America is not the greatest force for good the world has ever known. Then what is? I can’t think of any other countries do you guys have any ideas. Nations like Canada, Sweden, the Neitherlands, France, Germany (post-WWII), and Switzerland have done portortional amounts of humanitarian work throughout the world, and with agruable fewer mistakes. Well, America has done great things, are they always in the great peace-loving way we think. Yes, we send aid to nations in Africa and Latin-America, but we have to look at the proportions of trade coming out of these countries. We exploite these people and their natural resourses. |
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Post by Nick Dowdle on May 17, 2013 11:18:19 GMT -5
True, peterm we do exploite people and their natural resources. It makes america not appear as "America the Greatest". In situations like South America we abuse our power by spaying unfair wages for those who are working for us. This makes America appear more like "America the UN-great". Perhaps America is not the great country that we think it is. |
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Post by drewcerney on May 17, 2013 11:20:27 GMT -5
I think america is the greatest because we have all the tangibles necessary including money, strong army, and size. We also have pride which makes a strong debate FOR america being the greatest
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Post by basiafolga on May 17, 2013 11:30:25 GMT -5
I disagree with this statement. Yes I believe America is a force for good, but do not believe it is the greatest force for good the world has ever known. How can we be the greatest force for good if we popularized slavery and technically stole this land from the Native Americans? We did these things for our own interest, to benefit ourselves while harming the others. I know these events happened a long time ago, but there are more recent instances where we have not been a force for good. The purpose of the Civil Rights Movement was to equalize the rights of Blacks and Whites. Up until then, rights were based on color. How can we be a force for good if we have domestic problems occuring based on appearance?
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Post by peterm on May 17, 2013 13:24:09 GMT -5
I think america is the greatest because we have all the tangibles necessary including money, strong army, and size. We also have pride which makes a strong debate FOR america being the greatest America is over 16 trillion in debt. Our armed forces buget is being cut (and that just in response to you quote. an amry doesn't make a nation a great force of good e.g. Germany 1940's), and the size of our nation means nothing about how good of a nation we are. The Soviet Union had the larges land mass and population during the cold war, and I don't think anyone would say they were a force of good. |
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Post by isabeller on May 19, 2013 21:44:25 GMT -5
I agree with Basia on how can we tell if we are the greatest force if our history might suggest other wise? Every country has a bad past but i think what is important is to learn and grow and i think that is why america has become or on its way to become a great force, we are not an ignorant country and we recognize mistakes. This is a key part in greatness but that still begs the question what is greatness?
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eryks
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Post by eryks on May 20, 2013 20:29:30 GMT -5
I'm coming in on this topic a bit late but I mainly have to agree with what Basia and Peter said about this country as a whole. In response to Drew, there is no way that the US is the greatest country in the world. I see that your being patriotic and I'm sure we all love the US, but currently the bad outweighs the good in almost category of the US. Like Peter said, we are in terrible debt and this will most likely continue. Next, we dont have a "strong" army, we might have an army that uses the top technology, and an army with the highest population of soldiers, but that doesnt make an army great. QUALITY > QUANTITY And that goes for the portion of size. In some peoples opinions, the idea of having such a large population is a con. And saying that we have pride is a gimmy.... So, the idea of the US being the greatest country for good is way beyond me. We have not proven in any way in the past that we have been a country for the good. For example, we have dozens of domestic policy issues and they have remained unresolved, just causing more policy restraints along with hardships for the US.
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