Is America a Good Country or Not?

Reader Comments
Back to blog

magine for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles. Imagine they were here under the auspices of "keeping us safe" or "promoting democracy" or "protecting their strategic interests."
Imagine that they operated outside of US law, and that the Constitution did not apply to them. Imagine that every now and then they made mistakes or acted on bad information and accidentally killed or terrorized innocent Americans, including women and children, most of the time with little to no repercussions or consequences. Imagine that they set up checkpoints on our soil and routinely searched and ransacked entire neighborhoods of homes. Imagine if Americans were fearful of these foreign troops, and overwhelmingly thought America would be better off without their presence.
Imagine if some Americans were so angry about them being in Texas that they actually joined together to fight them off, in defense of our soil and sovereignty, because leadership in government refused or were unable to do so. Imagine that those Americans were labeled terrorists or insurgents for their defensive actions, and routinely killed, or captured and tortured by the foreign troops on our land. Imagine that the occupiers' attitude was that if they just killed enough Americans, the resistance would stop, but instead, for every American killed, ten more would take up arms against them, resulting in perpetual bloodshed. Imagine if most of the citizens of the foreign land also wanted these troops to return home. Imagine if they elected a leader who promised to bring them home and put an end to this horror.
Imagine if that leader changed his mind once he took office.
The reality is that our military presence on foreign soil is as offensive to the people that live there as armed Chinese troops would be if they were stationed in Texas. We would not stand for it here, but we have had a globe-straddling empire and a very intrusive foreign policy for decades that incites a lot of hatred and resentment towards us.
Shutting down military bases and ceasing to deal with other nations with threats and violence is not isolationism. It is the opposite. Opening ourselves up to friendship, honest trade and diplomacy is the foreign policy of peace and prosperity. It is the only foreign policy that will not bankrupt us in short order, as our current actions most definitely will. I share the disappointment of the American people in the foreign policy rhetoric coming from the administration. The sad thing is, our foreign policy WILL change eventually, as Rome's did, when all budgetary and monetary tricks to fund it are exhausted.

truth of AZ 8:47AM December 24, 2011

no TTH LOL REALLY

AD of AL 7:41PM November 28, 2011

amanda, those middle eastern dictators are all installed by the united states, including sadam. even bin laden was supported by the u.s.. america seems to go into these countries, overthrow leaders, and replace them with dictators who enjoy stoning women to death. i like how youre focusing on the dictators but not on why they came to power. maybe you are still waiting for your liberal media to properly inform you. i dont really blame admedinejad for wanting to wipe israel off the map. for the past 40 years, israel has not been defending itself. rather it has been offending people. why is it that israel seems to be at odds with all its neighbours. seems like israel is the problem, and not everyone else. how exactly does lining up for blood after 9/11 make americans good people? it only makes them selfish. now if theyre lining up to give blood to iraqis, then i might actually be touched. after all, it is american troops who are murdering millions of iraqis, and afgans. funny how you bring up katrina. guess what the u.s. govt did after katrina? they sent in blackwater troops to protect the asets of the elite, and was beating and shooting at poor people who they accused of being looters. how exactly do you figure half of anyones pay check is going to welfare? its obvious that you dont know where taxes go. half of u.s. taxes go to military, which of course goes to blow up people around the world, or black male them into doing favours for multinational corporations. a few billion goes to israel to oppress palestinians. a few billion more go to these middle eastern dictators that enjoy stoning women. the other half of your taxes probably go to prisons or cops to help make the u.s. a perfect police state. im complaining. youre sick of it, and want people to move to canada, or france. yet, arent you the same kind of people who claim this is a "free country". well, i guess i am only free to make right wing statements, or something in agreement with the status quo. is this what american freedom is?

doug hartunian of MA 10:07AM May 01, 2011

It always seems to be the point of view which makes us believe in things. One person can say the US is bad just because their life is bad there yet a lot of people find the USA very nice. Again only because they have a good life.

