I put the WW2 responsibility on England and France because they received the reperations from Germany, and they're the ones who allowed Hitler to violate the agreement in their own backyard.  If Canada decided to go crazy and magically increased their population 10x overnight and created a huge army to invade America, once the war was over the responsibility to keep Canada in check would fall on the US more than any other nation.  For the obvious reasons of proximity and greatest self threat.  This applied to mainland Europe pos WW1, specifically France, and England as well.  They failed to do anything.  Ergo, I say they allowed/created the atmosphere for WW2. 

Britain used to act like an empire, and look what happened to it.  It's not even the most powerful nation in Europe anymore, let alone the world.  I don't want America following the same path as England or Rome before it.  Empires don't last forever. 

With regard to our cold war spending, once the war was over, we had a budget we no longer needed to maintain.  Instead of decreasing our spending, we just found other things to spend it on.  Enitlements and an ever growing size and scope of government.  Threaten to close down one department or safety net that wasn't there 20 years ago, and the media find 20 old people or single mothers with 8 kids who claim they'll now die in the street without said program. 

Greence and Iceland are 2nd world countries, maybe Iceland can be counted first, but it has a next to nothing population comparitively.  Greece outspent itself with entitlements and other junk spending without increasing revenue.  Most of the world is headed this way now, but it used to be a European problem of excess government spending and social nets.  America was smart enough to avoid this fiasco and still lead the world in technology and standard of living.  As we encourage people to make bad choices and allow them to remain poor (which would be considered quite wealthy and successful in nations with real poverty) we'll continue to slide.   But I agree with your comment about these nations lacking a large military and in turn a lard sum spent on defense.  I'm a firm believer a nation can't be secure and a welfare state at the same time.  Not short of a totalitarian regime at least.

Fuck Rwanda and fuck Iraq, Iran, Syria or whatever country that has no bearing on the United States.  Why should I care if some people in a distant country are killing their own?  I don't.  And no where in my contract or anyone else's does it mention risking my life and deploying to remote parts of the world to defend foreigners from their own government. 

Anytime the US or any other nation comes storming in to another country's affairs unasked and unwanted, it ends badly.  Vietnam was a cluster fuck for the US (and France).  Afghanistan was a cluster fuck for the Soviets (and arguably is for the US). 

The only example of success you can mention is Iraq, and how many billions of dollars and lives did we have to sacrifice and take to maybe get a stable situation.  And even if you call it stable, the Iraqis don't really like us.  Some may tolerate us to a certain extent, but they're not reacting like the French were when we liberated them in WW2.   

Now if Iran and Syria shake hands and start crossing borders and threatening other allied nations in Europe, then maybe we can talk about US involvement.  But outside of that, who gives a damn.  Even if you want to make an argument about economics and supporting the American way of life (something I could in theory get behind) these countries aren't the ones that mean dick to us.  We don't get our oil from any of these nations (nor do we need to).  They have no real impact on our domestic affairs and are so weak they pose virtually no threat to us short of sending some civilians on hijacked 747s or into the NYC tranist system.  They don't fucking matter.  We virtually have nothing in common with them culturally and without our technology (or technology stolen or copied by other nations from the US) they'd still be in the stone age.  This part of the world hasn't done dick in over 2k years, so who the hell cares.

If you want to join the peace corps or go there as a civilian protester (I knew a lady who went to Iraq that way before the war) more power to you.  Just don't ask hundreds of thousands of american to suit up and kill people you really don't care about either, while forcing us to go deeper in debt. 

IMHO, America needs to shut the fuck up and sit down.  Worry about fixing itself and restablishing itself as the premier economic super power.  Let all these hangeron nations send their children to fight the moral causes.  Bottom line is this, if America isn't involved, no other country will do shit.  Libya drives that point right home.  Let some of these other countries that consider themselves America's equal start leading and making something more than token contributions for a while.

Great post monkeychow.  I was completely ignorant of this case until it was over.  And even then, I only have a very casual knowledge.  Children die every day from bad parents, so I never saw anything special about this case. 

