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Majority of Americans Think Torture 'Sometimes' Justified
New Poll Finds Americans Favor U.S. Isolationism, Acting Alone
A new poll shows that a growing number of Americans feel that the United States should "mind its own business internationally" when it comes to foreign affairs.
The title of the Pew Research Center poll, which asked 2,000 U.S. citizens about United States' role in the world, says it all: "Isolationist Sentiment Surges to Four-Decade High."
The survey found that almost half of Americans (49 percent) think the United States should stay out of foreign affairs and let other countries get along the best they can on their own. That number is the highest in 40 years and represents an increase from 30 percent who felt that way just seven years ago.
Andrew Kohut, the director of the Pew Center, calls it "an extraordinary spike in isolationist" sentiment and offers a possible explanation.
"I think part of the reason here is the American public's focus on a bad economy, also feeling badly about the world," Kohut says.
"There are two wars that the public thinks are not going well, terrorist concerns are even greater than they were four years ago, so the American public is not looking fondly at the rest of the world."
Paralleling the rise in isolationist sentiment among Americans is a sharp rise in unilateralist feelings.
Fully 44 percent of Americans -- the highest percentage in more than 45 years -- say that because the United States is "the most powerful nation in the world, we should go our own way in international matters, not worrying about whether other countries agree with us or not."
Skepticism On Afghanistan
The survey's results also reveal a distinct lack of public enthusiasm for President Barack Obama's foreign-policy approach, especially toward Afghanistan.
The poll, which was conducted before Obama announced that he is sending an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, found that only 32 percent of the public favored adding more U.S. soldiers to the fight. Forty percent said they would like to decrease the size of the U.S. force.
There is also skepticism that the war is worth fighting. Fewer than half (46 percent) of those surveyed said they think Afghanistan will be able to stand on its own and resist the Taliban and other extremist groups once there is no longer an outside force like the United States to help them.
James Lindsay, the director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, which co-sponsored the poll, said those results could mean problems for Obama as he tries to make the case that the country must deepen its involvement in the Afghanistan.
"My guess is as long as the public and influential [thinkers] are persuaded that Afghanistan can't be fixed, it's going to be very hard to sustain strong public support for staying in Afghanistan," Lindsay says.
The survey also found that just half of Americans (51 percent) approve of Obama's overall job performance on foreign-policy issues.
Americans also think the United States' role in the world has diminished considerably in the last decade. Forty-one percent said the United States plays a less important and powerful role as a world leader than it did in 1999 -- the highest number who have ever said so, according to the polling agency.
China's Rise
By comparison, more Americans than ever now see China's role in the world, especially economically, as having grown. Forty-four percent said China was the world's leading economic power, compared with 27 percent who said the United States is.
In February 2008, before the global recession hit, 41 percent of Americans considered their country the world's leading economic power.
But Americans also see China's new role as an economic powerhouse as something to fear. A majority of those surveyed (53 percent) believe China is a threat to the United States.
Kohut says Americans don't necessarily see China negatively, but they do worry about what its rising power means for the United States.
"I think in an era where the public feels that China has surpassed the United States economically, and people are feeling very, very badly about the American economy, it's not unreasonable that people would conclude that China represents a threat," Kohut says.
Americans' top three foreign fears, according to the survey, are: Islamic extremist groups like Al-Qaeda, Iran's nuclear program, and international financial instability.
Russia, on the other hand, is no longer seen as an enemy.
"Russia has obviously over the years declined as a threat in the view of the public. The public certainly doesn't put it at the top of its list as it once did, and we only get 2 percent of the public saying, 'Russia represents the greatest danger to the United States,'" Kohut notes.
"You get 21 percent saying Iran represents the greatest danger to the United States."
A little more than a third of Americans are worried about the growing tensions between Russia and its neighbors, while two-thirds say North Korea's nuclear program constitutes a major threat to the United States.
Obama's declaration that, "under [his] administration the United States does not torture," doesn't seem to have changed many Americans' minds about the necessity of using harsh interrogation techniques.
The proportion of the public that says torture is at least sometimes justified against suspected terrorists has actually increased slightly over the past year.
Just over half of Americans (54 percent) say torture is at least sometimes justified to gain important information from suspected terrorists, compared with 44 percent who said so 10 months ago.
