Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stevemcgarrett]

darkhorse:

I gotta hand it to ya, bruddah. Your avatar suits you well judging by your knowledge of the Second World War.

First off, ol' chap, the Nazis would likely not have ever come to power had not the British and the French (especially the latter) insisted on reparations beyond Germany's means to repay during a period of massive economic downturn. This point has been well documented. And the Brits stood back and appeased Hitler as he marched into the Sudetanland, Austria, and the Danzig corridor. So it wasn't really our war to begin with, just as the First World War was nothing more than imperial infighting.

Second off, while the Brits defended themselves gallantly, they received ongoing Lend Lease aid and we lost a lot of sailors and ships in the Atlantic convoys to the U-Boats trying to make steam for England and Murmansk, in Russia.

And speaking of the Soviet Union, they reaped what they sowed: Stalin's little number to screw Poland, the so-called Non-Aggression Pact, saw to that, or have you forgotten?

As for the Pacific Theatre, the American state department actually believed they could trust the Japanese to negotiate in good faith, so why would we have gotten involved earlier? Actually, the Flying Tigers were making heroic contributions in China well before war was declared.

Furthermore, the Commonwealth reaction to Japan was strictly self-preservation and you know it. It was about holding onto their colonies.

To yashin:

[darkhorse_NZ]

[Gopher]

[safeblad]

[safeblad]

[Gopher]

[safeblad]

[darkhorse_NZ]

[Gopher]

[safeblad]

[Gopher]

Funny.

I cited cutting-edge foreign-policy thinking in high-level American circles on the issue they no longer call "balance-of-power" but rather "offshore-balancing" in a discussion with Darkhorse_NZ -- which vocab I did not feel especially necessary at the time, incidentally.

You intervened in the discussion to make sure we all got your impressions. "This theory sounds out-of-date." "It just reeks of Huntington." I suspect, by citing Said and Anderson, you were setting me up for the standard liberal objection to any non-liberal idea by screaching that it must be "racist."

I reitereated: not out-of-date. Less than a year old. And the Franco-German power-politics thing vis-a-vis America's European hegemony (what some have called "the Atlantic Ruling Class" because it includes Britain and other minor players, like the Dutch -- Kees van der Pijl, a far leftist, but a very interesting one, worthy of reading and thinking about, has an excellent book on this, by the way, even if he is a terribly complicated writer and hard to grasp) has been going on in earnest since at least as early as German reunification and was especially hot during the Yugoslavian crisis -- where, ultimately, and as I have already alluded to, America's "Atlantic hegemony" system won again, and thus continued suppressing an emergent Franco-German power bloc in favor of prolonging the status quo.

This is boring me, however. I really do not have time to rectify your ignorance in these matters, and in the detail you seem to be asking for, Safeblad. Chances are, nothing I might say could possibly satisfy your "objections." So, again: before proclaiming you dislike an idea, why not check it out first? And having done that, should you still feel this hostility, take it up with Layne and Baker.

[safeblad]

[Gopher]

[The Perfect Cup of Coffee]

[safeblad]

i'm all posted out on this subject today, and i'm sure that gopher would agree its kind of a side issue