World Cultures 4 Reading Notes
"What is An American?" by Peter Ferrara a newspaper in Pakistan published a newspaper with a reward for anyone who killed an American PF explains what an American is Any race Any religion or no religion (atheism); Americans can worship without persecution and there are actually more Muslims in American than in Afghanistan Americans are from "the most prosperous land in the history of the world" which is rooted in the Declaration of Independence Americans are generous; America has helped many nations Americans do not have to obey the "mad raving of ignorant, ungodly cruel, old men American women are free to show their face Americans can criticize their leaders, and then replace them by majority vote They are not afraid that their history, religion, or beliefs will be overrun or forgotten Enjoy the best that everyone has to bring Americans are welcoming of both rich and poor; in fact the poor are those who build America Hitler, General Tojo, Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung and "every blood thirsty tyrant in the history of the world' has tried to kill an American If you kill an American, you are just killing yourself because they are "the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom"; everyone who holds that spirit, regardless of their location on the globe, is an American Americans will welcome those who tried to kill them
A Plea for Caution from Russia Written by Vladimir Putin to US because of the recent events surrounding Syria--says that there was been insufficient communication between US and Russia Different stages of relations: against each other in Cold War but together defeated the Nazis UN was established to prevent another World War--the founders understood that decisions about war/peace should happen by consensus It's important that the UN doesn't collapse like League of Nations (lacked real leverage)-it would collapse if influential countries bypass UN Putin says the potential strike by US against Syria is opposed by many countries and political/religious leaders; the strike would lead to more innocent victims and escalation and spread the conflict beyond Svria and new wave of terrorism Also would undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize Middle East and North Africa Syria is not battle for democracy--there are few champions of democracy fighting govt in Syria but there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists fighting the govt US State Dept has designated Al Nusra Front and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (fighting with opposition) as terrorist organizations There are also mercenaries from Arab countries fighting there and hundreds of militants from Western countries and Russia Putin suggest that they might move onto our countries afterwards because after Libya extremists moved to Mali Russia has advocated peaceful dialogue that enables Syrians to develop a compromise plan for their future Says that we need to use the UN Security Council to preserve international law in order to prevent chaos; international law says that force is per