you didn't say that 'moron' go ahead and read back over all your posts. btw, papua new guinea... I genuinely can not think of a single contribution... ever... from that country

lol.
Greece only managed to defend against Italy
And Italy was a joke.
Hitler got through Greece in 10 days or so.
He didn't even care to send navy to get Crete.
Para shooters were enough...

airborne, didn't realize he helalt wasn't from Greece, I take back anything bad I sad about them :D they actually are a good fighting people like my Irish

If I had to participate in any kind of war for Greece I would prefer to take the first plane to anywhere :P
That's also how 99% of Greeks think today.

First, the British Navy had control over the Med anyways (Another Italian mess up) Second, Hitler would have a hard time sending a fleet from Kiel to Crete wouldn't you think?

@Airborne: to quote wikipedia "The Mujahideen belonged to various different factions, but all shared, to varying degrees, a similarly conservative 'Islamic' ideology."

i generally got the idea that the Taliban was a faction of the Mujahideen, and that Osama Bin Laden was trained by the CIA to fight against the Soviets.

@Patizcool, re:economy, what the hell are you talking about? just because one action was taken doesn't mean you can or can't stop a recession. That was largely unrelated. IF the US of A goes to war to increase it's control over global oil supplies and this happens to slow the decline of the American Empire then that doesn't mean other factors will not still hit your economy, like greed and stupidity in the financial/banking sector (more of a global problem than a specific US one, but all our economies are now entwined...)

Also what does it matter how 'great' your country is? that doesn't mean you can't look at the decisions that have been made and ofer constructive criticism/analysis. That comment to hellalt makes you sound like you think America is greater than anywhere else, is that true?

of course.
But you can't pretend to be a serious country when you cannot defeat a few paratroopers

Then again you guys f'ed up the Greco-Turkish War

another big failure in the end.
They thought they could go all the way up to Central Anatolia
They should have sticked to con and smy

@orathaic, the taliban was not a faction of the Mujahideen. The mujahideen moved from Pakistan to Afghanistan when the Russians left, and the Taliban remained in Pakistan... the Taliban were made up of Pashtuns that were in Pakistan to escape Russian and then Mujahideen violence and were interested in studies of Islam... they returned to Afghanistan at the bequest of Pashtuns in Southern Afghanistan and their ranks were flooded which gave them the power to beat the mujahideen who were fighting amongst themselves.

I realize all of that, it was just a response at hellalt because I knew he wouldn't call me on that. In actuality, neither of these wars were for the economy (WWII wasn't directly for the economy but it did have the effect of helping it as did WWI) because all of the gears of war were not turned by the US (i.e. no draft, no factories turned into war time factories, etc.).

Finally, I do think that America is greater than anywhere else. I'm an American. If you don't think your country is greater than anywhere else, I don't know why you would live there other than for family reasons. I am very proud of my country. Sure we have made mistakes (BUSH and most things he did) but I still have faith in America as the greatest beacon of freedom in the world.

"I still have faith in America as the greatest beacon of freedom in the world.
"Then why is it that rest of the world thinks exactly the opposite?

Staying within greek warships guns is always the best plan, I guess...

America? Really? Freedom is fucked

The rest of the world doesn't think the opposite. In fact, most of Europe loves Obama. What country do you think is the greatest beacon of freedom? I don't see immigrants rushing into New Guinnea and their roads of gold

OK, well while thinking your country is great is all well and good, that doesn't mean you have to be blind to the mistakes your country has and is making.

No need to get so defensive. I am very proud of my country too, and i agee with our defence policy. Most wars are fought for economic reasons. The US avoided going into WW II because it was happy it could retain control over it's little corner of the world (isolated in the western hemisphere) The only reason the started fighting was because Japan attacked.

Japan for economic reasons felt they needed to dominate the entire pacific, and didn't want the US in a position to challenge their Naval power. (the plan was to cripple the US navy in a single strike on pearl harbour, and it relied on surprise, but failed)...

Obama is great it's true.

USA ranks 20th in press freedom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

13th in human development index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index
19th in corruption ranking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

If you want to talk about freedom talk about Denmark, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria and Switzerland.

That's not really fair, Some EU states are better than the US average. I'm sure some US states are better than average too. :P

lol hellalt does have a point with Denmark, Netherlands... but I've got to say, despite the terrorist attacks and the 2 wars, I feel much safer in the US than anywhere else in the world... and orathaic, I do acknowledge we've made mistakes (BUSH lol)

Anyway, i'm criticising decades of US foreign policy, which has lead to opinion in most of the rest of the free world to dislike America.

I don't know why you feel safer in the US, I live in Ireland, we have no external enemies.
Major problems included some recent flooding, and uncertainty about what the EU will mean to us in the future.

Unlike the US who have pissed off South Americans, meddled in the middle east, are invovled in wars in two countries, and whose relationship with oil states has helped grow fundamentalist anti-american factions in the islamic world. Ireland has an official defence policy aiming to support regional stability by sending out peacekeeping troops under UN mandate with the stated aim of securing our own stability by preventing wars in other regions from escalating - just about the only thing the Irish militrary can do to ensure our security...

the US is the only country in the world that has a chance of blocking nukes... not a great chance, but the only country that could do it... I realize that for example, ireland, is a good country to be in due to lack of external enemies, though the 'real IRA' (the provos are the actual IRA, the 'real ira' i have 0 respect for) within the past year did commit a bombing

Ireland used to be in the same shit like Greece but over the last decade the economic development there was spectacular.

yes, but it was hit hard by the recession... worse than the US was so I hear :/

The gyro was invented in Greek town Chicago.

The gyro was invented in Greek town Chicago

The government under Bush basically terrorized its own people with the slogan of 9/11. I won't throw my conspiracy stuff out here as most of you will just condemn me as a nutjob instead of looking at facts (sigh...) but Bush ran most of his push for the war on a fear basis. He got the oil he wanted out of it anyway... Shafto you are one-hundred percent correct, except God doesn't actually exist, which I guess doesn't alter the fact that Bush may actually have been insane enough to think that God told him to send troops, anyway, I digress... stupid war, fought for stupid reasons. We are not establishing/fighting for democracy and freedom, if we were, we would be in Darfur or some other nation that needs help AND DOESN'T HAVE GOLD/DIAMONDS/OIL/MEANS OF SPECIAL FINANCIAL INTEREST!

If Ireland weren't so Catholic/involved in hating/bombing England's hold of northern Ireland with terrorist attacks, I would say it's peaceful. England's alright, isn't it? How bout Spain? Canada?