Hang on there Michael, it's attitudes like that, albeit spoken in jest in this case, which give the USA a bad name. <So be happy, play with you newest cell-phone while we protect your ability to sell it around the world. :)>
It's true that if the USA hadn't stopped Japan's advance, Japan would easily have marauded all the way down to Oz and NZ. Similarly, Germany would have done much better in Europe without USA support of Britain and co. Britain would have had big problems, even with my father's help which was volunteered a year before the Yanks deigned to soil their hands in defence of freedom and democracy.
The USA was very late to the defence of freedom. Some, such as Henry Ford, quite liked Nazism. reformed-theology.org I'm not sure what King George II's grandfather thought of Adolf and co. I should ask Google. I think there was something questionable. Bingo... tarpley.net Thanks for the help in defence of freedom!!!
While NZ is of course a tiny bit player, every bit counts. If there was no UK/Oz/NZ/India and other allies, Germany would own Europe, Russia, the oil fields of Arabia, and the Jews would all be dead and the USA would be facing a megapower.
I bet Iraqis get sick of hearing how the USA is only concerned about the well-being of Iraqis. Iraqis seem to be rejecting USA ownership and control quite seriously. The recent prison photos showed just what the USA thinks of Iraqi human rights.
We all know the USA attack on Iraq is about USA interest in oil and security and nothing to do with the lifestyle of Iraqis. Rwanda was left to rot in genocidal hell because there was no USA interest served in preventing the carnage. East Timor was thrown to the wolves by Kissinger. No freedom and democracy for them.
Without the funding provided by people like me around the world, who provide our capital to the USA to develop things like QUALCOMM and Globalstar, the USA would be a shadow of itself. A lot of capital, not to mention brain-power, flows into the USA from around the world. That capital pays a lot of taxes and funds a lot of USA military services. Even the USA is not immune to capital flight. Who is protecting whom is indeed moot!
The capital flow around the world is so intertwined now, it's like a Gordian Knot. It can't be disentangled. Sure there can be a cutting of the knot and the USA could go it alone. Good luck! You'd need it. We are seeing the 'go it alone' effect in Iraq, with sneering at the UN and the rest of the world who were offered a simplistic choice of 'with us or against us'. There's a third choice = 'indifferent to us', just as the USA is indifferent to so many people.
So, leave the patronizing cant about the USA protecting NZ. It's more like the Musketeers, "All for one and one for all" in a co-operative, synergistic, venture. It's not that the USA is worried in the slightest about NZ, we are protected coincidentally, not by design. In fact, the USA likes to do some patronizing bullying of NZ, which I can tell you isn't a good way to win friends and influence people.
Enjoy your CDMA phone, provided by Korea [market and product supplier] and me [capital supplier] and thanks for providing the troops to stop Saddam getting noocular bombs. Spend those taxes wisely! The capital can flee. I might decide to hire Chinese or Indians instead of Americans.
Meanwhile, despite the USA protection,< New Zealanders would be speaking Japanese, Chinese, or German if it weren't for the U.S. military.> we in NZ are learning Mandarin as a colony of Beijing. It's the same process as that of the British in the 19th century.
The local yokels were tempted by cash and goods so invited the British in, and pretty soon, there were more foreigners than locals.
Japan has been taking over too. Chequebook invasion is much more effective than military attack. Our son is fluent in Japanese [see snowadventures.co.nz - all his own work] and gets his income from Japanese snowboarders, and is considering going there to work on software and learn more about the industry.
It's the battle of the buck these days, more than the battle of the bullet, which wins the day.
USA security would best be promoted by way of a reconstituted NUN, blah, blah, blah... you know the story...
Now get out there and churn up some ocean with that noocular weapon armed sub. Actually, joking aside, China has murderous designs on Taiwan. Maybe I'll need to increase my payments to help defend them.
Can't we all just get along?
Mqurice |
