++ [ originally posted by Andy ] ++
I don't know enough history to comment on that, considering I have just started American history in college, however it must have seemed like the best resolution at the time for all those different cases.
If you accept the policy of real politik, then you're right. But, history has proven that policy to be erroneous, especially in the long term. In any case, just because it seemed like the thing to do at the time, does not absolve the US of its responsibility.
++ [ originally posted by Andy ] ++
We hord natural resources because we are one of the only countries that can do anything with them and produce products. In my eyes there is nothing wrong with producing products. Its a cruel world, however, survival of the fittest wins out in the end.
That is not true. The United States is not the only country that can utilise natural resources and produce things with them. In fact, the huge trade deficit that the US operates with shows that they don't produce as much as they consume.
My point, however, was that the US hordes not only natural resources, but wealth. The US takes advantage of the poorer nations of the world to make more money for the already richest people on this planet. They use their huge economy to force the people of poor nations like Brazil to burn down the rainforest, so that they can sell products produced on the land to America. They work the people of South East Asia to death for low priced items. Furthermore, these people waste more than the people of any other nation, by far. Americans waste clean water, food, and fossil fuels without regard to the future. And America uses their economic, military, and press power to spread this consumer culture throughout the world.
Its a cruel world because people make it cruel. Something that it supposed to seperate us from the animals is compasion. America is already clearly the fittest, is it really necessary to continue to widen the gap between Americans and the rest of the world. For what purpose and to what end?