“It’s like a whole other country…”
I did hear that Texas did, finally, decide to join the Union. I may have been misinformed though.
No, sorry, Ile de la Cite is in Paris. Scotland is north of England.
I think a lot of Europeans, and others, do not like the United States taking military action all over the world, and assuming the role of “the world’s policeman”.
When America bombs other countries, civilians can, and do get hurt and blown to bits.
What was the last year that America did NOT bomb another country?
1939?
No offense, but you should take a history lesson.
For the most part, these are not myths. There are few European countries who were not “saved or kicked”.
I’m sorry Susann, but your view is simplistic and ignorant.
Well done Sussann, thanks for making the fight against ignorance all the harder.
I any team game, do we say that the kicker won it and pulled everyones elses ass out of the fire ?
…or do we say that the contribution made by the whole team was significant, that the winning kick was only made possible by the performance of the team as a whole ?
It took massive contributions from every allied nation during both WW to come out on top, you don’t seriously think that the US did it all by it ownsome !
There is a saying, not strictly true but it contains some trace of it,
In WWII,
The British bought the time.
The Russains paid in blood.
The Americans provided the money.
If any one of the major allies had fallen out of WWII or WWI then the chances of an overall allied victory would have been seriuosly diminished.
You comment is an insult to all the major allies, and that includes the Americans who died buying freedom for their European allies.
I think I disagree with you. If you feel insulted, then so be it.
As I remember from the history of ww2, the only countries that would have stopped Hitler, were: the United States, and Russia.
If Russia had not fought Germany on the eastern front, then victory against Germany would have been diminished.
All others would have fallen without the United States and Russia.
…and I dont think we needed any other country to defeat Japan.
Well, the US could not of entered the European theatre and western front without Britain as it is (or perhaps more correctly, was) simply impossible to form a beachead when your army is based several thousand miles away over the ocean.
The lion’s share of the fighting was done by Russia who were the primary defeaters of Germany. US’s most important contribution was not military but economic.
It’s true. There was a survey (I saw it on msnbc.com but it was on many other news sites, too) and, among other questions they didn’t know the answers to, 26% could not locate Afghanistan (and this was well into operation Enduring Freedom), 70% could not locate major European countries (one shudders to think how many actually knew of the existence of, say, Ukraine), 25% could not find New Jersey on a map of the U.S., and 16% of American high school students could not locate the U.S. on a world map!
The horror!
More servicemen from the British contingent died than US.Thank you for taking their contributions and their lives so lightly, perhaps they needn’t have bothered, and just left it to Russia and the US.
I think you are also not making much effort to look at the British and Chines forces role in the far East.
The war against Japan nearly reached India after the longest retreat in history, it was followed by the longest advance in history, most of those forces were made up of Australians, New Zealanders, UK, Chinese etc.
The US presence against Japan in mainland Asia was minimal.
Even if the US had not pushed back Japnese forces across the Pacific as fast as they did, there is little doubt that Japans postion in Asia was unsustainable, and they were in fact losing the war in Burma and South-East Asia.
The military role of US forces in WW1 was minimal, their strategic and political effect was very significant since it led to the last major offensive by the Germans during the summer of 1918 in a bid to crush British and French forces before the US could ship serious numbers across the Atlantic.
That offensive was held by the French and British and it was the British advance (the second and thrid battles of the Marne) that finally crushed the German army.
The US troops did make a useful contribution, but it was not militarily significant.
Seems to me Susanann you are doing your absolute best to fulfil the stereotypes that some ignorant Europeans have of your nation, and you are doing this by displaying your ignorance of history.
So we have the ignorant learning from the ignorant.
Actually, in the context of your original statement (that there are generally two kinds of Europeans), they are simply errors of fact. Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Czechoslovakia never saw U.S. troops during the war (other than the errant airman). Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal were neither attacked nor saved. In addition, Finland, Bugaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Greece probably shared in defeat or salvation through U.S. aid to Britain and the U.S.S.R. and the occasional air raid, but they hardly owe the U.S. either thanks for salvation or anger for conquest. (And, when offering “thanks,” the Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Hungarians, and to a lesser extent, the Greeks and Austrians, just might want to withhold those thanks in light of U.S. lack of support or outright interference with their independence during the Cold War.)
