Saudi Arabia threatens to sell $750 billion in Treasuries in response to 9/11 Bill

[CavLancer]

If it wasn't for American hegemony the rest of you blokes would still be fighting world wars every 25 years. FREEDOM ISN'T FREE.

So true, amigo. Let them cry rivers and then sleep tight wherever Americans are awake and on guard paying the price for their freedom to complain about America. Try complaining about Russia in Russia, or China in China...but that's not so good for one's longevity is it? Easier to complain about countries with free speech. Easier to tug on Superman's cape than that of the villain.

 

[Arakhor]

So true, amigo. Let them cry rivers and then sleep tight wherever Americans are awake and on guard paying the price for their freedom to complain about America. Try complaining about Russia in Russia, or China in China...but that's not so good for one's longevity is it? Easier to complain about countries with free speech. Easier to tug on Superman's cape than that of the villain.

You realise that he was probably spoofing kneejerk patriotic rot like that? Poe's law doesn't just apply to religious fundamentalism.

 

[CavLancer]

Doesn't matter. What he said was true. 'Out of the mouth of babes' as they say. Not suggesting Hygro is a "babe". They say that, not me.

 

[Arakhor]

So, without the mighty and benevolent American Empire, upon whom the entire world relies, we'd already be looking at the Fifth World War? Whatever floats your boat, man.

 

[CavLancer]

I intend to make my boat float with a hull made of bamboo plywood of my own design and manufacture, and overlaid with biaxial fiberglass and epoxy.

 

[warpus]

5th world war? Dude, without the Americans watching over the globe, we'd be still fighting World War Two, forever stuck in a barbaric contest between the barbarians that we are.

Without America there wouldn't be peace. Or ice cream.

 

[Kyriakos]

There were 99 years of no pan-European wars between 1815 and 1914.

In fact if one disregards peripheral (such as the Crimean war) and civil wars (break up
of Yugoslavia), there were only four significant wars in Europe in the last 200 years:

Prusso-Austrian War
Franco-Prussian War
WW1
WW2

all caused essentially by Prusso-German aggression.

As I think the Germans have learnt their lessons from losing
the last two; there is now no reason for war in Europe.

And so all this talk about the USA and the EU
preventing war is really overrated nonsense.

Well, the first and second Balkan wars were in Europe. So was 1864, along with being a Danish tv series with ghosts. And the Prussia-France war pretty much locked the power balance for a while, particularly as long as there was no French-English alliance.

 

[Arakhor]

Without America there wouldn't be peace. Or ice cream.

And no one would speak English. Oh, wait...

 

[CavLancer]

Blah! What rubbish! There would certainly be ice cream.

 

[Hygro]

Easier to tug on Superman's cape than that of the villain.

That is the real truth right there.

You realise that he was probably spoofing kneejerk patriotic rot like that? Poe's law doesn't just apply to religious fundamentalism.

Our democracy gets ugly because freedom isn't free. Y'all get to expirement and if things go bad, we'll come bail you out. We can't take that risk for ourselves.

Not suggesting Hygro is a "babe". They say that, not me.

They most certainly do

 

[EnglishEdward]

So true, amigo. Let them cry rivers and then sleep tight wherever Americans are awake and on guard paying the price for their freedom to complain about America. Try complaining about Russia in Russia, or China in China...but that's not so good for one's longevity is it? Easier to complain about countries with free speech. Easier to tug on Superman's cape than that of the villain.

It is impossible to tug on Superman's cape, because he does not exist.

And the concept that America guards all our freedoms is equally fictitious.

Well, the first and second Balkan wars were in Europe. So was 1864, along with being a Danish tv series with ghosts.

Well quite so.

And there was the secession of Southern Ireland and the unification of Italy.

But these were not major wars with two or more great powers involved in Europe.

And the Prussia-France war pretty much locked the power balance for a while, particularly as long as there was no French-English alliance.

Well diplomacy worked for a while. And Bismarck was dead.

Problem was that once the French had paid back reparations for that war, the
expansionist Germany was looking for an opportunity to defeat the French and
have another set of reparations to fund expansion in the east.

The logic of the plan that Germany + Austro-Hungary + Italy + Turkey would easily
defeat France + Russia + Serbia was impeccable; but the actual WW! line up had
Italy on the other side, and Britain + Japan + USA also on the non German side.

Bismarck would not have been so optimistic.

 

[Kyriakos]

^If you define 'major war' as one 'involving two or more major euro powers', then the 1821 war of Greek independence involved virtually all major euro powers (Britain/France/Russia)

In scope, though, the 1912-1913 Balkan wars, only involving balkan nations and a dieing ottoman empire, were more cataclysmic re the situation in Europe.

 

[EnglishEdward]

^If you define 'major war' as one 'involving two or more major euro powers', then the 1821 war of Greek independence involved virtually all major euro powers (Britain/France/Russia)

In scope, though, the 1912-1913 Balkan wars, only involving balkan nations and a dieing ottoman empire, were more cataclysmic re the situation in Europe.

I choose to enjoy quibbling and state that the Battle of Navarino was at
sea and thereby peripheral.

The Crimean war was also on the periphery of Europe.

My point remains that there were four main European wars between
1815 and 2015 and all of these resulted from German expansionism.

 

[warpus]

Blah! What rubbish! There would certainly be ice cream.

Yeah but it would have raisins in it and it would give you tongue cancer.

 

[civvver]

Germany would have lost to Russia even American hadn't intervened. If anything the U.S. opening a second front on Western Front saved all of Europe from falling behind the Iron Curtain.

So the world would be part of a russian hegemony. Still better trade, just look at ukraine vs france and tell me where you'd rather live.

But anyway this bill seems really stupid. Are other nations going to sue the US now over missed drone strikes that kill civilians? We really want to open this can of worms?