Ah, well. Draw up a chair & warm yourself by the fire...
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Originally posted by HiveLordJim:
I think it very hypocritical of a North American (U.S. in particular) to criticise another country for human rights violations.
Your cities are founded on the sites of villages your “Forefathers” massacred; your soil fertilised with the carcases of millions of Native Americans; your economy was built upon the backs of tens of millions of African slaves.
“The Constitution” which espouses equality among men was constructed by slave owners while they hired immigrants to murder women and children.
The U.S. is the ONLY country in the world EVER to have used a nuclear weapon against another people – its effects still being felt by the civilians they were used on.
The U.S. was one of the first nations of the industrial age (if not the first ever) to use germ warfare against another people (evil Saddam indeed).
While these points are true in a general way, they are a bit over-drawn. Many of the Native Americans died from the diseases brought by Europeans. The "Mound Builder" cultures of the Southeast were apparently quite strong and numerous when De Soto first entered what is now Louisiana/Mississipi in the mid-16th century. But when the English settlers moved inland a century or two later they found only scattered bands of 'hunter gatherer' tribes and mysterious mounds with only a few remnants of structures on them. The best guess is that the diseases wiped out 90 percent or more of the populations and destroyed entire civilizations. Later, of course, the settlers got the idea to deliberately introduce diseases like small pox (the blanket trick). This is not new, though! Americans didn't invent the 'plague ship' trick. It dates back to ancient times. Putting some plague infected people on a ship and sending them into your rival's harbor is a well known strategy throughout the ancient world. So, not that there is any lack of massacres but the majority of the native population died of diseases.
The slaves are second only to the Native Americans in victimization, but they weren't QUITE as numerous as you suggest. The grand total of slaves exported from africa is estimated at 40 million, but 3/4 of them died enroute. This trade was begun by the Spanish and carried on by the English, btw. It's not like slavery was invented by the US. Of the surviving 10 million, most were kept in the Carribean area. Only about 1/2 million Africans were actually brought to the US. But the time of the Civil War there were about 4 million slaves in the Southern US while there were about 7 million 'whites' -- the minute the slaves arrived the races started blurring of course.
That said, it is very odd that we have a Holocaust Memorial in the US capital to commemorate atrocities committed by other nations on other continents and nothing to honor the original inhabitants and the slaves who contributed their land and civilization, and their lives, respectively to building the 'greatness' of this nation that the jingoists constantly flog in our faces in the media. Of course it's more of an ego boost to make a fuss over someone ELSE's misdeeds than 'fess up to your own...
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The U.S. government has a 225 year history of greed and treachery in regard to foreign policy.
While delaying coming to the aid of a world at war U.S governments and U.S. companies sell weapons to the enemies of their allies.
Your people are so proud of what they have achieved. The reason you are the most hated country in the world is not because of your success, it’s because you are not ashamed of how you achieved that success.
Our people? Our government, or our "ruling elite" you mean. Industrialists, bankers, etc. Many of our 'people' are just as exploited as the third world. But yes, like any successful empire the US is quite remorseless in exploiting anyone and anything that it can. The US is still the #1 seller of arms in the world more than a decade after the flimsy excuse of the "Cold War" is gone. Anything to make a buck/get ahead. And then stand on the stump and flog your wealth as proof of how 'great' you are. Yech... it's another classic case of 'funny if it weren't tragic' I think.
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 19 July 2001).]