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  #51  
Old 10-14-2005, 10:13 PM
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Default Re: Nationality Stereotypes

Ok, I feel bad about helping derail this thread, so: I'm sorry. :blush:

So here's what I like most about Americans:
- They are among the most friendly, open people I've ever encountered
- Americans don't lose spirit even under the worst circumstances: I visited Florida a couple of months after 'Andrew' and was simply stunned by the sheer resilience of the people.
- I love driving in America. And that includes major urban centres like Los Angeles. Drivers are much more polite and easy-going than they are in your average European highway warzone!
- They get things done while we spend an eternity trying to figure out what happened: Bosnia is the prime (embarrassing) example.
- It's impossible to sit in a bar alone for long. Someone will come along and engage you in conversation.
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  #52  
Old 10-14-2005, 10:22 PM
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Wow, you make me want to go out and meet an American! That doesn't sound at all like the majority of Americans I know. :giggle:

You reminded me of a joke though. When I was working in Hamburg, Germany in 1997, one of the German guys I worked with said this about Germans: A couple walks into a restaurant and sees one person sitting at a table in one corner of the dining room and another person occupying a table at the other corner of the room. The man looks at the woman and says "Damn, it's full". [end of joke]

So there's proof of two sterotypes in one:

1. Germans don't like others in thier personal space, and
2. Germans aren't very funny.
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  #53  
Old 10-15-2005, 01:08 AM
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I don't give a flying f__K how "the rest of the world" (= france and germany) views us, I DO travel overseas, and I do hope I leave that impression.
Why don't you? Considering that EU has a formidable ecnomic power rivaling the USA which it has used more than once to force the US to fall into lines, not to mention a high international prestigue, I'd think you would do care about how the US conducts itself as a civilized country it's supposed to be.
I'll tell you one reason. When you grow up in this country, all you ever hear is bitching about the U.S. Bitch Bitch Bitch. It never ceases. When the U.S. does the wrong thing - bitching. When it does the right thing - bitching. After a while, and you realize the bitching is unvarying, you don't really hear it anymore - it becomes like background noise. Any prestige europe has from the rest of the world is because it's behaving properly in the eyes of the third world - obediently participating in its own decline, assisting in the general dismantling of western civilization.
So, are you saying that those who disagree with policy, no matter what it might be, should not say anything? It seems to me that freedom of speech guarantees the right to "bitch" about government policy. Your statement here seems to allude to silencing anyone who disagrees with you. Is that correct?


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Compared to the US's reprensible and embarassing behavior on the international scene combined with a deeply idiotic and embarassing presidency, yes I'm deeply ashamed about what the America has become. I can hardly say the US has geuninely been a force for good.
Outrageous. The U.S. has dead soldiers buried all over the world as a result of doing more (a LOT more) than any other country in defeating the two great evil world systems of the twentieth century. Now it is taking on a new one - islamofascism. Along the way it eliminated one of the most hellish dicatorships in the world - Saddam's regime, and as usual gotten nothing but criticism.
And rightfully so. It got criticism from the current president's father, who was careful enough to point out that if the United States invaded Iraq and deposed Hussein, they would not be able to adequately occupy the nation and it would detract from the efforts to reduce the promulgation of terrorism from al Qeada in Afghanistan.

How is it that the US, the world's most powerful and sophisticated military power cannot track down a man who is on dialysis?

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Which one do you want? A good reputation or a bad reputation and a one for meddling in countries, using its influence to throw its weight around, and committing horrifying actions in name of justice?
I've told you what I think "reputation" really denotes in the current world, and there is nothing wrong at all about the U.S. throwing its weight around against fascist dictators. Think what world you would be living in if the U.S. hadn't "thrown it's weight around" in WWII.
Yet the US has been the supporter of all too many "fascist" dictatorships that have oppressed their own populace. Recent attempts to unseat the legally elected president of Venzuela come immediately to mind. In that case, the US government was actively seeking to unseat a democratically elected government. Chile and Allende come to mind as well. Pinochet was the result of US foriegn policy and he WAS a fascist. Then there is Central America, where US policy over the past one hundred years has been reprehensible. Our policies with regards Iran and Iraq have been laughable for nearly half a century now. We propped up a profligate "imperial" state that oppressed its people with one of the most feared internal security units in the world. And we trained Savak.

