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Originally Posted by peepingdan
Are you going to attack me or my points? What you just displayed was Ad Hominem attacks, a logical fallacy. You just proved me right, congrats.
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No, Ad Hominems do not prove YOU are right, they just fallacious. However, I do love how the kids who live off the very cream of our land complain about America the most.
Ok now on to your arguments.
Yes we did support dictators during the cold war. No doubt. However, these regimes were under constant pressure to reform and provide human rights protection and free elections. Pinochet is a great example. Over the years he was eventually pressured by the US into allowing reforms which ultimately led democratic reform and don’t think Pinochet is off the hook for his crimes at the very lest he will die penniless. The same is true of all the Latin American countries which the US intervened during the Cold War, they are all democracies now. Can the same be said of Cuba?
slr & Belenar You miss the point; both your countries are democracies as a result of direct military action not diplomatic pressure. Perhaps you need a reminder that the Nazis did not did not practice democratic government and your countries were occupied by them. If the US had not interceded in Europe you would still be a province of the Reich and there is no denying that. Further, we did help set the conditions for democracy to flourish in Western Europe after WW2. You can not be intellectually honest if discount the direct impact of the Marshall Plan and NATO on the democratization of all of Western Europe.
Belenar- America only spends about 3% of its GDP on its military. $333 billion defense, yes the number looks large because our economy really is that big. Our GDP is 11 Trillion yes Trillion dollars. The military budget is not breaking our backs. FYI in 2004 we spent 4.5% of our GDP on healthcare for the uninsured. Our Social Security issues are a long term issue that we want to fix before it becomes a problem in 20 or 30 years. I know you would like to think we eat out of trashcans in the US but think again. The reason I was giving peepingdan a ribbing is because the median income in Los Gatos is almost $100,000 per year and the median house costs over three quarters of a million dollars.
Lets keep this thing on target this is not the player haters ball.
