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Sci-Fi Author Peter Watts Beaten, Charged During Border Crossing
JoeGee writes "On December 8th, Canadian sci-fi author Peter Watts, author of the Rifters trilogy and Blindsight, was crossing the US/Canadian border at Port Huron, Michigan when he was involved in an altercation with US Border Patrol agents. According to Watts, he was beaten, left half-naked in a cold cell, and finally dumped on the Canadian side of the border with no coat. A legal consultant from the Electronic Frontier Foundation was successful in helping a civil rights lawyer in Michigan free Watts. Watts faces US charges of assaulting a federal officer. Based on the accounts, one can assume Watts did so by hitting the officer's hand with his face. If convicted, Watts faces two years in a US Federal prison."
It is funny how I still catch hell from European friends about how long the US stayed isolated during WWII , calling that someone else's problem. I dont think that those problems were caused by an alliance with the US.
If the US reduces its positions, then we will have to hear about how we dont help out. Just think what could happen if we backed down and Japan decided to start really developing defensive capabilities, or if Israel starting listening less. Those carrier fleets are unfortunately a requirement for some of the little stability we have.
I would be fine with calling it all back, and letting the next 10 or 20 years get spent letting everyone sort out a new power structure, both economically and militarily. if this were to happen, I dont want to hear a damn word about how it is all the US fault.
Honestly, this is exactly what I think we should do. And if it turns into a mess for the rest of the world, that's their problem. Before WWII, we weren't that powerful militarily, and we didn't have nukes. Now we do. We should just concentrate on defending ourselves, and that's it, and let everyone else deal with their own problems. If they get another Hitler, well too bad. As long as we're strong enough, we don't have to worry about him invading us, and if he does, we can unleash the nuclear arsenal.
I'm really getting sick of the rest of the world whining that America is taking advantage of them, but then complaining if America doesn't do enough to "help" them. There's less than 300 million of us, and 6.7 billion of them. They need to take responsibility for themselves and stop looking at us to be their protector and whining when we use the situation to our advantage.
From all the responses to my previous post that the other countries need to tell the USA's government to shove it when it tries to convince them to pass stupid laws, I'm really beginning to think the reason this situation exists is basically because most of the rest of the world is pussies, and they refuse to stand up for themselves. If you're too much of a pussy to stand up for yourself and take care of yourself, then you deserve to be someone else's bitch. Especially if you're too stupid to ally yourself with others and stand up as a group to the bully.