However, Europe might have been better off with the germans really, as proven by the recent american way of running the show........... your financial debacle.
The financial debacle...like the devaluing of the Euro, the Greek collapse and rioting, and the fall of the Irish Cowen government, and the international depression? You don't see folks in the US rioting in the streets at the moment like the French or the Greek due to financial woes. Certainly the economy could be better, but what happened globally was not the fault nor caused by the US.
As international catastrophies occur globally, it's the world's nations that cry and whine about getting more US Aid. Ironically, while the US was lambased for not providing enough aid to Pakistan recently in the flooding, the US remained the single largest contributor. Moreover, while Pakistanis blew up and destroyed the aid coming in, and complained about US troops and military transport bringing the aid, they cried louder that they wanted more. Then they whined because the aid packages had a US flag on them. Give us your money, give us food, save our souls, but don't you dare tell anyone who you are. Typical.
When the Haiti earthquake occurred, the cry went out that the US wasn't doing enough, despite providing the majority of the aid, and despite having dumped ungodly sums of money into the country just prior to the earthquake. In fact, in many of the international woes, the US is often the single largest contributor of material, often personnel, and funds. This in the midst of global financial crisis.
You're hardly in a position to cast stones at the United States in the midst of European debt.
So you score there hands down.
I know. That was never in doubt.
So given the american or german way I'll take the latter anytime.
You'd prefer Nazi Germany to your current way of life, then? The US made a similar choice, by driving the British from the country at gunpoint, but the British were unable to make that choice for themselves. Nobody was telling the yankee to go home when the yankee was saving their butt. It's nice that you have the luxury of pining away after nazism some 60 years after the fact. Where was your vote when your country was being saved at the tip of a US spear?
Thought so.
Then the Iraq invasion and the pretences that caused it were actually proven to have no substance, and knowing this they still invaded.
With so many casualties and many years on, what have you actually liberated there?
Have you spent any time in Iraq, where you might know the difference between reality, and what you read or see on BBC and CNN reports? I have.
I don't think we should ever have gone to Iraq, but then I don't make that choice. r Having gone to Iraq, however, I firmly believe that we should have hit it harder and pushed it harder than we did, for a longer term, and thorougly subdued it; that was a shortcoming. Again, not my choice. The former President of the United States made that choice based on a political agenda. He was quite correct about the stockpiles of chemical weapons, however. Those weapons were most definitely in country, and much of those stockpiles presently reside across borders very near to Iraq.
You may recall the edicts of Hans Blix, however, who represented not the United States, but the entire UN Security Council in numerous edicts to Saddam regarding a willingness to show the world what he had or did not have. Saddam refused and made a mockery. He brought action on himself. He should have been acted upon much sooner, and by a decisive UN action. It was Blix, in fact, who made that same statement in 2003 when addressing the Security Council.
The US wasn't the only nation fighting in Iraq, incidentally. While there, I met many other nationalities. At one point, in fact, I was one of many who replaced the British in Basrah.
Having lost the war, and paid a huge price subsequently, they are not broke, unlike the Fed because they do not believe in credit, spending and Hannnnna moontana.
We'll set aside the billions in aid and support given to Germany (an ally of the US, incidentally; I like the Germans), and settle for asking what on earth a Disney character has to do with international finance, or your own broken economy. Well?
Freedom in the US? From a citizens point of view its more like chained dogs on a leash. Rigged elections, iris scans, very fair healthcare, pathetic rhetorics such as ''too big to fail'' and more guns on the street than the whole defence force, is what defines freedom?
It most certainly does define freedom. I have three gunsafes in my own home, filled with handguns, rifles, shotguns, and special weapons. I own them because I can, and because doing so is a right granted me under the Second Ammendment to the Constitution of the United States; an unalienable right (not privilege), and a clear freedom. The right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed. You bet that's freedom. A freedom you don't have, incidentally.
If you really want to get into it, we can certainly show how well gun control worked out for Great Britain, but you won't like it.
Rigged elections? Iris scans? You've been watching too much BBC.
This is not a personal attack on your way of life,..
Yes, it is, and a weak and highly inaccurate one, at that.
This is not a personal attack on your way of life, I have many american friends and feel that the average americans are good fellows, but its more of an observation as logic is unable to provide us with an answer why you think that you are actually free or bearers of freedom.
I can provide far more answers to that question than you'll have time to hear. I can certainly cite all the freedoms available in the US, but you can also look it up for yourself. Start with the US Constitution and the rights and freedoms it guarantees. Whether it's the right to religious freedom, the right to assemble, the right to bear arms, the right to free speech, the freedom from self-incrimination, the presumption of innocence, the freedom of habeas corpus, the right to a speedy trial, freedom from illegal search and seizure, the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of freedom, the freedom to vote, and many of the other freedoms we enjoy, we are most certainly a free society.
Do we think we are the bearers of freedom? No. We do promote an agenda of democratic freedom for all people, in which the people of any country can and should have a say in their government, their officials, and their laws. Do we bring freedom to Iraq and Afghanistan, where clitoral mutilation and genocide are accepted societal norms, where education of women is actively denied, and where slaughter, repression, and the rape of young men is encouraged and openly practiced? Yes, we do promote an agenda of freedom, election, education, clean water, electricity, transportation, medicine, and safety. When the soviets used Afghanistan as their personal killing ground to train troops, which nation poured billions into backing the people of the poorest nation on earth? The United States. Today when the Muj have outgrown themselves and have become a ruthless and oppressive force, who protects the villages from the onslaught of the Taliban? ISAF, of which the US is a major player. Who spends the most money to clear landmines from the most heavily mined land on the planet, mines we certainly didn't put there, but which we remove one at a time, at great risk to life and limb? The United States.
"Stay in your box" is a wonderfully arrogant statement, the ability of which to make has only been bought by the blood sacrifice of the US soldier, and the dollar contribution of the US citizen. Even in the moments of crisis when the US is insulted and slapped, the US contributes, even when the ungrateful recipients want the food and supplies, but whine about knowing where they got them.
I've flown trips into various sites, laden with hundreds of thousands of pounds of supplies to be given to the starving, the cold, the wet, the oppressed. I've given my own meal on the flight to those who came on board wanting anything I could give them, and I did; we all did. Perhaps that would be evidence of American aggression and oppression. How dare we donate billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of our lives, millions of gallons of our blood, and our time, our effort, our sweat, and ourselves, to aid the world. What could we possibly be thinking?
Yankee go home. Until we need you again. Please come running when you hear us cry. Until then, go home. We don't need you.
Uh-huh. Try that under the Third Reich.