Should America Care?

[Lwek]

A couple weeks ago, I had to watch something from Opera Winfrey in my History class about Should America Care?
Here's my defined question:
Should America care about what the rest of the world thinks of America?

I'm going to leave it at that for now. I want to see what answers I get on that question before I give my imput.

[Kamikaze]

you obviously have to do whats best for your country, but not to the point of turning the rest of the world against you.
i guess it all depends on whether or not you want allies or enemies when your time of need comes.

[ORC-r0x0r-ROC]

Yeah I think they should care. If they don't other countries will slowly turn their backs on them and sooner or later they will have a nuke up their ass but no one else will give a ****. A good start for the Americans would be getting rid of Bush and making sure idiots can't get into office again. If only the EU ran the world....

[B~E]

Care about what ? reputation ? Of course they should. End of story.

[Magikarp]

Because the United States depends on many other countries for various resources (Oil, flu shots, and most importantly, coffee), it is obvious that we should have good relations with these countries; therefore, we should care about what the rest of the world thinks of us.

As for the countires that we don't depend on, and as long as they don't have a grudge against us and don't have nuclear capabilities, it doesn't really matter what they think of us.

[dreamcrusader]

I dont really care. We send aid to a ton of countrys so **** them if they dont like us

[B~E]

You know, on 9/11, people in South America where cheering in the streets. Do you even know why ?

[Lwek]

Some of you proved yourself to be ignorant. A lot of people think a large part of Africa rely on Elephants and llamas for transportation(or something other than cars). That shows how much you know about the world.
Before 9/11, the majority of Americans only cared about themselves and their country, not ever realizing how much hatred there was in the "outside world". Now after 9/11, people realize they shouldn't be too ignorant and start learning other countries cultures.
So the question is Should America care about what the rest of the world thinks of us? Yes, because if we didn't, we'd have another 9/11 terrorist attack.

Stuff I remember from the video off the top of my head:
People from:
Pakistan - Think it's wrong to have sex with someone that's not your spouse, women are too obsessed with their looks.
France - Don't hate us, just don't like our foreign policies, our discrimination, and our death penalty
Australia - Doesn't like us too much because they supported us during a war(can't remember which one) and once they had a terrorist attack, we didn't support them.
Colombia(Or some other country that deals with illegal drugs) - Having a civil war, been going on for, I think, two decades, and says that Americans should help settle the war because we are the main consumers of drugs.

[Forged]

From a purelly economical stand point of course we should.

[DwightSchrute]

Originally Posted by Forged

From a purelly economical stand point of course we should.

im not too good at economics, but, doesnt that influence free trade and stock market?

we are VERY important in the world right? like back in the 1920s when the stock market here crashed?

[Forged]

Our world relations are one of the factors in who buy and sell from us, and for how much. So yes our forgein policy can either screw us economically or help us.

#Edit
However the stock market crashed because of buying on margin and shady buisness practices without many regulations.

[shutupandgoaway]

We most certainly should care about the perception of America by the international community. We should be aware of the hatred that our nation is a recipient of in other places, and the sources of that hatred. Sadly, most who make these hatreds and sources thereof public are branded anti-American communists. Howard Zinn, for example- in his book 'A People's History of the United States' he explores the injustices done by the American government and corporate interests through our history, and when my civics teacher sees me reading this book, he comments that I'm reading a "...Socialist interpretation of history." I agree that it is important to care about and fight the hatred that the US faces oversees for economic purposes, but it is important to recognize and defend against the hatred for America more for national security resons that for the economy. This is something that our beloved 'president' cannot seem to comprehend- the way to stop anti-American sentiment is to create an America not deserving such sentiment, not locking up those who hold such sentiment in Guantanamo, or by invading their countries under false pretenses, or by ignoring them completely. America is hated because of it's foreign policy, past and present, as well as it's moral decadence, and political hypocrisy. In foreign policy, we are hated in the Muslim world for our support of Israel and our imperialistic troop locations, in 130 of the 161 UN recognized country, some of whom are located in the location of the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. In moral issues, we are hated again by the Muslim world because America is becoming quite morally deficient in the eyes of Muslims. In political issues, we are eyed with suspicion by all free nations due to our most recent 'election', to our wealth gap, widening alarmingly fast, and to our perverted criminal justice system. These are the current main causes of American hatred- but there are far more than these in the past that have led to conflict and hatred, but Americans, sadly, know nothing of either current or past causes.

