Having voted in a referendum against joining the Federated States of Micronesia in 1978,[11][12] the islands gained full sovereignty in 1994 under a Compact of Free Association with the United States.
Politically, Palau is a presidential republic in free association with the United States, which provides defense, funding, and access to social services.
You say that as if that’s all America is. America controls a vast amount of land. It’s the third largest country in the world and, unlike the first two largest (Russia and Canada), most of that land is also usable for either farming or resource extraction. But that’s not the only reason it’s an empire. It’s also an empire because it has a large military presence in multiple countries who rely on it to supply defense at least in part. But another reason it’s an empire is that it has vassal states. It doesn’t matter how small those states are. Especially not when they are in strategic Pacific locations.
I’m not denying the imperialism of the US, I’m just saying that a group of islands with a total population 1/10th the size of my city isn’t really the chief problem, and kinda comes off as anti-American for anti-American sake. There are myriad other problems, and a couple of islands that gave us some strategy in the Pacific are hardly the East India Trading Company.
It also has a method of governance were politicians harp on and on (and on, AND ON) about having wonderful human rights whilst having the largest fraction of the population emprisioned in the World, regular murders by police, commonly deploying violence against demonstrators, having a voting system that enforces a power duopoly, regularly disenfranchise minorities and were citizens do not have rights to health, food or a place to live, which is not a popular export.
When we reach for our democratic ideals we are at our best.
Meanwhile back in the middle east, authoritarian religious police stone you to death for saying things like you’re saying about their government. Grow up. You obviously have it very good.
Oh, yeah, the deluded nationalists amongst you guys really talk the talk like pros, shame about not walking the walk. “Reach for our democratic ideals” indeed … sounds lofty and all but strangelly enough it immediatly fails on the hurdle of actually having a genuine selection of political parties to vote for. Beautiful political poetry to make up for quite a different reality - it’s called “Compensation” in Psychology.
As for the second paragraph, that “Look at those other guys in the Middle East” whataboutism is quite a low standard to compare one’s nation against and thus an implicit acceptance of mediocrity, and even those “other guys in the Middle East” manage to have less people in prison than the US. Maybe it’s something in the water.
Next to the rest of the Developed World the US is only an example of Human Rights or of Humanism in any form in the sense of something to avoid not something to emulate. But yeah, you guys sure beat dictatorial shitholes … well maybe not on the size of the prison population and their use as forced labour and on police shootings…
And yeah, I do have it very good compared to that shit over there, and had it very good in all other countries in Europe I lived in - in Europe you have to go so far to East that you reach Russia to get a colder and more inhumane system than the one to the West of us across the Atlantic.
Try believing less of what you read on the internet. It’s pretty good in America for more people than in virtually any place in any time in world history. Thanks for the effort it took to type your post though.
And hope for the future is more justified here than anywhere in the middle east.
I’d say the most hope rests with Israel: they could excise their right wing populism problem in one election. Could happen this year. How much hope do you have for an Arab Spring in Iran? Even the places that had Arab Springs mostly remain unchanged.
And that’s precisely why Israel is worth the West’s defense against Iranian and Russian fuckery, much less open war (world war III). I hope Biden continues to lead western diplomacy toward incentivising a more just future for Israel. I have zero hope that there is a more just future in Iran without total regime change, or in the laundry list of other dumpy theocracies which pass as “government” in the mid east, Gaza, Houthiville, or whatever glorious caliphate they imagine, etc.
For the future rights of the hundreds of millions of people who will live and die in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, for example, there is more hope after western military invention than before.
Of course, the #20 or so in PPP per-capita country in the World with the largest fraction of the population in prison is the Greatest Country In The World TM and a lesson that others want to follow as you know because other Americans and people from shithole countries told you so (not to mention all those Hollywood films).
(Oh, and a lot of what I wrote I was told to me by actual Americans who moved to Europe)
By giving the Palestinians UN sanctioned country status while allowing Hamas to control Gaza, other terrorist groups are shown that murdering civilians is the way to achieve their goals.
