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America's greatest enemy?
- Thread starter stratovani
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One fun fact is that Kruschev's "we will bury you" meant "we will outlast you because the proletariat's victory is inevitable", not "we will throw every nuke we have at you". Just saying.
I still say the greatest enemy thus country has and has had has been us. No soapbox .. and I certainly don't need to impress anyone here .... As a nation we will fall from the inside out. Just because some people don't like that answer makes it no less relevant or likely than any other.
Absolutely. Your earlier post was dead on, BTW.
But I digress - let's look at it from a strictly 100% military/historical perspective then - who (militarily speaking) on this entire planet, did the USA the most harm in the way of human loss and property destruction..? Oops. us again.
US Civil War
The almighty Dollar and the love of it! That's where it all starts. After that, then we make other enemies by our love for our first enemy.
The White Man?
Sorry chaps, couldn't resist
Surprised in some ways by the number of votes for Osama, granted, he was the most recent of them, but does that make him the biggest?
Sorry chaps, couldn't resist
Surprised in some ways by the number of votes for Osama, granted, he was the most recent of them, but does that make him the biggest?
The White Man?
Sorry chaps, couldn't resist
Surprised in some ways by the number of votes for Osama, granted, he was the most recent of them, but does that make him the biggest?
I think it depends on what criteria one uses to make their determination.
A lot of what I base my opinion on is political so I cant go there... but in as far as being a single human figure who can be responsible for making a fundamental change to our culture and economy, he ranks #1.
the other contenders - Khrushchev, didn't really do much other than shake us up for a while. He was just another face and name in the Cold War proper... Robert E. Lee - was a great (American) general who nearly succeeding in beating the US, but did not. He was far from responsible for the US civil war, but just a participant. Hitler, Hirohito, etc they all shared a bit of the blame and you can't really single any one out. As I said before, our suffering during the World Wars was miniscule in comparison to other nations. King George III? Shoot, we owe that guy for his incompetence, he's our best buddy.
I still go with bin Ladin as he made us change ourselves. IE - "he who surrenders freedom for safety, deserves neither."
If we're talking about European explorers we should also mention Juan Castillo and Sebastián Vizcaíno of Spain. They hopped aboard this North American rock before Columbus. Did the same thing out here in California. They infected thousands of Native Americans while trying to convert them to Catholicism and force them to speak the language - Spanish.
The White Man?
Sorry chaps, couldn't resist
Surprised in some ways by the number of votes for Osama, granted, he was the most recent of them, but does that make him the biggest?
Well, we're still struggling in the financial sector, which took it's first major blow on 9/11. We've yet to completely pick ourselves up since then. That, and we've lost a lot of personal freedoms since then as well. Of course, going further into that discussion would get political.
*edit* My question is, since the guy is now dead why haven't we converted back to our old ways?
That almost seems like silly question to me. Surely the man is dead, but the ideals he stood for are not, and carry on in the hearts of others.
I thought that he had relatively little to do with the actual 9/11 attacks anyway? But I dare say he is (was) seen as a figurehead for that extremist movement.
The economics are complicated, but part of that ties in with an overall downwards trend, but I guess you could also counter with the mass cost of military deployment too.
I still think that a major part of it is due to it being a more current event, I just see the likes of Hirohito having a greater impact. But it's all IMO and I'm not on US soil, other than airport checks, certainly didn't notice a huge difference between my visits in 2000, 2003 and 2011, but again, I was much younger and visiting, not staying there.
Because the bogeyman can't hurt you. Never could. It's what happens when the "dream" becomes a "nightmare". I also reiterate what has been said numerous times in this thread. "He who gives up liberty for security, deserves neither".
Nope. Germany declared war on the US first. He hated the US before he was even Chancellor.
Fox is the left's poster child for all that is wrong with the US. Unfortunately, it's both left and right, top and bottom, head and tail sides of the coin that are what's wrong with the country.
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