Posts by Simon Grigg
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The whole story is told by Glenn Greenwald at Salon
it's worth going across to the Malkin link on Glenn's post and reading the frigging comments, along the lines of:
That there is no evidence of WMDs is evidence they were moved...that guy in the NY Sun said so
These people are certifiably nuts. Then again, its not that far from the evidence produced by Bushco for the invasion I guess
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You might call being attacked by Japan "self interest", but I don't think that really captures it fairly
There is a little more to it than that Weston. James raised Nanking before...I suspect it was self interest that allowed the US to suppress footage of this horrific incident to ensure that it didn't interfere with other negotiations taking place at the same time. Japan's rampage thru China largely went without comment, partially because it was not in the USA's best self interest to do or say anything, and China's only real military support came from Stalin until mid 1941. The road to Pearl Harbour was littered with self interest. And indeed it was the Japanese belief that the US had no stomach for a fight, with economic self interest taking policy preference, that led them to the attempted knock out blow on 7th December.
Happily they were wrong.
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I wonder if these folks are allowed guns......
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James,
Tell me Simon, do you lock the door at night and make sure your windows are closed? If so you are obviously living in fear!! I don't know what Bali is like, but if you lived in NZ, Auckland especially, you would be mad if you didn't lock your doors and windows.
Honestly...in Bali no..my door is open every night. We have little crime and I've got two dogs. It's very safe. And in Auckland,whilst my door was locked, I didn't ever feel the need to put a pistol or a pump action shotgun in my house because the person who might break in would likely want to take my life. The only burglar I've ever confronted ran down the road when I yelled at him...no shoot out or threat of one, and for that I'm grateful. I don't want myself or my family to ever be in the position where one is likely, unlike you. You may not, as you say,live in fear, but you certainly live with that reality, otherwise you would not have purchased your gun.
Of course gun crime exists elsewhere, but in much of the world its the exception, or at least not as prevalent. In the USA 5000 children under 15 die from gunshot wounds every year...that total is more than every other nation in the developed world..combined. I'm glad you feel safe in your home, with your shotgun and I'm also just as happy that I don't need one. There is a difference even if you can't see it.
WW2...I think the point still eludes you James. Nobody is denying the US role in defeating either Japan or Germany..although you seem to be in denial to the fact that the Western Allies could not have defeated the Axis without the Soviets. Overlord was a diversion...it's role was to keep units tied up so the Soviets could come in from the East. It worked. But, I think we've been here before, no?
What does offend people is the idea, touted over and over again that "we saved your butts". Quite frankly non American troops died in much higher numbers than Americans, per capita (and sometimes in real terms), they threw more of their economies into the war effort (and unlike the US did not turn a profit) than Americans.I guess I just find the Hollywoodism of WW2 extremely annoying.
The US did not either single handedly "keep the Soviets at bay". NATO is and was an alliance. During the 1950s and 1960s US Military expenditure and troop levels generally accounted for about 40% of NATO, and whilst it's Commander was an American, it's Secretary has never been. The European allies also paid much of the cost of hosting US forces. And that was only fair since they'd benefited enormously from The Marshall Plan, although that was clearly as much strategic as it was generous and the enconomic benefit to the US was immense too.
It's fairly easy to argue that the US was as much of a provocateur in the Cold War as the Soviets, and certainly rebuffed many attempts to wind back the war, from the 50s onwards. And the past sixty years have seen more bad things than good in US foreign policy. But that is beside the point of this discussion.
but let's acknowledge reality and the tremendous good America has done in the world and of which we are all beneficiaries.
Who has tried to deny that? Certainly not me, I'm not sure what it has to do with this thread? I think you are confusing two issues......
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James,
Reading your response to Jackie, I can't help but feeling that you've made her point rather well. Much of your post, to me at least, indicates a culture of fear, barricaded behind your pump action shotgun.There is no doubt at all that there is a real deterrent value in the knowledge that many houses have guns in them.