Who provided Saddam Hussein with much of his armament and his poison gases that he used on his own people? We, the United States, did.

Who dealt arms to both sides in the long standing feud between Iran and Iraq. We, the United States, did.

Who propped up the warlords of China? Provided military support and armaments to the French to suppress Indochina?

The list goes on.

You mentioned throwing our weight around in WWII. If we were so damned moral and upright and protecting the world, where were we when Japan raped Nanking? Seeling them scrap metal and oil. Where were we when Italy attacked Ethopia? And invaded Albania? And where were we when Hitler's Nazi regime overran Europe? Selling (or trading, actually) armaments to at least one side.

We got in late. You know why? Because our government was not convinced that the American public would accept a war with Germany. There were many German sympathizers. The German Bund was a very active organization. Many high profile Americans, including Charles Lindberg and the ambassador to the Court of St. James, Joseph Kennedy, were Nazi sympathizers. Enough Americans were Nazi and German sympathizers.

And, I'll remind you that supplying armaments before entering the war and for the war after we entered, pulled the United States out of the deepest and most protracted economic depression in its history. The war profiteers became the industrial of the military/industrial complex. After the war was over...the came the ungodly Bolsheviks, attempting to run their own sorry-assed authoritarian regime. That put the military/industrial complex in the catbird seat, and our federal government became a cash cow.

The American arms dealers became suppliers for the endless client state wars, including the Middle East, Africa and southeast Asia. The resurgent European defense industries in Britain and France added to the Russian and Eastern bloc production of weapons.

And, as for not providing arms to unstable areas, you are full of bullshit. The United States, officially (as in Israel) and unofficially provides armaments to clients in unstable areas. Does the name Colonel Oliver North ring any bells? We were dealing arms with TWO unstable regions and it was officials of the US government doing it.

As for the other instances, lessee...oh, yeah...the Cuban Missile Crisis. Well, y'know, we instigated that whole hoo-ha. Yessir, we attempted to invade a sovereign nation and depose their government (that'd be the Bay of Pigs)....because they had socialist leaders. Before the fact. We also had installed missile bases in Turkey that could target Russian cities with nuclear warheads. Before the fact. It was no wonder that Khruschev played the Cuban gambit. What isn't widely known is the following year, the United States removed its missile bases from Turkey. Everybody marvels at the hotseat moments, but fails to recognize that the United States government had a very large part in bringing that moment to reality.

Gurdur is not the one who needs his historical hallucinations addressed, you are.

Oh, and France and Germany aren't the only ones "out there", dimwit. They're only a very small part of what's "out there".
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  #54  
Old 10-16-2005, 02:14 PM
Darren Darren is offline
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Originally Posted by alphamale
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Originally Posted by godfry n. glad
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Originally Posted by alphamale
French:


- Will sell any weapon to anyone with the cash.

This applies equally to Russians, Chinese, British and Americans...all five permanent member nations of the UN Security Council.
No. The U.S. does not sell to countries that will destabilize a region, unless it's in the direction of democracy or to head off a geo-political calamity. The french will sell to anybody at any time - one of the reasons they opposed the iraq war is because they had $15 billion due from Hitler-Lite.


Is this tongue in cheek?

