>>Actually, the US Navy was first on the scene for a lot of the tsunami victims and the federal government came in shortly thereafter. I dunno if you remember, but former Presidents Bush and Clinton joined up and spearheaded a monster relief effort. Furthermore, the USGS spent millions upgrading warning systems and helping Pacific Rim nations improve their reponsiveness.
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>So there is no critisism on the slow and painfull aid to new orleans?

Did you read the rest of my post? Misdirection, a time-honored way of scuttling away.

>>Imperialism? Uh, hello, what? This must be a definition of imperialism new to me. Do you want to compare America's role in the development of the Phillipines with ... sayyy ... the Dutch East Indies, oh, I'm sorry, Indonesia. Or Dutch Guiana ... whoops again ... Suriname.
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>Yes. I'm comparing that. Yes we were an empire in those days, until we lost it to the english. The role of the US in the world is different but comparable. With a monopoly on the trade in goods in US dollars the US allows itself to get into dept way beyond any other nation. Printing dollars without any consequence can be explained as robbery of forreign resources (Just learn how the financial market works and you'll know what I mean).

To the English? I don't recall Indonesia or Suriname going English. And, yes, I understand international finance - considering that my wife has her masters in that field and I wrote one of her dissertions.

The US government does not print dollars to flood foreign markets. That's patently ridiculous. If so, inflation would be astronomical and the dollar would be prone to the same market forces that put the German Mark at 23 billion to the dollar in 1923.

Try a reasonable argument.

>>I'll grant you Katrina. That was a mess at all levels of government. The Dutch (and others) helped out because they are our allies and offered.
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>>I'll also agree that a majority of Americans are culturally ignorant of the rest of the world.
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>>I honestly don't know what drives European resentment of America. Seems to me we've spent a lot of time, money, and lives revitalizing Europe over the past 100 years.
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>I think that europeans don't understand why american choose a guy with the brains of a peanut and elected him twice. We don't understand why the american people get so mislead by the american government and they get away with it. The whole thing about iraq, afghanistance seems to be lead by testerone rather than brains.


Uh huh. Bush has the brains of a peanut? Seems to me that's the same argument that has been made by every liberal about a conservative president since Eisenhower and it's never been true.

I mean, whatever, Walter. You have your opinions and God forbid that the facts slap you in the face. The American people are not as stupid as you think and we do what has to be done. Perhaps that's why we're a hyperpower.