Why everyone in Germany is so against the U.S.

US- a democracy since 1789
Federal Republic of Germany- a democracy since 1949
The part of the Federal Republic of Germany that was once the DDR- a democracy since 1990

If the US is only a "partially developed democracy", then German democracy must be embryonic.

Any person can define any country as a threat. Of course any person can say anything.

As to Russia' political future, there is plenty of comment available on that, and I doubt any of it would support the claim you have made above. Here is what one Russian has to say about Russian democracy:

http://www.cfr.org/publication/6776/does_r...licy_initiative

A couple more articles of interest:

http://fpc.org.uk/topics/russia/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2054105,00.html

Not to the dictionary you quoted partially. Here's the full definition:


Guantanamo clearly qualifies. No forced labour, but plenty of suffering: there have been persistent accusations of torture and other mistreatment and several suicides and attempted suicides, as well as a number of complete mental breakdowns. These are indicative of severe conditions.

Incidentally that's one of the most pathetic and obvious attempt to mislead I've seen on here. Your accusing Sin of misrepresenting is the icing on the cake. I find it hard to believe that anyone can be so stupid or blinkered.

No I didn't, and you are merely splitting hairs and sidetracking. You can call Guantanamo a 'gulag' or you can call it 'Betty' for all I care. It doesn't stop the World's disgust at The USA for its actions.


Care to start a completely different thread where that is the point of the thread? This thread is focussed purely on Why everyone in Germany is so against the U.S. No other countries are mentioned.


And? The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is clearly an arse then.

Listen mate, you can go round and round and round in circles for as long as you like. The bare facts are that peoples around the world are worried about The USA and where she is heading. Intelligent Americans recognise these fears. Some even discuss their own fears about where their country is heading. You deny there is any problem and continually attempt to deflect attention to unrelated nations. The problem is not going away. America is in denial. This statement is explained in the incredible 'jealousy' comments. Moreover it is explained in event after event, from Curveball to Plame and ever onwards. Here's one from as recently as yesterday: Those who blow whistle on contractor fraud in Iraq face penalties.

I'll tell you what I think: I think your current Administration are probably the nastiest bunch of cut-throats, privateers and crooks we have seen for centuries. I believe they are all about fleecing America, the American people and anybody else who gets in their way. They're lining their pockets at everybody else's expense, and many Americans cannot get their heads around the fact that this might be actually happening. They don't give a flyin' fuck about America, or anybody else. They wouldn't think twice about fuckin' you and leaving you for dead. And the worst part of all this is that it reflects very badly on ordinary Americans... who have little control to stop it. I often think what a pain in the arse it must be being a nationality who's leadership is so fuckin' horrible. I'm aware that ordinary Americans abroad tire of the questions, putdowns and cerebral attacks. I know I would. I truly feel sorry for them. However, it is impossible to feel sorry for idiots who try to defend their leadership, or worse, actually support it.

Does anyone agree with miwild on this? Keep in mind Russia has only been a 'democracy' since ca. 1992. We already know there will be a new US president on January 20,2009, marking 220 years of democracy.

Well Sin, I am on record several times on Toytown saying that I despise all politicians, and that I did not support taking action in Iraq in 2003, so you can extrapolate from that what I might think of Bush&Co. If you have a problem with them, make it clear your problem is with them- as far as I have seen, you usually direct your fire at the US in general.

EDIT: incidentally, there is an article on SCO in the latest Economist, plus a couple on Russia.

Of course miwilds statement is rubbish – I mentioned Russias "only partially developed democracy" as a factor of insecurity (post #243). I also mentioned the lack of freedom of press (suppression of critical media, murder of journalists) and the treatment of political opponents (imprisonment of Michail Khodorkovsky). There's a lot more – corruption, social problems, weakness of the middle class that could constitute a civil society, but struggles economically – that contributes to the interior instability in Russia. This could translate into foreign policy.

With the US, the problem is perhaps that people rely to much on democratic tradition and generally well-functioning institutions and don't think about the harmful consequences of juridical concepts that justify Guantánamo, anti-terrorist laws etc.