(thinking - Saudi Arabia, Israel, El Salvador, Afghanistan (mujihadin during Soviet occupation), Indonesia, Iraq (during war with Iran), Iran (during war with Iraq) etc. etc.
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  #55  
Old 10-16-2005, 02:39 PM
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Originally Posted by alphamale
Outrageous. The U.S. has dead soldiers buried all over the world as a result of doing more (a LOT more) than any other country in defeating the two great evil world systems of the twentieth century.
You are right to some extent, the U.S. role in defeating Hitler was a decisive element. However, to say that the U.S. did more than, say, the Soviet Union, is very far from the truth. Over 80% of the German military was detroyed on the Eastern front by the Red Army. The Germans were stopped at Stalingrad, and their panzer divisions were smashed at Kursk. WW 11 was indeed a world war, a group effort. Don't insult the millions of dead by claiming all the glory for just one participant in a global effort.
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  #56  
Old 10-16-2005, 02:42 PM
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[QUOTE=alphamale]
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I've told you what I think "reputation" really denotes in the current world, and there is nothing wrong at all about the U.S. throwing its weight around against fascist dictators.
What about their throwing their weight around for fascist dictators (e.g. Saddam Hussein or the generals Suharto and Pinochet)?
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  #57  
Old 10-17-2005, 04:21 AM
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Originally Posted by alphamale
Outrageous. The U.S. has dead soldiers buried all over the world as a result of doing more (a LOT more) than any other country in defeating the two great evil world systems of the twentieth century.
You are right to some extent, the U.S. role in defeating Hitler was a decisive element. However, to say that the U.S. did more than, say, the Soviet Union, is very far from the truth. Over 80% of the German military was detroyed on the Eastern front by the Red Army. The Germans were stopped at Stalingrad, and their panzer divisions were smashed at Kursk. WW 11 was indeed a world war, a group effort. Don't insult the millions of dead by claiming all the glory for just one participant in a global effort.
Did I claim all the glory for one participant? I don't remember doing that. As for the soviets, it helps to have a one front war, unlike the U.S. The U.S. also took out japan almost single handedly - the only other serious opposition to them was the UK which was pretty much taken out early in the war. If the U.S. hadn't been around to liberate western europe with the UK, the germans probably would have retreated to the UK as a last redoubt, and all of europe would have come under soviet control - and probably would still be under it.
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  #58  
Old 10-17-2005, 04:30 AM
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Originally Posted by Darren
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Originally Posted by alphamale
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I've told you what I think "reputation" really denotes in the current world, and there is nothing wrong at all about the U.S. throwing its weight around against fascist dictators.
What about their throwing their weight around for fascist dictators (e.g. Saddam Hussein or the generals Suharto and Pinochet)?
The U.S. briefly helped Saddam when it appeared that Iraq was going to be overrun by Iran in the Iran-Iraq war, with the likely emergence of a shiite islamofascist superstate and all that that would imply. France and germany's dealings with Saddam, on the otherhand, were strictly commerce, up to including france's sale of a breeder reactor, essentially an atomic bomb factory, with no concern for the horrific consequences. Suharto and Pinochet was part of the world-wide cold war conflict between the soviets and the U.S., an example of the unsavory people the U.S. had to deal with to hold off the much greater evil of soviet world domination. The last people who have license to criticize the U.S. for this are the europeans, who sat out the cold war and left it to the U.S. to go it alone in opposing one of the two great anti-democratic forces of the 20th century.
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  #59  
Old 10-17-2005, 08:17 AM
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my index fingers are longer than my ring fingers, which is apparently rather unusual
Mine too...but I don't think it's rare.

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"the rest of the world" (= france and germany)
Wow, where did you study geography?

Personal stereotypes may be false but there surely remains meaning in national characteristics? For example I have found that most USAers are patriotic compared to the English.
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Old 10-17-2005, 09:25 AM
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Personal stereotypes may be false but there surely remains meaning in national characteristics? For example I have found that most USAers are patriotic compared to the English.
Reminds me of that joke I read somewhere:
How many Americans does it take to change a lightbulb? Two. 1 to change the bulb and 1 to wave he flag. :wink:
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Old 10-17-2005, 05:59 PM
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Originally Posted by alphamale
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Originally Posted by Darren
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Originally Posted by alphamale
Outrageous. The U.S. has dead soldiers buried all over the world as a result of doing more (a LOT more) than any other country in defeating the two great evil world systems of the twentieth century.
You are right to some extent, the U.S. role in defeating Hitler was a decisive element. However, to say that the U.S. did more than, say, the Soviet Union, is very far from the truth. Over 80% of the German military was detroyed on the Eastern front by the Red Army. The Germans were stopped at Stalingrad, and their panzer divisions were smashed at Kursk. WW 11 was indeed a world war, a group effort. Don't insult the millions of dead by claiming all the glory for just one participant in a global effort.
Did I claim all the glory for one participant? I don't remember doing that. As for the soviets, it helps to have a one front war, unlike the U.S. The U.S. also took out japan almost single handedly - the only other serious opposition to them was the UK which was pretty much taken out early in the war. If the U.S. hadn't been around to liberate western europe with the UK, the germans probably would have retreated to the UK as a last redoubt, and all of europe would have come under soviet control - and probably would still be under it.
The Red Army fought against the Japanese too, didn't you know? And what about China? They were fighting the Japanese well before before Pearl harbour. And what about Australia and New Zealand?

