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Time for them all to go to their masters in Saudi Arabia. They'll be right at home there.

Given the criticism we get here when we do anything--no matter what it might be[1]--I'm tending more and more to isolationism -- bring all our troops home from Europe and Asia, let Europe handle Darfur, North Korea, etc. It sure would save us a lot of money.

OTOH, I imagine things could go pear-shaped rather quickly. Or maybe not.

Either way, we, the US, can't win in your eyes, so why not take the cheaper, easier way out?

Best regards, James Arthur

~~~~~~~~~~~~ [1] For example this 8/11/2000 Irish Times piece complaining about the impact of sanctions against Iraq:

The gist of it is that sanctions were taking a horrible toll and needed stopping, yet when the war's begun, we're told we should've stayed the course (with sanctions, that is).

Excellent idea, except that we should have started on that policy in

John

More likely mushroom-shaped ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Since you hate Canada so much stop using our inventions. That'll teach us.

In both cases the US was disinterested until it was attacked.

In both cases the US was attacked because it was aiding the Europeans and working against the interests of Germany (WWI) and against the interests of the Axis (WWII). Look it up.

John

It sure is tempting. Unfortunately whenever we turn our backs they go and start another World War. That costs us even more.

I find it bizarre that we're being blamed for the U.N.'s ineffectiveness. Like a fat man on New Year's eve, the U.N.'s ever resolving, but never acts. That's not our fault.

Condi and Mr. Bush were right, the U.N. has become irrelevant. That's not a jab, it's not said with any glee, it's a literal fact. If you say things you don't mean, your words become meaningless. Thusly and through scandals is the U.N. without influence, honor, or prestige. This they predicted, and so it has come to be.

Best, James Arthur

Isn't that what King John said about the Magna Carta?

No, King John, being dim-witted, had no clue the U.N. would become irrelevant. What he actually said of it was "Hey, groovy Parchment. Did you get this at the corner Shoppe?"

Cheers, James

say.

decisions

Concensus of a majority of voting members who have a vested interest in keeping the world safe for despotism and racism.

John

On a sunny day (Thu, 04 Jan 2007 17:34:26 -0800) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

I do not think so, in WW2 US was attacked by Japan because the US supported China against Japan with weapon sales. Japan was friends with Germany, Germany attacked, perhaps would have done so anyways? But I can hardly imagine Hitler to have thought he could occupy all of the US, like he wanted to invade the UK. His attack against US ships was more a support for Japan perhaps?

Exactly. We refused to supply the Japanese Empire with the steel and fuel it needed to subjugate Asia. Even though they would have paid us for them and, this being the Great Depression, the cash would have been welcome. Principles before profit.

Japan and Germany had a mutual-enemies pact, so when Japan attacked us, Germany declared as well. But Germany was nearly at war with the US already, as we were actively supporting Britain with food, fuel, armaments, and convoys to deliver same. Without US direct aid, Britain would have run out of food, ammo, and the gas to run those Spitfires.

The ME109 would have seriously outclassed the Hurricanes and Spitfires except that the Merlin engine had a higher compression ratio than the Germans thought possible. It did because the British planes burned a special jet fuel made specifically for them in Texas.

John

And warplanes with volunteer military support- the "Flying Tigers". And was actively preventing Japan from getting enough oil for their military to function. They decided they had to grab the oil at the source in the Dutch East Indies (and, they said, free the Indonesians from their colonial masters at the same time). They needed to destroy the ability of the US to interfere with that enterprise, and thus the attack on the US military assets that threatened them.

Under the Tripartite pact they were obligated to come to the aid of Japan if she was attacked. As Japan made the first overt military move the Germans might have had some wiggle room with that.

Not immediately anyhow. Who knows what he might have had in mind for twenty, thirty, fifty years or a century into the future? A united, militarily powerful Europe would have led to a more tripolar world than we have had for the past 60 years. One positive thing that resulted from the war was the end of traditional colonialism in Asia, including the European, American and Japanese carving up of China, as well as Indochina, the East Indies, Taiwan etc.

An attempt to starve Britain.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

On a sunny day (Fri, 05 Jan 2007 08:04:24 -0800) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

Von Braun struck back with special fuel for the V1 and V2, ethanol? The British scientist thought it was impossible to build a rocket that would cross the channel, as they assumed cordite or maybe even gunpowder. They never imagined a liquid fuel engine.

Anyways, history repeats itself, Honda has now build the first Japanese plane since WW2 (Mitshibushi zeros),

The Chinese anounced there fighter jet too today:

I'd be worried about Japan, when the nationalist forces there get their hands on nukes.

Dr. Strangelove revisited ?:-)

Yeeeee Haaaaaa !-)

...Jim Thompson

Yup, ethanol and lox. It took 30 tons of potatoes to make enough ethanol to fuel one V2. I suspect those 30 tons of potatoes would have been strategically more useful elsewhere.

Nice looking plane. Interestingly, the Honda jet division is in North Carolina. I always wondered why the Japanese never entered the commercial aviation business; it seems a natural for them.

John

von Braun supposedly said "We aim for the moon. So far, we've reached London."

He had some good lines. One of my better customers, a Fellow of United Technologies, has one of Werner's quotes in his sigfile:

"One experiment is worth a thousand expert opinions."

John