The simplistic world view that you seem to be espousing does not reflect either the reality of world events or the reality of attitudes that different Europeans hold on any number of American-related subjects.
Without Europeans Americans wouldn’t be what they are today.
So, are you attempting to praise or insult Europeans?
I’m sure glad to hear that y’all aren’t holding Texas responsible for the U.S. and it’s foreign policies.
I can’t think of anyone from here (Texas) that’s had much to do with it in recent years…:smack:
His failure can be attributed to illness. President Wilson had contracted the 1918 Spanish Influenza during the Peace confrence. 1918 Spanish caused many long-term problems for the people who had it–dimminished stamina, weakness, aggravated heart/blood pressure problems, as well as clinical depression that could last for years.
During his attempts to stirr up support for the League, he collapsed from exhaustion. This doomed the ratification effort.
Several months later, he was dead of a stroke.
While I can’t completely justify the ignorance of many Americans in geographical matters, one does need to consider the sheer size of the US as one mitigating factor. The distance from London to Istanbul is about 1500 miles or so, and a flight from one to the other would take you over several different countries. The same distance in the US gets you only about halfway across the country. In Europe, a hundred miles in any direction will likely land you in a different country; in the US, you might still be in the same state.
Conversely, I find that many Brits I’ve spoken only seem to know where New York, Florida and Hawaii are, and are pretty much clueless about the other 47 states. Does this mean that they’re all thickos? I suspect not.
You need to read a history of world war 2, any history.
Nearly all the countries you mentioned, either fell, were actually conqured, and were actualy enslaved, had puppet governments set up by Hitler, or would have soon been enslaved if it were not for the US and for Russia.
Switzerland may be an exception.
If American troops had stayed out of world war 2, if we had not landed on Normandy, even Britain would have surely fell to Germany. Hitler had plans to invade Britain. Even american aid alone would not have prevented Britain from falling to Hitler.
Well we obviously hate you because you’re a bunch of rotten bastards. Sheesh! How stupid can you be?! Just what to expect from someone who doesn’t have our superior European finesse.
Ahh seriously, I think you’ll find very little US directed hate in Europe (or at least here in Scandinavia – and at least not more than, what is by our fine European time-honoured traditional directed at everybody not ourselves) – it’s just that the media has to report something. When was the last time a newspaper had a story something like: “Newsflash! Today 234 million European didn’t protest US intervention in <insert favourite hot-spot>” Besides a few Frenchmen (and hey, everybody hates those damn bastards!), I think most everybody around here knows the future of Europe and the US is intimately entwined.
“There are generally two types of Europeans.
Depending on which country you are from, you have one of 2 different types of resentment towards the US:
- The Euopeans from a country whose rear end we saved.
- The Europeans from a country whose rear end we kicked.”
Seriously this is about the lamest reply I’ve read all week. I do so seriously hope that was irony. I know you recently have had a number of movies (Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, U-571, Pearl Harbour) that extol your American WWII soldiers. That’s your entitlement; these were clearly very courageous US soldiers that you can be proud of (except of course for the U-571 sailors, which were courageous British sailors :rolleyes: ). But I think few Europeans think of the US as among the countries that gave the most to help victory in either WWI or WWII, let alone consider themselves either kicked or saved by the US. Not that I’m oblivious to the US help, but I do think all other participants pale besides Britain and Soviet. Especially when you take into consideration the suffering endured.
Along with Sweden, Spain (a neutral ally of Hitler), and Portugal. You will also note that the captive countries I named were freed by the U.S.S.R. rather than the U.S. (Although the U.S. also “allowed” the Soviets to establish their puppet governments after the war, negating your claim that they have only two reasons to dislike the U.S.)
I doubt that you will be educating me on matters historical any time soon.