Happy Thanksgiving

I’ll be off to a cabin in the mountains tonight, and not back home until Sunday. Whether or not I get the chance to blog over the holiday remains to be seen; in the meantime, I’d like to say that I think this is an important holiday.

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To those who live in America, Happy Thanksgiving. The people who arrived on these shores not too long ago had a desire to be free, their sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters had the intelligence to ensure that the government of their new nation would embody those principles, and their ancestors today inherit a nation worthy of thankfulness.

And to those who don’t live in America, Happy Thanksgiving. Frankly, you have a lot to thank America for too. Don’t let anti-American voices around the world, nor the actions of a group of neoconservatives in office, detract from the fact that you owe America for standing up for the ideals of liberty, with influence felt all over the earth. Every one of the morons who spout their mouths in hatred of America should be instead thanking their god(s) or their lucky stars for the U.S. It may be trendy to denigrate the United States, but sensible, freedom-loving people around the world understand that America is still an important force for good.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Comments (5)

Justin Heinze
November 21, 2007 Reply

What do the victims of genocide in Darfur have to thank America for? How about the child soldiers in Sierra Leone, other African countries? How about the countless Iraqi CIVILIANS killed since the war began? Which part are they thanking the U.S. for again?

It’s not trendy to ‘hate’ the United States. No one ‘hates’ freedom. Some people who care about people other than themselves do tend to feel that the whole self-absorption thing is pretty ridiculous when dealing with matters of policy, and downright absurd when demanding that war torn third world countries ‘owe us their thanks’. You sound like Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars.
Quinney
November 23, 2007 Reply

Justin, did you have a good thanksgiving? It doesn’t appear you think there’s much to be thankful for. It is absolutely trendy to hate the US. You clearly haven’t been to Europe recently, where their snobby hatred of anything American is repugnant but pervasive. When you ask questions about citizens of these other countries like Darfur and Sierra Leone and Iraq, do you believe that America’s intention in those countries was to harm them? When America acts in foreign policy, do you really believe it does so in order to spread evil and evil ideas? Why did America go into Somalia? Or Afghanistan? To spread terror? No, to confront terror. You’re an ideological lemming to believe otherwise. As for Iraq, perhaps those citizens would prefer being ruled by Saddam? Despite what you read in the media, things are much better in Iraq for most citizens than you’d believe, and America has not abandoned them to insurgency rule as, no doubt, YOU would like to do. I think John’s central point is a very good one, that GENERALLY America’s influence in the world is more good than bad, and to a great ratio. By the way, you may be interested to know that John (and most libertarians, minus myself) are opposed to America’s intervention in foreign wars. But the very LAST thing you can accuse America of is a negative influence around the world, when it is one of the last great forces for good that exist. What other nation is willing to step out and commit help to the degree that the US is? Name me one other country giving as much in humanitarian aid? Name me another nation that has committed as many troops to peacekeeping missions around the world?

What’s happened is that you’ve replaced everything good that America has ever done with the war in Iraq under George W. Bush, and bought the entire line that the US is an evil imperialist occupying force, when in fact America is the ONLY country that never invaded a nation for the purpose of acquiring it and adding it to their empire — the ONLY country in world history. So it gets me a little pissed off to hear you ungrateful bastards with nothing good to say. You have become so wrapped up in the problems of Iraq that you can’t see the forest for the trees. In other words, your opinion is ill-considered and blinkered.

Finally, let me ask you, what other nation can you think of that third world countries owe their thanks to any MORE than America?
John
November 25, 2007 Reply

Ah, a frank exchange of views here. Good! Well, it was a quiet thanksgiving in the mountains and I’m glad nobody burned the blog down while I was away. Quinney, I agree, though, as you say, I would pull the troops out of Iraq I think. Justin, it’s worth pointing out that most of the things you’ve mentioned libertarians wouldn’t have gotten America into in the first place. But, like Quinney, I’d avoid seeing America as the bad guy: it’s the greatest force for good the world has.
Quinney
November 25, 2007 Reply

Yes, well, people like Justin are so far up the ass crack of politically correct current events that they’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water. Of course we want to acknowledge plight and hopefully we never cause harm to another human being unless it is absolutely necessary to prevent harm to someone else, that’s what separates America from the enemies we have, but at one and the same time it is important to remember that we have enemies and it is important to protect ourselves from them too. Why is it that I never hear people from Justin’s side of the fence calling for that side of the coin also?
Justin Heinze
November 26, 2007 Reply

Quinney: Never once did I say the U.S. was directly responsible for what was happening abroad, for the plight of foreign countries. Nor did I try to elevate any other country above ours. In fact, I would probably agree with the assessment that no one has done more than us internationally; but at the same time no one has the resources to do as much as we do. By no means do we do all that we can. Libertarians are opposed to intervention. How are you supporting the Iraq war again? Are you saying we should invade other countries, in addition to Iraq? Interesting how the only time true support comes out for disadvantaged third world countries is when it helps a political cause to do so. We invade Iraq, it’s a conservative stance to support the war (generally), and suddenly people care about taking care of the insurgents, bringing freedom to Iraqis. How about the insurgents across the rest of the globe? Just because there’s not oil there, they don’t count for anything?

You blindly assumed I thought all of those things about the United States, because people like you like to make issues black and white, boil everything down to liberal/conservative, every side with it’s proper enemy. The fact is we have few set in stone ‘enemies’, regardless of how easy it is for you to point and go, ‘oh, Iran, Iraq, terror-men!’ Ron Paul himself said that anti-American terrorism, and 9/11 itself, was a result of U.S. foreign policy. This incessant need to ‘defend’ ourselves. Quasi-imperialism. Instead of working with nations, we tend to fight them or ignore them. You say we’re the only nation in world history never to do this before. Perhaps not officially. But sometime when you’re feeling particularly giddy and patriotic, look up the death toll during our occupation of the Phillipines. Sobering indeed.

I think you completely misunderstood my point. You are so obsessed with this ‘USA Number 1’ thing that you will go to any lengths to defend it. By no means do I hate the United States, and I don’t think there is too much doubt that we are the greatest country in the world. At the same time, I don’t think that’s saying too much about the rest of the world. My true original point was that when there is so much incredible suffering, so much injustice, so much sadness, domestically but mostly abroad, it is downright silly to stand around praising ourselves.

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