• You are using the old High Contrast theme. We have installed a new dark theme for you, called UI.X. This will work better with the new upgrade of our software. You can select it at the bottom of any page.

They Don't Like Us

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 28, 2002
Messages
4,337
Location
Minnesota - nine months of ice and snow...three mo
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/822153/posts

They Don't Like Us

Please read. Interesting point of view from someone who has actually been there. Provided by Joe Galloway, author of We Were Soldiers Once, and Young and is posted as an item of possible interest.

"This one is definitely NOT tongue in cheek. Sig, the author, was a teen-aged Marine who marched and fought as a rifleman to and from the Chosin reservoir in Korea in 1950. He switched to the Army, and served as a Special Forces officer in Vietnam. After Vietnam he joined the CIA, and went back to Korea. He's been there, done it, and has some specific thoughts on countries that don't "like" us."

If you aren't interested in the ramblings of an old man, please delete now.

If you're still there, pull up a chair and listen.

Is there anyone else out there who's sick and tired of all the polls being taken in foreign countries as to whether or not they "like" us? The last time I looked, the word "like" had nothing to do with foreign policy. I prefer 'respect' or 'fear'. They worked for Rome, which civilized and kept the peace in the known world a hell of a lot longer than our puny two centuries-plus.

I see a left-wing German got elected to office recently by campaigning against the foreign policy of the United States. Yeah, that's what I want, to be lectured about war and being a "good neighbor" by a German. Their head honcho said they wouldn't take part in a war against Iraq. Kind of nice, to see them taking a pass on a war once in while. Perhaps we needed to have the word "World" in front of War. I think it's time to bring our boys home from Germany. Outside of the money we'd save, we'd make the Germans "like" us a lot more, after they started paying the bills for their own defense.

Last time I checked, France isn't too fond of us either. They sort of liked us back on June 6th, 1944, though, didn't they? If you don't think so, see how nicely they take care of the enormous American cemeteries up above the Normandy beaches. For those of you who've studied history, we also have a few cemeteries in places like Belleau Woods and Chateau Thierry also. For those of you who haven't studied it, that was from World War One, the first time Europe screwed up and we bailed out the French.

That's where the US Marines got the title 'Devil Dogs' or, if you still care about what the Germans think, "Teufelhunde". I hope I spelled that right; sure wouldn't want to offend anyone, least of all a German.

Come to think of it, when Europe couldn't take care of their Bosnian problem recently, guess who had to help out there also. Last time I checked, our kids are still there. I sort of remember they said they would be out in a year. Gee, how time flies when you're having fun.

Now we hear that the South Koreans aren't too happy with us either. They "liked" us a lot better, of course, in June, 1950. It took more than 50,000 Americans killed in Korea to help give them the lifestyle they currently enjoy, but then who's counting? I think it's also time to bring the boys home from there. There are about 37,000 young Americans on the DMZ separating the South Koreans from their "brothers" up North. Maybe if we leave, they can begin to participate in the "good life" that North Korea currently enjoys. Uh huh. Sure.

I also understand that a good portion of the Arab/Moslem world now doesn't "like" us either. Did anyone ever sit down and determine what we would have to do to get them to like us? Ask them what they would like us to do. Die?. Commit ritual suicide? Bend over? Maybe we should follow the advice of our dimwitted, dullest knife in the drawer, Senator Patty Murray, and build more roads, hospitals, day care centers, and orphanages like Osama bin Laden does. What with all the orphans Osama has created, the least he can do is build some places to put them. Senator Stupid says if we would only "emulate" Osama, the Arab world would love us.

Sorry Patty; in addition to the fact that we already do all of those things around the world and have been doing them for over sixty years, I don't take public transportation, and I certainly wouldn't take it with a bomb strapped to the guy next to me.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not in favor of going to war. Been there, done that. Several times, in fact. But I think we ought to have some polls in this country about other countries, and see if we "like" THEM. Problem is, if you listed the countries, not only wouldn't the average American know if he liked them or not, he wouldn't be able to find them. If we're supposed to worry about them, how about them worrying about us?

We were nice to the North Koreans in 1994, as we followed the policies of Neville Clinton. And it seemed to work; they didn't re-start nuclear weapons program for a whole year or so. In the meantime, we fed them when they were starving, and put oil in their stoves when they were freezing.