What I have an issue with in the theoretical concept of our legal system is how we implement the notion of innocent until proven guilty.  Innocent people aren't deprived of their freedom, yet someone on trial or awaiting trial are often held inside jail until the verdict is released.  So if I spend 15 months in jail for a crime I am ultimately found innocent of, what does that do for the 15 months of lost liberty I had to endure?  If we truly held to the notion of innocent until proven guilty, alleged criminals would be free to conduct their daily lives until a court has found them guilty. 

In this case, this girl was kept in jail for a certain amount of time ( I have no idea how long) only to be found innocent of the crime she was accused of.  Now for an unrelated crime, she is being asked to endure further loss of liberty, with no compensation for the loss she endured while on trial for child murder.  That does not sit well with me.

no rant incoming.  It was a legitimate question.  When someone says "we" need to do this, or makes the comment "I won't sit by and let this thing occur" I have to ask that question.  It's a common error and everyone is guilty of it.  I'm from Pittsburgh, so when talking about the Steelers, I often say "we're going to the superbowl" even though I've never played a day of professional football in my life.  The only distinction between when someone refers to their sports team as "we" is that no one is going to die or have their lives ruined by their supporters advocating they go all they way in professional sports. 

When someone says we need to goto this country because I don't like what they're doing there and will sleep better at night because I cheered on the team, well I do make a point to correct it.  Deploying sucks.  It's lonely, no one really has a clue what it's like besides those over there with you, so when you come home, you can't really explain what it's like.  And i personally value my life more than that of some Syrian in this context.  Those fuckers were some of the first to enter Iraq in 2003 to get shots off at Americans.  So excuse me if I'm hesitant to inquire as to whether someone is volunteering their own misery for some moral cause, or whether they want to subject me to 12 months of shit to dodge bullets from people who mean nothing to me and don't care for me either.

Fuck it, I'll rant.

I get tired of people claiming their part of the defense process because they pay taxes.  That is fucking stupid.  50% of this country pays no federal tax because of all the perks and breaks they get.  When 50% of the country pays 1% of the tax revenue, they don't fucking count.  If you had 100 people over at your house and bought a shit load of really cheap pizza for $100, and 50 people combined only payed 1$, would you argue they have an equal say in what toppings to add, where to order from and best of all, equal access to the pizza?  Hell no you wouldn't.  So excuse me if I don't really give a damn what public opinion says about what I should be doing and where I should be doing it.  Cause most of the people that are polled in these topics don't contribute to my paycheck annually what I pay in federal taxes a month.

TL;DR   I don't want to deploy to make someone else feel good from the comfort of their home.  There is no "we" when you come home to your family at 5pm everyday and I look out a a mound of sand.

That's just it Axlin.  The amoral liberal mentality of anything goes, don't judge the behavior and actions of other is the equivalent of not spanking a kids ass when they get out of line.  For years, we've bailed out people who make poor choices and even champion them as brave souls.  Time and time again, studies show that single mothers are the number one source of crime in our society.  Yet our tax code, social systems and even pop culture go out of their way to accept if not even condone this behavior. 

I'm no friend of teachers, I've made that clear before.  When you're your own biggest supporter, it should tell you something.  But the mentality that students can misbehave and perform poorly without any repercussion is a major contributor to their behavior and outlook on life.  I'm not saying how you do in school is everything, but if someone is a fuckup in high school, there is a pretty damn good chance they'll be a fuck up as an adult.  Not every dropout has an IQ of 200 and becomes Einstein or has a pretty face and the acting chops to become John Travolta.

The article goes to great lengths to point out that these riots have nothign to do with political unrest, it's just a group of degenerates who define the term "loser" and need a good ass kicking as well as some time behind bars to straighten up.  As long as we continue to justify this type of behavior by using PC terms like dis-enfranchised, the problem won't get solved.

This same shit is happening in America, with Philadelphia being a great example.  People are starting to get fedup with this garbage and years of political correctness and the social experiements the left has been toying with for the past 30 years.  It'll soon be time to pay the piper.