Exhibits, Shows and Displays - Are the Americans too simple minded to successfully meddle in world affairs?

Are the Americans too simple minded to successfully meddle in world affairs?

Is the American psyche too simplistic to understand ‘hearts and minds’ - can they only understand ‘shock and awe’? Their attitude in Iraq of “we don’t care if we p**s off the Muslims and the rest of the world, we just going to kick some foreign a*s” has antagonised the rest of the world, created more Muslim extremists and made terrorist attacks more likely. Eventual military action on Iraq was probably JUSTIFIED -the real failure was the inability of the US to understand PR. Now we have a situation where many NON-Muslims are more sympathetic to the terrorists than the US. Before the president of Iran displayed even worse PR skills than ‘Dubya’ with his comments about Israel it seemed the much of the world had more sympathy for Iran for standing up to the ‘bullying’ Americans. THAT would have been a disaster for world peace and security. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5077984.stm

Public Comments

Don't generalize!!
Please don't judge Americans by the actions of their government.
yes they are they have no subtlety
Too brusque. Just run in, kill the bad guys, whip a little democracy on them and split.
Yes, bad PR caused 9/11---some propaganda!
You are absolutely right, we should leave it up to organization with proven track records like the UN or even better let countries like France or Iran do it.
Okay, eat up every thing the BBC tells you.
american mentality at least among the govt is that we are in a position to impose what we want and change the world to keep america in a position of world domination in the future .. anything or any one percieved to be a future threat will be dealt wit "while we feel we have the opportunity" to deal with them ... expect iran and syria and any dissident militant group to be dealt with in a systematic fashion ... these are not my views , but the american govt has definite plans towards these goals .. so no, its not simple minded ... but it is dangerous thinking
Hezbollah has been trained for years by the Iranian government, and funded by Syria and Iran. Iran wants a nuke (period) Iran wants the entire world to ONLY be muslim, if you are not Muslim...then you will no longer be needed on planet earth. Iran believes that the MESSIAH will not return until the great satan ( The U.S. and Israel) are destroyed. Hezbollah is the "stick" by which Syria and Iran are using to poke Israel in the eye with, so that Israel will call on the U.S. to help and the "war" will start. The Nuke is for the rest of us...including you, my friend. That is why Hezbollah does not target military hardware...they want to kill as many "zionists" and "gentiles" as possible. They only pretend to be primitive in using their weapons, saying..."we can't really "aim' these...only hit what we can, when we can ! Make no mistake...this is a giant "CHESS GAME" thought out by the Islamic clerics in Iran for years, in yet "another" attempt to control the world. Say what you want...The big picture is this...Iran "will" kill ALL non-Muslims given the chance...This is the next attempt to rule the word, the islamic clerics have been planning this for years...The U.S., and other govs. have known this for years. George Bush positioned the U.S. in Iraq for a reason--To get as close to Iran as possible--Yes, we were probably lied to about the U.S. intentions in the region, and the WMD'S, etc...although true, this was to keep the minds of the American people occupied while the real, purpose was being implimented...Go to Afghanistan, then to Iraq, we are where we are supposed to be...The american people think that Israel and Hezbollah are having a little skirmish, only because the gov knows "YOU CAN"T HANDLE THE TRUTH". You have to think "bigger" IRAN hopes that you won't. The world is asleep at the wheel again...Iran knows this and the U.S. is trying to wake us up before it's too late again...If we could "ask" Winston Churchill...he would tell you the story of how everyone thought he was "nuts" for his constant warnings about Germany
i guess if u lived in the u.s. you would know that more than 2/3 of the country doesnt approve of the way that bush handled Iraq and also 2/3 of the country dissaproves of the job he has done running the country. once the president is in offiice there nothing that the average american can do to change america's world policies. if we could i would be first on line.
The problem is Bush. If he wasnt such a f*** up then we would not still be over there. Most americans dont even know why we are there let alone why it has taken so much time to get our boys out of there. The probloem comes in is now that Bush is in controll there is no way to stop him from is stupitidy. Not all americans are morons, Bush os just one of the few
The only countries that are agaisnt us are those that support the terrorists, and maybe a few that have not been hit by terrorists......france stood back, and though they haven't joined in.....once hit...they looked towards us with a little more respect.....as for Iran standing up to the USA....so did Iraq....look where their loud talking got them....running for their lives....and the people of Iraq coming in the streets loving the liberators......jsut as Iran will do some day....be it us, or some other country....or maybe, even from within
It is our present leadership that has that mentality. Remember the good ones. There have been many wise men that has furthered the world in its quest for peace.
No, Americans are awfully arrogant and foolish to export their stupid ideals such as their gun culture to other countries, and they are living in a fantasy island to expect American democracy to flourish in other countries!
ITS NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE-----AMERICA HAS A PRESIDENT THAT THRIVES ON CONFLICT---REMEMBER WAR IS BIG BUSINESS AB
That depends on your definition of successful. If success is removing a dictator, I'd say no. If success is installing a democratic government in a muslim-fundamentalist society that hasn't advanced a whole lot in the last 500 years, I'd say yes. As to people being sympathetic to terrorists . . . I don't think so. Baby-killers don't usually garnish too much sympathy.
