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Who is "you guys?"
Care to compare with me all the locales you have visited?
Quit being so goddamn passive!
If you have a point to make, do so; spare me the "mean people suck" drivel.
Smeagol is Argentinian for Mcfly.
Who is "you guys?"
Care to compare with me all the locales you have visited?
Quit being so goddamn passive!
If you have a point to make, do so; spare me the "mean people suck" drivel.
I don't believe the majority of the world hates the US. I agree with Clandestino. I think the majority of the people out there would give their left nut to be here.
"I think the majority of the people out there would give their left nut to be here."
Would you like to bet your left nut on that?
What's so difficult about the phrase: "You guys". You speak Englih, don't you?
You guys is whoever thinks the US is the most popular country out there.
Huh?
Language barrier
I've already made my point. What is your point?
The le of the thread is a question. Try to answer it instead of posting systematic attacks against me.
Huh?
Ok, if you say so.
i lived overseas for a long time and MOST of the people didn't dislike the U.S.A. They didn't agree with all of our thinking, but they didn't not like us.
My experience has been different. I've been to about a dozen different countries and in pretty much every one of them I had to listen to a lot of anti-American rants. And all this was before Iraq. They usually will say that it's because of our foreign policy, but when you question people more indepth they don't seem to be very educated on our foreign policy beyond the generic America as world police stuff. Europeans might bring up examples of our interferance in various countries but these same people are totally disinterested and/or unaware of Europe's interference all over the world, particularly Asia (India, Indochina) , the mid-east (a lot of the Palestine/Israel BS can be pinned on Britain) and Africa. I've met French people who lambast the U.S. over Vietnam but when you want to talk about their Vietnam war or Algeria or the greenpeace boat they blew up in Australia it's "lalalala....I can't hear you....lalalal". There is hardly a powerful nation on earth that can complain about the U.S. meddling in other people's business. All nations will interfere in any matter that is of strategic significance to that nation to whatever degree their power allows them.
I think the dislike of America comes down to jealously, envy, insecurity and fear.
Well when I was in the Corps in '79 and was overseas the US was the envy of many people. I remember when I was in Spain and made quite a few good friends they all wanted to come to the US. Not necessarily to stay and live but to experience what the US was all about.
I loved Spain, the women are gorgeous, and the food is fantastic.
I don't think it is really a hate for the US as it is the current policy and administration. But when I'm overseas I defended the US to the max baby.
I agree that most people, even those that constantly about this country, would love to come here..even if they won't admit it. Last year, I had a house guest from Britain who did nothing for an entire week but complain about how Americans were all a bunch of stupid, superficial, greedy, fat, materialistic, war-mongering, ignorant morons. He hated our houses (ugly and generic), our cars (pieces of crap), our restaurants (horrible food), our television programs, and our "artificial, phony" friendliness. And, of course, he had a few things to say about our foreign policy. I couldn't wait til we dropped him off at the airport. A few weeks later he contacted me about hooking him up with some job prospects over here..."anywhere" in the states would be great he said.
I've been to Russia(St Petersburg and Moscow) and they were pretty pro American...in fact I remember seeing a few people walking around with shirts with the American flag on them. But the Russians do not seem like a happy people period...and a guy tried to pick my pocket. I guess I'd be bitter too if the major staple of my diet was beets. Poor bas s.
I will never go to Russia again and I don't blame them for wanting out.
I've also been to Hong Kong and it was one of the most friendly places I have ever been too...it also felt like I was stepping 10 years into the future it was so modern. True it wasn't mainland China and was still only a few years from British rule...but it was pretty friendly, and my buddy that lives there said he has never seen any anti-Americanism and the people are always amazingly friendly and very polite. I want to go to mainland China someday.
When I was in College I went to Egypt and I didn't encounter any there either...in fact everyone I talked to was very interested in America and wanted to come here, and everyone spoke English......now I know there are people that hate America there but I didn't see any.
FWIW...in all these places...I never had any problem finding people that spoke English, not even Russia. Everyone spoke it in Russia and they all seemed highly educated but very poor. It was weird.
I guess my problem was spending the most of my time abroad in Western Europe. They're the ones with the biggest stick up their butt.
It's not hate and it's not the entire World. But there is a majority out there that does not like America. Maybe its the foreign policy, maybe its envy. I don't really know. But it is a fact.
And just maybe some of it is propaganda?
I see the US getting criticized for a lot of things that prove to be false.
Smeagol...before you automatically assume that all these countries that hate us having altruistic motives....
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4001
Read that thread....
You guys say we lied about the WMD....