Personally I would not like to see a return of the IRA, the ETA, Contras, the FARC, Isis etc.
Palau is basically a U.S. vassal state.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palau
Remember that when someone claims America isn’t an empire.
Ahh yes, the mighty empire of… checks notes the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau.
You say that as if that’s all America is. America controls a vast amount of land. It’s the third largest country in the world and, unlike the first two largest (Russia and Canada), most of that land is also usable for either farming or resource extraction. But that’s not the only reason it’s an empire. It’s also an empire because it has a large military presence in multiple countries who rely on it to supply defense at least in part. But another reason it’s an empire is that it has vassal states. It doesn’t matter how small those states are. Especially not when they are in strategic Pacific locations.
I’m not denying the imperialism of the US, I’m just saying that a group of islands with a total population 1/10th the size of my city isn’t really the chief problem, and kinda comes off as anti-American for anti-American sake. There are myriad other problems, and a couple of islands that gave us some strategy in the Pacific are hardly the East India Trading Company.
You are mistaking a symptom for a diagnosis.
It also has a method of governance capable of granting lasting human rights, which is a quite popular export.
FIFY
When we reach for our democratic ideals we are at our best.
Meanwhile back in the middle east, authoritarian religious police stone you to death for saying things like you’re saying about their government. Grow up. You obviously have it very good.
Oh, yeah, the deluded nationalists amongst you guys really talk the talk like pros, shame about not walking the walk. “Reach for our democratic ideals” indeed … sounds lofty and all but strangelly enough it immediatly fails on the hurdle of actually having a genuine selection of political parties to vote for. Beautiful political poetry to make up for quite a different reality - it’s called “Compensation” in Psychology.
As for the second paragraph, that “Look at those other guys in the Middle East” whataboutism is quite a low standard to compare one’s nation against and thus an implicit acceptance of mediocrity, and even those “other guys in the Middle East” manage to have less people in prison than the US. Maybe it’s something in the water.
Next to the rest of the Developed World the US is only an example of Human Rights or of Humanism in any form in the sense of something to avoid not something to emulate. But yeah, you guys sure beat dictatorial shitholes … well maybe not on the size of the prison population and their use as forced labour and on police shootings…
And yeah, I do have it very good compared to that shit over there, and had it very good in all other countries in Europe I lived in - in Europe you have to go so far to East that you reach Russia to get a colder and more inhumane system than the one to the West of us across the Atlantic.
Try believing less of what you read on the internet. It’s pretty good in America for more people than in virtually any place in any time in world history. Thanks for the effort it took to type your post though.
And hope for the future is more justified here than anywhere in the middle east.
I’d say the most hope rests with Israel: they could excise their right wing populism problem in one election. Could happen this year. How much hope do you have for an Arab Spring in Iran? Even the places that had Arab Springs mostly remain unchanged.
And that’s precisely why Israel is worth the West’s defense against Iranian and Russian fuckery, much less open war (world war III). I hope Biden continues to lead western diplomacy toward incentivising a more just future for Israel. I have zero hope that there is a more just future in Iran without total regime change, or in the laundry list of other dumpy theocracies which pass as “government” in the mid east, Gaza, Houthiville, or whatever glorious caliphate they imagine, etc.
For the future rights of the hundreds of millions of people who will live and die in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, for example, there is more hope after western military invention than before.
Of course, the #20 or so in PPP per-capita country in the World with the largest fraction of the population in prison is the Greatest Country In The World TM and a lesson that others want to follow as you know because other Americans and people from shithole countries told you so (not to mention all those Hollywood films).
(Oh, and a lot of what I wrote I was told to me by actual Americans who moved to Europe)
The US is directly responsible for the mess in Iraq and the Iranian revolution.
Mistakes were made. I’m concerned with a way forward. The terrorists are there now.
By giving the Palestinians UN sanctioned country status while allowing Hamas to control Gaza, other terrorist groups are shown that murdering civilians is the way to achieve their goals.
Personally I would not like to see a return of the IRA, the ETA, Contras, the FARC, Isis etc.
capable being the key word here
I agree. The difference is hope versus no hope.