Guys;
I agree with most of what has been said in this thread. First off, we need to understand that most of the people / countries in the world do not like us. For the same reason everyone hates the Yankees and used to hate the Dallas Cowboys. They view Americans as rude, wasteful, crude, boastful, any number of poor qualities. As a nation, we need to get over it. Who really gives a crap if France doesn't like us? I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I'm tired of spending our tax dollars to give aid to people who would rather see us dead. Or "loan" countries money and then forgive the loan. Why? It doesn't get us anywhere. We can not adopt an isolationist program and remove ourselves from the world but we can damn well be more frugal in terms of the aid we provide, who we consider friends, who we let settle in our country. It is an opportunity and a privilege to be granted access to America. Immigrants now come to the States and abuse the privileges we provide. They do not pay taxes. They receive beneficial programs. We pay for this stuff.
The US needs to be active in the world economy and also needs to be active in policing the world's neighborhood. We are the only country who can.
I hate the waste in the government. I despise politicians. However, we live in the best country that has ever been on this planet and I am proud to be an American. One of the reasons America is so great is that we can agree to disagree. I do not support all of my government's decisions yet when American citizens are threatened, I am 100% behind my President. Saddam should have been disarmed 7 years ago but our good friend Billy Clinton was too busy in the Oval Office. Saddam has violated 17 UN sanctions that were imposed after the Gulf War. We agreed to those sanctions and stopped the assault and the bombings. One single violation is cause for resumption of the assault. I did say resumption. We are not planning a pre-emptive first strike. Under the articles Iraq agreed to, this is merely a continuation of the Gulf War. Why would Saddam say he will use chemical weapons against our troops and then tell the UN he doesn't have chemical weapons? Our government has shown remarkable restraint in not turning Iraq, Iran and a host of other Middle-Eastern nations into a vast wasteland.
Protesters have the right to protest. God bless this country for that. I just see them as narrow-minded and short-sighted. The Hollywood types who slam Bush and the adminsitration? they can leave whenever they want. I am done with Hollywood and I am done with their movies. **** them. They have no idea what real life is.
Sorry this is so long. God Bless America