When you talk about the liberation of Western Europe, please don't miss out the Canadians! And if you include the Italian campaign, don't forget the Indians, Nepalese, Morroccans, Algerians, South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders, Senegalese, kenyans and others! not to mention the forces of countries newly liberated, the resistance movements (Tito's yugoslavian resistance liberated Yugoslavia practically single-handed), the Free French and Polish forces and so on and on. Why don't you go and read a bit of history of WW 11?
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Old 10-17-2005, 09:29 PM
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Originally Posted by alphamale
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Originally Posted by Darren
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Originally Posted by alphamale
Outrageous. The U.S. has dead soldiers buried all over the world as a result of doing more (a LOT more) than any other country in defeating the two great evil world systems of the twentieth century.
You are right to some extent, the U.S. role in defeating Hitler was a decisive element. However, to say that the U.S. did more than, say, the Soviet Union, is very far from the truth. Over 80% of the German military was detroyed on the Eastern front by the Red Army. The Germans were stopped at Stalingrad, and their panzer divisions were smashed at Kursk. WW 11 was indeed a world war, a group effort. Don't insult the millions of dead by claiming all the glory for just one participant in a global effort.
Did I claim all the glory for one participant? I don't remember doing that. As for the soviets, it helps to have a one front war, unlike the U.S. The U.S. also took out japan almost single handedly - the only other serious opposition to them was the UK which was pretty much taken out early in the war. If the U.S. hadn't been around to liberate western europe with the UK, the germans probably would have retreated to the UK as a last redoubt, and all of europe would have come under soviet control - and probably would still be under it.
The Red Army fought against the Japanese too, didn't you know? And what about China? They were fighting the Japanese well before before Pearl harbour. And what about Australia and New Zealand?

When you talk about the liberation of Western Europe, please don't miss out the Canadians! And if you include the Italian campaign, don't forget the Indians, Nepalese, Morroccans, Algerians, South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders, Senegalese, kenyans and others! not to mention the forces of countries newly liberated, the resistance movements (Tito's yugoslavian resistance liberated Yugoslavia practically single-handed), the Free French and Polish forces and so on and on. Why don't you go and read a bit of history of WW 11?
The russians opportunistically jumped in against the japanese in the last few days of WWII, after the U.S. had spent three long years fighting them all the way across the pacific, in the process destroying their whole air force and whole navy and a very large party of their army, and beating them back to their home islands, which the US was going to invade. The Russians were like people who pick over a battlefield - they just made a few landgrabs of japanese territory at the last minute. The chinese did nothing but lose and retreat, until the japanese withdrew to defend japan against the coming invasion of the americans.

