MM, the USA is so huge and self-contained that Americans don't really need to look externally, and usually they don't.
NZ is so little that everything is somewhere else [not quite, but generally]. So we have a very external point of view. Also, we are all [pretty much] from somewhere else. Even Maoris are so recently from somewhere else [the Polynesian expansion across the Pacific] that they retain legends and history and language about their history overseas.
Of course many of us were born here, but our ancestors were so recently from overseas that some identity remains from their lives in their homelands.
NZ is pretty much a vassal state of the USA. Sure, we have local ideas such as noocular-free zones, whether to attack Saddam or not and other things. But for the most part, NZ is trailing in the USA wake with many companies subsidiaries of USA companies and many of us [like me] dependent on the USA for our livelihoods [QCOM and other USA investments in my case]. No taxation without representation say I [liking such a red-blooded American slogan - which is, sadly, totally ignored by the rulers of the American Empire despite their chanting of such drivel on the 4th of July]. If only Americans wouldn't be hypocrites, we would love the Empire so much more. In lieu of love, cash flow is some consolation.
<, I think people in vassal states (as you put it, and surely you don't include NZ in that number do you?) are mostly pretty darn glad that the USA handles the bad guys for them. Otherwise, Hitler and Tojo and their like would be calling the shots, don't you know.>
I would like the USA to handle the bad guys a bit more promptly. My father was a year in the Middle East fighting Adolf's troops before the USA deigned to join in, only getting serious because Japan snuck up on them in Pearl Harbour. Also, the USSR did more than the USA in destroying Adolf's efforts. Sure, it didn't hurt to have the allies looming on the western front, but the main action was against the USSR and their millions. It was total carnage over there.
It wasn't altruism that led the USA to help defeat Germany and Japan, it was USA interests. Of course it was excellent that the USA joined in. But of course it was to benefit the USA, not NZ. I doubt that "Hey we just gotta get in there and save those great little Kiwis. Sure, lots of us will die in the attempt, but it's worth it." was in the conversations on whether to join the conflict or not.
I'd say it was more "Omigod. This is horrific. What the hell shall we do? Oh no!! Now they've attacked Pearl Harbour. Oh shit. Well, we are just going to have to do it. They are going to take over the world at this rate and leave us as an island with no links to anywhere and maybe even attacked directly in the end. Well, we've already been attacked!! Okay - announce the declaration of war and point out that it's to save our buddies, the Kiwis". Giggle!
But one of my wife's aunts got a nice American to take her back to blighty where they lived happily ever after [Portland, Maine] having little half-Kiwi cuzzies. Who are now middle-aged, tending elderly. I doubt that the USA joining was to pick up a bunch of wives either. Incidentally, one of my mother's cousins married a Japanese lady who he met during the allied occupation of Japan. She's a lovely woman. I only met her a few years ago at an old-geezers' reunion [me not being an old-geezer - the uncles and aunts were].
Mqurice
PS: I don't think Stalin was trying to SAVE THE KIWI either. He was just trying to beat Adolf's gang. Neither did Canada join in to save NZ. It was really a COW. [as in coalition of the willing] |
