Pine wrote on 03/18/14 at 11:48:09:Indeed... US history is not immune to evils of the powerful. You left off the the fact that the North American continent wasn't exactly devoid of natives ( overly kind of you).
Who, me ? Naaah... just wanted to avoid Webstermark's comments on my alleged "being antiamerican"
Quote:But it all pretty much goes back to my original feeling... US should keep their nose out of this. It's not "winable", there is not to be "an end", and who is right or wrong... changes with how far back one wants to go. Europe is simply too old ( too steeped in history) and too dynamic for western politicians.
Next 4th July you will celebrate
238 years of USA.
Next Thanksgiving you will celebrate
392 years since the Pilgrim Fathers' first Thanksgiving (they landed in 1621, so it must have been celebrated in 1622)
Next 21 April Rome will celebrate its (official)
2767 birthday, and it isn't even the oldest city in Italy.
The Etruscans were there already, as were other peoples.
Far too many times "industrial / economic power" is mistaken for "heritage / experience".
Quote:I would also put forward, that no matter what things are like this month, in 6 months it will be different, and within 2 years.. different yet again. I base this on the evidence that Ukraine was not doing all that well economically anyway. The smartest (economic) move for MANY there would be to fold back into Russia. Putin does not have to "attack" anyone. he simply has to bide his time. (In the mean time let the stupid Americans send billions in aid).
Ukrainians have little love lost for Russians, a bit like the English and the Scots - or Savage riders and HOGs

yes, the Ukraine was (IS) not as well off as Russia, but that is not entirely the Ukraine's fault.
It was a specific industrial strategy of the USSR to keep inportant heavy industry separated in many "specialized" plants, so that in order to build... a tank...
one factory would build engines, one would build the turret, one the chassis, one the guns... and one to assemble it all into a working tank.
They were all kept thousands of miles apart.
That way, nobody had the capacity to say "we wil declare independence, and the tanks we build will vouch for us".
Furthermore, one of the diplomatic conditions discussed and approved in Moscow when the Ukraine split from the USSR quite peacefully
was that the 5th Russian Fleet of the Black Sea would still have the Crimea as its home base, with all Soviet (=Russian) privileges acknowledged to Navy crews and their families.
Imagine, it was like UK and US Ambassadors at the Peace talks in 1783 saying "OK, you Rebels, YOU get the 13 Colonies,
BUT His Majesty's Royal Navy gets to keep Norfolk Harbor and all the crew and their families keep the homes and English privileges".
WAMBR's map also shed a LOT of light on past European history. Check this out.
http://loiter.co/v/watch-as-1000years-of-european-boarders-change/My workplace's new internet filters do not allow me to see streaming media, so I pasted the above link both as "media" and "URL".
I can't see it from here, but I do hope it proves interesting.
By the way... it's "border", not "boarder"; a "boarder" is one who rents a room for "room and board", generally breakfast and supper.
My parting shot: Given European history from 1750 (including the French&Indian War) if the 13 Colonies had been, say, not across an entire ocean,
but only 2 or 3 days' sailing away from mainland Europe...
or in an otherwise uninhabited Scandinavia...
...do you really believe no other European nation would have tried taking a shot at you?
Do you really believe the War of 1812 would have ended with a draw between UK and US ?
Do you really believe nobody would have attempted to seize the opportunity in 1865, when both USA and CSA were at their last stand ?
Again, nothing against you, just food for thought.
Poland and Russia, Germany and Poland, Austria and Hungary and Serbia, Romania and Turkey, France and Germany, France and England, England and Scotland, England and Spain, France and Spain...
...they were all at each other's throats, literally, ever since the end of the Crusades...
...not to mention that Italy was so plumb rich with commerce with the Middle and Far East that they were ALL taking turns sending their armies south to loot and plunder...