Firstly, have you EVER heard about the 1898 Cuba (or Kuba) Memorandum, which Hitler reinstated? It is a POLICY that EXPLICITLY placed Germany in an undeclared war with the US in EXPLICIT violation of the Monroe doctrine. And true to form, Hitler's activities there started right after he assumed power in 1933.

Secondly, like it or not, in the modern era, we have ALWAYS had a vested interests in the plight of our allies, even before they officially were our allies. If Germany had overcome Britain and France and their allies in either WWI or WWII, we know quite well that we wouldn't be far down the list, and the possibility of the American seaboard getting torn to pieces a couple decades later was a VERY strong motivator.

And yes, I have an axe to grind. Because my cats desperately need to die for the sake of all humanity (if only they would stop resurrecting themselves and carrying on their wake of terror). If I did not get the full context of your comment, I am sorry, but do you actually disagree with my points?

after vietnam, which was not a war that could be easily defined as a moral war, americans developed a distaste for the sort of movie.

the reason few movies are made that show the iraq war are twofold. hollywood is under the impression that such a film would not make enough money (considering how important the international market is, i'll bet they are right) is the first reason.

the other is more along the lines of : the iraq war is the most unpopular war ever. even when people were taking to the streets protesting(most of them really protesting the draft surreptitiously), most americans were for the war in vietnam. this is not true of the iraq war. most people are against it because the gov has been unable to come up with a clear reason that we should believe that this war is helping the war on terror at all. all it seems to have done is let bin laden have the time to make himself safe so he can plan more attacks with all the people who are flocking to his banner in response to our actions in iraq.

our troops are heroes. not all of the missions we send them on are heroic, and no amount of heroic actions performed by these heroes will change the fact that noone can give us a good reason why we are dismantling a country that did not attack us while we should be pursuing the monsters who attacked us on 9/11.

A little something called “context” — maybe you’ve heard of it. The comment I was responding to was “any thinking person can see that the military doesn’t defend America (after all, who’s going to invade us? Mexico? Canada? Was Saddam going to tie one of his nonexistent WMDs to a camel and catapult it across the Pacific Ocean?).”

The point I was making is that Germany didn’t “invade” the U.S. prior to the U.S.’s entry into WWII. Your erudite e-mail makes that perfectly clear. They were bombing the heck out of Europe, working with the Japanese, but NOT invading us. Thus, according to the morons who made the above comment, we shouldn’t have entered into WWII.

After all, the destruction of Europe is not the invasion of America. My point was the attack on American interests/ideas abroad IS an attack on America. Those who made/agreed with the comment above apparently disagree.

But, obviously you either (1) didn’t appreciate/understand the context of my comments; and/or (2) have some axe to grind; and/or (3) love showing off your obviously vast amounts of Turtle knowledge.

Wonderful, somebody ELSE Who couldn’t be bothered to look up history…

“Jif, why did we join in WWI?”

Um, because the Germans were shooting everything that moved in the Atlantic? Because they were giving arms and weaponry to every tin pot thug or Haitian bandit at loggerheads with us in the hopes of forming some Latin-American Coalition against us? Because they were caught RED HANDED trying to encourage Mexico to invade us? Because the Germans were a hair’s breadth away from winning the war and we were going to have to crush them sooner or later?

“Why did we join in WWII on the European front?”

Um, because the Germans were doing all of the above in addition to being on the verge of wiping European democracy from the map? Because a British defeat would have set our cause back YEARS, and a Soviet defeat would probably have ENDED it? Because the Germans were giving aid and intel to the Japanese in the Pacific?

“Germany didn’t attack us, Japan did.”

AIDED by German intel, German plans, German spies, German tactics, an overview of Taranto Harbor (where the British bombed a small “Italian”- read German- fleet out of existence) granted by the Germans, and backed up by a German declaration of war soon after the bombing.

Wonderful historical amnesia.

You may be right. But, hopefully, we might just provide some food for thought for some late teen/early 20s who might be attracted by jiffy’s brand of ‘courage.’

I was one of those who thought that such ugly and ungrateful cynicism was the reality of the situation. In reality, my anti-’the man’ positions were just the prolonged teenage rebellion of an incredibly spoiled and ungrateful brat. Thanks to God I actually started to THINK about my positions and their implications.