6 Years Later Iraq Better but Still Shaky

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by saden1

To be frank the problem with you folks is that you're intellectually lazy. You want to claim thing merely because you think it and without doing the scholarly work necessary to take home the trophy. I don't mean to a prick or an America hater, I just want to be fair and honest. I can't refute your claims as far as being the "greatest [..] in the last 1000 years" because that would require doing a Ph. D thesis, you know, using scholarly methods and doing it big. I'm also surprised that you guys know all you need to know about other countries to do a fair assessment, I sure as *** don't. Does this all make sense?

If that doesn't make sense then I'm going to roll the dice and go with "in the context of 1000 years America makes the top 5 but not #1 in societal contribution and host of other matters."

p.s. The British were responsible for spreading the English common law around the glob and the French gave the world the Napoleonic Code. Perhaps that's not as positive as spreading democracy?

p.p.s. I don't believe America is a special predestined god's best country. Overall America is a great country for most, a good country for some, and a shitty for others.

1] in terms of knowing every country etc, I think it is reasonable to look at the extent the world has changed and make certain statements such as romania, austria, laos, zimbabwe, ecuador, canada, greenland, or about 150 -200 other of the nations that have come and (in some cases gone) over the last 1000 years have not had a global impact. So we can narrow the last and look at the "big" players.

2] I already had given a nod to Britain, I would not include France, but it certainly could be a good debate, you could possibly through Japan and or China in to it, but I think their negatives both are pretty high. Heck you might throw the Ottoman Empire in there. So if you say top 5, and I say top 3 we are oh so close.

3] We found common ground!! I agree America is a not special predestined god's best country.

4] then again, I think anyone who thinks America is shitty has not explored some of the shittier places in the world. (if you are defining shitty for others as less than 5% then i could agree(without doing a graduate thesis) with that too, but of course even the most idyllic countries have some people living in shitty conditions. Oh and please don't misread what I am saying: If I could choose any country in the world to live I think currently, Japan and maybe Norway (except it is too cold) would be above the United States, but I am very thankful for my life as it is now.