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Old 11-05-2001, 05:36 PM   #2
Bootsy Whoosh
Storms abrewin'...
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Join Date: May 16, 2001
Location: The Alpha Quadrant, Sector 001
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Ummm...I understand what you're getting at, but still, you have some facts majorly messed up.

First off, the USSR was formed in 1922 by Lenin in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917, before WWII even began, not afterwards.

The statement that the U.S. never gets involved in any war unless we are attacked is wrong on many counts. First, the U.S. was never attacked to bring us into WWI, nor were any of our vessels or anything. The U.S. tried to remain neutral in WWI, in fact Wilson was re-elected on the idea that he had kept America out of war. When the Germans declared that they would sink any vessel that entered the waters surrounding Britain, it is true that a handful of Americans died when the Germans sunk the British ship Lusitania and the French ship Sussex. However, the deaths of these civilians is not what drew the U.S. into the war. Germany broke several pledges it had made with the U.S. concerning what it would and would not sink in the waters surrounding Britain. The violation of these pledges is what caused Wilson to ask congress for a declaration of war. Not once was the U.S. or any U.S. ship attacked before we entered that war.

Second, the fact that we do get involved in so many foreign affairs when our right to be there is questionable is part of the reason why the U.S. is hated by other nations. We were not attacked but still entered Vietnam, a "war" which we arguably had no reason to be involved in, yet still were despite the fact that the Viet Cong never did anything to us. Even though you have not really studied the Vietnam war, I'm sure you realize there was great social unrest in the U.S. at that time, and it was largely due to our involvement in a "police action" that many people disagreed with.

Additionally, the U.S. entered the Korean war without being attacked. We fought in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War in an attempt to stem the spread of Communism in Asia.

As for the fall of the USSR, we did not work with Afghanistan to help bring down the USSR. At the time that we gave aid to Afghanistan, the USSR was invading Afghanistan. The fall of the USSR didn't come until several years after that, and it was a generally peaceful process, spurred mostly by economic reasons.

Anyway, in general I agree with you that history does tend to repest itself, but some of your examples of it are not correct. I'm really not trying to be a "know-it all", it's just that you only weaken your valid argument by pointing to facts that are wrong.
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