In a recent visit to Norway, I engaged in a really fun debate with my cousin's son, a student at a Norwegian University. I was lectured to by this thankless squirt about the American "Empire", and scolded about dropping the atomic bomb on the Japanese. I reminded him that empires usually keep the stuff they take; we don't, and back in 1945 most Norwegians thought dropping ANY kind of bomb on Germany or Japan was a good idea. I also reminded him that my uncle, his grandfather, and others in our family spent a significant time in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, courtesy of the Germans, and they didn't all survive. I further reminded him that if it wasn't for the "American Empire" he would probably be speaking German or Russian.

Sorry about the rambling, but I just took an unofficial poll here at our house, and we don't seem to like anyone.

Happy New Year.
 
Not being liked is often an indication of great moral character and worthiness! :neener:
 
If you aren't interested in the ramblings of an old man,
I'd be more than happy to listen to this wise old man ramble anytime.

Elegantly simple and nutritious food for thought.
 
Being liked is not as important as doing the right thing. Damn Europeans pissing and moaning about America. Who rebuilt the place after the war. With the exception of the Finns no one has ever repayed their war debts to us!

Thet can go to Hell!
 
Reading something like that makes me feel like I'm still in touch with the older generations. I feel exactly the same way as he does, yet I've been lucky enough not to have ever gone through anything he has. I guess some of us youngsters have learned from history.
 
In the Hollywood fantasy THE WIND AND THE LION (which was very loosely based on the Perdicaris affair) the script writers have Sec. of State John Hay warning President Theodore Roosevelt that the Europeans may not like us for our stand on Morocco. TR replies, It doesn't matter if they like us, but they just need to respect us! (Not the exact line, but close).
 
Nuking Japan was evil?

I was just talking with an elderly lady whose husband (still alive) was a POW in Japan during the War. He survived the Death March of Bataan & the Japanese version of the Voyage of the Damned to Japan. The prisoners were told that if we invaded, they would all be killed. Dropping the bomb saved over 150,000 Allied POWs and countless Japanese civilians and military personnel. He was 82 lbs when he was liberated and if it had gone another two or three weeks, he would have died. Heck, dropping the bombs was the greatest act of human decency of the last century. God Bless the bomb and President Truman. :cool:
 
Gary, it was estimated for an invasion of Japan that there would be over a million Allied casualties (casualties, of course, includes those who are wounded) and over four million Japanese casualties--both combatant and non-combatant. Plus, another year's economic drain on the Allies' economies.

Looks to me like the bomb was really a cheap price to pay, for all concerned. But, better 200,000 dead for the enemy than even one dead Ally.

But folks forget about Nanking, Manila, Hong Kong and Singapore--as well as a whole lot more of China and Manchuria.

And Dunkirk and Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen and a host of other places...

Art
 
like us? who cares?

Golgo-13 -

Tha's my signature line:

Oderint dum Metuant = "Let them hate, so long as they fear."
 
Isolationism, baby!

I say pull all our troops out of Europe, Korea, etc., and the UN!

With it go the jobs for the locals, US $, and US security (i.e. OK, South Korea, were gone, but there area million troops with itchy trigger fingers just over the border!)

I'd like to see Uncle Sam make manufacturing in our own country more attractive to companies too, with the "Made in China, Mexico, Taiwan (or some other screwed up place) " logo a rarity rather than the norm.
 
Last edited:
Trouble is, Tamara, we're buying far more than we're selling, by a half-trillion dollars a year. It bothers me a bit that our buying includes over half our oil and a lot of our food.

Checked on the buying power of the dollar lately? It's more than a bit scary, seeing it drop against even the Swiss Franc and the Canadian dollar, much less the 20+% against the Euro.

Could mean higher prices for imported guns and scopes, for that matter...

Art
 
With it go the jobs for the locals, US $, and US security (i.e. OK, South Korea, were gone, but there area million troops with itchy trigger fingers just over the border!)

The Phillipine economy has suffered greatly since they tossed us out of Subic Bay, the Canal Zone is dead, I think cooler heads in Korea will prevail, not for security reasons but for $$$...

Maybe we should sell..like base rights.."Hi, we will build a military base in your crappy little country, create lots of jobs, plus you get the extra bonus of having our soldiers around in case some one attacks you, do I hear $5,000, going once, going twoce..."

WildkickusoutanditsyourlossAlaska
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top