Europe Model Welfare State that American Liberals love can't sustain itself!

[sirs]

So now you are an expert on Europeans.

And yet another deflection.  You're no expert on Healthcare.....does that make any opinions on the matter invalid?  Not to be considered?  You're no expert on the military, having never served.  So should we can ignore any and all comments you may have that topic?  You're not a politician either, yet you opine incessantly on them, in particular, Republicans.  You're obviously no expert, so....we should be considering all those commentaries null & void??

I have no idea of who pays the bill for NATO and neither do you.

Actually, we do:

[Plane]

So now you are an expert on Europeans.

  I have been to Europe.

    The place is loaded with people who have a hopelessly provincial world view .

    And they think they know Americans well because they have watched a lot of our movies.

   They are mostly Democratic right now, but with the exception of Greece and Switzerland this is pretty recent, and only Switzerland seems to have found a formula for stability.

   Are you not sure that democracy is  present in places like Italy and Germany because there were Americans force feeding it to them one generation ago?

    Are you certain that democracy doesn't exist in places like Poland because there was American influence and threat?

   The end of WWI demonstrated the value of European style diplomacy, The aftermath of WWII demonstrated the value of a much more intrusive, assertive American presence.


    You know ,I suppose , that European diplomats almost killed Woodrow Wilson ?

[Xavier_Onassis]

Were you visiting the Europe on Planet Earth?

Every country in Europe is stable. They all have elections, none have coups, and the parties that are in often are followed by the opposition. In Europe you can actually vote for a party that has most of your beliefs. In the US we have two parties, and one of them is so replete with assholes that I would never even consider voting for it.  Europeans compromise and they allow for differences of opinion. This country is hideously polarized.  Europeans nearly all speak two or three languages. Americans are the provincial ones. They took Spanish/French in High school and have difficulty with menus at McDonalds.

The only real dictatorship in Europe is Belarus. The Russians certainly have difficulties with basic concepts at present, but Russia does have elections.

The French and the Italians did not need the American CIA plotting to keep the Christian Democrats in Italy and the Gaullists in power for so long. The CIA was the major OBSTACLE to democracy in France and Italy. The bought off the press, they did all sorts of dirty tricks.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Almost killed Woodrow Wilson!  The Horror! The Horror!

I am sure that is breaking news. Wilson was president when my father, who would be 112 years old, was a teenager.

The US had no business involving itself in WWI. This was done so that the Brits would be able to pay the House of Morgan all the money they borrowed.
Most of the casualties in WWI were the result of truly idiotic generals, very few of whom were ever close enough to a battle to be harmed

[Plane]

  You may brag of modern Europe.

   But so may Uncle Sam who taught them how.

    How much of what you are positing was true at any time before 1945?

 

[Xavier_Onassis]

I cannot visit Europe before 1945.

I can only visit the Europe that exists NOW.

The US helped (with huge assistance from the Soviets) to remove Hitler. The Marshall  Plan refinanced the rebuilding of Europe. Europeans did most of the rest. And it was Ger,ans, not that damned old Reagan that tore down the wall.

[sirs]

Professor Literal strikes again     

[Xavier_Onassis]

It is literally true that no one can visit the Europe of 1945.

It is also literally true that Reagan had very little to do with the end of the Berlin Wall.

[sirs]

And Plane didn't actually expect you to jump into a time machine when he was rhetorically asking the question.  And no, Reagan wasn't one of those literally taking down the wall, but his policies and his bully pulpit definately helped

[Xavier_Onassis]

So it was a dumb question, wasn't it?

The one person who was most influential in bringing down thew Berlin Wall, was Gorbachov, who decided not to send  Soviet troops to prevent the wall from being torn down.  It is somewhat problematical if the troops would have obeyed him, I suppose, but he was tired of Russia always being the Bad Guy. His attitude would not have changed if President Mondale had been in office.

[sirs]

No it wasn't.  It was rhetorical.  Context Professor Literal

And no one claimed Reagan alone brought the wall down.  Merely that he had a distinctive role in it

[Xavier_Onassis]

I did not claim at any point that anything I said was valid before 1945.

I was not referring to the Europe of 69 years ago. 

The countries are different and so are nearly all of the people that inhabit them.

[sirs]

AND NO ONE SAID YOU DID?  Good gravy

[Plane]

I did not claim at any point that anything I said was valid before 1945.

I was not referring to the Europe of 69 years ago. 

The countries are different and so are nearly all of the people that inhabit them.

   There it is!

     Europe has become a pretty decent place , during the time that it was occupied by the US.

     All previous times may very well be forgotten, the best history they have ever had is recent.

  The Soviets , just to make the experiment valid , kept about half of Europe strictly under European control, there was a certain number of people who tried to leave the American occupied area and live in the USSR dominated area, but the number that preferred the American way of occupation was orders of magnitude greater and necessitated the building of a wall to prevent the depopulation of the East.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Europe is not presently under American control.that is just silly.
The Russians are not exactly typical Europeans, nor do the think like Europeans.