Friday, November 24, 2006

The USA is the Biggest Threat

Swedish reader XY has provided us with this translation of an Oct. 29th article in Svenska Dagbladet:

Uncles Sam and KimThe USA and North Korea are the two biggest threats against world peace. That’s the opinion of Swedes, according to a survey by Temo.

Almost one in three Swedes, 29 percent, thinks that the USA is the biggest threat to world peace, according to a survey by Temo, as commissioned by the TV-channel Axess Television, says Dagens Nyheter [Today’s News].

More than 1000 people were posed the question “Which one of the following countries do you think is the greatest threat to world peace?” There were six alternatives: Israel, China, Russia, USA, North Korea and Iran.

North Korea was close to sharing the top spot with the USA — 28 percent of those asked thought that this country was the most dangerous. In the third spot came Iran with 18 percent of the votes.
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The survey also shows that it is the younger people — those between 16 and 29 — that see the USA as the biggest threat, whereas a majority of the eldest — those over 60 — thinks that North Korea is most dangerous.

Political opinions are related to the result. 68 percent of those that voted for vänsterpartiet [the Leftist Party] and 57 percent of the voters of miljöpartiet [the Green Party] that the USA is most dangerous. Only 20 percent of the m- and kd-voters [center/right parties] shared that opinion.

It’s notable that these opinions are more prevalent among Swedish youth, indicating that the suffocating blanket of media propaganda has had an effect on the impressionable young.

Or… Maybe we are the greatest danger to world peace. Maybe we should just realize the error of our ways, bring all our boys home, and leave Europe and the rest of the world to fend for itself.

I’m sure the Swedes would be eternally grateful if we did.

10 comments:

Snouck said...

Swedes are the biggest threat to peace in Sweden.

"Or… Maybe we are the greatest danger to world peace. Maybe we should just realize the error of our ways, bring all our boys home, and leave Europe and the rest of the world to fend for itself.

I’m sure the Swedes would be eternally grateful if we did."

Sweden is neutral. There are no US troops stationed in Sweden. There are troops in Germany mostly. To Swedes this is relevant.

I know that we are all one big Europe to your Americans, but to us Europeans we are all members of our own tribe and our neigbours are mad.

This opinion is largely found on the TV news that brings pictures of Americans soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan every week or every day, so the connection between US and "war" is not totally insane.

Regards,

Snouck

Panday said...

I guess some threats to the world are so grave that even Sweden, which stayed benignly neutral toward the Nazis, feels it has to speak up.

Oh, well. In a hundred years the only place Swedish will be spoken is in Hell, so this discussion will be moot, anyway.

James Higham said...

I ran a freepoll sometime back and it came out overwhelmingly that people thought the U.S.A. was the main threat. There is a sort of blinkered view in the States [and let me say right now that half my readers are American and that I have many American friends]but it's true. The press doesn't report it correctly but there is an enormous undercurrent, even in the west. The Arab world we take for granted. This is always going to be the case with any hegemony. It was so with Rome.

Unknown said...

Dear Baron: Is this the record of a peaceloving nation?http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/usinterventionism.html

jj said...

Interesting. I would disagree that there is a sort of blinkered view in the States, and posit that there is a sort of (well, a plainly obvious) blinkered view in Europe.

Europe has on more than one occasion demonstrated that they cannot live with one another - and the last two times they did so they required outside help to stop the wars, and get them rebuilt. They have further demonstrated, in the Cold War from 1945 to 1985, that they were not interested in actively defending themselves from the lovely and gracious Joe Stalin and his heirs.

When America, Canada, and Mexico have gone to war with each as often as Germany, France, and England have, then maybe a comment about America's "blinkered view" will be in order - but not before then.

I would posit that America sees rather clearly, by comparison with most of Europe.

No, Snouk, the connection between "war" and "America" is not totally insane - but it is why there's a Europe at all. It is why the Swedes get to be neutral.

Zerosumgame said...

Well, some good news -- that means Israel has dropped from being the greatest threat to 3rd place...

/do I need the sarcasm tag?

Simon de Montfort said...

Irony in the extreme: a people who cannot see the danger within their own nation believe that the Americans are as great a threat to world peace as North Korea. Just as the Swedes are still playing the East-West moral equivalence game just as they did for the entire Cold War era, their moral blindness keeps them from seeing the cancer in their own country

Having been to Sweden and studied its people and history, I cannot gloat at their increasing misfortune. I share the hope of many that they will somehow acquire the courage and the will to take steps before things get much, much worse

What they have now is like a small but growing cavity; if not treated effectively soon....

boxermk said...

Snouk,
I know most Europeans lump all Americans together as ignorant gun crazy cowboys who don't know where Europe is on the map, but that isn't the case. What is the case is that your country, Sweden, has neither the will nor the military to defend itself. America is both that will and that military, and why the hell should we spill our blood for a bunch of European elite who bow down to Mecca five times a day and fill their population with hatred for the USA.
You want nothing to do with the United States? Good, because we want nothing to do with you. But if you haven't been completely blinded by your own media, we're all infidels to a common enemy. Here's a geography lesson: there are countries called Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq etc. If you don't want your children to grow up as slaves to Muslim invaders, then these countries are what the Swedes should consider as the greatest threat to world peace.

Regards,
Boxermk

Jukka Aakula said...

Europeans are often negative about US. Especially people in western Europe like France, German, Sweden etc. I do not quite understand it - there are some partial reasons like the envy of France and German towards US, the germans loosing the war and loosing all their dignity and just thinking about their black history. Germans are unable to excuse themselves for Auschwitz and that's why they are unable to accept that not all people are all the time feeling guilty about some errors they have made some day..

Ofcourse there are some acceptable reasons for disliking US - as there are acceptable reasons for disliking China or any other country. But US is in a special position. Europeans don't care about China supporting the sudanese regim murdering hundred of thousands of people.

Anonymous said...

I'm an American reading this and I do believe that America is a threat to world peace since the USA likes to get involved in conflicts worldwide. One piece of the article that I did not agree with is that North Korea is a threat to world peace. I do understand that they're always going to hate South Korea and the USA but I don't believe that there are a huge threat since the country has no money. If anything I say the countries in the Middle East are a threat to world peace since they're fighting for no reason at all. also trying to get nuclear power so they can immediately nuke Israel. IN the mean time lets be afraid of north Korea and their starving poor people with papier-mâché rockets.