If you read up on the history, the Japanese were willing to take it into the mountains and caves with each Japanese woman and child armed and ready to die for Hirohito.

Looking at the WW2 scenario of decimating the Japanese population on their homefront or sending a message with 2 nuclear bombs that reverberates today as a deterrence, I am glad we chose the latter.

Otherwise, I would have never known the joys of Nintendo, Sushi, and anime.

As for Europe, they like to tell us Americans we are dumb and fat, but isn't it so funny how quickly they have forgotten about the Marshall Plan and our protection of them during the Cold War under NATO?

If US military forces were not guarding the City on the Hill, Europe, you would see a more divisive, militaristic Europe in response to the threat of the USSR.

Let's set one thing straight... The Marshall Plan was good for Europe but it was good for the US too, causing an economic boom in the US with exports to Europe.

It was not a favor.

If he runs against Palin, yes he has a chance.

At least I hope he does, no matter how bad Obama is he's not a numbskull like Palin.

It was mainly designed in a way along with NATO to ensure the US would never again have to get involved in a war between European states. Increased economic activity came later after the Marshall Plan.

I can't stand Palin. I can't stand to listen to her. If she won, I would never watch another presidential speech.

However, she would be a better president then Obama. How could she be worse?

What a disaster, poor people actually having access to clean drinking water in poor countries. DAM YOU RICH BASTARDS!!!

On top of that every time you use your telephone, watch cable television, surf the Internet, heat your home, or use electricity do you find it prohibitively expensive? Because through most of the world those services, and their infastructure, are privately controlled and/or maintained.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/mil_exp_of_gdp-military-expenditure-of-gdp

The United States Spends 4.08% of GDP on Military and spends the most out of any western developed nation; and most developed nations are spending under 3% of GDP

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_edu_spe-education-spending-of-gdp

The United States spend 5.07% of GDP on Education, which is more than many/most western developed nations.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_tot_exp_as_of_gdp-health-total-expenditure-gdp

The United States spends 13.9% of GDP on Healthcare, which is the most out of any western developed nation; and most countries pay under 9%.

If you add up the numbers, and don't just assume that these are massive expenses throughout the world, you would find that military, education and healthcare in most countries adds up to around 15% of GDP. The vast majority of the remaining infastructure and law enforcement budgets are handled by city/county budgets and paid for through property taxes (often subsidized by the state/province or federal government) but do not account for more than (roughly) 5% of GDP.

That was nice of you to pick and choose what parts of that article you wanted us to see for us.

England:

The impact of private sector participation can vary substantially from one case to the other. In the case of water privatization in England, tariffs increased by 46% in real terms during the first nine years and operating profits have more than doubled ( 142%) in eight years. On the other hand, privatization increased investments (in the six years after privatization the companies invested £17 billion, compared to £9.3 billion in the six years before privatization) and brought about compliance with stringent drinking water standards and led to a higher quality of river water.^[5] However, it has been also argued that privatisation has led to both a decline in quality and supply with much of the infrastructure being left to decay

Bolivia

When Bolivia sought to refinance the public water service of its third largest city, the World Bank required that it be privatized. Which is how the Bechtel Corporation of San Francisco, (California, U.S.A.,) gained control over all of Cochabamba's water; even that which fell from the sky^{[citation needed]}, i.e., rainwater. Bechtel was granted the power to seize the homes of delinquent customers. In response, Bolivians took to the streets.^[7]

Following the Cochabamba Riots of 2000 in Bolivia, Cochabamba's water system is now run by an organization of community and government representatives. Though at a World Bank secret^[8][9] tribunal, Bechtel is seeking "compensation for damages" from Bolivia in the amount they would have profited. Bechtel is demanding "at least US $25 million" — which is equal to 1.7% of Bolivia's public spending (as such a sum could finance 125,000 new connections to the public Cochabamba water system); "or 125,000 new water connections in Cochabamba

That's right, a private company that was in charge of the water and they seized peoples homes if they were unable to pay for the cost of water, they literally kicked their customers out onto the streets and took everything they had.  The situation got so bad that the people rioted and demanded public water services.

Private water sources may increase availability to water, but it doesn't mean the people can afford it.  In africa the coca-cola corporation is the only source of water in many areas, yet they charge exorbitant prices for water because they know people need it, a bottle of water costs double the price of a bottle of coke.

Honestly I wouldn't want any of my utilities to be completely privitized and they're not, the FCC regulates telephones, without their regulations the available phone service of landline phones would be akin to cell phones and the prices would likely be a lot higher.  In the energy sector we saw what happened when we allowed a company free roam, that company was enron and they basically just squeezed profits from california by shutting off power for no reason other than the fact that when people are without power for a little while they are much more willing to pay higher prices to get it back and it was all legal at that time.  How would you like it if your power or water or phones were shut off for a week just so that you would be more willing to pay an exorbitantly higher price for them?

she could be a female Bush! she is a Republican right?

maybe that was a little harsh.

you watch Presidential speech's? without falling asleep? your tough, i couldn't do it!

I am not an American, and I do not understand what are the arguments some of u guys are pitting against Obama. I've read that his wife is 'gorilla', I presume it as racist. I read that he cannot turn back the economic, he has passed the financial reform bill and it takes time to take effect. Oil spill is BP's fault, and it's only a small incident since it only affects the environment and did not kill like Katrina did (at least 1836 fatality last I checked from the net), besides, he makes BP pay for everything and save ur tax payers money.

And some of u guys really believe in the 'real' Americans wolves killer Palin and want her to be ur president? Do u think she would be able to handle a country filled with 'real' as well as 'fake' Americans (colored, gays, liberals) to compete with other superpowers like China or Russia? Or negotiate with Arab Saudi/Kuwait/(insert Middle East countries names here) to get better oil price offer? For her, Muslims are evil anyway and only good Muslims are dead Muslims. The problems is they are blessed with black gold, if u cant hold meaningful dialog or threat them as equals, why should they give u priorities and not sell all to China instead? Welcome to walking and bicycles, and no light or internet for u in the dark. Oh, and what will she do with the 'fake' Americans, purge them out of Cocoon like FFXIII?

China wont wait for u, u can still dream of 1950s golden age, while everybody around u live in suburb, white, Christian. Time has changed. Everyday bring big changes to China's cities if u ever visited the country, Shenzen thrives from a mere mud splat across from Hong Kong to a mega-city in 10 years time, other cities are also booming with crazy speed all over the country. And Russia wont sit here and wait for u either, Putin is a very clever leader and he has great support from his people, as well as natural resources like oil and gas, Russia will rise again.

Palin thought Africa is a country and dinosaurs exist along side with men, so if u want America to go back to dark age, welcome to it. Just remember the world does not only made of America, and if u want to stay behind and close ur mind to other religions/culture/believes/sciences, its ur choice.

And for global warming, it was not created by Democrats, nobody outside of America cares a fuss about ur politics, its a fact accepted by all over the world.

At one point, wasn't Bush's approval rate like down in the high teens? It may not have been during the second election, but I remember somewhere during his second term his rating was about a 17%.

As long as the war in Afghanistan contines, I can guarantee you that he will get re-elected as America does not like switching commander and chief during times of war. Pay attention to conflicts and see where we are deploying troops in 2012. If there is an active conflict he most likely will see re-election.