Is it America's job to "run the world"?

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No America will fall like the rest, and it will be a shock when those countries call for help and nobody to answer. Think of it like when Isreal came out of 400 years of oppression from Egypt and they had to learn all over how to take care of themselves.
 
In every corner of the world there is a power struggle, and there is only one person/company/country OR a few that run it… in every single prison, in every ghetto, in every slum, in every tribe, in every city, in every state, in every business sector, in every industry, and so on. You are either a pawn or you are simply the guy who has the privilege to throw the dice, play the hand and move those pawns around as you see it fit.

I’m a Turk who has been all over the map on both sides of the pond, besides my home country, and I will gladly tell you: I’m happy to take the US any day (any time!) over Russia or China, for if it’s not the US, it is going to be either one of these countries soon to take up charge and run the entire world we so love. As far as the foreign politics in general, the US is not the bad guy here, any country would have done the same for the benefit of its own citizens first - and then the others. Of course, they will influence and run the world, and I personally do not see any other greater nation on earth in our day and age to provide with such good laws and freedoms of all sorts, in spite of its cultural/moral flaws.
 
Thank you. I switched gears to fast from showing the America does have a history of Empire building. We were just late to the game that age to do it for long. The military footprint was a throw back to the original post, which was the last thing mentioned in it.
 
No problem. I’m a little bit sensitive about that. (insert sheepish grin)

I have no disillusions about the shortcomings of my Congress or my Pentagon, and I know we screw up and butt our nose in on occasion where it’s really not wanted. But I don’t think we’re intrinsically evil, either. 🙂
 
I have a soft spot for the Air force. My Father-in-law is retired USAF, meaning my wife lived on several of those bases you mentioned. Her brother is career and has been in, I guess, over twenty years now.
 
pnewton said:
I have a soft spot for the Air force. My Father-in-law is retired USAF, meaning my wife lived on several of those bases you mentioned. Her brother is career and has been in, I guess, over twenty years now.
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The US Congress is considering to close down the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, one of the US’ most strategic power base in the region. Meanwhile, Russia is negotiating with the Turkish president to open up one of its own in the aftermath of Incirlik. So help us God!

See what i mean, all about the geopolitics! If it’s not the US, there’s always going to be another guy to claim power in the region and in the world, respectively.
 
CatholicTurk said:
See what i mean, all about the geopolitics! If it’s not the US, there’s always going to be another guy to claim power in the region and in the world, respectively.
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I agree. There will not be a power vacuum. If the US cedes hegemony, someone else will take it.
 
TheOldColonel said:
Please enlighten us on how it is wrong
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It is wrong to spend all that money on overseas bases and the military industrial complex while students are being shot dead in the USA as they are attending classes. Why not provide a small percentage of the 800 billion dollar military budget to protect students as they are attending classes. Aren’t their lives worth as much as the lives of people in Afghanistan?
 
AlNg said:
It is wrong to spend all that money on overseas bases and the military industrial complex while students are being shot dead in the USA as they are attending classes. Why not provide a small percentage of the 800 billion dollar military budget to protect students as they are attending classes. Aren’t their lives worth as much as the lives of people in Afghanistan?
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Apples and oranges.

Local school districts and LEO are responsible for school safety, not the feds

Fed money not spent on military should go to debt or other fed responsibilities.
 
Your thinking seems a bit skewed. What you propose would destabilize many regions and is unnecessary to address the current plight of school violence.
 
Athanasiy said:
The old joke about free speech in the Soviet Union: “We have freedom of speech,” said the American, “I can come to the fence of the White House and say: ‘Down with Reagan, he is no good.’ The Soviet man replies: ‘It’s the same here. I can come to Red Square and say: ‘Down with Reagan, he is no good.’”
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loooooool…
 
Because Russia doesn’t think that way. That’s why.

You do realize our mission does not revolve around Afghanistan, correct? And that theoldcolonel’s comment on destabilization is correct, correct? Or that all of that budget doesn’t just pay for new planes (I can only speak for the USAF, but our fleet is becoming dangerously old and dangerously fatigued) and to feed defense contracts? That a junior enlisted person turning the wrench on those planes qualifies for welfare benefits because his pay is below the poverty level for a family of three?

I have no disillusions about my DOD or my Congress. But pull the US out of Europe and watch the cards begin to fall - not to mention local economies. When the US government discussed moving the large Army hospital currently near Ramstein Air Base out of the area in search of cheaper land, the mayor of that town testified before OUR Congress, explaining why doing so would destroy his local economy. He won. The new one (built during the height of the Cold War, and terribly out of date) will be built very close to the old, in the same area.

Do you honestly think the stability (yes, I say stability, tenuous though it sometimes is) of the Korean Peninsula would exist today if the US and NATO (because the place is crawling with NATO, don’t let the press fool you - I just spent a year there) didn’t have the presence they’ve maintained since the cease fire of 1953? There are reasons the Koreans have not asked us to leave.

There’s more to this than the “military-industrial complex”.
 
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I’m completely bemused by some of the opinions expressed on this thread. Some people see it differently, but I can assure you that many Catholics in the UK would also describe themselves as Socialists.
 
NO, But I think God has give the scepter and placed America as a Guardian of the World to bring Justice and Peace.I wish and pray they are faithful to the teachings of the Gospels.

With great power comes great responsibility

 
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AlNg said:
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Pup7:
There’s more to this than the “military-industrial complex
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That is not what the president of the United States of American, Dwight David Eisenhower has said.
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The world has not remained stagnant for 60 years, either.

Look at the military pay (it’s public record on DFAS’ website) from 1955 and look at it now. It’s still woeful for the enlisted, but just look at it, then do some rough math on how much of that budget is pay and benefits/entitlements.

We’re not the same military we were in the 1950s.
 
Isca said:
I’m completely bemused by some of the opinions expressed on this thread. Some people see it differently, but I can assure you that many Catholics in the UK would also describe themselves as Socialists.
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Considering the church has explicitly condemned Socialism, those “Catholics” are living in opposition to the church.
 
I don’t think you understand what socialism is to us in the UK. Everyone who votes for the Labour Party would call themselves a socialist. Tony Blair, who was Labour Prime Minister became a Catholic.

Socialists in the UK identify with social justice, with economic policies that help the poor, with concern for the environment, with making sure big business can’t escape its responsibilities, whether they be fiscal or humanitarian, with providing proper care for the old, the sick, the vulnerable, the homeless, the refugee.

I could say more, but I think we have a kind of cultural dissonance sometimes on this board. I will however say “Dorothy Day”.
 
My understanding of it is irrelevant. If you don’t like the Church’s condemnation of even “moderate Socialism” then you need to take it up with the Church.
 
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