I was reading an entry by Eric the Hun about Bill Clinton saying in a speech in Australia that he felt the USA would lose world power over the next 30 years and become a third world nation. Its certainly biblical, but I also believe from the time I spent abroad that the US extends its greed and imperialism beyond limits that would prevent global uprising against it. Its not Thomas Jefferson thats to blame, or Bill Clinton, its Bill Gates, and all the other over-privileged Americans that feel they have a right to drive a 3/4 tn Explorer with 38" mudders down downtown LA to prove they are a unique human.

 I spent a year and a half in Tashkent Uzbekistan, a former USSR republic, now a CIS state. From that vantage point I can tell you how the US treats the opinion of the rest of the world. Its frightening, globally! A friend there showed me a hardbound propaganda book from the Brezhnev regime with pictures that were very damning. It was titled "America, The World's Global Police?" Most of the pictures centered on the massacre with a gun crew with an M60 of a Vietnamese village of unarmed citizens. The photos equalled anything on Rotten.com, or the Russian beheading film.

  Its not propaganda if its truth.



Anyone else ever lived abroad, made friends there, realized that we are all a part of the same world, serve the same RISEN GOD, have family, mothers and daughters, and all are seeking a better freedom?

I have lived in Hiroshima Japan, Tronhiem Norway, Mombassa Kenya,and Manilla PI. never experienced what you mention. I think Bill is so full of shit that he should move to a third world country just to learn what he is talking about. I have been in Australia, England, and a number of other english colonies. I have been in some of the Spanish colonies , and some of the African world. My opinion on the Clinton statement is that he is as dumb as rest of the socialists if he really believes his own shit.
Socialism is a failure and will never make the capitalists third world.

No, but I visited California once. Does that count?

I went on Vacation to Mexico, Canada, France, Italy and Spain.......All they want is our Dollars.

Korea and Canada.

So what are you saying?
Your post suggests that you believe America was trying to stop the spread of communism in order to provide multinational capitalists with a cheap source of labor.

Its not Thomas Jefferson thats to blame, or Bill Clinton, its Bill Gates, and all the other over-privileged Americans that feel they have a right to drive a 3/4 tn Explorer with 38" mudders down downtown LA to prove they are a unique human.



uhmmmmm....I DO have a right to drive down the road in any fashion I see fit!  That pretty much is the bullwork of freedom ya numb nut bastard!

So the rest of the world is jealous of our prosperity!  So freakin' what!  What exactly are they gonna do about it?

I am presently in Australia, and they seem to back us up. (Although they really don't seem to like GW, too many years of having a queen I suppose)

Funny thing- my parents came down to visit last month and they got to talking with some old-timers. They actually thanked my parents (read: USA)for backing them up in WWII, saying if it weren't for you guys, we'd be eating rice right now. They went on to say that if we wanted to send 20,000 troopps there way, no one would complain.
[marines]

PonyBoy - Got ya beat.  I actually lived in Kalifornia for 8 years.   Boy, am I glad to be home. [;)]  

I spent eighteen months in Argentina (various parts) during the Falkland Island war. I was there as a missionary and was able to experience the wrath/hatred toward Americans. As ill-equipped as they were, they still managed to find time in their schedule to harass people, in my case, at gun point within one of their military compounds. There was not much I could do about the situation except listen to an irate Argentinean Senior Officer scream at me/Americans for our role in the war. While there, I experienced abject poverty and as you know their economy is in turmoil. In short, I am grateful to be living in the USA.

upward and onward    

FWIW I was stationed in Japan for two years back in the early 80's. I suppose that counts as living in another country. I visited a few other far east nations. The fact that we all live in the same big old world didn't escape me either. That being said when it comes to evil exploitive politics I'd rather be on the giving end than the receiving end. The kind of stuff that we do pales in comparison to what other nations get away with and I hate to think what they would do to us if they could. In the game of global politics might most certainly makes right. A 3rd world nation within 30 years? Only if Bill Clinton were still President.

South Africa for a year.
Ukraine for 3 months plus other trips there and across CIS over a 7 year period.
Visited about 9 other countries for 2-5 weeks stints. Cuba, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Albania...all were missions/humanitarian trips and have been the best times of my life, being in different cultures and countries where I actually had something to give that made a difference in their lives..

Most "common" people in all these countries "admire" America and see the "freedom" we enjoy. Lots of confusion in the third world countries about our "philosophy" changes over the years. In Russia they could'nt believe that Bill Clinton became President TWICE! A whoremonger and a liar is the same in any language and in any culture.

I lived in South Africa right before Desert Storm and before Mandela got out...they too love Americans and what we believe. "They" is too broad a statement for the general populus of S.A....there are 7 tribes and 2 different sets of "white" people not to mention the "coloreds". Very complex situation for many Americans to comprehend. What is sad...is that our liberal media and Hollywood leftist have talked the nation into literally expelling ALL whites. Through movies and political sanctions, without a clue of what is really happening in Suid Africa. No clue. There are some great books out on the subject...and I'm not talking about racist propaganda books either. There are literaries and genuine historians that are showing the protracted expulsion of nationals in the country. If you ever meet someone from South Africa...ask them. I have one word for whats happening there today...Rhodesia.

I hope to continue to travel and somehow make a "difference" in people's lives across the world. Through medicine, clothes, food or general good will. I'm not some Pollyanna dreamer thinking I've got all the answers...but, I let my feet do most of the talking. You can't imagine what a pair of tennis shoes can do for a 9 yr. old kid in Cuba. Or what text books can do for an orphanage in South Africa. How bout bringing medicine to the coal miners suffering from black lung in the Ukraine...yep, it's worth it.

Sorry for the book...wait for the movie,
[b][blue]NAKED[/blue][/b]

grimshaw,
perhaps there are better countries, better people, smaller SUV's, less greed, less imperialism but I don't believe so.

Each time I read a post such as yours or that of E.T. HUN, I thank GOD for my choice to live my life as an American and an Agnostic.

Now to the point.
The portion of the taxes I pay that goes to build B-2 bombers, develop new and finer guided missiles and build bigger and better hydrogen weapons insures that I really don't have to give a 'phuck' what other countries think !!

[X]

Brezhnev - interesting that you would mention that world-classless human being.

Often progaganda is the truth.