Bullet

Budgie is right. If Hitler would've been stopped when he first broke the Treaty of Versailles WWII would've never happened. Saddam has been breaking UN resolutions just as fast as they are written. If something would've been done when this first started happening we wouldn't be in this position. Something big should've been done when he gassed the Kurds. Something should've been done after the first World Trade Center bombing but it wasn't. The West has allowed this ideology to fester and spread. We've also allowed situations in these countries to only grow worse. Desperate people do desperate things. These people don't have free media. They can't get online and read 6 different newspapers from 6 different countries to get a broader perspective on things. They only know what they are told. If someone is telling you the West is the enemy and they want to steal everything they can from you. Then you turn on the TV or radio and only hear about how the West is taking this and that. Then you see pictures of the West and how nice their houses are and all that. Meanwhile your living in a hand built mud shack. What would you think? How come they have so much and I have so little? Then this man tells you they have all that cause they are thieves. They steal from hard working noble people just like you. Sure it may seem propaganda to you but then everywhere you turn you keep hearing the same thing. If this was you, you'd most likely buy into that lie as well. Sure we send them aid but most if not all of that is stolen buy these governments. The citizens never see any of it. That then feeds into the line, See I told you so. If they cared about you they would help. They helped these people but they aren't helping us. Firefly is right. A lot of this hatred (especially from Europe) is based on fear. We spend more just on Secret "Black" Projects then the rest of the NATO member countries spend on their entire militaries, combined. This is just the money that goes for things that technically don't exist yet. Like star wars and all that other stuff. Yet this is still only a small portion of our annual military costs. You have to ask yourselves. What do they need that much military stuff for? What are they planning? What is their intention? What type of stuff do they have? All questions with no answers. People will always fear what they do not know. Hell I'm a bit scared myself and I live here. The government doesn't tell me what's going on so you can imagine what they are telling these other countries. Everybody that has amassed this much power has always wanted to take over the world. It's only natural they think we are going to do it. However we have something on our side. Democracy. The people of the US will not support such a move. Nothing would stop the government from disobeying it's own citizens more than having 250 Million well armed ticked off people marching into Washington, DC. That's the beauty of our country. The government can only kick us around so far before we start to kick back.

I agree 300 Mag. I am an American and very proud of that. What I stated is just that every power has done exactly what the US is doing. You have to do this in order to survive. You have to put your interest above everybody else's. Every world power in their time is hated. They can't do anything right. This is were we are now. As the US we can't do anything. If we act we're imperialist trying to force our culture on everybody. If we don't act we're hypocrites. The US has done a lot to help the world. I know there is a lot of hate but believe this or not many people are grateful for the US. It's just the media trying to tear us all apart. Blame Americans for our problems. Their the reason for unemployment and social upheaval. Same with our Government. Blame these guys for us losing our jobs and blah blah blah. Fact is this. We're all people just trying to make a living for our familles and live in peace. When those in power play games, the people are the only ones that loose. This is the fact in any country in any part of the world.

Yep, there is a SP demo. It's looking pretty good to. It doesn't beat GR but the full game should be rather enjoyable from the looks of it

You forget we also aided Iran. The reason is because of the political situation of the era. During the Cold War the world was polarized in two camps, East and West. The Western powers (mainly the US) decided to play both sides of the fence. It didn't serve Western interest to have a Radical Islamic country (Iran) to be the dominant military power of the region. After all, they are against just about everything we hold dear in our society. Iraq wasn't seen as much better but they were the lesser of two evils. So we helped them. Saves us the trouble of killing them ourselves. We also helped Iran to a lesser degree so if they won we could say, See we aren't so bad. We helped you because we believe in your cause. Your people we can deal with. Eastern powers did the same thing. They couldn't care less who won because none of them really served any big use for them. The world was a big chess match with two powers playing a deadly game. The same thing happened in Vietnam. The East didn't want to see Western democracy spread in South East Asia. So they helped the VC even though they didn't really serve them a purpose. The US simply repaid the East by supporting fighters in Afghanistan when the Russians invaded. The West didn't care about the people there. They just didn't want to see communism spread. Throughout history every empire has looked out for their our interest. Greece, Rome, even Britain. You weren't important unless you served them a purpose. Now the US is the dominant world power. Everyone sees this path we're going down and knows it only leads to trouble. Why doesn't the US listen? To ask that question you also must ask yourself why hasn't every empire listened to history. Why didn't Britain learn not to plunder the world from Rome? Why didn't Rome learn not to do the same from Greece? This examines the cold reality of civilization. Your not important unless you serve a purpose to those in power. You don't become a problem until you threaten those in power. This has always been the same through out history. It has happened, it is happening, and it will always continue to happen as long as humans walk the earth. The only thing that changes is the location of the seat in which those in power sit.

Here are my thoughts. Iraq is totally different from North Korea. In fact the whole idea of getting rid of Saddam is to prevent him from becoming a North Korea. Imagine what Saddam would do if he had nukes. He could say Israel must withdraw from all the West Bank or they will face a Nuclear strike. He would get plenty of support from the Arab world. But can you picture what the Israeli response would be? Total war. He could threaten Saudi oil fields again just like he did before the Gulf War, threatening the world's supply of oil. Instead of just tanks this time he has nukes. He could then pressure every country around him and if they don't go along they will face annihilation As it stands Saddam is isolated. He can't truly bring his fight on the regional stage because most of those around him don't like him. It's better to remove him now than wait for the job to get even tougher. North Korea on the other hand is able to bring the fight to a regional level. They are using their weapons to blackmail the world community. This game is not only regional but global. As mentioned earlier, North Korea and Japan have no love between them. If a war does break out and North Korea nukes or guns after Japan it will not only kill millions of people but cripple Economics for the region. That will filter into the world. Think about it. How many parts on your computer, TV, VCR, DVD, CD player, Stereo, and any other electronical device, was either made in Japan or the technology was developed there? When the stakes are this high you must play the game with much more finesse.