Added: Sunday, 14 December 2008, 08:50 PM Mecca time, 05:50 PM GMT
This theme began with the future of US influence on the globe. But what about the globe's influence on the US? This is important. The historic impetuses are there, and it's good to find or create ways to make this possible! One great way for people living in the US is the website Congress.Org, where residents can find and directly contact elected officials for their Zip codes, from the White House on up. This site also has a number of interesting reader feedback features. So, if you have a Zip code, you have a voice! And - Thanks to Aljazeera for giving us THIS voice - may it enhance our global conversations for understanding, reconciliation and peace in the exciting times to come.
Charlie Stevenson, Washingon DC, United States
Added: Sunday, 14 December 2008, 04:29 AM Mecca time, 01:29 AM GMT
elise, USA: Try not to confuse "heart" with fantasy based histrionics.
Robwash, Los Angeles, United States
Added: Saturday, 13 December 2008, 09:43 PM Mecca time, 06:43 PM GMT
It's been going on for decades, but never so obviously as in the past eight years - the US' influence has been in decline, and in disturbing ways. Our national moral credibility is shot. Economically - and not just the recession, but the longer term focus on consumption over production, of debt over savings - it may be irretrievable. Politically - well, if we can replace the grotesque posturings of the past 28 years with a genuinely openminded and multilateral Obama administration, we might recover, but it's how "we, the people" behave that will determine that. But what we've seen in recent times is a lurching, powerful nation whose influence may come to rest in just one thing: our military, and our strategic nuclear arsenal. And if we can't turn that back, I will be TRULY afraid.
Charlie Stevenson, Washingon DC, United States
Added: Saturday, 13 December 2008, 07:28 PM Mecca time, 04:28 PM GMT
Strange how many people keep posting on how irrelevant and powerless the US is. Why would anyone keep posting over and over again about how irrelevant something was? Unless....and I'm not a psychiatrist....they secretly feared the opposite. Hmm
Robwash, Los Angeles, United States
Added: Saturday, 13 December 2008, 06:46 PM Mecca time, 03:46 PM GMT
I don't think it's a case of anyone vanishing either, rather adjusting to a more equal level, which Europe has done. Could anyone ever replace Europe? Hopefully, India, Pakistan, Japan, all of Asia, and China will find their place, and their cultural contributions will become part of the world scene as well.
elise, Bemidji, United States
Added: Saturday, 13 December 2008, 12:38 AM Mecca time, 09:38 PM GMT
I have to emphasize there seems to be more heart expressed in posts from England than from the US on these discussions anyway.
elise, Bemidji, United States
Added: Friday, 12 December 2008, 11:47 PM Mecca time, 08:47 PM GMT
Astonishing that someone from England should accuse the US of brutality from two wars they got us into. Any historian will point to England's monetary debt to the US as American incentive to get into WWI although most of America's citizens were of German extraction, again for WWII, America looked for an opportunity to join on behalf of England, while betraying the homeland of the majority of Americans, thanks to the draft which should be outlawed forever as a violation of any human/civil rights. However I do think the English people at present, as well as many others in Europe are light years ahead of the American public in terms of both accurate current information as well as ideas of what to do about it and I am deeply saddened by the use/abuse America has made of its new found international position as a result.
elise, Bemidji, United States
Added: Friday, 12 December 2008, 08:34 PM Mecca time, 05:34 PM GMT
anyone who would deny that US influence is waning is living on a different planet. this is a good thing for the world, including for the US as its leaders have become hostage to the whims of bankers and corporations. most people in the US would be better off with a major turnaround in US policies on all fronts, domestic and foreign.
Niloufar, Tehran, Iran
Added: Thursday, 11 December 2008, 09:17 PM Mecca time, 06:17 PM GMT
It was the Europeans who ruled the world, then it came to the Americans and the USSR. Now the USA is vanishing and the USSR has vanished already. The pendulum now is moving to India and China, but India will survive for 100 years if they solve the Kashmir issue now, if they do not solve the Kashmir issue, then the age of India empire will be 15-20 years, but China will survive pretty long. The USA, and the USSR vanished because of their wrong policies towards Muslims, and India will end by same way.
numushtaq, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Added: Thursday, 11 December 2008, 03:19 AM Mecca time, 12:19 AM GMT
Manuka, New Zealand: At what point in time did you respect the United States?
