not all of them
 
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Polaris Squadron Commander/VEDJ JRN/ESN MegaDeth/Polaris 1-1/Wing I/mSSD Atrus/VE/VEN/VEDJ (=A=) (=SA=) (=JCPA=) (=SCPA=) [CoB] [VP] [BRC] [VC: E] [VP-VEDJ] [SoV] [IEM]

    "To all the World, To all my friends, I love you all, Now I must leave you." - Dave Mustaine
A Tout Le Monde

Bon, Argon, tu parle Francais aussie!
 
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"The point of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other &*@#$% die for his!"
                                                 -General Patton

FM/LCRW Chipmunk Man/Viper 1-4/Phoenix/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=A=)

Ya, it's pretty funny.   "Salut. Ca va?"   "What? You speak French? Oh, maybe you're not as repulsive as we thought..."
 
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"The point of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other &*@#$% die for his!"
                                                                                               -General Patton

"Life is about the memories we make, and the duty to remember those who came before us."
                                                                                               -Chipmunk Man

FM/LCRW Chipmunk Man/Viper 1-4/Phoenix/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=A=)

LOL!  I could talk to you in German too....  Heck, I can even do a little Spanish.  Hey, anyone want to teach me a little Japanese or Mandarin?  Maybe even Russian? 
 
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Argon Viper
IW COL Argon Viper{ret}
Fallen Angel and Proud of It!
"History is on the move, those who cannot keep up will watch from a distance, and those who get in our way will not watch at all" - Grand Admiral Thrawn
"In combat, second place is only the last to die."- Anonymous
"Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses" - Carl G Jung

    Well, we do have freedom of speech.  That freedom of speech also reserves our right to disrespect the French for what they are doing.     Germany has a good reason to stay out of the war.  As their diplomat put it when talking to my brother, I may paraphrase a bit:  We support America, we love America, but our country has caused too much grief to enter another war that could possibly escalate.     By this I take it he is talking about the two WWs
 
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Lance Raiders Squad
Wildcard Platoon
Army of the Vast Empire
TRP/CPL Swomz/3SQD/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [ES1] [IH]
"War is for those who are willing to die for a cause, that is why I have learned to respect our enemies." -Swomz

Vous ne pas parlez francais tres bien.  Il est un peu, et il est aussi. (You do not speak french very well.  It is pew, and it is aussi)
 
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TRP/LCP JR/3SQD/2PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE[LoR]
"I think my new thing will be to try to be a real happy guy. I'll just walk around being real happy until some jerk says something stupid to me."
Jack Handey

JR, it's only my second year of it, give me a break 
 
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Argon Viper
IW COL Argon Viper{ret}
Fallen Angel and Proud of It!
"History is on the move, those who cannot keep up will watch from a distance, and those who get in our way will not watch at all" - Grand Admiral Thrawn
"In combat, second place is only the last to die."- Anonymous
"Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses" - Carl G Jung

The best statistics I could get:

1992; 102 cases of cholera in the United States
2000; 35 cases of cholera in the European continent (Greenland to Russia to Turkey to Portugal, a population of approx 3.5 times that of the US)


To show what I mean, I'll give you a nice little scenario:


United States, Year 2010 AD

Following a terrorist attack by Danish freedom fighters at war with the Cambodians, the New York Stock Exchange has crashed, putting the US into the greatest recession since the 1930's - worse, in fact. Interest rates have been hiked up and inflation has tripled overnight.
Wisconsin Water Company suffered badly from this; it quickly went bankrupt and "went under" into "liquidation" (excuse the puns). Because of the market crash, the price of oil per barrel rose from $30 to $80. The Government has had to spend vast amounts of money importing oil, as they have a dependance on the commodity - this means they had almost no money for other vital commodities, such as water.
Wisconsin Water Company did not receive a single cent from the US Government.
Within a week, Wisconsin was at the centre of a huge Cholera epidemic.
Thousands died.


United Kingdom, Year 2010 AD

Following the Danish terrorist attacks and the fall of the NYSE, the London Stock Exchange also fell. Stirling become almost worthless, and inflation skyrocketed to almost 200%.
Wolverhampton Water Company was hit badly, and looked to go bankrupt. However, due to the company being a Public Corporation, it was one of the first to receive government handouts (who borrowed the money from the World Bank).
Wolverhampton Water Company kept the water flowing.




In the UK, water companies are private-public partnerships. They are duty bound to put the service before the profit; meaning we have some of the cheapest water in the industrilised world.

In the UK, each household pays a certain amount of money (in the region of £100, or $150) each year; for this, they get unlimited water. If the company does not break even with this money, government taxes make sure they do.

In some companies for the US, you are charged depending on how much water you use. If you have a family of 10, the toilet could be flushed 20 times a day. The shower could be used 10 times a day, and washing dishes.. I don't even want to think about it. If you have a family this size, then chances are you won't have a lot of money.

This is capitalism in action.




If you were to trawl through the many miles of red tape, legislation, common laws and government bills which make up the British Constitution, you would see that some of the most basic rights are the right to live.

The right to free health care if you need it; free education; fairly priced water; shelter; and so on.



One of the biggest causes of terrorism is the American way of promoting their ideas of liberty and freedom through their beloved constitution.


A constitution which barely touches on education, health, food and water.



Your average starving African really does not give a flying frog about his right to keep his mouth shut in a courtroom.

Hey I suggest reading it over, those are interesting pointers Bear put in there as an example. I know as an American, you are probably biased to the states and decide to ignore international ideals, but he does bring out several valid points.
 