There is also the idea, since, contrary to your earlier post, home invasions do happen in the US, that since the reasonable assumption has to be that you may well be armed, it makes more sense for the intruder to shoot you and rob you, rather than just rob you.
I take your earlier point, about regional and urban variation in homicide stats. You are correct... New Orleans, the biggest city in one of two most heavily armed states in the US (with Mississippi) has a much higher homicide rate than the US average...by a factor of ten, which puts it about 45 times higher than the NZ average I think. You're spot on...those guns work wonders.
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A minor correction, al-jazeera is owned (but independent of, which frustrates the US no end)) the Emir of Qatar, not Oman.
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James,
I have to give you points for trying. As Hamish notes we are all aware of the US contribution to WW2. It's not in dispute but it was sixty years ago..we move on, it's irrelevant... and it's offensive to the memory of those non Americans who also contributed,fought bravely and died in vast numbers for Americans to bleat loudly over and over again "we saved your arse".However, Torch, in all the dozens of books and military histories I've read over the years, has never rated as more than a mopping up operation after Alamein, which was the turning point, and the American role was something of a disaster from a military point of the view. Heard of Kasserine Pass?
P-51s...it was a symbolic aside..I know the history of the aircraft...perhaps the most important aircraft of the ETO. It was designed by North American for the RAF, picked up by the USAAF and was largely unsuccesful until it was powered by a British engine...the Merlin, as also found in the Spitfire (& the Lancaster & Hurricane), probably the other crucial aircraft of the ETO. Like WW2, it was an Allied effort.
The American built plane that was found in numbers at Alamein (there were others including the Maryland too in small numbers) was the P-40 (also later powered by the Merlin) which, like the Shermans were sold to the British at some profit under lend lease. The same program which armed and aided the Soviets.
It's an interesting but important aside that the US, despite it's vast contribution in manpower and industry, was tthe only nation to come out of WW2 better off than when it went it...it made money out of the war, and continued to do so until lend-lease was paid off this year. As a condition of Lend-lease the British too had to hand over much of their US based industry to Americans. Universal which dominates the world's music industry has its roots in UK Decca, which the British owners were obliged to sell to the US manager at a loss in 1943. And technology too...how did the US get the jet engine? Or much other technology. Overall about 25% of the UK's munitions came from the US...but they were paid for.
It's also an unassailable fact that without Soviet input its doubtful whether the Western Allies could have defeated Nazi Germany in conventional terms, without nuking Berlin or Hamburg or the like, or without massive, and I would suggest, unacceptable, loss of life. Either way it would have meant that the Pacific war would have been much much longer or unwindable for some years...remember in August 1945 the US had exhausted it's nuclear arsenal until mid 1946. Prior to to VE Day there was a real problem with a US manpower shortage in Europe and Marshall gave real consideration to taking 200,000 Marines from the Pacific and thus putting much of that theatre on the back burner. The Western front was staggering a little as the Soviets swept into Germany.
Stop to ponder that thought for a moment before you whine and complain and spit bile over America again.
I pondered but your argument came up short.
You've still not dealt with the links earlier in this thread that others asked you to ponder.
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sorry ...the first German "land" defeat.....
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Che...you forgot Al Alamein...the first German defeat...not a P-51 in sight. As Churchill said (and I paraphrase) ...before it we didn't win a battle, after it we didn't lose one......
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The US federal system was established on the premise that governmental power needs to be checked. The right of the citizenry to bear arms was thought to form part of this protection. This can in some ways be seen to flow both from the events leading up to the War of Independence and the American Civil War (especially in Southern states such as Viriginia).
at the time the constitution was written I think it had more to do with the ongoing fight with those bad-ass Brits and their greedy King.
I worry about the ongoing American tendency to assume that the drafters of their founding document had some sort of god given omni-vision of the future.
The super aggressive reminders of who won WWII and who we should be grateful to.
yep, we can kill, bomb, invade who we like because Hollywood has given us a version of the past that gives us that license.