Canadians still 'distrust' United States

"There really does appear to be a hardy strain of anti-Americanism in Canada," Cohen said. "Almost half of us don't believe America is a force for good in the world, even with Obama as president."

So, because most Canadians don't believe America is a force for good in the world. That makes majority Canadians anti-American?

America (the country) goes around from war to the next war. They fucked up in terrorism and invaded the wrong country (iraq). A country they were not too long ago in and completly fucked it up. Now they are going to re-build it and fix previous mistakes. Which I believe they have accomplished already which is good but they are fixing a mistake Bush's Father fucked up in the first place. Completly destroying the country and it's government. Leaving it in chaos and ruins without regrets.

The United States does do humanitarian missions such as donating supplies and delivering them to third world countries but a lot of countries do that as well. While they do a lot of stuff right in the world. You cannot ignore the ton of bad shit they do. Hence the skepticism and view of America not a force of good in the world.

It's like that movie Team America where the South Park guys were making fun of American World Policing.

They found terrorists (three of them) in Egypt. They went there to kill them and the terrorists spotted them and tried to run for it. It was a chase and the Team America guys kept trying to shoot them down with missles but kept missing and destroying known Egpytian monuments. At the end they finally kill them but you see a zoomed out shot of them and what is left of there country. Everything is practicly in flames and the civilians are just looking everywhere in shock. Than the Team America guys say "Alright, we killed the terrorists. No need to thank us".

Bacardi, I chuckled reading your comment indicating your displeasure at Canadians being considered anti-American and then followed up with a litany of reasons why you are anti-American.

Not that you're a racist, mind you, but your complaint is sort of like someone complaining about being called a racist.

While they're wearing a sheet.

And burning a cross.

At a lynching. :lol:

Americans are a 'race'? I think you mean bigotry.

Hard to believe but imo a lot of Canadian distrust of Americans still stems from the 'invasion' some, what...? 180 years ago?

From there it ends up as a lightning rod for any politician who wants to make a false point or stiffle debate. Whenever someone brings up health care reform for example the opposed simply label the plan as a route to 'becoming more like America' without debating the pro's and con's on their merit alone. It doesnt really matter if you can draw a simularity with something going on in the States, all that matters is if we are making the right decision for us and "not wanting to be like America" isn't a reason, it's a reaction. With the health care example I see Canadians perfectly willing to let our brittle system crumble and disappear simply over some knee jerk reaction to doing something to save it that may appear to be similar to something in the US.

EDIT: 'of' changed to 'or'

What is a force for good in the world? The UN?
America has done more to spread their view of what is right in the world by their own convictions and conventions. Liberal democracy when it is convenient. The hegemonic power does that accept it. I would rather the superpower be capitalist United States than a communist Russia or hybrid China.

People do not know if the USA are a force for good?

While many people do not like the USA the simplest way to figure out if the USA is a force for good or not is to simply take the USA out of the equation.

If by some act of God the USA's military and economic might was removed over night, how long does anyone think peace on the planet would continue?

North Korea wants South Korea, but knows it can't beat the USA.
China wants Thailand but knows it can't beat the USA.
The Muslim world wants Israel dead but knows again it can't beat the USA.
Russia wants many of the former soviet states back, again USA. On this note Russia is the only country in the world that could take on the USA and "win" if you call MAD winning.

So while the USA may not be my favorite country, they are the ones they keep the peace.

The fact that Canada is still Canada is proof enough of the good intentions of America. It's definately not because of our diplomacy toward our big brother, or our comittment to fund our defence.