Hi Maurice, always guaranteed to get a good post from you when I give you a little guff. Thanks..:0)
Where to begin....
The U.S. may have been a bit late to the ballgame in regard to WW2 but over 400,000 of our citizens died for the freedom of millions in Europe and Asia. New Zealand was a direct beneficiary of this effort. Our effort could not have been duplicated by anyone on the planet. Putting aside our fighting force for a moment, our ability to produce weapons, tanks, planes, and food were instrumental in bringing down the imperial government of Japan, and the genocidal expansionist murderer Hitler.
Had we not acted, the Japanese your son would be speaking would be a far cry from the one he speaks today. He would probably be a slave, forced into bondage and servitude for the cause of the Emperor. Millions in Europe would have served the Fuhrer in the same way. The Japan and Germany we see today would have not existed. A militaristic society where the concepts of liberty and freedom would be as far from your conscience and day-to-day life, as fascism is today.
As you may note, I don't buy into the notion that, "they would have come to their senses by now anyway, and pooh, pooh the sacrifices and efforts millions made".
What did the U.S. ask in return for the sacrifices we made? Simply put, we asked for the people in these lands to elect a representative government, for them to be peaceful toward their neighbors, and for them to participate in the March and growth of liberty around the world.
You claim this was for selfish interest. As I said before, that's partly true; synergy exists between the forces of freedom and the forces of free-markets. The pie enlarges, and in so doing we all benefit. However, it's also true we could have sat back, (like France and Germany are doing now in regard to Iraq), allowed Hitler to continue his rampage, and forced Japan to stay west of a certain longitude while we built the new Atlantis across the sea.
Contrary to your beliefs, we did this because we cared about the suffering of millions. We did this because we have a conscience as a society. We did this because we're connected with the rest of the world, and believe the freedoms we cherish should grow and be shared with the all the people of the world.
But we have limits to our sacrifices, we have limits in how much we care, we have limits in how much crap we're willing to take verbally from sanctimonious small vision countries around the world who's only purpose in life seems to be criticizing America for it's efforts.
When you call our elected President "King George" over and over, when you know damn well the authority to act in Iraq was voted on by our congress, it grates me. When you say we are in this battle in the Middle East for purely selfish oil reasons, while our sons and daughters and being maimed and killed, it irritates me.
You claim I should worry about saying certain things because of the "bad name" it gives America. I say in response, instead of Americans always worrying about what the rest of the world thinks, I think people around the world should start worrying about how average Americans, like me, think toward those who constantly denigrate our country, and show absolutely zero appreciation for what we do every day toward ensuring their liberty and peace is maintained. Because, you know what Maurice, if the world is not careful, one day we may just stand up as a society and say, "the hell with having troops overseas protecting the interests of peace in other countries", the hell with separating families on long sea-going submarine voyages protecting sea lanes, the hell with our sons and daughters dying anywhere in this world except on American soil. Let them build and pay for their own submarines, combatants, planes, and weapons systems, let them spend the billions to train, equip and motivate their people to serve the cause of peace, we're sick of it.
If that day ever happens, your CDMA cell-phone technology won't be worth a dime. No matter how many Chinese or Indians you hire. :) |
