know your friends well, but your enemies better, why the united states will fall Options

[sadolakced acid]

The United States of America.

the promise land?
land of milk and honey?
land of the mountain of gold?

maybe.

yet, like all empires, doomed to fail.

why, you ask? mayhaps it's politics. mayhaps it's terrorists. or mayhaps it's cultural.

So says the old joke, that people who only know one language are americans. This may be true for some, but with more and more high schools requiring foriegn languages, this is slowly changing.

yet to what purpose? sure, we might learn the culture of the romans, the french, the spanish (and mexicans), and the germans. but will this help us in the world?

if we consider the world as a whole, what is the greatest threat to the United States of America? Is it russia? they seem to be fading from the stage, their act over, exiting stage left.

is it the middle east? certainly they are the source for terrorists. Yet what do terrorists do? they kill people. They terrorize. yet this is not what kills a nation. Terrorist's actions unify America, they make it stronger.

then what is the threat?

let's look at recent events.

george bush annouces that the united states will return to the moon by 2019.
and china anounces that they will put a man on the moon by 2018.

a brilliant display of one-up-manship if it's pulled off.

this is a nation that has vast potential, and they are begining to tap it. Sure, there are growing pains, but it means they are growing.

so let's consider this for a second. most every nation, china included, teach thier children to speak english.

To do this, they read american books, learn from american teachers, and watch american movies.

American culture is exported to other countries. yet these countries don't completely ignore thier own culture. the two- american culture and local culture- coexist.

jump to america.

a country where youths make jokes based on racial stereotypes from 100 years ago.

a country where most children's knowledge of chinese is how to say a few bad words.

a country where other cultures are not valued, or studied.

let us look to the future. Is the united states going to be able to sell things to china? not anymore, not with our limited understanding of thier culture.

but they, on the other, they have hundreds of thousands of college graduates who know how to operate in a western buisness world, who know what americans want, and can give it to them for much cheaper.

So what, you ask. Why should it matter?

the answer is staring you in the face. America dominates because america innovates. the internet. automobiles. aeroplanes. all created here.

so what happens when america loses it's innovation? then it's military weapons cease to be the worlds best. It's industry ceases to do things others cannot. It's commerce soon depends on someone else. and it's dominence-- it's dominence fades.

and thus the empire falls.

[sadolakced acid]

3 countries have gotten a man into space. But more have gotten a rocket into space. The EU has the Ariane project and Japan has the MLV.

Not to mention the private groups (including students!) that have gotten rockets.

The problem is getting a man inside and bringing him back alive.

yes, life support is the problem.

but putting a man in space, and also the moon, is such an empty investment, it says something about a country willing to do it.

[stryker76]

yes, life support is the problem.

but putting a man in space, and also the moon, is such an empty investment, it says something about a country willing to do it.

AN EMPTY INVESTMENT????

You no nothing about the space programs dont you?

1 Hundreds or products used in many medicines we take can only be made in mirco gravity (SPACE)

2 If you say to dont kno our enemies....Then y was it that in 2001 private American companies spotted the first completely Chinese Spy plane that they where dumb enough to leave out on the run way was spot an photo graphed.

3 GPS is used all over the world and saves countless lives every day from ppl lost or children that have been kidnapped abd may be caring cell phones.

4. Being able to communicate globally is thanx to the space program.

5. The proposel of colonizing space isnt just a Sci-Fi fiction concept. Its the next big step in Space travel.

6. The Ability to watch the always changing weather.

7. The ability to help give fast warnings to people that are at risk of dangerous weather.

There are many more reasons that the space program is soo valuable to use and Almost every other country in the world.
The space program is hardly an empty investment.

Sorry for ne rudeness it jes pisses me off to see some say that when so many lives where lost to give us much of what we use today.

Remember the Challenger, Columbia, and all the others the gave there life to improve ours and in the name of discover leading up to what we have today.