You tell me what in the Saddam was doing getting guidance systems in the OFF program.
You are so quick to assume the American Govt is dirty...
Have you noticed the UN guys pleading guilty to bribery lately?
Have you noticed Kofi dismissed the head of the OFF program?
Now who the was dirty on this?
Go look and see who gets most of their Oil from the Mid-east....who is nearly entirely dependent on it....
It aint the US.
I never said the US was dirty. I simply don't agree with some of their policies (mainly commercial and to some degree military/foreign or whatever you want to call it, although I've said I'm willing to live with the latter if the change they former). This is not even being anti-American. Many Americans don't agree with their government’s policies. And they proly love America as much as you do.
By the way, I love many other things about America (almost everything else).
But I am convinced that the rest of the World looks at America with su ion. I know this first hand. What I hear and see in Argentina is pretty much representative of what happens elsewhere. And my experience is not related to a holiday in Russia or in Hong Kong.
Smeagol....we look at the rest of the world with su ion too....we can't figure out why all these countries we liberated and give aid too turned on us....
But it's not like we're handwringing over it...I just think most Americans don't have as positive or as friendly a view of the rest of the world as we used too...the facade has dropped.
And I think W's re-election was our message to the rest of the world about what we think of the World's at ude after we were attacked.
Iraq is going to work out though....and the middle east will be the better off for it...the socialists will rewrite history though to make sure America doesn't get the credit it deserves for cleaning out the filth of that region.
Meanwhile...it'll be cold day in before I let my country go to the aid of France again...not one more soldier will ever spill his blood on that hate filled country....I don't care if it's Satan himself they capitulate to this time around...not one more soldier will ever give his life in the aid of that country. I will be the most anti-war protesting mother er who ever lived the day we try it.
And the Somalians can starve for all I ing care...idiots.
We better not give them any aid. Of any kind. Except a nuke when their s bags get out of hand.
Last edited by whottt; 08-20-2005 at 03:15 PM.
i was in western europe for 6 years...never had any problems. and all seemed to love america and want to come visit... like i said, they didn't like all our policies, but overall, they liked america.
and the chicks especially... they all wanted to marry an american!
Please, I'm not attacking you (you being one who likes to take frequent passive-aggressive pot shots at other posters).
Your arguments are weak.
Comprende?
Spinmeister KH, with no experience in international diplomacy or at the State department, will fix everything up. The world will love the USA again, once they are spun around.
==============================================
Bush Confidante Begins Task of Repairing America's Image Abroad
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 - For years, President Bush has called on Karen P. Hughes, his confidante from Texas, to help devise replies to attacks from political foes. Now Ms. Hughes, installed at the State Department, plans to set up "rapid response" teams to counter bad news and defend administration policies around the globe.
The teams, to be set up in the Middle East and elsewhere, are one of several initiatives being prepared by Ms. Hughes, who took office this week as under secretary of public diplomacy. The initiatives are part of what Bush administration officials say will be an aggressive drive to repair America's poor image abroad, particularly in Muslim countries.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview this week that the units would "work to deal with misinformation and misinterpretation." During the war in Afghanistan, Ms. Rice said, the administration discovered that it had to rebut "all kinds of lies about what we were doing."
For instance, Ms. Rice said, the administration discovered that allegations of Koran desecration at the Guantánamo Bay detention center, particularly what turned out to be an unfounded report of a Koran being flushed down a toilet, were spread throughout the media in Muslim countries before the United States could respond.
"What we found with rapid response is it does have to be 24-hour and at least a lot of it has to be in the field, not back in Washington, just because of the nature of the time cycle," she said.
In addition, State Department officials say, Ms. Hughes, a former television reporter, plans to lead an interagency "public diplomacy" operating group, including top public affairs officials at the Pentagon, and to change the way Foreign Service officers are evaluated for promotion, placing more emphasis on public relations skills.
Ms. Rice suggested further that the administration would increase funds for educational exchanges and try to make it easier to get visas for such programs. This year, the administration has asked Congress for $430 million to bring students, academics, cultural figures and others to the United States, and to send Americans abroad, a 20 percent increase from last year.
In recent years, State Department officials say, proportionately more of these programs have been focused on the Middle East and South Asia, which now account for about 25 percent of the financing.
Though President Bush and Ms. Rice promised a revamped "public diplomacy" drive in January, it has taken months for Ms. Hughes to begin her job, partly because she has wanted to get her son ready for college. In the summer of 2002, Ms. Hughes resigned from the White House to take her family back to Texas.