[Static]

i love it how we fund the people who kick the **** outta us.

It is one thing to keep in good comfort with the countries who we barter with but its another to care about people who we don't. It's rediculous how alot of people hate us, but sometimes I can also agree with some things IE the violence level in america.

I personally would rather live in Canada, they care about their people. Giving away health insurance. I LOVE IT

[dreamcrusader]

Originally Posted by Lwek

Some of you proved yourself to be ignorant. A lot of people think a large part of Africa rely on Elephants and llamas for transportation(or something other than cars). That shows how much you know about the world.
Before 9/11, the majority of Americans only cared about themselves and their country, not ever realizing how much hatred there was in the "outside world". Now after 9/11, people realize they shouldn't be too ignorant and start learning other countries cultures.
So the question is Should America care about what the rest of the world thinks of us? Yes, because if we didn't, we'd have another 9/11 terrorist attack.

Stuff I remember from the video off the top of my head:
People from:
Pakistan - Think it's wrong to have sex with someone that's not your spouse, women are too obsessed with their looks.
France - Don't hate us, just don't like our foreign policies, our discrimination, and our death penalty
Australia - Doesn't like us too much because they supported us during a war(can't remember which one) and once they had a terrorist attack, we didn't support them.
Colombia(Or some other country that deals with illegal drugs) - Having a civil war, been going on for, I think, two decades, and says that Americans should help settle the war because we are the main consumers of drugs.

so you think that if we lend a hand to midle eastern countries (which we do) terrorist attacks would stop? Your the idiot. Nothing would happen out of that. Those people hate us no matter what we do

[Outside Source]

We should care for the simple fact we will eventually need help. We can't take on the entire world so we should do our best to make everyone happy and not force our way of life on them. Unless someone is begging for help we should not step in at all. If we can just sit there and let things happen and help those who ask for it we should be able to make everyone happy.

[CelestialBadger]

Originally Posted by dreamcrusader

so you think that if we lend a hand to midle eastern countries (which we do) terrorist attacks would stop? Your the idiot. Nothing would happen out of that. Those people hate us no matter what we do

You're assuming that everyone in the MidEast is a terrorist...I'm sure if we were sympathetic towards the majority of the MidEast they would be more eager to help stop terrorist organizations from attacking us.

[dreamcrusader]

Originally Posted by CelestialBeaver

You're assuming that everyone in the MidEast is a terrorist...I'm sure if we were sympathetic towards the majority of the MidEast they would be more eager to help stop terrorist organizations from attacking us.

No but some people in the Mid east hate us. Their taught it in thei schools. Simply because we are American. Thats why I think that only freeing their country (in this case Sadam) is the only right path to have them properly taught what Americans are

[B~E]

Originally Posted by dreamcrusader

Thats why I think that only freeing their country (in this case Sadam) is the only right path to have them properly taught what Americans are

And its doing wonders, too.

[Lwek]

Originally Posted by dreamcrusader

so you think that if we lend a hand to midle eastern countries (which we do) terrorist attacks would stop? Your the idiot. Nothing would happen out of that. Those people hate us no matter what we do

I never said in the post and I don't think it. Well I don't know that yet.
What leads you to think that I think we should lend a hand to the Middle East? As you can see, I said "Should America care what the rest of the world thinks of us?" which is totally different from "Should America help people so everyone can like us?"
I'm almost completely sure that you know more about how people live in the Middle East now than you did before 9/11? Knowledge is Power, right? The more we know, the more we can be safe.

[Forged]

Originally Posted by dreamcrusader

No but some people in the Mid east hate us. Their taught it in thei schools. Simply because we are American.

Have you ever been to a school in Iraq? Or any school in the middle east for that matter? No, I didn't think so.

Thats why I think that only freeing their country (in this case Sadam) is the only right path to have them properly taught what Americans are

First, Saddam was a man, not a country. Second, just because people are not being taught what America wants them to be taught is no reason to invade them and kill 10,000+ civilians and over 1,000 American troops.

Just out of curiousty what do you think they should be taught about Americans? We are imperialistic capitalist, who piss on the poor and kill to get what we want?