All the countries you mentioned were mostly just imperial troops of the UK and France, and played very minor roles. If it were just france and all those countries, the germans would have rolled over them like a steam roller. What REALLY happened in WWII is the eastern europeans swapped one dictator for another, the US and UK liberated western europe and africa, and the US beat the japanese. I'll add one footnote for the japanese front - pound for pound nobody was better than the australians, but there weren't very many of them.
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Old 10-17-2005, 09:36 PM
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Personal stereotypes may be false but there surely remains meaning in national characteristics? For example I have found that most USAers are patriotic compared to the English.
Reminds me of that joke I read somewhere:
How many Americans does it take to change a lightbulb? Two. 1 to change the bulb and 1 to wave he flag. :wink:
Luxembourg - another country liberated by "flag waving americans". There is a movement in the U.S. to leave european wars to europeans in the future - I certainly hope it succeeds.
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Old 10-17-2005, 09:44 PM
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[QUOTE=alphamale]
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Originally Posted by Darren
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Originally Posted by alphamale
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I've told you what I think "reputation" really denotes in the current world, and there is nothing wrong at all about the U.S. throwing its weight around against fascist dictators.
What about their throwing their weight around for fascist dictators (e.g. Saddam Hussein or the generals Suharto and Pinochet)?
The U.S. briefly helped Saddam when it appeared that Iraq was going to be overrun by Iran in the Iran-Iraq war, with the likely emergence of a shiite islamofascist superstate and all that that would imply. France and germany's dealings with Saddam, on the otherhand, were strictly commerce, up to including france's sale of a breeder reactor, essentially an atomic bomb factory, with no concern for the horrific consequences. Suharto and Pinochet was part of the world-wide cold war conflict between the soviets and the U.S., an example of the unsavory people the U.S. had to deal with to hold off the much greater evil of soviet world domination. The last people who have license to criticize the U.S. for this are the europeans, who sat out the cold war and left it to the U.S. to go it alone in opposing one of the two great anti-democratic forces of the 20th century.
Firstly, the U.S. backed Saddam Hussein even before he rose to power, they backed him right up until the invasion of Kuwait. Saddam Hussein attacked Iran, he was the aggressor, and the U.S. helped him. Most of the crimes he stands accused of (like gassing Kurdish villagers) were committed while he still had the full backing of the U.S.
I wouldn't condone anyone's selling weaponry to a regime like his, but to say that the U.S. either didn't do so, or did so but was somehow justified in doing so (which is it, by the way?) is ridiculous. Saddam only becomes Hitler-Lite when he disobeys the U.S, is that it?
Incidentally, the -"strictly commerce"- bit you apply to France and Germany in opposition to the U.S.'s dealings with Iraq is darkly amusing in the light of the role of Bush-cortège corporations like Haliburton's and Bechtel in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Now, for the Cold War business:

Salvador Allende was twice elected president of Chile in free democratic elections. He was overthrown and killed in a putsch by the U.S. supported general Pinochet on the 11th September 1973, a dictator elected only by his upper class chums. During the putsch the Chilean parliament (surely the very symbol of democracy) was subjected to aerial bombardment. Pinochet's authoritarian regime regularly employed death squads, torture and prison to silence dissent, yet the U.S. continued to back him (this included weapons sales and military training). Where does the Cold War come into this?


General Suharto also seized power in Indonesia by military force in 1965. In the immediate aftermath of the coup some 500 000 people designated "communists" were butchered. Suharto is reckoned to have had around 4 million people murdered, as well as instituting a system of concentration camps to imprison those dissenters who were not assassinated. How is this better than the Soviet regime? How does this fit into your Cold War?

What these dictators had in common was their willingness to apply neo-liberal (neo-conservative) economic policies in their own countries, policies which were advantageous for the economically powerful U.S. (along with other Western powers).
These neo-liberal policies did not develop from any Cold War counter move against communism (which move was rather a more or less Keynesian inspired system of planned economics with progressive taxation to ensure some degree of wealth distribution).
Rather, they are a revived form of 19thc laissez faire for a unipolar world. A system of might making right. They are a reaction against social democracy, not communism in any form.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Firm have been deflected from their original post-war goal of global economic regulation for redistribution of wealth, and have instead been used to strip the weakest countries of any shreds of wealth they still possessed for the benefit of wealthy, mainly Western countries.

These neo-liberal policies, which are of necessity advantageous to the powerful (free market= unregulated market = might makes right market), are surely the components of the third great anti-democratic force of the 20th century, a force which is at least as murderous as the other two you allude to, and one which, alas, has followed us into the 21st century.

