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Originally Posted by RizzyKing
I think we can all agree trump is not a pleasant person and the idea of him as president sends shivers down my spine but until things are perfect in our political world I think it's a bit rich to be criticising anyone elses in a democracy. As someone who resented the numerous foreign politicians involvement in the EU referendum I don't think I have the right to cast an opinion on who others should vote for. Get things sorted out in our backyard then maybe we have some ground to enter other countries political situation.
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I don't see why we shouldn't criticise or have an opinion about the political events of another country. I also don't think we should be offended when people do the same to us.
America is the most powerful country in the world. What happens there can have ramifications here. Would we have a refugee crisis if America had intervened early on? Or had they not intervened in Libya? An economic crisis largely started by the American property market has reshaped politics since 2008 and probably so did the Bush/Blair foreign policy.
Trump is a isolationist. He wants to downscale NATO and America's presence in the world. They pay 70% of the NATO budget by the way. Personally I think a world lacking American influence is bad for us all. The country, like ours, has many faults but they largely share our view of the world. They are for free markets, western liberalism and are opposed to totalitalism. Who would step into the void left on the world stage by a receding America? Russia? China?
Same goes for us by the way. America has few allies it can depend on and we're one of the few who generally tries to step-up on the world stage. We're the ones willing to renew one of NATO's nuclear deterrents. We're the ones who, for better or worse, have fought with the Americans abroad. We've got one of the best intelligence services in the world alongside the CIA and maybe even the best when it comes to the functions of GCHQ/NSA. We have a seat on the UN security council we're one of the closet countries to them in terms of world outlook.
So they're right to have a go at us from time to time as well. When Obama expresses frustration at our monetary commitment to NATO for example then I think that's a legitimate criticism and instead of bulking at foreign interference we were right to increase our commitment.