Vito of MA 12:25AM March 26, 2011

uh. crud.

yoi 6:29PM October 26, 2010

Always watch for the hidden agenda! To answer your question it depends on who you ask. If you ask our terrorist government the answer is yes America is a good country! We are not better than Hitler's Germany! Did we not push the indians into death camps in their own land? What about Aztlan and Mexican sweat shops? Which Mexico? The one next to California or Texas? Did we not go to Africa and enslave human beings? So we used WWII to sweep it under the rug! If Hitler was wrong for exterminating jews in his quest for Eugenics then what about us? We were doing the same thing before and after the war! I challenge you to prove me wrong! The CIA payed Israel after WWII to iradiate children for experimentation. They exposed helpless children's brains to radiation in controlled hospital camps. The CIA and their brainwashing M2K Ultra experiments supposedly ended? If you download subliminal flash lite you will read in the help file how the CIA did experiments etc blah blah blah then look in the affirmation list!!! "I FORGIVE MY GOVERNMENT FOR IT'S MISTAKES!" Now that sort of covers past,present and future doesn't it? All they do is collect their data from the member forums! Same as Neural Programming software free to download.
Always watch for the loop holes...for instance human cloning...does a clone have rights under the constitution? "Are they endowed by their creator?"
America is the frog in the pan of water! If you put a frog in a pan of hot water it will jump out of the pan. If you put the frog in the water and boil it slowly the frog will sit there and boil to death!

Katie Nelson of AR 2:11PM October 16, 2010

After living in China for over a year, I would say that America is a very good country. I absolutely love China and all of its diverse people, but it is such a mess and people can be quite rude and impolite. If you think racism is bad in the US then try coming to Asia.....

andrew of MD 3:20AM October 08, 2010

Aye. I've lived abroad and have come to find the U.S. a great place. If you think America is the most evil you should step outside of it and see Darfur, what a mess. There is corruption but it is far from he most evil place and can be enjoyable if you make it so.

Elmer G of IL 1:33AM June 21, 2010

america is a fairly restricted country in terms of freedom of opinion. generally if you critique america, you won't be tolerated by your peers, so people generally try to avoid it or look for information regarding america's unethical acts. amanda blackburn is a good example of this. she advises others to move to another country because they happen to think some of the things that happen in america are cruel.
if you are one of the few people who dont care what others think about you, then you can find a lot of information about all the bad things america does, and it really makes al qaeda, bin laden, and the taliban look like mickey mouse, donald duck, and sponge bob.
i will be perfectly honest and say that i dont think there is a country more evil than america. all the things that the cia does around the world is just frightening, and to think that the american tax payer is funding these atrocities is just very very un-christ like. i suppose it is just the fact that most americans dont find anything wrong with framing a country for having wmd that is so disturbing, but also america is involved in a lot of sabotage around the world. they do things from starting wars, to riots, to death squads, torture camps, and all sorts of stuff. i know americans like to think that poor countries are that way because theyre lazy or stupid, but if you really look into it, you;ll find out that america has a lot to do with it. i wont say that europe is innocent either, but i will leave that discussion for later.
if i had to compare america to something it would be cobra from gi joe. it seems like theyre always up to no good. it is kind of ironic because america like to portray itself as gi joe and not cobra. however if you look at the facts then youll quickly see that the u.s. is a lot more like cobra. for example, did you know that america used more bombs on vietnamese civilians than all the countries in the world combined during ww2? not to mention that america used all sorts of poisonous chemicals on innocent people. if you think about it, there was absolutely no justification for the viet nam war, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with communism. the only thing viet nam did was not to allow america into their country to extract natural resources. for that they paid the price.
another thing i remember from watching a cia officer confesion was that america went into cuba, bribed a milk man who was delivering milk to a school, and the americans poured cement powder into the milk so the kids would drink it. they did all this to "stop communism", but if pouring cement into kids milk is capitalism then what does that tell you?
i find that there is fundamentally something wrong with the morals of the west.

fike2308 of OH 3:16PM June 07, 2010

"Move to another country!" is just a cheap attack on a fellow American's right to his opinion. YOU should move if you can't tolerate the free speech of others.
America is very good is some ways and very bad in others. We have tremendous cultural freedom but a tyrannical justice system, for example. Our economy is outstanding but we have longstanding racial divisions.

Joe of MS 7:17PM October 03, 2009