Can you answer these 4 questions

[Libre]

These cultures invented rocketry the first calculators, math, they knew Venus was a planet before the United States existed. So am I shocked they surpassed us in present day nope.
Edit: But we can blame it on Obama or Bush if it makes you feel better.

I certainly don't contend that the world began with the USA.
It's just that, for most if my life the US was recognized as the world leader in many areas - and now we've been bypassed in some of them - so it's a bit strange, if not shocking.
I'm not necessarily blaming any president.
Industry and the environment are competing priorities.
Our industry has declined and our environment has improved while China's has done the opposite. A great part of our infrastructure was built on the back of immigrant slave labor - transcontinental RR for example, factories, bridges - and it could not be built today at a profit partly because of environmental restrictions and worker's protections - a good thing but it's a double edged sword.

 

[Bladerunner]

I certainly don't contend that the world began with the USA.
It's just that, for most if my life the US was recognized as the world leader in many areas - and now we've been bypassed in some of them - so it's a bit strange, if not shocking.
I'm not necessarily blaming any president.
Industry and the environment are competing priorities.
Our industry has declined and our environment has improved while China's has done the opposite. A great part of our infrastructure was built on the back of immigrant slave labor - transcontinental RR for example, factories, bridges - and it could not be built today at a profit partly because of environmental restrictions and worker's protections - a good thing but it's a double edged sword.

Might I add just a bit here? The comparisons are apples to oranges. More so in education than anything. you say no, they are better at math, chemistry, etc. and I agree to a point. That point being the student. Most other countries take and train the brightest of students, in other words they 'Cherry Pick'. The rest go to other types of training were scoring is not done. In the USA, we bring every child up for testing not just the brightest.

Have a nice day:>)
Bladerunner

 

[Bladerunner]

1- So if a lie is always a lie, and you said that only 2 presidents have blatently lied to the american public, and it is clear that of the 44 presidents we've had, they've all oviously lied to some extent (because everyone does) then based on your own criterion, what you said was itself a lie.

Most all pres. lie to the public but not so blatantly with the exception one other I left out. Johnson and I paraphrase: 'I will not send you sons to that country', yet we lost 50,000 lives over there under a democratic pres. and congress.

2- If you can excuse Bush for the most horrific foreign policy blunder in recent memory (nothing is worse than an unnecessay war - that is still going on 12 years later - longer than WWI and WWII combined - and based on false pretenses) because others "lied" to him, but can't excuse the democratic presidents for a simple misstatement in one case, and an inconsequential fib about a family matter that nobody had any right to even question him about in the other case, I'd say your priorities are skewed.

I think you are now playing politics. If those false findings by the CIA were not reported to the president and Congress, do you think Bush would have went to war. the liberal answer probably 'YES' and totally political. On the other hand, how many people do the liberals think need to be killed before we jump in and help to stop it. million, 6 million, 20 million.. I ask what happen to the liberal humanity? I do not excuse Bush fro part of the blame and do not agree with 'Nation building' but if people are dying (kuwait) and ask for our help do we not as a superpower have the responsibility to step in and help stop it. If not, then the next Hitler that arises, we need to set back and let Asia and Europe worry about it. Of course when the rest of the world falls, we are so connected, we as a nation will fall as well whether we are in a 'unnecessary war' or not.

Have a nice Day:>)
Bladerunner

 

[Libre]

Bladerunner
I'm not "playing politics" whatever that means.
I'm just speaking my mind.
And I agree with part of what you're saying - the US has an obligation to use it's power for good, and not let innocents be tortured and killed.
But it's not that simple. It's hard to know who the "good guys" are, and at any rate the good guys are those that best serve our own interests.
Case in point - first we supported Iran when the Shah was in power, then it was the Ayatollah and we turned against them and supported Iraq in the war against Iran and Saddam Hussein was our pal - gave him weapons - he sold us oil during the embargo when no other OPEC country would, and then we know what happened with Saddam later.

 

[Bladerunner]

Bladerunner
I'm not "playing politics" whatever that means.
I'm just speaking my mind.
And I agree with part of what you're saying - the US has an obligation to use it's power for good, and not let innocents be tortured and killed.
But it's not that simple. It's hard to know who the "good guys" are, and at any rate the good guys are those that best serve our own interests.
Case in point - first we supported Iran when the Shah was in power, then it was the Ayatollah and we turned against them and supported Iraq in the war against Iran and Saddam Hussein was our pal - gave him weapons - he sold us oil during the embargo when no other OPEC country would, and then we know what happened with Saddam later.

Was talking about the democratic talking point about Bush was the only one who knew thus started the war by himself. My apologies if I overstepped.

Your "Case in Point" I agree with. Which why we had a try at nation building. We wanted to create a Democratic nation. There has never been a Democratic nation that has taken over another country by force. I know, what about the USA? We do not go into another country to take it over but rather to help clean up the atrocities committed there by the government of that nation.

Democracy is very hard to maintain since the people have to work at it. Apathy will kill a nation in a hurry. And my friend, we have plenty of that.

Have a nice day:>)
Bladerunner

 

[Libre]

Was talking about the democratic talking point about Bush was the only one who knew thus started the war by himself. My apologies if I overstepped.

No problem

Democracy is very hard to maintain since the people have to work at it. Apathy will kill a nation in a hurry. And my friend, we have plenty of that.

Have a nice day:>)
Bladerunner

Democracy is also hard to maintain when the population is overrun with religious zealots - look at most of the countries in the Mid East.
This is why nation building and installing democracies there has failed miserably - they march to their own drummer regardless of what the civil law prescribes.

 

[Bladerunner]

No problem


Democracy is also hard to maintain when the population is overrun with religious zealots - look at most of the countries in the Mid East.
This is why nation building and installing democracies there has failed miserably - they march to their own drummer regardless of what the civil law prescribes.

I agree but was talking about the US. On the other hand, Islam is a different animal which is why everybody stays away from it even in these threads.

I don't think we will be doing nation building again anytime soon. In fact, with the way things are going now, we are liable to have a world war in the near future despite what we can do to prevent it.