Xander

It is true that they could of won without nukes but it is likely that whatever had happened America would of ended up using nukes unless it was a swift victory for them. America chose to use nuclear weapons not because they had to but because they would end the war much faster. America new that if they had to fight japan island to island they would suffer tremendous losses. They could of one in a war like this because of their advanced and high tech infrastructure. The farther they pushed into Japans territory the less power Japan would have to make war. Although the fight would almost certainly end in American victory it would be long, costly and bloody.

This is true. Affirmative action policies only make racial divisions stronger. They essentially say you are different from other people so we are going to treat you differently from other people. Even if this difference is a positive one it is a difference and therefore self defeating. These kinds of actions only serve to cover up the symptoms they do nothing to solve the root problems. If they really want to solve the problem they should look at why minorities like women and blacks get heired less or get payed less. Unfairly hiring people who would not normally get the job to gives a superficial look of equality may be the typical cooperate way of "solving" the problem but it really dose nothing. It would probably initially cost a lot of money to restructure their companies however if it was done correctly it should be able to fix the problem. Even if it took some governmental changes business seems to be pretty good at dealing with the burocrates.

I agree that the Americans will never be able to successfully pacify Iraq. Every time they succeed in subduing a group of militants the violence that is required to stop them will encourage even more people (predominantly young men) to take up the fight against what they see as the American insurgency into their country. Although their is no predominate enemy to turn the country over to like in Vietnam in Iraq like in Vietnam America is getting trapped into a cycle of resistance to their presence. It is impossible for America to win a military victory in Iraq.

America chose not to enter the war because it felt that neither Japan or Hitlers Germany presented a large threat to America. This dose mean that the British, French, Dutch or any other country for that matter may very well not of been able to drag America into the war. However if numerous countries like the above mentioned ones met with constant loses that could very well bring the US into the war. They would of been fearful of two much success by any other country. They let Hitler role over Europe because were ever the German war machine when so also went destruction. Although it controlled much of Europe the cost of this victory was that the infrastructure of each country was obliterated. This toll can been seen in the massive effort required after the war to rebuild Europe. In fact this may be part of the reason why Europe is ahead of North America in terms of pollution and fuel inefficiency. Although their has indisputably been a lot of political pressure witch has resulted in the high ranking, in term of efficiency and environmentalism, of Europe, much of the underlying infrastructure that these advancements depend on came into existence during the re-building of Europe after world war two. Although this destruction meant that most of the countries were useless in terms of building up German's war machine it would eventually reach a point were German became powerful enough that although America was situated on a different continent America would see it as a treat and would therefore take measures to stop its growth and to diminish its power. The same would be true of Japan although it would be able to take over some foreign soil if successfully it would inevitably reach a point were America saw it as a potential threat. In their attack on pearl harbor they attempted to convince America that if they ever decided to fix its sights on Japan as an enemy the result would be devastating to American interests at home and abroad. Although the attack on Pearl harbor only sped up the process the fact the it occurred at all shows the Japan saw that America would eventually enter the war.

When it is said that Wal-Mart gives "our" jobs away it dose not necessarily mean jobs working inside actual Wal-Mart stores. Nearly %40 of the products sold in your average Wal-Mart are private label brands either owned by Wal-Mart or one of its subsidiaries. The contracts to the subsidiaries are always given to the lowest bider witch end up more often then not in places like china with lax or completely unenforced labor laws. As for the brands Wal-Mart directly owns, well they are often choosing like their subsidiaries to produce the products under their brands in countries were they can treat their workers however they want. As they do this they shut down the factories were these products used to be made. Since its initial success was in North American this is were most of its factories were initially located. Once these factories have been moved the jobs associated with them are gone. So it is fair to say they were taken away, since they were taken out of the Canadian job market.

Going to the Olympics could also help with the establishment of democracy or at least political change in China. If their was a large protest the worlds eye would already be focused on china for the olympics and with all the foreign nationals as well as news reporters it would be extremely hard for the Chinese officials to crack down on the protesters like they did at Tiananmen square in 1989. Although the Chinese government would certainly try to disrupt any attempts to plan a protest to coincide with their hosting of the Olympics, I wounder what would happen if a large scale protest did occur during the games?

What good, if I may ask would boycotting the Chinese Olympics do. What in fact, good or bad, would it do if Canada and or other countries decided not to participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Any country that did not participate would after making such a decision become very unpopular with the Chinese government. This would make any attempt to then use diplomacy to improve China even harder then it already is. If you want to change them diplomatically then boycotting the Olympics would in fact be a step backwards. If however you do not intend to change them diplomatically and instead chose to use force. Then again this kinda of force witch would for a short period of time put a certain amount of pressure on the Chinese government is not nearly enough to change any of their domestic or foreign policy. Are their not better ways of reshaping china. Perhaps something monetary, a tax or tariff. This would not only create a larger and longer lasting effect on china it would also help deal with problems here at home. Namely those cause by companies like Wal-mart. Who chose to import products from other countries, like china because they can be manufactured cheaper their.