The Pew survey was conducted between October 28 and November 8 of this year.
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138 Comments so far
Show AllThe lack of nuance and the fact that it is so easy to shape answers and so difficult to form neutral questions always makes surveys suspect.
However I have no doubt these answers mirror the pre-digested mind softening pap that television and news outlets pump out for the uninformed and the willfuly ignorant.
How many Americans believe in training foreign death squads?
That's what the U.S. does now in lieu of fighting Vietnam-style wars. We train thousands of foreign soldiers to go and murder millions of foreign civilians. Bushie called it "The Salvador Option". It's immoral. It's evil. It makes a mockery of Christianity, to the point where no one should support anyone who endorses death squads. Millions of civilians have now fled Iraq, and vast numbers of civilians have died there.
What's to stop our government from training thousands of foreign soldiers to murder millions of our own citizens? "Well, it's just not done"?
For that matter, what's to stop our trainee, if he happens to be named Osama Bin Laden, from using our technology transfers for his own freelance purposes? Or, how about selling nerve gas factories to Saddam Hussein? We have the receipts.
ARE THE DIABOLICAL POWERMONSTERS who feed their egos with DEATH,war,genocide,nuclear holocaust,trying to out do each other for their place in HELL,If HELL HAS A HIERARCHY.OF BUSH SHITES/OBOMBA/CLINTONISTAS,WHICH ONE GETS TO BE THE TOP DOG IN THEIR AFTERLIFE DIMENSION? COULD THAT BE THEIR THINKING
Parenting and education the one two punch that did america in.Here in CA there was prop 13 which froze property taxes which was what funded schools and then "tax cuts and schools went to hell.Parenting;with the above things in place and companies and corps saying they had to make a profit they out sourced and cut people and cut wages along the way because they had been convinced that unions were bad.2 parents had to work to maintain and it was down hill from there.Now how did "creationism" get into this discussion?You can believe or not in a creator,which I do,but to tell me that science is a god I'm here to tell you that science has in the past and probobly still does lie and cheat and hide stuff that does not agree with their preconcieved notions.All of science?No but enough to earn the title of bullshit.Evolution of humans from what?It is something new every week and with the new physics it is going deeper and deeper into the spirit and or esp.Read the Nov.,Dec. edition of Atlantis Rising,a magazine,and there is an article called the Mysticism of Physics.Check it out and as for science and creationism;eventually we will see that science,when they stop hiding stuff,will prove creation as truth and evolution will be part of the creation for if it were not so it would be a sorry existence to come and then die after a while.Going from fetus to adult is evolution but with reincarnation as the chance to evolve from what we are today to someone better tomorrow;hopefully.Tony
E pur si muove!
You are trying to make a case for Creationism?! This, simply because a few rogue scientists fabricate and hide stuff? Puhlease! Those are most likely the "scientists" who do studies for the creationists, the anti-9/11 conspiracy guys, and the anti-climate change people, in the first place.
So how does this work with your thoughts on whether torture is sometimes justified? Let me add my own view that in a civilized world, the very notion of torture does not arise.
And then you bring in Reincarnation as the way to self-improvement? Excuse me, while I stifle a snicker, but your purview sounds superstitious and medieval at best.
Number one;I believe in a Creator,am not recruting and did not know that one had to be a right winger,tea bagger or whatever to believe.
2)Torture is wrong under any circumstances.
3)I was not even refering to those clowns with the e-mails and as far as evolution goes scientists who claim that all humanity came from southern Africa 50,000 years ago and populated the world since then give me the giggles since there are sites in North and South America that are older than that and that all these people that are here crossed over the Bering Straits really stretches credulity.And speaking of medievel there is a map that Columbus was supposed to have had and that Eisenhower spent time and money looking for called the Piri Reis map that showed the americas and the south pole ice free;you can google it and that is just one sample where science says no and it is there in their face and it is an ancient map made by who?You can check out Professor Charles Hapgood also.As Solomon said "There is nothing new under the Sun".Tony
I feel compelled to answer you mustbefree,
I like your posts. But "Science" itself is never wrong. Just our understanding of science by fallible human beings is often in error. Science is a constantly changing accepted body of knowledge which, unlike religion or creationism myth, is subject to constant challenge and review by peers trained in the specific disciplines. Science is continuously changing with the addition of new information such as the 50,000(?) year old homo sapiens sites in Argentina you refer to. If that pans out, science will alter the known migration pattern of Homo sapiens. I agree with you that sometimes it's seems like Physical Anthropology of the past is kind of a Pseudo-Science. But to indite all Science though, as you are attempting to do, is to indite knowledge and the only rational system for obtaining it.
