Which country is fairer? Russia or US (no citizens from those countries should vote)

Discussion in 'Politics & Religion' started by ST12, Sep 27, 2008.

  1. RovingCalypso

    RovingCalypso Well-Known Member

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    #41
    At the moment its Russia.

    USSR was overly oppressive and paid the price in 1989.
     
    RovingCalypso, Sep 29, 2008 IP
  2. rome

    rome Peon

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    #42
    Russia has my vote
     
    rome, Sep 29, 2008 IP
  3. Mark_Austin

    Mark_Austin Peon

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    #43
    Well said. People seem to forget that point. Reminds me of something I read not too long ago ... I'll paste it below:

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    When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building' by George Bush.

    He answered by saying, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."

    It then became very quiet in the room. Colin Powell went on further to say:

    "The United States believes strongly in what you call soft power, the value of democracy, the value of the free economic system, the value of making sure that each citizen is free and free to pursue their own God-given ambitions and to use the talents that they were given by God. And that is what we say to the rest of the world. That is why we participated in establishing a community of democracy within the Western Hemisphere. It's why we participate in all of these great international organizations.

    There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use hard power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have hard power — and here I think you're

    I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan.

    So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.

    We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works."

    (see snopes http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/powell.asp)

    Then there was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American . During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'

    A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electric power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day , and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'
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    Mark
     
    Mark_Austin, Sep 29, 2008 IP
  4. bogart

    bogart Notable Member

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    #44
    It is what it is.
     
    bogart, Sep 29, 2008 IP