It seems to me you are continuing to make spurious assumptions and what's more are actually usig some very questionable reasoning to defend your claims.

daylia wrote:

Yet such facts as these still remain - that the US spends five times as much as any other nation on it's military ($399 billion last year, as compared with the $80 billion of the second highest nation, and Canada's lowly $7.9 billion according to a list pdc posted on another recent thread). Although it seems obvious, just why is this if war is not the expected and historically accepted "American Way" of dealing with international conflict?
&&--what on earth does the USA military budget have to do with your original assessment, which was that American CITIZENS are violent in their behavior??? Explain your logic please. Even you ought to know a governemnt's actions are in no way definitely representative of the desires and beliefs of its citizens.



- That the US rates for childhood homicide, suicide and firearm-related death are five times higher than any other industrialized nation (click here for the American study and scroll down to the graph at the bottom of the page for easy reference). That's a significant difference! Why is this so, if American culture does not somehow "breed" the ideology/expectation/acceptance of violence as a solution to problems?
&&--how is suicide related to violence? This is related to depression and inability to cope with one's life. Another faulty bit of logic on your part.


- That the homicide rates in major US cities are at third-world, rather than first-world levels;
&&--what is the implicatin here? That we are just as violent as "third world" nations? what is significant about that? and if this is true why are you making such a to-do about violence in the USA when, according to your cryptic factoid here, so-called "third world" nations are every bit as violent as we are?



- And that according to the current US administrations "Project for a New American Century", the American people are now to rule the world by force, using any and all means necessary to enforce their interests and principles whenever and upon whoever they see fit, with no regard for international law or opinion. As we are currently witnessing in Iraq.
&&--excuse me, but you REALLY need to not use phrases like "the American people" in a generalized manner when what you are referring to is a SMALL SELECT GROUP OF POLICTICIANS. That organization and that document do not officially represent our administration; it is a private organization, albeit it's manifesto has been signed by a number of people who currently serve in Bush's cabinet.
The government is NOT the same as "the people." Our president did not even win by majority vote. So stop portraying all Americans as if they support these heinous views; the majority of them don't, as evidenced by the results of the last presidential election.



This is the part that threatens me the most - hence my concern at the apparent lack of self-awareness among many - not all, but seemingly a majority of Americans.
&&--how many Americans do you know personally, then? There are several hundred million of us. Do tell, how it is *you* know how the majority of us think and feel about things.


I believe that the author of the first article I linked to has some very vital keys to understanding why this is so - and those keys found in the education system, among other places. I find these comments of particular interest: "Americans have little genuine understanding of the major role played by war throughout the American experience.

Historians, however, are well aware that war taught Americans how to fight, helped unite the diverse American population, and helped stimulate the national economy, among other significant things. But this is not the message that they have presented to the American people, concerned perhaps they might undermine Americans' self-image.

... The explanation lies, first, with historians' abdication of responsibility systematically to deal with the issue of violence in America ... and, second, with the American population's refusal directly to confront any very ugly reality – which came first I do not know. This is what historians refer to as " mutual causation."

&&--this is all more of the same sort of broad-brushstroke generalizing. It would be nice to see some acknowledgement of the political, social, economic, racial and educational diversity of our nation.

On a more personal level, my sister has lived near Ft. Lauderdale Florida for over 20 years now, and the changes in her attitudes/behavior are quite remarkable when it comes to violence/expectation of violence. She's carried a handgun in her purse for a couple years now, seems to think that it's just not safe to leave home without it, that it's just a natural everyday thing to carry a gun for personal safety. Such an attitude - or need - would have been unthinkable to her before she left Canada, as it continues to be for the rest of the family! I find it hard to imagine what it must be like to feel so threatened by violence that you'd "need" to a gun to go to the corner store - and nor would I ever want to!
--well, that's your sister. One person. How is she representative of any population group?
Plenty of people live in Florida who DON'T carry handguns on their person every day...gee, maybe she found it a normal thing to do because of all the gun ownership in Canada???

How about some facts to back up all this Yank-bashing, eh?