What Good Has America Done In The Last 10 Years?

First off im really not sure where to put this thead, Sorry mod's. Please move it as you see fit...

Anyways I have a question for you all, What good has the United States done for the world and for it's own people in the last decade?

I am in no way trying to bash the US, so please dont flame me for this post please. As a citizen of the United states i just started thinking of this, and as bad as it is i couldn't think of much. I would love to see what you guys come up with. Also lets keep the bashing to a minimum, I would like to focus on the good for once. THanks

I was an Arab who was jealous and envious of the freedom and life that Americans have, and wanted to kill them in a blaze of glory because of my jealousy. I am now a born again Christian who kisses the Bible everyday, and burns a Qu'ran-a-day, and thanks America for the freedom they have given me.

reply to post by 3_Libras


That was a mind-blowing post.

Interesting.

Thanks for your sarcastic reply, I really hope there are a few more insightful members here on Ats that can contribute in a more meaningful way. This post isn't just to boost the US image, but to see what the most powerful country on earth has been able to contribute.

I think my post was very meaningful. Basically my contribution to this topic was to state what America has done for this world in the past 10 years - jack squat.

Why should me saying that, be any different to George Bush coming out and saying all extremist Muslims are jealous of American values and freedoms? Puh-lease

Edit by spiderj: In the future just say Jack squat.

[edit on 1/19/2008 by Spiderj]

Originally posted by bgaty
Anyways I have a question for you all, What good has the United States done for the world and for it's own people in the last decade?

The U.S. has been extremely good at buying and consuming things produced by everybody all over the planet. As a result, millions, if not billions of people have been able to provide food and shelter and medicine for themselves and their familes, and hate the U.S. peacefully in their nice warm homes.

The U.S. is not in the business of doing nice things for people. That's not in the Constitution. The U.S. knows how to consume stuff. What the rest of the people in the world choose to do with that is entirely up to them. Many have made a pretty good living from it.

First thing that comes to mind is raising money to help with the Tsunami victims.

reply to post by Nohup


You really made a good point there, thanks for your post, It's nice hearing a new view.

What exactly are you trying to do bgaty? Make yourself feel better? Im sure there has been a ton of great work done in the US, by normal people. The people who should be leading the way in doing great work, arent. It reminds me of that article I read two weeks ago, amid the coming recession.

It said "Why are Americans so darned happy" And it was a nicely lovely positive article about why Americans are still the happiest people on Earth apparently. And it went on to say that a primary reason was because of the wealth they enjoyed. Well, if the future is anything to go by, the writer might have egg on his face.

reply to post by 3_Libras


In all honnesty this thread was to see what good if at all the us has done in the last decade. Like i said it's not to boost the us by any means, I think its pretty depresssing that the US hasn't done a Hell of a lot more with its influence. So i think you have me quite wrong. All in all i think its a pretty safe bet to say that it's a majority of our current administrations fault, and I really hope the next can do a bit better.

Well we haven't nuked anyone ...yet. And they took Cheney's shotgun away from him and gave him a paint ball gun with laser site. So, he's cool with that. And Bush is taking up mandarin, so there can be another language to denigrate. And we have all the oil we want, muaaaahhhaahahaaaaaaaa. Hope you see the sarcasm.

Let's see, they show that funny propaganda comedy routine on Fox... oh, that's supposed to be real isn't it?

Ok, they have great You-Tube videos of them oppressing their own citizens, and plenty of tazer and tear gas videos to watch as well.


In all fairness, I'd have to agree with a previous poster, they haven't nuked anyone again... I suppose that's an improvement.

I don't know, I don't have any need to brag so I don't follow my countrie's latest achievements that closely. Though I am quite sure you will find dozens of them in the fields of science and medicine. I guess killing Saddam was an evil act. Sometimes I forget how much you liberals love your anti-American dictators. (BUT US IS EVIL FOR LIKING PRO-AMERICAN DICTATORS)

The US has conducted useful humanitarian actions overseas, especially in terms of response to natural disasters. Two that come to mind in recent memory are the response to the huge earthquake in Pakistan a few years back, and to the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.

The same massive logistics train that makes it possible for the US military to go around invading smaller countries at the drop of a hat makes it very useful for disaster relief operations.

While I dislike US foreign policy as much as the next guy, to portray it as one-dimensionally evil is unrealistic.

Originally posted by xmotex
While I dislike US foreign policy as much as the next guy, to portray it as one-dimensionally evil is unrealistic.

Unfortunately, that's the easiest thing for people to do. It's way easy to bash the US Foreign policy and completely forget about anything good that is done by the country.

Like you said, not too many humanitarian actions could be easily accomplished without the US Logistics train.

It is hard to tell since we do not have a way to determine the outcome of different scenarios other than the one that America has chosen. I would say what has not happen due to America’s interaction with the world would be more telling as to what good or bad America has done in the last 10 years.

Also are you talking about life inside America or life around the world? For life inside I would say life has been very very good. For life around the world I'm not one to weight every event good or bad to see where the balance falls.

Also are you referring to just US foreign policy or everything that goes on in America big or small private sector, government at all levels, organizations etc?

[edit on 17-1-2008 by Xtrozero]

Originally posted by Langolier
I don't know, I don't have any need to brag so I don't follow my countrie's latest achievements that closely. Though I am quite sure you will find dozens of them in the fields of science and medicine. I guess killing Saddam was an evil act. Sometimes I forget how much you liberals love your anti-American dictators. (BUT US IS EVIL FOR LIKING PRO-AMERICAN DICTATORS)

We can't like them or kill them, so what do we do with them?

What I'm really curious about is why you never see, "What good has China/Russia/Germany/Zaire/(insert country name here) done in the last 13 years" threads? I imagine every country could have a nice laundry list of good and bad things they have done since 1995.

reply to post by Xtrozero


You have a good point there, you could take this argument in many differnt directions. But i was more focusing more on the Ferderal Gov.

And like another poster said before, i agree on the humanitarian efforts.

Originally posted by jerico65

Originally posted by xmotex
While I dislike US foreign policy as much as the next guy, to portray it as one-dimensionally evil is unrealistic.

Unfortunately, that's the easiest thing for people to do. It's way easy to bash the US Foreign policy and completely forget about anything good that is done by the country.

Like you said, not too many humanitarian actions could be easily accomplished without the US Logistics train.

BS. Utter BS. There are good Americans, theres a lot of them, but they have no power. Even those who should have power, and supposedly hold some, dont. Dont believe the hype though, there are some wonderful Muslims out there aswell, but we dont hear about them, so why should we hear about the good Americans? America has done nothing but turn what-should-be slow news days into calamities.