Quoted Text

Quoted from Cicero:
I agree, it just amazes me that "conservatives" are so quickly compelled to support a war with total disregard for the historical fact of the lies that our politicians used to sell and justify wars to the public in the past(Vietnam).  Then I get an answer from a so-called "conservative" justifying the death of our soldiers in Iraq, because they voluntarily joined. It is pretty sick and disappointing.

At the risk of making generalizations, I will characterize conservatives as generally supportive of a strong national defense ("peace through strength").  However, I don't think that all or even most traditional conservatives support deploying the U.S. military around the world to serve as the world's police force or to conquer governments that don't adhere to our democratic ideals or embrace our Judeo-Christian religious beliefs.  As Theodore Roosevelt stated, "Walk/Speak softly and carry a big stick".  America's position of military superiority, if maintained, should be enough of a deterrent to those nations that would threaten our people and our lands.

I personally share the positions of our Founding Fathers that the U.S. should not interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign nations.  Sometimes, exceptions must be made, however, in cases of genocide being committed by oppressive governments against their own people.  

But, I share your disdain for politicians who mislead the American people to gain support for military action and/or justify the decision to engage in hostilities.   Often their decisions and actions seemingly result from ulterior motives.

they can have a central bank all they want.....it's all becoming digital.....where's the value? what's it based on? blood? oil? gold? sweat? eggs? coffee? buttons?........OH, I know Xbox credits.......

Quoted from 78

I personally share the positions of our Founding Fathers that the U.S. should not interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign nations.  Sometimes, exceptions must be made, however, in cases of genocide being committed by oppressive governments against their own people.  

Would the U.S. having the highest incarceration rate in the world constitute "oppressive"?  Does England have a moral obligation to invade the U.S. in order to free our citizens from such and oppressive government?  

I still don't understand how nations take us seriously when we go around the world causing death and destruction in the name of liberation and freedom when we have such a horrible domestic record.

Quoted Text

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China's extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

San Marino, with a population of about 30,000, is at the end of the long list of 218 countries compiled by the center. It has a single prisoner.

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people. The others have much lower rates. England's rate is 151; Germany's is 88; and Japan's is 63.

The median among all nations is about 125, roughly a sixth of the American rate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html?pagewanted=all