Last edited by Darren; 10-17-2005 at 09:51 PM. Reason: please note, neo-liberal and the common U.S. usage of the word liberal have nothing in common
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Old 10-17-2005, 10:14 PM
Darren Darren is offline
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When you talk about the liberation of Western Europe, please don't miss out the Canadians! And if you include the Italian campaign, don't forget the Indians, Nepalese, Morroccans, Algerians, South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders, Senegalese, kenyans and others! not to mention the forces of countries newly liberated, the resistance movements (Tito's yugoslavian resistance liberated Yugoslavia practically single-handed), the Free French and Polish forces and so on and on. Why don't you go and read a bit of history of WW 11?
All the countries you mentioned were mostly just imperial troops of the UK and France, and played very minor roles. If it were just france and all those countries, the germans would have rolled over them like a steam roller. What REALLY happened in WWII is the eastern europeans swapped one dictator for another, the US and UK liberated western europe and africa, and the US beat the japanese.
Collectively, they did not play a minor role. Of course, the U.S. was, as I said a key element in the defeat of Hitler in the West. But for U.S. support Britain would have been forced out of the war. The same can be said of Canadian support. If Britain had been forced out, what launchpad would there have been for any assault on Europe's Western seaboard? The point I am making is that it was a group effort, it involved many players.
The Normandy Invasion of 1944 came very close to failure. If the Red army had not been in the processs of annhilating the remnants of the German forces in the East, it is hard to imagine how the invasion could have succeeded in the West.
Also, were it not for the Canadian sacrifice at Dieppe in 1942, and the many practical lessons learned from it, Overlord would almost certainly have failed, ditto for their actual presence on the beaches of Normandy in 1944.
None of this is said to demean the U.S. role, it is just a matter of perspective.
Your "what really happened" is somewhat oversimplified, and even misses the not unimportant point of what they were fighting for.
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Old 10-17-2005, 10:17 PM
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Adding to what Darren has posted...

The United States trained and armed the fedayeen in Afghanistan in a client war against the Soviet Union, including Osama bin Laden. After the fall of the Soviet and the creation of the CIS, the United States continued to support and arm the Taliban, which carried out regular public executions of dissidents in the soccer fields of Kabul. The United States and Russia both have been helping arm the states of central Asia in exchange for forward bases. Each country has an airbase on the opposite side of town in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The dictators in these countries operate with American support with training, equipment and munitions. This was all after the Cold War.

Who provides Pakistan armaments? Is that a "stable region"?
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Old 10-17-2005, 10:49 PM
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Uh...stereotypes...

Australians - ubiquitous. Any where one goes in the world, there's already an Australian there. Is there anybody in Australia?

They're friendly and open, if a bit sarcastic. They like needling others about personal characteristics. They like to play with the language; as much as Americans do, if not more. The can be loud, especially after a few beers, which seems to be most of the time.

Funny. The guys can be annoying, especially after a few beers, which seems to be most of the time. The Aussies I travelled with (the males, that is) would chatter in the broken English with the locals and then teach them to say, "Free Cold Beer", which is evidently the Aussie motto. So, a bit devilish, too.

I found the Chinese to be the most open and gregarious of people. Acquisitive. I'd say they are probably the most naturally capitalist people I've met. There's always a deal at hand.

I found the Kyrgyz to be fairly quiet and reserved, even in their home country.

The Russians would not look you in the eye. They never opened conversations, but if you break the ice, you've a brand-new friend, who is open, gregarious and warm. They'll want to tell you secrets.

Canadians....eh? I like to think that the Canadians learn from our mistakes and poor grace. They seem cool, calm, collected and clean. Direct and to the point with no fuss or muss. They seem to have resisted some of the coarser aspects of American culture and are quite smug about it, as they should be.

Brits always seemed bemused to me, but that's probably just me they're bemused at. On the reticent side.

Scots are the most hospitable. Curious; I got more questions about myself and my world from the Scots than anyone, including the Aussies. Proud. If you get a recommendation from a Scot, it's usually earnest and decent.

Irish. Hmmm... Dissolute and proper at the same time. I got more bad directions in Ireland than anywhere else in the world. I found them to be stand-offish. Far more so than the English, who have a reputation (undeserved) for it.

