You might want to ask how those territorial issues originated, or how the Assad regime, heavily backed by Russian interests, could be trusted as an American ally. Clearly they can't.

The American government is the preeminent leader of world affairs, a rogue Russia is a threat, and a rogue Russia which seeks to regain economic and political control over its former sphere of influence is doubly so. Russia and the United States will probably never go to war, I certainly wouldn't advocate it, nor would there be much of a point (as I said, Russia is a shell of its former self). It's far more practical to eliminate their allies and complete the political encirclement the United States set in motions decades ago.

I am highly vocal of American short-comings, and there are plenty, but its incredibly misleading and outright incorrect to state that America's woes are even remotely comparable to those of Russia.

"The powers of the globe realized, the next war would be a war of economics..."

~ Herman Wouk - "The Winds of War", "War and Remembrance"

They originated by the British setting up a very powerful and very well funded/supplied state close to their borders.

The American goverment is not the preeminent leader of world affairs, the time has passed that Europe would follow the US's every whim. Where interests allign maybe, but the US's inability to keep their "allies" (Puppet states, Iraq, the Taliban, Libya, Egypt, Vietnam among others) on their side or in power has been obvious over the past 40 years.

Increasing countries wish to stop following American foreign policy and begin relationships with American rivals. Israel and Russia now have a very close military relationship despite Russian support for their enemies. The EU wishes to further incorporate Russia into Europe.

How many Russian allies have the American's elminated? I can't think of any. I can however think of numerous American allies that no longer support the US in the ways they used to (Or are shells of there former self).

American woe's could bring down the entire world (And they nearly did in 2008), Russia's woe's mean a corrupt millitary official sells weapons to a "rouge" state that can't actually do any harm with them, or a childish oil/gas official decides his toy will be spending absurd amounts of (Goverment and public) money on a hockey team.

This isn't the cold war anymore, the US-Russia rivaly is nothing more than a spitting match, nothing will come of it, and I suspect much of it is just for show. American and Russian relations are probably far better than what the public knows. Russia condemn's the US occupation of Afghanistan, the US condemn's Russia's occupation of South Ossetia. Russia bitches about the US, the US bitches about Russia. It's all very predicitble and nothing very serious.



Fascism isn't a bad ideology. Hitler taking Mussolini's original idea's farther then they should have gone (Fasicsm does not need state racism). Almost all instances of fascism the leader loses sight of the goals, Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Salazar ect. People forget the Peron and Hirohito (Peron failed because of a coup and Hirohito, who turned Japan in a global power lost a war) didn't have the same "issues".

No they aren't, Assad's inner circle has an unpropotionate amount of Christians in it. Christians in Syria are almost all upper class, they own many buisness's.

I don't know what teacher/person/media was polluting your mind but the Christians under Assad have it very well off.

I suppose I should just reiterate that the united states is the preeminent leader in global affairs. That isnt seriously contested in academia, the selective waning of some aspects of American power doesn't contradict that. Ill respond in depth tomorrow, I've got work at 6 and I hate typing on my phone.

I just have a huge problem with social engineered authoritarian states that stifle personal expression and promote a singular way of life and consider all others deviant, which is my personal definition of fascism.

I'd like to know if I'm just "not getting it". I see the horrible things that fascist have done and I don't see any redeeming quality in the ideology.

My religious position is full blown atheist for the record, and I'm not an Islam apologist.

This post was edited by Skinned on Jul 19 2012 09:21pm

Maybe I'm a hypocrite beacuse I often see communism is a broken ideology because it's never worked and I believe Fascism can work but like I said before the perception of facism all comes from Hitler, and he changed the ideology to fit his needs plenty. Faciscm isn't a firm ideology, it's not identical in every ineration.

Look at Argentina, they're no longer what Peron envisioned, but he's looked back on as one of the most beloved figures in their history, much more than the leftist goverments who stole power from him, and some of his ideas remain. Peron was a fascist, not the same type as Hitler or Franco, but he was one.

Fascism to me is where a single visonary, an authortative leader, runs his country efficiently and succesfully through nationalistic pride. Where people sacrifice certain freedoms for the good of the country, your way of life is already the best.

You don't need to imprison ethnic groups in a camp or bully people into doing what you want. If you provide a high standard of living, a strong economy, leave people alone for the most part unless they're undermining the nation, all under the rule of a person who can empower the nation together, that's good.

Assad before taking control was a doctor in London who had "absolutely no interest in taking over", I have a feeling that his staff has more control over the country than most would guess.

This post was edited by Caedus on Jul 19 2012 09:45pm