Originally posted by: ImitationSanen
However, I can assure you, the war we are fighting is not half ass, the bullets are real, the bombs are real, and the bodies are real.
Very true, and I apologize for being unclear. What I wanted to say was, you should be putting as much effort into fighting poverty as you are into the war.

I don't think its a bad thing, but let us not attack the United States for its apparent "lack of care" since its are the reason most countries are able to live with little or no military, they know that they will be protected.
Don't think I'm attacking just the United States. Although I've been speaking directly of your government policies, drawing on examples from the Iraq war, these are issues that all of us should be raising with our governments, as it is an issue that should be of concern to all of humanity. In fact, every point I've brought up the Canadian government is equally responsible for and I've been working hard to hold them accountable for it as well. Keep in mind though it's not just quantity of aid (in fact, sometimes aid can be extremely damaging to developing communities) but the quality of aid. Even if the amount of aid was kept constant, but became untied, or if trade laws were placed to ensure more equitable conditions for people struggling to survive, we'd have incredible improvement. To give you an example, most of the rice eaten by people in Ghana is American rice. How can this be, since rice is one of the main crops of Ghana, and labour is far more expensive in the US, in addition to the fact that the rice must be flown overseas? The answer is that the American government provides large subsidies to their farmers, allowing those farmers to sell rice at extremely low prices, undercutting local markets in Ghana. It's cheaper for them to buy American rice than to grow their own. Now, Canada doesn't grow rice, but we do the exact same thing with many other products that we subsidize.

Well money doesnt grow on trees, I work, and fight and pay taxes like every other American , I am all about loaning countries money to help build their economies, but I expect it to be paid back with intrest, thats how loans work. If they didnt like the terms they shouldnt have accepted the loan.
I think this is unfair to many countries. Take for example, South Africa. After apartheid, when they became independent, they inherited the debts of their previous oppressors. In this way, the South African people are still paying for their own oppression. Many countries also have debts incurred by military dictators. Is it fair to make a country pay back the money spent to kill and control their citizens? After World War II, the US allowed Britain lower interest rates on their debt to allow them space to rebuild. The interest collected on third world debt is much higher than this, and they are given no space at all. If you are an individual and you find yourself heavily in debt, you can always declare bancruptcy. Countries don't have this option. It is the very debt repayment strategies imposed by organizations like the IMF and World Bank that have plunged these countries even farther into poverty and crisis.

My government is nice enough to only take about 35 percent of it, so we cannot give as much aid as other countries, well I worked for my money and I have a right to spend it on what I see fit, and aid for africa I am sorry is just not as high on my list as trying to feed starving Vietnam vets. We had some of the worst hurricanes in history, I did not see the outcry of aid other countries recieve in similar situations.
Canada's (previous, if the election results so far are accurate) prime minister tried the same tactic and just as I don't buy it from him, I don't buy it here. Let's be perfectly honest here. It's not that we can't afford it. We're two of the richest countries in the world. Our economies are growing and our standard of living is enormously high. The reason we think we can't give that much aid is that we don't want to give up our standard of living. We think that by the random chance we were born into these countries, we are entitled to the money we earn. Let me tell you, I know that I do not work half as hard as the woman in Ghana who spends all day carrying water from a stream in buckets just to irrigate her crops or the child in Zambia who has to work in the field instead of going to school just to have food the next day. These people know hard work, and all they ever see from it is the ability to keep on living day to day.

As for the hurricanes, it's true that they were among the worst in recent history and wreaked terrible damage. The reason there was no worldwide outpouring of money showering down on you is because your country is capable of dealing with something like this (although, I know there was some since my local community did raise a lot of money for hurricane relief when Katrina hit). When a disaster happens in north america, we have the capacity to rebuild and rally round to contain the consequences. In a situation such as the Tsunami of last year, the consequences are multiplied to gigantic proportions due to poverty. The people there don't have the infrastructure or the resources to cope. To give you a more down to earth example: For me here in Canada, a summer without rain on my farm means that my family makes less money that year, and maybe we have to give up that winter vacation or putting that addition on the house that year. For a farmer in Zambia, a drought means death.

But we have to commit to action, because debating in the air conditioned UN building over which country should do what is just the kind of useless diplomatic garbage that has allowed Iran to get to the point of Nuclear Enrichment. The UN needs to either learn to work how it was supposed to, or forget ever being recognized by the United States as anything other than a bunch of over educated fools with no experience in the reality of nation building or war.
Granted, there are some serious problems with the UN. However, I don't think that it's possible to do without it. An impartial organization is essential otherwise there is no external accountability and countries do whatever they see fit. If the UN isn't doing it's job, find a way to fix it or create a new organization free of any national interests. We all see things according to our own biases and priorities, and none of us can be trusted to act impartially on our own.

You know it all comes down to this, every country in the world, talks bad about us, insults us on every level, mocks us, calls us ignorant, then expects us to help them and their causes whenever they are in trouble. The United States is getting really tired of it. I often wonder at night, if we just stuck to our side of the world and let europe stick to its side of the pond if we would be better off.
It would be nice, wouldn't it, if all we had to do was govern our own countries and forget the rest of the world. Too bad our economies are directly dependent upon those countries across the pond. And for the record, there are many Canadians who support the US. Canada's (presumably) new prime minister Stephen Harper is a supporter of George Bush and wants to pledge more Canadian troops to US initiatives.

But back to my original point, reducing poverty around the world would save us a lot of trouble in the long run. The reason military dictators can come into power is because people are helpless, powerless, and lack the necessary education to be able to stop it, or can't see it happening until there is a soldier standing over them with a gun (I know, I'm oversimplifying....but this post is long enough as it is). You may think that other countries are letting you down by investing in foreign aid rather than their militaries, but contributing to development of impoverished nations and empowering their people is just as effective a weapon against terrorism as the work you are carrying out right now with your troops, in my opinion. Not to say that the military doesn't play a role, since there will inevitably always be armed conflict, but development should have just as much of a role, rather than being marginalized in our societies.