The early maps you cite, often had huge inaccuracies in them such as missing continents. That's not surprising since most of them were commissioned by religious nuts like the flat-Earth pope and the god-fearing monarchy. There's just no way to chart land-mass accurately if you believe in a Flat Earth or a non-Earth centered universe like the pope. Even the famed "Henry the Navigator", centuries before Columbus, had trouble shooting the stars and kept getting lost because he was heavily contaminated by christian crusader ideals of cartography (Bible says Earth centered universe) and was all dicked-up in his attempts to map known land masses. Because of religious interference, it turns out that Europeans were better at building ships than sailing them. Fortunately for them, they stole their celestial navigation technology from Arabic mariners in long boats who traded great distances into the pacific spice islands. The Astrolabe was not invented by Europeans, it is of Mid-Eastern/Greek origin from pre-historic times 200BC. Without it, you cannot Navigate accurately at all (same latitude). Even with it, you can not navigate very well unless you also have an accurate time keeping device. Once Spain and Britain possed these, no coastal community was safe. Later the threat was manned airplanes. Today, it's preditor drones.
As much as I gag everytime Henry the Eighth makes a post, He's right that America is not to blame for inventing torture and genocide.
These things are evolutionary mechanisms lodged deep down inside the primitive brain stem. (Could somebody expand on what part; the hippocampus?) Some animals (like Republicans) have no empathy for their victims. Even domestic house cats needlessly torture and play with the mice that they catch. I like the "Simpsons" Cartoon's depiction of the mindless violence that children are exposed to watching "Tomand Jerry" cartoons. It is so true. And after our children graduate from Road-runner violence, there's ten years of graphic and moral-less video games waiting for them.
Is it any wonder, they grow up and awaken the "survival of the fittest" part of their brains? Is it any wonder, that living in a civil, educated world is not of value to them? Driving a monster truck, watching TV, shopping and screwing everything that moves is all that they value. And "kicking ass" as "Henry the Eight-Ball" constantly reminds us. Their priest tells them that this is what life is about. But in reality, they are more and more slaves to a worthless pile of sticks and mortar. They are slaves to a toxic metal coffin.
Oh the humanity!
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
[There's just no way to chart land-mass accurately if you believe in a Flat Earth or a non-Earth centered universe like the pope.]
It really depends on the scale of the map and what you're trying to show with the thing. If you believe in a 'flat-earth' you can accurately map a city or a stretch of coastline well enough. But if you're trying to map the planet, then you're trying to show a rather squashed ball in a two-dimensional surface and the process of doing that distorts the view. Most maps of the world are not very accurate at all, especially the Mercator projections (the ones most popular with schools as they show the northern hemisphere as being much bigger than it really is. But they do make Canada look like it's bigger than Russia...)
On the point of blaming the yanks for starting torture, I must have missed someone doing that, it's a ridiculous claim. I know people have condemned the yanks for torturing others while condemning those who'd torture yanks...
TJ;Point well taken on the humans and not the science.The portion of the map that columbus had was part of a larger whole and was supposed to have survived the library destroyed at Alexandria,Egypt.As for a Creator,my belief is and has nothing to do with pope or any other religious affiliation.I believe in ancient civilizations that have come and gone and mostly by human hand so Soloman was right there is nothing new under the sun.Time is not linier for humanity to go from the ape man to present.The worlds land masses have changed and changed again and man has had to start again and again.This is where reincarnation comes in and after this last round,meaning our present,not sure I want to have another go at humanity.Thanks for the post.Tony
Oh come on! They polled 2,000 Americans. What segment of the population was polled and where did they conduct this poll? Polls are BS. How can you say this info. is correct. To be exact, everyone should be polled. But of course that's impossible. If I wanted to say, take a poll of how many Christians believe in the Rupture....err Rapture, all I'd have to do is poll the majority of the people in my area. Repent, or you're gonna be left behind. So, I could say the polls show that the majority of 'Mericans believe in the Rapture. It's all when, where and who you ask.
