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Group admin:: TheInquiringEye
Created:: January 28, 2008
: 84 Members

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election, politics, republicans, democrats, president

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Who gets to vote?

Posted: Jan 31, 08 6:38am

The US has a great deal of influence on the domestic policies in many foreign nations, most notably, Iraq. In large part, Americans will be voting on that policy when they participate in the coming elections. However, the people who are most affected by that US policy, (the Iraq's, in this instance) never have a say in that policy.

Should the people in the nations in whose policy we are heavily involved, also be given a voice in our elections? Without a vote, what other recourse do they have except war?

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foreign policy, vote, constitution, war, terrorism, election, president

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5 Comments // 3 Members

SackDaPack

Posted: Jan 31, 08 12:52pm

TheInquiringEye wrote:

The US has a great deal of influence on the domestic policies in many foreign nations, most notably, Iraq. In large part...

Citizens of a foreign country should never have a vote in what happens in our country and vice versa. We are talking about sovereign nations, afterall.

Actually, countries do have a vote of sorts that is short of war. It is called trade tarrifs. If we disagree with how a nation acts, we can charge tarrifs on their trade goods, or, even block their trade goods completely - i.e. Cuba.

Also, the recourse of one nation against other nations that have a foreign policy they do not like is to petition the UN.

In our case, Cheney's invasion of Irag (you really don't think George was the brains behind this, do you?) was illegal. We should have stayed within the bounds of the UN. A weaker country would have found their leader in international court.

The UN needs to have a chance to do its job.

Yes, I voiced this opinion loudly well before we invaded Iraq. I was against this from the start - not just after we didn't find any WMD's or found ourselves bogged down in a quagmire. This is not a case of hindsite. I am proud to say that my Senator, Russ Feingold, was the only one to vote against the war.

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TheInquiringEye

Posted: Jan 31, 08 2:37pm

SackDaPack wrote:

Citizens of a foreign country should never have a vote in what happens in our country and vice versa. We are talking ab...

I was against the war too, though I dont believe it took brains to start it. And while we can charge other nation's tarrifs, they (take the case of Iraq, for example), hardly have the same recourse. Further, if you recall, the international community was opposed to our military action in that country. You have to agree, that the UN is a cosmetic institution at best. If the US is so adamant about promoting democracy in foreign nations, perhaps practicing what they preach would serve as a good example.

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40snfabulous

Posted: Jan 31, 08 4:44pm

TheInquiringEye wrote:

The US has a great deal of influence on the domestic policies in many foreign nations, most notably, Iraq. In large part...

I believe the idea of letting other countries participate in our elections unthinkable, but I also believe our government's meddling in other countrie's domestic policies ludicrous, especially given our track record!

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TheInquiringEye

Posted: Feb 1, 08 6:17am

40snfabulous wrote:

I believe the idea of letting other countries participate in our elections unthinkable, but I also believe our governmen...

I think that's a fair trade.

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TheInquiringEye

Posted: Feb 3, 08 6:49am

40snfabulous wrote:

I believe the idea of letting other countries participate in our elections unthinkable, but I also believe our governmen...

Unfortunatly, our country is not getting ready to stop meddling in other nation's affairs, especially if the happen to be oil producing nations. And the citizens of those countries have no recourse but war.

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