Only our ignorant leaders... Besides, people with real intelligence don't meddle in the affairs of others, especially when they have domestic problems to fix.
actually, the Spanish, the French,and the Indians were here first-- a white man did not find America-- neither the less Texas. No They don't have a right to go elsewhere to attempt to take other property that they don't rightfully own. There are issues in the united states that need to be addressed in order to produce a safer environment for the U.S. without interfering with others. That is what is wrong today. Too many instigators and not enough solutions.
There is a guidance saying: "Destabilize and prevail" That fits perfectly to what the US government is doing. In peace times they would have to cope with the competion coming from Europe and Asia. And now ... ? ;-)
the poor Americans have to babysit the whole world by themselves. to bad ,no other country has developed enough ,to help them with this monstrous task.................
While America is still the 'world leader' commercially, it has lost the right to be the 'world leader' morally. Please, get rid of this megalomaniac Bush!
Whew wow!! Americans believe they are Gods children and have been granted superior abilities, have superior leaders, superior wisdom; if they truly believe all this, YES THEY ARE STUPID.
Americans are'nt always this stupid when it comes to matters of war and diplomacy. It's just that the country has been hijacked by a more idiotic brand of American in recent years that can't even understand their own beliefs let alone another culture's, ten thousand miles away. When confronted with the way things have turned out, the more idiotic Americans make a vague reference to 9-11, the fact the America has not been attacked on it's soil since then, and make believe that the problem has been solved forever. These so called Americans have a delusional and warped view of reality in which everything they hear of from the outside world that does not conform to their narrow and primitive view is part of some imaginary worldwide conspiracy to make their elected leaders' policies look like they have failed. When confronted with zealots that hold such a delusional view of reality, all the facts and evidence are never enough, and in their childish minds none of the policies their leaders have contributed to can never be wrong. They are very similar to the religous extremists that this country is engaged in battle with overseas, even sharing similar views on their respective religions. Until we have real Americans who have the capability of using common sense in charge of the United States, our efforts to fight Islamic extremism and make the world a safer place will sadly ultimately fail, no matter how many blind and irrelevant references to past attacks are made.
yes it does seem that way.
I'm sorry Americans but you are going to be judged. G W Bush represents America, he acts on your behalf and you will all be tared with the same bush, sorry brush. I understand that a lot of Americans are beginning to see Bush for what he is, but by the time they can do anything to rid yourselves of him, he's going to leave the world in chaos. Along with that nice Mr Blair of course.
You can't class a whole nation as simple minded. The problem is that no single country should be trying to sway world politics when they have such selfish motives. The sad thing is that the US did not learn it's lessons in Vietnam or from it's whole anti-Communist foreign policy during the cold war. Sadder still is the fact that world leaders are becoming increasingly hostile to each other over their obsessive global domination fantasies. The biggest threat to world security at this time is that we have world leaders who are false, two-faced and greedy. It doesn't matter what their political "ideals" or religions are - they lie to us, each other and themselves. Sincerity would be a major tool to use against extremism in the middle east but seeing as none of our politicians are sincere, we're out of luck. If British infantry soldiers can use a "hearts and minds" policy in Northern Ireland, it says nothing good about a Government like George Dubya's when we can see that they clearly can't. The Iraq situation has been approached in the wrong way from the start and frankly, too much attention has been paid to PR. Dubya and Blair both lied about the WMD's in Iraq. They could have pushed for further UN resolutions over arms in Iraq years ago and received UN backing. Regime change should have happened in 1991 in Iraq. This huge delay has allowed things to spiral out of control. America have to sort out their foreign policy toward Islamic states. Islamic states have to sort out their policies towards their own people, foreign countries and especially towards Israel. Israel has to sort out it's behaviour towards Palestinians. Hezbollah have to stop making things worse. Sadly, none of the above have any faith in God so they ignore their own religion's teachings and will get us all killed through their own stupidity.
GOD BLESS GEORGE BUSH!
America is like King Kong in the recent movie. You may not like what we do when your not in real deep. But when the T-Rexs come to eat you, you'll be glad King Kong was there, even if you don't appreciate King Kong being there. Right now we are at the point where King Kong has killed the first T-Rex and is wrestleing the second, when #2 is dead, #3 will get his mouth busted too. The world is stuck in the cage with King Kong during the fight and they are scared sh*tless! King Kong IS going to get free and watch what happens then. Unlike the movie King Kong is going to flourish and I mean big time. It will be a new day dawning, and whole world will be in awe!
Yes. But it's not just that, their Government is far too arrogant to do things any way other than their way. They ignore international laws, they don't care how many innocent civilians are dying as long as they are benefiting, they themselves go in all guns blazing and have caused the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children. Any Government worth it's salt would have at least stood up and said, 'Actually, I don't think Israel should be allowed to kill hundreds of innocent men, women and children in the hope of taking a few terrorists with them', but the US Gov is actively encouraging Israel. World affairs would be much better without their arrogance.