S'cuse me, but I don't believe it. I'm with ya Jbchalk, etal. all,.
trisha you are right and in america today
its goober is as goober does. ask stupid
people and the answer will definitely
be stupid!
Like every other manipulation and distortion we have to contend with in AMERICA ,THE POLLS are yet another venue and especially annoying.Just as unemployment is blah blah blah,when everyone knows that it's twice the version given by some ingrate corrupt source.
We the people are being tortured daily by the lies and bait and switch government announcements.It's like a roller coaster ride.
Almost everyone I know doesn't even bother to listen to ANY news or read newspapers anymore.THE POLLS are another government tool,used to attempt to brain wash the masses and the ridiculous claim that USSAERS believe TORTURE(Which would be waterboarding/drowning/electical shocks/physical beatings etc.) all shown to the public from ABU GRAIB HORROR CAMP is pure arrogance and more government deceit. I don't know one single person who thinks torture is OK or who was not deeply upset when the government SADISM PROGRAMS WERE EXPOSED,GESTAPO STYLE EVIL!
It's the governments way of trying to make SADISM SEEM RESPECTABLE AND WE SHOULD ALL VIEW THIS PERVERSION WITH APPROVAL.Next there will be the "disappeared" as in Chile who they drugged and threw out of airplanes,after they tried to resist their monster government. YOU WOULD HAVE TO HAVE A HALF BRAIN NOT TO SEE WHERE THIS POLL DRIVEL IS SUPPOSED TO LEAD US.THE TOUGH GUYS ARE JUST DOING THEIR JOB(To be admired therefore).NEXT THEY WILL ANNOUNCE A POLL THAT SAYS HANGING YOUR CHILD UPSIDE DOWN FOR HOURS BECAUSE OF BAD BEHAVIOUR IS BENEFICIAL because the blood in the brain increases and the child becomes smarter!IF we all follow the leader and endorse torture,it makes it much easier to step up the tasers and fill up the fema concentration camps with we, the dissidents.
Like every other manipulation and distortion we have to contend with in AMERICA ,THE POLLS are yet another venue and especially annoying.Just as unemployment is blah blah blah,when everyone knows that it's twice the version given by some ingrate corrupt source.
We the people are being tortured daily by the lies and bait and switch government announcements.It's like a roller coaster ride.
Almost everyone I know doesn't even bother to listen to ANY news or read newspapers anymore.THE POLLS are another government tool,used to attempt to brain wash the masses and the ridiculous claim that USSAERS believe TORTURE(Which would be waterboarding/drowning/electical shocks/physical beatings etc.) all shown to the public from ABU GRAIB HORROR CAMP is pure arrogance and more government deceit. I don't know one single person who thinks torture is OK or who was not deeply upset when the government SADISM PROGRAMS WERE EXPOSED,GESTAPO STYLE EVIL!
It's the governments way of trying to make SADISM SEEM RESPECTABLE AND WE SHOULD ALL VIEW THIS PERVERSION WITH APPROVAL.Next there will be the "disappeared" as in Chile who they drugged and threw out of airplanes,after they tried to resist their monster government. YOU WOULD HAVE TO HAVE A HALF BRAIN NOT TO SEE WHERE THIS POLL DRIVEL IS SUPPOSED TO LEAD US.THE TOUGH GUYS ARE JUST DOING THEIR JOB(To be admired therefore).NEXT THEY WILL ANNOUNCE A POLL THAT SAYS HANGING YOUR CHILD UPSIDE DOWN FOR HOURS BECAUSE OF BAD BEHAVIOUR IS BENEFICIAL because the blood in the brain increases and the child becomes smarter!IF we all follow the leader and endorse torture,it makes it much easier to step up the tasers and fill up the fema concentration camps with we, the dissidents.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Sample size does matter. Sample selection from a widely dispersed and much larger control group population also matters.
