Of course that's par for the course. Governments protect their favored citizens and they will ALWAYS steal anything they can from anyone who is helpless and has no government to protect him. The United States stole Philippine sovereignty from Filipinos, because there was no other government that would stop them at the time. That's what governments do. The United States is stealing huge tracts of Iraq right now to build tens of military bases, almost all of which, no doubt, will become permanent U.S territory, for use as torture chambers just as stolen Guantanamo is now.
Apparently, the international community is not yet strong enough to protect the rights of non-citizens (the palestinians are a people with no country since they're not citizens of israel and they don't have their own country either). Maybe in another hundred years. But maybe not.
In a visit to the Middle East former president Bush asks:
How come everybody wants to come to the United States if the United States is so bad?
And elsewhere in the article:
Another hostile audience member, a college student in Abu Dhabi, told Bush that U.S. wars were aimed at opening markets for American companies. He said globalization was contrived for America's benefit at the expense of the rest of the world. Bush was having none of it.
"I think that's weird and it's nuts," Bush said. "To suggest that everything we do is because we're hungry for money, I think that's crazy. I think you need to go back to school."
The two quotes are related though, although of course an American wouldn't see the point. As a practical matter, yes, the U.S. does what it does in the world because it wants to protect and increase the incomes of U.S. companies. Free trade doesn't make any headway in the U.S. when big corn interests are concerned, but the U.S. will coerce third world countries to open their markets so that the U.S. can sell all manner of goods and services to those countries. There is nothing inherently wrong with that sort of policy. It's what governments do. The wrong there, the reason why the world looks down on U.S. policy, is that it enforces those policies with force. It bribes foreign governments to get on the bandwagon and pass legislation protecting U.S. interests (lately, primarily information technology and intellectual property rights), it strongarms the weak. It is also very successful at all of this. Mr Bush, THAT'S why everybody wants to go to the United States. It's better to be the oppressor than the oppressed. The oppressor can earn many times what the oppressed can earn and there's less chance of being killed and tortured if one is an American citizen. Sure, it's still possible (taser, taser, taser, taser deaths), but it happens much less often than out here in the real world.
Those people who want to go to the United States? They go because the good life is purchased at the cost of oppressing the rest of the world. A generalized pride in one's sons is a good thing, certainly. But mistakes should be corrected gently, and mistakes (or purposeful evil) that kills people (never mind the dead Iraqi and Afghan civilians Mr Bush, just look at those dead american kids) should be corrected vigorously. If you won't correct your son when he's killing your own citizens, do you wonder why he turned out as he did?
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