NATO- good or bad?

[thegobblygooker]

I for one am totally against it. The one thing people say that makes it a good thing is the exact same thing that makes it a bad thing in my opinion. that "As being one of the richest and wealthiest nations it's America's responsability to help less fourtunate countries"

My reply to that is "forget them" we need to take care of our own country first before we start helping the other ones. We still got poor people and those who are in poverty who need help first. Besides why help those other countries when most of them are just looking for a hand-out and refuse to even try to become sucessful-they just think that America needs to cater to their every whim.

And it isn't like countries like Mexico, and can't improve themselves.

Canada, Great Britian,and Japan, are VERY sucessful and modern, and even countries like Australia and Africa that comprise mostly wild untamed land seem to be doing fairly well-even with problems like Somolia.

Besides every time we end up helping a country we usually end up getting stabbed in the back by one of them, sure there are ones we can trust like Britian, and Canada and such but there are also untrustworthy backstabbing countries like France. (no offense, just stating what has happened)

[dave404]

Where you got the idea that NATO is a charitable organisation devoted to helping less fortunate countries, I have not the foggiest idea. The foundation of NATO was a *military alliance* to counter the Cold War Warsaw Pact, which said that if any member of this alliance was attacked (*not* if any member of the alliance decided to invade some Middle Eastern country), it would be considered an attack on all the members of the alliance.

For a *very* basic overview, try this:

http://people.howstuffworks.com/nato.htm

for a rather lengthy discussion of the possible purpose of NATO post Cold War, try this:

http://www.brook.edu/fp/projects/nato/reportch1.pdf

How you can have a view about whether something is good or bad, when you seem to have no idea about what *is*, I dunno. But I suppose it's not that rare a thing.

[DEAD ZONE]

i dont think if we were attacked that we could count on all of nato to support us anyway. Its darn near obsolete in my book.

[thegobblygooker]

I meant NAFTA sorry bout that-I was kinda tired this morning...

[DEAD ZONE]

its still a relavant post even if a screw up.

nafta, I have no problem with it.

[AWPrime]

Nato must go.


Then we would have more to create an EU defence force.

[dave404]

NAFTA... ah, that would be very different!

Thanks dude, made me smile!

[RubberDucky]

Africa is not a country (despite what our president might have said) and I find it hard to say they are doing well economically, since their debt continues to increase as they are forced to export raw materials and inport finished goods.

[RubberDucky]

tgg, the other problem is that the nations you cited went through the Industrial revolution in the nineteeth century (with the exception of Africa, which once again isn't a country and is in poor shape economically).

Are you suggesting we abandon free trade and increase tariffs on foreign imports?

[DEAD ZONE]

Originally posted by RubberDucky
Africa is not a country (despite what our president might have said) and I find it hard to say they are doing well economically, since their debt continues to increase as they are forced to export raw materials and inport finished goods.

better tell the NAACP jackson and the like that as well.

[RubberDucky]

Originally posted by DEAD ZONE
better tell the NAACP jackson and the like that as well.

DZ, have they been quoted saying this? If so, I agree. Yet another politician/group of politicians is stupid.

And please don't make the assumption that just because my personal leanings go toward the left means that I'm a support of Jesse Jackson. Personally I think hes an idiot.