In mathematical terms a good basic sample number is 1000 so long as the samples are taken from diverse regions of the country with a representative distribution of class and race. This can yield in the high 90 percentile in terms of confidence in the results. The higher and better dispersed the sample number the better. Of course, the way the poll questions are phrased is also important. For example: If they are loaded with political code words for race or income levels that only some of the respondents recognize, then that can adversely affect results. The SATs have always been culturally skewed toward students who are the cultural product of the predominantly white middle class.
One can barely turn on the tv and watch a US action/adventure, cop or SF programme without seeing the "hero" indulge in gratuitous violence and torture. Killing is a sign of his/her heroism. Revenge is favoured over justice, which is imagined as weak and/or corrupt. It is hardly surprising that a majority of the US electorate has been tainted by all this.
The age breakdown of the torture question is even greater cause for concern.
Over 45 - only 15% support torture 'under certain circumstances.
Under 40 - 65-70% support use of torture.
When the Repuglican oligarchy, empowered by Reagan's election, began taking control of education, they stated that they would change the way children look at the world.
They succeeded beyond all expectations!!!
But I could be wrong !
"But I could be wrong !" –(curmudgeon99)
Cursory, albeit circumstantial 'evidence' suggests you are not wrong.
The decimation of public education and the continuing de facto 'privatization' of education in America has assured multiple generations of the the fascist compliant young. The Reagan dismantling of the UC system of education in California has served as the prototypical example.
Fascism valorizes privilege, especially white, upper middle class privilege. Now that the Asian–specifically Chinese demographic– has joined that level, it is all but a fait accompli. (Witness the "I support John Yoo" tee-shirts.)
The young no longer question that. They worship at its altar and continue its truth by converting it into an ideology of 'natural' law. Non white or non Asian youth? The system has ground them into an all but hopeless non existence. All but targeted for death.
–(Jill Bains).
YES Amfortas,all great and valid points but I for one,living in a third world country,half of the year, where many expat gringo/gringas live too,know for certain ,that the human spirit and the goodness of manKIND prevails .Light always dominates darkness.
A reviving,inspiring must see example,is the documentary SOWETO STRINGS and there are hundreds of examples of such ways of life.When I was in Otovalo Ecuador,I met a 70year old New York fashion designer,who had just spent her two week vacation down deep holes digging wells and everywhere one travels,globally citizens are quietly giving back and then modestly going home to appreciate their God given privelege and my hope "springs eternal"
Curmudgeon99
"greater cause for concern"The only concern any of us need to have,is to be able to see through the thick fog of lies and corruption,forced upon us including the ridiculous POLLS that those with half a brain, discount as more lies/propaganda to further the war sadist money FOR THE FILTHY RICH AGENDA Even the so called illiterati(peasants) are getting it and are waiting for the fragging to begin.When that happens then it's follow the leader and total anarchy.
The dumbed down will instinctively,replicate Mussolini's fate on ALL of the Washington master fibber REPRESENTATIVES.JUST FOR STARTERS!
This is a well armed country.I mentioned to some SIXTEEN YEAR OLDS,who deliver our wood and love to hunt,that I had read that there was a shortage of ammunition.They seemed surprised, replied,"NO,DON'T THINK SO? ANYWAY WE MAKE OUR OWN!"
It is usually not good when the worm turns.Governmentalists,who turned a big blind eye and looked the other way,as this country declined with their blessing, might find their lives forever altered.
One quick look at the 2004 election and you can see the intelligence break out in America:
Voted for Kerry or Other - Average or higher intelligence.
Voted for bush - Stupid.
So you have 62,040,610 idiots in America.
These same idiots think it's OK to torture and murder people. No shock since they're stupid and don't know any better.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
If I recall correctly the vote was roughly 59 million for Bush II, 56 million for Kerry and 80 million eligible voters who didn't even bother to vote.
Who knows, the rigged Diebolds infiltrated.The numbers were askew
If polls, voting tabulations and other numerical or statistical indices could somehow be assured of accuracy I think the number of Americans found to be favoring torture would be astonishing, if not shocking.
If I were to hazard a conservative guess I would say a good 80% would come down clearly favoring some form of torture. One does not need the application of the scientific method to sense intuitively what one knows to be true.
