Which do you feel would keep America Safer?

[Toots]

To be Feared by other countries or to be loved by other countries? Keep in mind there are fanatics out there that are completely mad and willing and able to construe any kind act or good deed into something sinister. These fanatics will obtain weapons of sorts. What tool can America use best,,, Fear or Love...I believe most Republicans believe Fear is all powerful..Not sure how people on this board might feel...Love is obtained through generosity and charity. Capitalism is more for the quick buck so not completely conducive to inspiring love but it takes money often to accomplish good deeds.

[zonmoy]

1. thing that would keep america safest would be to stop fucking around

with the rest of the world and start a new democracy in our own country.

[whistle]

3. That's the answer right there

[Donnachaidh]

7. New Democracy?

Let's fix the one we have, and shore up the shit the neocons have been gnawing away at. Like Habeus Corpus, etc.

Oh yeah, and stop playing Empire Builder while claiming we're bring democracy to the world. And TAX the shit out of the upper 1% who are the TRUE welfar recipients in this country.

[sheelz]

8. that's right

or at least to talk about option, in pain here

[hiaasenrocks]

2. Not trying to dodge the question but the two are not mutually exclusive.

I'm in favor of both.

We do what we can to help other countries when they need us, in situations like natural disasters, contributing to the promotion of democracy (where it exists) by assisting with election monitoring, things like that.

But I don't want any country in the world to lose its fear of the US, in terms of their calculation of what would happen if they attacked (or helped attack) us, in terms of their trade policy toward us, etc.

It's really no different than you being friendly with your neighbors but at the same time not presenting yourself as someone who can be taken advantage of.

[taterguy]

4. Making the Middle East as relevant to the US as Sri Lanka would make us safer

Bad things happen in Sri Lanka but no one over there wants to kill us because we're staying out of it.

Of course to do that, we'd all have to do things like use mass transit, walk or bike to work and a lot of us would rather die than ponder those options.

[MedleyMisty]

5. Why worry about being safe?

Where does the idea that everyone else is out to get us come from? I haven't seen any real life evidence for it. Just a bunch of theorizing from people who seem to base their whole lives around fear and/or use fear to manipulate other people.

[durtee librul]

Amen! Amen! Amen!

I am so sick of hearing terra terra fear fear all the time. I am not in favor of sticking my head up my ass either and ignoring warning signs, but to be honest, this 'they're gonna gitcha' stuff is way too rampant in the US today.

Hell, you could get hit crossing the street by a bus and if the driver was of mid-east descent, then Bush would toss him to gitmo and waterboard him......it's just nuts.

If 'THEY' want us bad enough,THEY WILL get us regardless of removal of shoes, 3 oz bottles in baggies, tapped phone lines, etc. We should all just go back to business as usual and be done with it. It is what it is. Nothing we can do is going to change that and all the kool aid drinkers in the world aren't going to make it go away.

[baldguy]

6. The conditions that create fear are also more likely to create terrorism in response to it.

[Akoto]

9. My plan is pretty simple.

Keep our noses out of everybody elses' business except when we're invited to become involved (except, for example, if we had to intervene to stop something like another Holocaust). Ditch the warmongering, the abuse of third world countries. Fix our government and infrastructure. Return to a diplomatic and humanitarian emphasis. It wasn't so long ago that, on the whole, we were a pretty respected country with a lot of friends. The warhawking of the last eight years has done away with that.

[taterguy]

10. There's a typo in your post

I think you meant Warhawking of the last 58 years, give or take a few.

[Akoto]

11. Nope.

Prior to Bush's regime, we were not universally loved, but we did have many friends globally. It is now popular (and not without justification) to denounce America in foreign countries we once worked closely with.