: : : Like most people everywhere, I would like to take pride in everything my country does. Well I dont know if it's country perse, landless nations like the Irish have this sorted out go to spain, america, britain etc. and you'll most likely find an irish sector with it's own brand of international patriotism, that is if you avoid the right wing ethnocentric idiots but everyone has their fair share of that sort.
: : Why? Its not your cpountyr- do you own it? Disreali, that ol' tory got it spot on- there are two nations- the rich and the poor. The American national interest is always the interest of its ruling class. Further, can you tell me the difference between nationalism and racism- coz I've never spotted one. Personally, I always like to see the white race do well.
: I'm NOT FUCKING WHITE, how can I be a racist? It is my country, because I was born there and I grew up there. there is a difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism means having pride in your country, nationalism means privileging your country in the international arena and using its power to teh detrmient of other countries.
Fair enough here, RD should stop landing these fundamentalist part positions around the place, it's almost religious, if you seem to have values contradictory to the all hallowed truth your in for an ear bashing. If RD wants to get into it there is quite a bit of German nationalism in the communist manifesto.
: : : I immediately answered that the use of atmoic bombs was eminently justified.
: : Yes, lets kill some more civilians- don't you think they could have chosen a military target- and Japan had allready long lost the war...
: 1. Japan had committed atrocities at Nanking, had tortured and worked to death American, British and Filipino prisoners of war, had converted Korean women to slave prosititutes, had invaded and annexed much of China. Japan's war crimes were far greater than America's.
: 2. Japan had not already "lost the war".
: 3. 60,000 died at Hiroshima; far more than that died in one night during the firebombing of Tokyo. Why is teh atmoic bomb, per se, the object of so much oppobrium?
Good Points NJ but RD is working to a bit of a fanatical agenda here, it's alright, he has the freedom to do it, if some people hadn't behaved in a manner he would attack he might not have that freedom.
: : : However, the US has also done many good things that must be considered alongside teh bad things it ahs doen.
: : But, we should ask teh question- did it do these 'good things' on teh exact same power basis as that which it used to do wrong. Rather, like a tyrant who dispenses munificence and clemency at special times of teh year, can we seperate the rights from the wrongs?
: OK., by using teh word "tryant", you're already stacking the deck. And you can't call teh US an evil power, since it has also done a lot of good. By the way, I forgot to mention the Peace Corps, which ahs doen a lot for development in Africa, S. America, and other places, and which is strictly apolitical.
Not just the peace corps, when I studied the New Deal in school I was surprised that this Right Wing nation that was crawling with the KKK had suddenly went all socialist. It was liberal socialism and it has been dismantled but it shouldnt be forgotten just like that.
: : : 1) The US defended Nasser's claim to the Suez canal and threatened war with Britain and France, thus defending self-determination against the evil of colonialism.
: : What, it defended one bunch of nationalists against anotehr bunch of nationalists- not long after it denied self-determination (whatever that means) to italy and greece...
Note the "whatever that means" a continued fanatical anti-nationalism the lefts hatred of even liberal patriotism is what gave rise to extreme varients of nationalism like facism and tactics like RD's here are fine if you dont mind getting out manouvered by the right again.
:You know what self-determination means, teh opposite of colonialism. There's no way you can tell me that an Egyptian government ruling over Egyptians is not superior to a British regime. It's a basic right that all huamn peopels have, to govern themselves. otherwise, why do you defend Ho Chi Minh's war of independence against teh French?
No I dont think RD realises what self-determination means, I had to travel to Spain this year on Holidays before I could get to a good patriotic (but none Provo/IRA) irish bar where everyone wasnt up for a fight in the british tradition of hooliganism or before I could even say I'm irish without people looking horrified and immediately and forcibly denying me or accusing me of being a terrorist or something.
Englands got an imperial past, Britain is an imperial sham to try and unite the scots, welsh, brittany, cornwall, manx under an english banner and monarch when they're all celts.