I found the Belgians to be very....businesslike.

Those are my personal stereotypes.
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Old 10-17-2005, 11:04 PM
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Default Re: Nationality Stereotypes

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Originally Posted by Stormlight
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Originally Posted by Desert Dweller
Personal stereotypes may be false but there surely remains meaning in national characteristics? For example I have found that most USAers are patriotic compared to the English.
Reminds me of that joke I read somewhere:
How many Americans does it take to change a lightbulb? Two. 1 to change the bulb and 1 to wave he flag. :wink:
Luxembourg - another country liberated by "flag waving americans".
Ah, I see. And because of that noone will ever be allowed to go against the will of the USA again. :sarclap:
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Old 10-17-2005, 11:18 PM
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Default Re: Nationality Stereotypes

And stereotypes, yes:

"The French want no-one to be their superior, the English want inferiors." (Alexis de Tocqueville)

"The Germans alwas buy platform tickets before they storm a railway station" (Lenin)

"Belgianisation - the abondonment of national responsibilities in favour of totally commercial values." (Trotsky)

"The Swiss are not a people so much as a neat clean quite solvent business" (Faulkner)
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Old 10-18-2005, 03:24 AM
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Default Re: Nationality Stereotypes

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Ah, I see. And because of that noone will ever be allowed to go against the will of the USA again.
He he he...yeah Darren and Stormlight, it's kinda like that when dealing with people like Alphamale .

Quote:
All the countries you mentioned were mostly just imperial troops of the UK and France, and played very minor roles.
You represent perfectly the stereotype of the arrogant yank...ignorant about anything beyond his own borders... totally biased about the brilliance of his own nation... and convinved that the world is in debt to 2% of the globlal population which dwells in the uSA.
BTW do you have any idea whatsoever how deeply insulting your claim above is? (to for instance Australia and New Zealand).

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Old 10-18-2005, 03:39 AM
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godfry n. glad godfry n. glad is offline
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Default Re: Nationality Stereotypes

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormlight
Quote:
Originally Posted by alphamale
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormlight
Quote:
Originally Posted by Desert Dweller
Personal stereotypes may be false but there surely remains meaning in national characteristics? For example I have found that most USAers are patriotic compared to the English.
Reminds me of that joke I read somewhere:
How many Americans does it take to change a lightbulb? Two. 1 to change the bulb and 1 to wave he flag. :wink:
Luxembourg - another country liberated by "flag waving americans".
Ah, I see. And because of that noone will ever be allowed to go against the will of the USA again. :sarclap:
As long as you agree with everything alphamale says, you'll be just fine. See? It's really easy.

Don't make any sudden moves, though.
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Old 10-18-2005, 03:41 AM
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Default Re: Nationality Stereotypes

You know how to tell an American overseas, don't you?

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Old 10-18-2005, 05:18 AM
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Default Re: Nationality Stereotypes

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You represent perfectly the stereotype of the arrogant yank...ignorant about anything beyond his own borders...
Stereotype is right - brings to mind the lebanese girl I knew in college who thought that all americans ride horses. Or the legions of dimwitted euroweenies who confuse amercan culture with it's pop culture.
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Old 10-18-2005, 05:45 AM
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Default Re: Nationality Stereotypes

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Originally Posted by alphamale
Quote:
You represent perfectly the stereotype of the arrogant yank...ignorant about anything beyond his own borders...
Stereotype is right - brings to mind the lebanese girl I knew in college who thought that all americans ride horses. Or the legions of dimwitted euroweenies who confuse amercan culture with it's pop culture.
:rolleye2:
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Old 10-18-2005, 05:50 AM
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Originally Posted by Cynical-Chick
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Originally Posted by alphamale
Quote:
You represent perfectly the stereotype of the arrogant yank...ignorant about anything beyond his own borders...
Stereotype is right - brings to mind the lebanese girl I knew in college who thought that all americans ride horses. Or the legions of dimwitted euroweenies who confuse amercan culture with it's pop culture.
:rolleye2:
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