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TRP/CPL Kjerri/2SQD/1PLT/1COM/1BAT/1RGT/VEA/VE [LoR] [LM]
"I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day...tomorrow isn't looking good either."

Well said, although you worded that abit better then some others. And yes, I just lost a page by my computer crashing, so I'm abit bitter :P

Bear, your statistics from the US are from 1992, but Europe is 2000. If you could find more recent data from the US (ideal would be same year as Europe), you could make a more accurate comparrison. One would also have to consider the population. For example, a town with ten people and 9 cases can't be compared to 100,000 people and 9 cases. Perentages are a much better representation of a population than raw data (gotta hate statistics class).
 
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"The point of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other &*@#$% die for his!"
                                                                                             -General Patton

"Life is about the memories we make, and the duty to remember those who came before us."
                                                                                             -Chipmunk Man

FM/LCRW Chipmunk Man/Viper 1-4/Phoenix/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=A=)

Ho ho ho, my plan has worked perfectly!

Now that you're all confused beyond belief, I can claim anything and you will all murmur in a form of agreement! Ho ho ho!

Unfortuently, I've confused myself.

Ho ho ho!



Anyway, right, my point, or 3 of them:


Water

American control of Iraq

Arsenic



You may or may not be aware that thanks to (gasp) Clinton (Europes favourite President), arsenic levels in American water have had very little regulation (in comparison to other industrilised countries, at least).

Luckily, although this seems to be more for public relations than for safety, George Bush is taking steps to remedy this. Slowly. But its still a good thing to do, so I applaud him for it (thats not something you'll see often. If someone wants to print that out and put it in a secure bank account in the Cayman Islands, I'd be grateful).

Now the US is controlling Iraq (and I mean controlling.. the port of Um Qasar is under the control of the American Government, who are charging Iraqi's a toll to use it, and the Iraqi whatever it was (pound?) has now been replaced as national currency by the US dollar), they will put in place a set of rules similar to their constitution. Right to free speech, fair trial, etc etc. All good stuff.

They will also bring in equipment to get the water system going properly, to supply the entire country.

They are, however, highly unlikely to bring in the anti-arsenic filters used in Europe, Canada, Australasia and other parts of the world, but not the US.

Right now, the Iraqi's need water more than the right to trial by jury.

The US is likely to place the same rules and regulations on Iraq as they place on themselves.


Arsenic levels in water remaining unsafe;

Not signing the international law on human rights for the child (or whatever it is), the law stating that minors can not be executed, and only unsigned by the USA, Iraq, Libya and Iran (correct me if I'm wrong). Basically, its unlikely this will be signed by Iraq in the next year or two;

International landmine treaty. Heres a thought for you: Osama and his ballistic buddies flew a plane into a building. If they had only killed millitary personnell, they would, in theory, be soldiers. However, they were indiscriminate; if there were soldiers in the WTC, it was a coincidence that the terrorists killed them. Much like landmines - they don't aim to kill soldiers, they're indiscriminate - some would go as far to call them terrorist weapons. Neither Iraq or the US has signed this treaty, and Iraq is unlikely to do so until their government is set up, apparently in a years time;

The list goes on.





So you see, this is what I'm saying:

Iraq, and pretty much every country in the world, needs a constitution which talks about the right to life; to clean drinking water; to live free from fear of war and persecution; yadda yadda yadda. And, of course, all the justice and freedom stuff that the American one has.

That is what your average Palestinian probably wants. And your average Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Columbian, Northern Irishman, Checynan, etc etc etc.




So, please, instead of spouting out endless claptrap about how every Libyan has the right to vote for who they want to be National Camel Herder, start signing some landmine treaties, withdraw money from right wing rebel groups (who are referred to as "freedom fighters", unlike their communist opposites, referred to as "terrorists"), and set an example.


And for gods sake, let people go and visit the Statue of Liberty again. I would bet money that that is the sole reason why the French hate you so much.



Cheers.

1.  People visit the statue all the time.  I still get mail from the Ellis Island foundation.

2.  Unless you are one of these oppressed people, quit trying to speak for them.  You are worse than the American government you presume to hate in your pompous attitude in thinking you know what is right for them.  At least they have asked somebody on the ground what they might like.  It may be the local dictator but that's a hell of a lot more research than you have done.

3. If you hate this country so much, just stay the hell out and quit commenting on it.  Much like turning off a television show that offends you, avoidance DOES appear to solve the problem on an individual level.
 
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PRF/MG Fury/VEA/TADATH/VE [SCP][PoC][SotE:HC][SotE:VEA][IOC]
Stormtrooper Corps Prefect
Shopkeeper - Imperial Center

Some time ago, the European Community, mainly led by the French, voted to make massive cuts to fishing in the North Sea. Scotland is one of the principle fishers in this sea, and stands to loose most from it.

It looked like there could be some sort of deal - either reducing French, Norweigan, Danish etc fleets further to limit the damage to Scotland. However, along came the Bush & Blair brothers and tore Europe apart. The chances of Scottish fishing ever recovering are minimal at best.

A lot of people round here stand to loose their homes.

So please write to your President and tell him that when he keeps his nose out of Europe, we'll keep our noses out of America. I'm sure thats more than fair.

Cheers.

I think we all need to take a big step back. Anti-war, pro-war, anti-American, pro-American. Step back and reexamine your beliefs and opinions, anylaze your statements, and do a little research. Once completed, we can go back to a civilized debate with supporting facts, instead of a shouting match. And please remember the title of this thread. Thank you.
 
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
-Albert Einstien

"Life is about the memories we make, and the duty to remember those who came before us."
-Chipmunk Man

FM/LCRW Chipmunk Man/Viper 1-4/Phoenix/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE/(=A=)