Ten days ago, Ms. Hughes laid out her plans for public diplomacy at a meeting with Mr. Bush at the president's ranch in Crawford, Tex. She was joined by Ms. Rice and Ms. Hughes's deputy, Dina Powell, a former White House personnel director. But she has declined interview requests, saying that she needs more time to flesh out her ideas.
Other officials, asking not to be identified because the plans are not final, provided some details, including information about what they said were Ms. Hughes's plans to travel to Europe and the Middle East and to do as much listening as talking on her trips.
She has met with Muslim students, clerics and academics in Washington and with ambassadors of Muslim countries. Early in the week, she directed the State Department to send new summaries of American policies on the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the Iraqi cons ution to embassies overseas.
Various independent reports on the problem of public diplomacy have said that most of America's image problems stem from American policies, like the detainees at Guantánamo Bay and support for Israel.
Ms. Rice, in the interview on Wednesday, said that in the future, more weight would be given to public diplomacy in the policy-making process but that this did not mean that the United States would shut down the Guantánamo Bay detention center.
"What I don't want to imply is that we're going to change policy because it's unpopular," Ms. Rice said. "It's a hard problem. Public diplomacy isn't going to help us with the fact that there's still some hard problems that we're going to have to deal with."
Some State Department officials involved in public diplomacy for many years say that Ms. Hughes's arrival will simply reinforce practices already being carried out.
Among the officials consulted by Ms. Hughes is Edward P. Djerejian, a former ambassador and White House spokesman, who headed a task force that concluded in 2003 that hostility toward the United States had reached "shocking" levels.
Mr. Djerejian said that in talking with Ms. Hughes and Ms. Rice, it was clear that they understood that roughly 80 percent of the explanation for the poor American image stemmed from American policies, but that much could be done to improve the communication of those policies to affect the other 20 percent.
He said he expected that Ms. Hughes would more closely track what was said about the United States on the television networks Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya and in other Arab news media and try to counter bad publicity quickly. The effort to respond to reports on Koran desecration, he said, was "a disaster."
Some State Department officials said part of the problem in that episode was the difficulty of having the State Department defending policies on detaining suspected terrorists when the policies were made by the Pentagon.
Officials at Al Jazeera, for example, said they invited a Pentagon spokesman to discuss the Koran allegations but could not get anyone to go on the air. Pentagon public affairs officials countered that they were unaware of the requests from Al Jazeera.
Mr. Djerejian said his committee had recommended that a high-level official at the White House be in charge of the administration's public diplomacy but dropped that idea when Ms. Hughes was appointed at the State Department because of her closeness to the White House.
"Conceptually and strategically they are seized with the importance of this problem," said Mr. Djerejian, referring to Ms. Hughes and Ms. Rice. "They have the ability to do something about it because they have the ear of the president."
================================================
Rice's "we won't stop doing things because they are unpopular" sounds very much like Nixon's "I don' do the popular thing, I do thing because they are right".
The hubris of the Repugs, and their unending efforts to insult the intelligence of everydoy, are infinite. The people are much better informed now, from a wide variety of sources, not only in the USA, but everywhere. The Repugs really think they can change the world's opinion by countering "bad publicity". The bad publicity is based on what the USA does, not what the USA spinmeisters spin.
The Repugs have huge problem right here in the should-be-but-isn't-sympathetic USA with all the "bad publicity" driving shrub's approval rating to historic lows for 2nd-term all presidents, and constantly turning more than half the USA against the bogus war.
People like Whott is why the world hates the US.
That's funny from a guy who likes to post stuff such as:
In any case, I usually take pot shots at posters who attack me.Smeagol is Argentinian for Mcfly.
And your counter-arguments are non-existent.
Half of the time, when you post stuff like this:
in response to the question, "Why does the rest of the World dislike America?", I and probably half the posters here, do not comprende what the you are trying to imply.Name for me one political en y that does not meddle in other people's affairs.
Comprende?
The best answer in the whole thread. All of Whott's posts are full of anger and superiority. You didn't write the Declaration of Independence asshole. Being born in this country, in no way makes you better than anyone else. Also, why do you say that smeagol would have no right to criticize the country if it were his choice to be here? Do new immigrants not have the right to criticize a country? How about this, you don't decide what rights anyone has, and I feel you are far from an authorithy on the matter.
I also agree the guru is childishly attacking the way smeagol makes his points. I don't know if he wants to bully smeagol or what, but it just seems like he wants an argument. What's your point.
Thanks Cecil
(what do I owe you?)
My point is Smeagol has a tendency to post topics like this with a tear in his beer, and then he runs circles in the ring like a boxer with no game.
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