I am constantly telling visiting foreign friends that a rule of thumb about America is that the truth is invariably far worse than can even be imagined.
Even in San Francisco–the most putatively 'liberal' of American cities–one never fails to be amazed how consistently this plays out. And chillingly so. I can only imagine what the 'rest' of America is like. Hard rain falling. –(Jill Bains)
Torture would be cool if it started with B/C and the owners of the MIC. In the Spirit of xmas, sauce for the goosed is sauce for the goosers.
Does anyone ever verify the "conclusions" arrived at by the clerks of the polling companies?
Have you, or anyone you know, ever been asked their opinion for a poll? A majority of Americans say "not me."
GRINGA______GREAT POINT.SUMS IT UP COMPLETELY.THE PROPAGANDA POLL HOAX!
Things will change only when USAs especially the especially brainwashed under-45 set, get a taste of what they inflict on others around the world.
"Just over half of Americans (54 percent) say torture is at least sometimes justified "
if true - the majority of Americans are assholes.
Not assholes, but depraved.
Many of the commenters have used the polls to reach a judgment about the moral character of the respondents. I think it's unwise to do that, in part because pollsters have a way of asking questions that are misleading and unintelligent. I refer particularly to the question about torture. That question was the subject of a thread based on "America's Regression" by Glenn Greenwald (December 4, 2009) that many of us participated in. (Forgive me for re-stating here some things from that thread.)
John Mitchell quoted the question: "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?" This presumes torture can be used to gain important information, and it fails to address distinctions between moral and legal justification, among other things.
John Mitchell made the following comment: "And even if the form of the question misled respondents into believing that torture is an effective way to gain useful information, I still think the only morally correct response is 'never justified.'"
In my opinion, this raises a profound question about morality. It seems to me that, when it comes to torture, most of the contributors to this thread buy into Immanual Kant's notion of the categorical imperative. Kant argued that morality forbids lying to a murderer who comes to your door asking for the location of his intended victim. This flows from the general principle that moral actions don't derive their worth from the expected consequences. Many thinkers have parted ways with Kant on this, including me. I would gladly lie to the would-be murderer.
In distinction from Kant, people like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker adopt a utilitarian approach. Pinker, in his famous essay on "the new science of the moral sense," presumed that morality tells us to sacrifice a single person if that would save five from death by a runaway trolley. To show that such a simple-minded calculus is inadequate, I proposed changing the trolley example by letting the one to be sacrificed for the five be your own child, and the five be strangers. I don't think morality requires the sacrifice of the child.
Consequences ARE important in moral judgment. I believe we have a moral duty to learn about consequences. We must do so to enable weighing consequences to determine which consequences are morally better; in the instance of torture of detainees, the weighing involves the death of many innocents and the torture of one suspected terrorist. I believe the victims of 9/11 would have found it morally unacceptable for someone who could have used torture the day before 9/11 to find out how the al Qaeda squad was going to carry out its operation, to refrain from doing so out of the belief that torture is always immoral, no matter what.
The problem with this analysis is of course that not only did no one have a detainee with information about how the operation was going to proceed, but experience seems to show that torture wouldn't have elicited the information anyway. Does this mean anyone who thinks torture would have been justified is morally bankrupt? I don't think so.
This is indeed a difficult problem in morality. Those of you who see no difficulty are, in my opinion, allowing your hatred for U.S. policies, actions, and customs to close your minds.
That being said, the lack of proof that torture has led to valuable intelligence from terrorists causes me to come down on the side of not torturing. However, as I've frequently said, it's hard to argue with the German police official who was prepared to torture a kidnapper to elicit disclosure of the location of his victim, in the hope of reaching the victim before his death. In that well-known case, the victim was located due to the illegal threat the police made to torture him, although unfortunately the victim was already dead.
'The survey found that almost half of Americans (49 percent) think the United States should stay out of foreign affairs and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.'
You mean 'should have stayed' surely?
This, as phrased, is isolationist. If true this now is not expressive of the USA. No longer is it the fault of the USA, that structure of government in North America. Even if it is what the USA has done to them, this is Americans expressing themselves.
