Enigma,
Boy, you sure surprised me with your pprune post (the long one). Granted you don't see any "across the pond bashing" on this board, but that's because it has almost zero non-American posters and seldom contains international or even domestic political viewpoints. The "clientele" on flightinfo is also very different from pprune. Most of the posters on this bbs are relatively new to aviation and almost exclusively American, while the general pprune set is mostly airline pilots from all over the world. It is an international aviation forum.
With respect to aviation, we Americans seem to think that US companies are the only ones out there and generally know little if anything about foreign carriers. Just as we don't care what European, Asian, Latin American carrier is hiring or not (like you point out) why would you expect them to care if Comair is interviewing, Spirit is negotiating or USAir is furloughing? I think you're being unfair with that view.
I sure don't want to pick a fight with you, but when you say things like " We should leave them alone, and we should lock down our borders to anyone" and the rest of the stuff in that paragraph, I have to tell you that this American thinks that your isolationist views are out of touch with reality and not in the best interests of our country.
As a matter of fact, it is not only as hard for a non-citizen to get a job here as it is for Americans to get jobs in other countries, in most cases it is much harder. The fact that we have so many non-citizens working here illegally is only because WE are willing to exploit them and violate our own laws to do it.
Another fallacy in your thinking is the idea that people come here from other countries to "take advantage of our freedoms". In most cases they do not. People come here to make money. Most of them don't give a damx about our "freedoms" and don't have a clue as to what they are. When it comes to western Europeans, they have no need to come here for our "freedoms" for most of the western Europeans enjoy the very same freedoms, if not more.
Whether we like it or not, we are but a small percentage of the world's population. If we help to fight what you call the world's battles, we do so because it is in our own interest, not because we are "nice guys". That "nice guy" idea is an urban myth. Yes there was a time when we were self-sufficient but if you really want to take us back to that time, we'll all be living as we did in the 19th century. Are you sure that's what you want?
We consume far more of everything than everyone else in the world combined. We also produce much more of many things than we are able to consume ourselves. If you want to shift us back from a high-tech society in need of international markets for our products to an agrarian economy we could probably be self-sufficient and isolated again. Understand however, what you're asking for. If we do that, we will also cease to be the "super power" that we are today and it will no longer be possible for us to impose our will on others wherever in the world we choose to do so.
Forget what? If you think Europeans have forgotten what we did in Europe during WWII and how it liberated them from German occupation and prevented their enslavement by the Soviet Union you are very, very wrong. They remember and most are grateful. That however, does not mean that they have to kiss our a$$es every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Are you willing to kiss the backside of the French because you remember that we could not have won our war of independence from the British without their help? Are you willing to do it again because we would have been defeated in the War of 1812 had it not been for their assistance, again? Somehow, I think you may have forgotten too?
Let "us" not forget that the Marshall plan was not a "gift". Most of it was money we loaned and most of it has been repaid, with the notable exception of Great Britain. Let us also not forget that we, once more, did it (both in Europe and Japan) because it was in the interest of the United States to do so. We did NOT do it due to generosity and anyone who believes we did just hasn't studied or read very much.
Yes, the American people are by nature generous and give much to those in need both at home and abroad. That is laudable. However, the American Government is not generous at all. It truly "gives" very little. It uses is money to buy its way and promote the political and economic interests of the United States. As an American, I'm not really complaining about that, but please don't call it generosity or a desire to help others. It is anything but. You should also recognize that the recipients are not unaware of our motives.
We also did not fight the war in Europe because we wanted to be nice to the Europeans. We did it because if we had not, your language would now be German or Russian instead of English. We fought the war with Japan in order to protect the economic interests of the United States in Asia, prevent the expansion of the Japanese empire and extend our own power in that region of the world.
Like every super power that has preceded us in the world, the United States has built an empire. The only real difference between what other imperial powers have done and our methodology is that they expanded their empires by taking and holding the lands of others. We expand our empire with economic power and the "threat" of military force. There really isn't much difference in the final analysis. All imperial powers are resented by those they control and dominate.
Calling the UN a socialist organization and advocating that we withdraw is really specious. If that is indicative of the views of Texans, then I hope that your fellow Texan will not gain another term in the White House. Remember too that the concept of a "world government" is not embraced by any nation. Other peoples guard their national identity and sovereignty as jealously as we do ours. That concept is academian and resides mostly in Universities, many of which are in New England and California not Europe.
I have to agree with you when you say you are no student of history. I sincerely hope that you will have an opportunity to expand your thinking and recognize that there are other people in the world and it is far from essential that they think or act like Americans in order to be good people. If we expect our views to be heard and respected, we must listen to and respect the views of others. The fact that today we have more money and bigger guns, is of little true value. All of the world's "super powers" had more money and bigger guns in there hey day. None of them respected the views of others. Where are they now?
Is that the future you really want for the United States of America? I certainly hope not. I would like this Nation to be around for my great, great, great grandchildren to inherit. Adoption of your isolationist policy and the lack of tolerance for the ways and views of non-Americans will guarantee that it isn't.
Sorry for the sermon, but what you said really bothered me. It has nothing to do with pprune.
The Brits are good people and candidly, have a better talent for the use of our common language which often seems to confuse us yanks.
The French are good people too. Both we and the Brits would understand that if we could only speak French.
As for the rest of the folks over there, until recently, isn't that were most of our ancestors came from? Why can't we just get along?
(with all sincerity)
