Out of Pod Experience

According to Jeremy Clarkson, Switzerland hates cars, though... I can't handle a country with that many awesome roads, but doesn't let me use them the way the gods intended.

Too close to the land of my people (Italia)... if I went to Spain, I would forever long for my ancestral home.

and I would really like my leg and arm back, that the IED took, but hey at least I am alive

You are aware that you did on him what he did on yours, right? "To kill the enemy without giving him any chance to defend".

What would you do if someone conquered the USA and you had no shiny toys but just a limited supply of explosives and enemy soldiers stomping your grounds?

Yes, THEY were terrorists and THEY were evil... but cowardly?

That's actually quite a lot of disturbing activity back then. Why the 'minimizing' attitude ??

The invasion of Normandy and the invasion of Italy disagree with your assertion that we contributed little to nothing to the European theater. Had it not been for the United States, "Fortress Europe" would have remained that way for many more years. The Allies strength was far too little in order to launch a successful invasion anywhere in Europe. Stalin knew that, and it's why he pressed for the United States to open a second front to take the pressure off the Soviets in the east.



The United States is always either too early, or too late. That's how every liberal and European sees it. It took us three years to get involved in Yugoslavia because we expected the Europeans to handle something that was going on in their back yard. The majority of the European Union refused to get involved, or sent minimal troops there, most under strict orders not to engage, even in self-defense. There's that well-publicized story of the Dutch forces giving up and pretty much standing by while 7,000 innocents were killed by Serbs. Europe sat on its hands, expecting the United States to lead the way in this (and this isn't a joke: the German chancellor at the time, as well as French president said they were waiting for, and I quote, "Americans to get off their fat asses and do something"). Something happening in their own backyard and they refused to be involved.

And then in 1999 with the Kosovo War, we get involved almost immediately to prevent a repeat of the Bosniak-Croat war. And Europeans tell us we work too fast. We can't win with you kids.

But, despite all that nonsense.... no matter how bad we effed up in Vietnam, Iraq, and on our own soil.... we put Germany's face to the curb and kicked the back of his head until he stopped being N@zi. The world doesn't owe us anything for that, because it was just as much in our own interest as everybody else's to do it. We shouldn't need to "get over ourselves" for that one.... but we really shouldn't be marginalized, either.

That's all I'm saying. And I'm not even a patriot.

Yeah, college was an eye-opener for me. U.S. military invading Cuba and the Philippines, because: a) Corporations wanted to open markets; b) Hearst newspapers helped the public believe everybody in those countries wanted liberation from oppression, Protestant Christianity, democracy, liberal capitalism, and the blessed American way of life; c) American Protestants had to save those locals from their religion (Roman Catholicism) and eternal damnation; and d) we had a nationalist, jingoistic, macho man president (Teddy Roosevelt).* So a combination of good intentions and ignorance by the regular people and cynical opportunism by the money-power people. I sure hope we never have that combination come up again!

Anyway, for a kid who'd been taught that America was always the just defender, a minuteman who sometimes had to get out his gun to fight a tyrant bad guy... learning about that ruthless imperialist stuff was kind of a shock.

*One of several sources: Barbara Tuchman, The Proud Tower.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

And just in case the "bad" guys didn't hear me, the first time, I was in pretty good with the MLRS battalion, down the street....

Honestly, though... I was an oddity amongst my kind, though. I had (and still do have) respect for the enemy. No matter if I agreed with their methods or not, they were warriors, which made them my brothers. And if there is such a place as Valhalla, I'll see them all again, some day.
That's why on Memorial Day, I drink for my friends AND my enemies.