Isolationist behaviour is that of a spoiled child and if the statement above is true then in reality at least 'almost half of (adult) Americans' are of the belief that behaving like little children is an option. Moreover it goes without saying that a good proportion of those who support the war are excruciatingly childish; clearly still playing cowboys and crooks on the 'wild frontier', which does not leave many verifiable adults in the USA.
I am from Africa and address Americans: be adult! Your actions are reprehensible. Your minds are reprehensible. You have a huge and growing crime to face up to. Your destruction of the lives of others in Afghanistan and Iraq is human and cultural genocide. Bush called it regime change. It is startlingly obvious that Bush and his bunch are rank, repulsive idiots, like depraved and deviant teachers. Sexual deviance is only one relatively unimportant feature of the behaviour of these Americans.
Yet to be adult Americans can no longer walk away. They are going to have to pay and pay and pay, not as leaders but as servants in the service of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq; in obedience to their orders; by washing their feet! Americans have to finance the rebuilding of Afghan economy and culture, in accordance with the opinions of Afghans. Americans cannot profit from this, even if they try. To attempt to do so makes it that likely reality that is already destroying every man, woman and child who call themselves American and very possibly has been doing so since they massacred and destroyed the understandings and people of the original cultures of North America. It is on this that all understanding of profit in America is founded. Americans have amply displayed their inferiority and can only reach the level of humanity required of adults by this service.
It is as if America is dead and everyone out here can smell the huge, repulsive, maggot infested corpse baking in the sun over there. While many out here pretend to not notice, in accordance with the sentence at the beginning of this comment, it seems most Americans cannot smell.
I hope you do not live in my country. If you do, please return to wherever you come from and take your like-minded brothers with you. You certainly have forgotten the goodness that America has brought to the world. I will pray for you. You need all the help you can get, James. JLP, Johnston County, NC.
To James Edwards.Unfortunately most of the world is angry with AMERICA and shares your perspective.America,the arrogant teenage country functioning through a heinous warped government .Teenagers tend to believe their parents,want to fit in,wear the right clothes,impress their friends,are self absorbed,want to follow the latest trend(especiallythe targeted USA teenagers) and lack the maturity to make good choices.
Our big brother parents(the government)a sadistic,greedy,genocidal, malignant,self absorbed,bunch of groupies and fellow back scatchers, mutually admiring,delusional bullies,use terror and torture threats to control.Just like a bad parent will threaten to kick their teenagers ass if the teenager does not comply.
We the masses mostly are under the spell of TV MAGIC, follow the leader of that same familiar DRIVEL just like a teenager would,glued to the TV ,a reference point,to learn what to think,who to like,especially what to buy,to make sure that we check the bushes out back,for the terrorist cause TV tells us to and on and on.Teenagers grow up sometimes ,they have to go through difficult stuff to get there and to get over themselves.As a global community,,all the trees are growing at different rates.We have been on the go for billions of years and what will be will be.For now each of us can only do the best that we can ,try to live life,with concern and awareness and respect for the entire planet. Even though faced right now with horrible odds.There is a spiritual movement globally that is beginning to stir and that is my hope NOONE IN AMERICA CAN KNOW PEACE FROM OTHRS' MISERY. It is just not possible.We are a global community with conscience.Even a teenager has one.
"Majority of Americans Think Torture 'Sometimes' Justified
New Poll Finds Americans Favor U.S. Isolationism, Acting Alone"; the article title. They're right. It could be said to be justified to torture these Americans. But the second part of the article's title is dead wrong, yet it reinforces that these Americans deserve to be tortured.
What does this poll show---that most Americans can be conditioned to believe just about anything and are the easiest people in the world to scare. Case in point, Iran being one of the top three threats. Being bombarded for decades about Iran, its threat is blown out of proportion and the public buys into that fear.
Herman Schmidt
I am saddened and ashamed to be an american. because that is what I feel, I should be.
I dont think I should be ashamed, I know I should be. Because I can feel the harm and horror we as a people have allowed our govt to export to every corner of this world.
And although I wish there were a way for us to make amends and then to somehow change the course we are on, I suspect it is too late.
We are going to reap what we have sowed, I believe.
Im 42 and I have never been outside of the U.S. and I know the horror we have perpetrated on the rest of the world.
America, please stop.