Japan to open G-Rated Virtual World

Obama for prez!

No its not true. Its hyperbole.

Were America a true warmongering dictatorship - the Iraq war would have been over in 2004.

The Oil would be being shipped to the US and the Iraqis wouldnt have anything to say about it.

This some crazy chop logic.

"All frogs are green, my car is green, therefore it is a frog"

the article didnt say SL was evil. .. nor did it say Americans were aggresive. where did you get that from?

Imogen

Hey if we keep this up, maybe we'll come close to equaling the number of VAT/Ageplay/IDV/Gambling/Ginko threads.

Hey, nobody said anything about COMPETENT.

LOL

It's a strange article in that the makers of Meet Me manage to both insult SL and Japanese people at the same time.

Well, we ARE competent to be a true warmongering dictatorship in the sense that if we wanted to, we could end the war and start shipping oil within a month or so. We took over Iraq in a couple months. The war-mongering approach would be to obliterate the country, not worry about civilian casualties and lock down the borders (much easier with a "shoot anything that moves" tactic). Then take the spoils of war for our own.

Where we have problems is after we do the warmongering part. Purposely killing innocent people isn't our style (that was the warmongering dictatorship we displaced - just ask the Kurds), so we are stuck with trying to pick the bad guys out from the crowd of good guys, and we are trying to empower the good guys to run their own country themselves. We could probably pull it off if had a decent plan of action. For the life of me, I can't figure out why we don't. It's a mystery. You would think that someone would have anticipated that we might need a plan for turning Iraq back over to the Iraqis in a manner which didn't cause them to completely collapse. Anyway - that's my 6L.

Oh - and I've said my piece on the article. Insulting to americans, but much more insulting to the Japanese. The quoted speaker has mush for brains and deserves a good dope slap. He's almost too stupid to really take the insults seriously.

Yes, the method we are employing is much more kinder and gentler.

You're confusing your Bushes. That was his dad.

Last time I confused my bushes, I was in the doghouse for a month.

Actually compared to most occupations it is.

Thus why its dragging out so long.

The traditional, time honored way to put down a rebellous populace is to crush resistors and civilians alike. Without worrying about who is who.

Then they take what they want.

So people who make the Brutal dictatorship warmongering comments really are missing the point.

Im not saying the war in Iraq is good, just that if the US was what people accused it of, that the war would have been long over, Far more people would have been killed, and wed have a whole lot of oil suddenly.

Actually, no mystery. The purpose is to drain the taxpayer dollars into the crony private contractors for as long as possible, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve-the-beast

If it were a true Warmongering dictatorship run by a true dictator,Iraq would be an American state and they'de be working on taking the neighbours by now.
Comparing Bush to a dictator is like comparing Gecko to a Crocodile.

On the basis that more soldiers have been killed SINCE occupation, that the total quantity of civilians DURING or SINCE, tells it's own story about how the Iraq war was fought.

Without stating the obvious, but I will, wasn't it the Japanese who attacked America first in WWII? Would hardly call that neighbourly.

A lot of good things have come out of Japan since the war... Nissan, Cartoons about adults in various genures... Monkey the series.. Take Aways..... but I jest.

Yep, all good stuff, Nissan Patrol has been the best 4WD on the Aussie market for over 15 years.

It's neither/nor, I think.

I rather tend to agree with Niall Ferguson's argument in his book "Collosus" - namely, that America is a de facto empire, but one which winces at considering itself one, and which therefore is unwilling to act as one ought to act as a responsible empire. In other words, America doesn't view itself as imperial, even though de facto it is -- so it isn't willing to arrange its policies imperially, make the kind of sacrifices that require the maintenance of an empire, and the like. Essentially, his view is that America is a half-assed empire that has one foot in the pool and the other on the deck. America intervenes in crazy places like Iraq, but then wants to withdraw within a year or two -- that's no way to run an empire at all, for example, if you are serious about being an empire, you stay, you occupy, you invest to stay for the long term, and you don't nervously twiddle your fingers, fretting about withdrawal timetables and the like -- you're an empire, for god's sake, longer term occupation and reorganisation is what you *do*. So far from what European and other international critiques of America claim, in this view America is not an overbearing imperial power -- according to Ferguson, the fact that it is not is the core of the problem.

Per Ferguson, America is both the most powerful Empire in history and the least effective one in history because of this reluctance to face up to its role in the world in a straightforward manner.

Now Ferguson goes further and argues that a "liberal Empire" would be a very positive thing for much of the world. I'm not convinced of that. It's well argued in the book, of course, Ferguson is very bright, but I think much of the problem lies in the fact that previous models of imperial engagement are much harder to sustain in present conditions -- trying to recreate them in the 21st century seems dicey to me at best. In light of that, perhaps the US is condemned to "make do" using various forms of soft power (which I think the US does actually quite well), while muddling along in its use of "hard power".

It can be summed up in one word that the Japanese have for outsiders, particularly Americans...

Gaijin.

If memory recalls correctly, the literal translation is "barbarian". It's said in a rather contemptuous tone....

Well, now, let's be fair. Americans have a similar general contempt for anyone beyond our borders.

Not I...or at least, I try to be amiable to everyone I meet. I have many loved international friends. :3 We all just need to learn to put the politics, religion and various "hot topics" aside and just be people. The world would be a much nicer place if everyone could subscribe the the philosophy of "Be groovy to one another and party on." Party on happy people!

Most countries have a segment of the population like that.

Interesting argument. And I agree; the world doesnot need another empire, "liberal" or not. Today, America is the world's hegemon. It is not comfortable in that role, yet does the best it can with it. In a generation or two, China is going to be the most dominant power, with India probably right behind it - when their GDP per capita begins to approach the West's, 1 billion people > 300 million. When that day comes, when the major powers are non-western and possibly even anti-western, I suspect people will look back on the days of American supremacy and wish they had them back again. These are the "good old days." Enjoy them while they last.

And so shall begin the reignof Khan Noonian Singh.