doctorwhofan said:
1. you forgot the National Guard, and the reserves.
2. Patriotism? Where's the research on that? It's more greed. "Get off my property, you (fill in blank here)" than patriotism. We will repell all invaders just because it would mess up our lifestyle, rather than patriotism.
3. I dunno the stats, but I believe you are combining all four armed forces numbers. Guess what? Air Force and Half the Navy are not exactly "soldiers" Trust me, I know.
The stat for the army includes the national guard and reserves, and was taken from Wikipedia, and the patriotism thing may be partly due to the fact that us foreigners only see the patriotic crap spewed out by your media (especially the aforementioned FOX news, which we get occasional clips of on the BBC. As satire, these clips would make me laugh, but as serious news, they depress me.
Alone Disciple said:
You don't live near San Diego do you? Please see: CA, TX, AZ....They have been invaded for years. I know, I'm a taxpayer there.
I'm English.
Tahyldras said:
I'm surprised that no-one has commented on the EM Pulse generated from nukes... Several large nukes detonated in the upper atmosphere and spread out over the US would basically fuck up any electronic device more complicated than a torch (unless it's properly defended against such an attack) over the most of the US mainland.
Many nukes (easily enough to wipe out the major cities of any attacking country) are stored in underground bunkers, and would be fired in retaliation. I don't get that people are suggesting nuclear warefare. I thought the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction was obviously stupid, and especially to people who lived during the Cold War or who have watched the excellent film Dr Strangelove.
Brockyman said:
Guns don't "create" crime. They do allow for people that want to commit crimes to have a bit easier go of it, but the same crimes can be committed with other weapons and tools. At the same time, a gun can protect the weak from the strong, and allow good to keep evil at bay.
I hate being constantly told this. If someone wants to kill someone else, they are far more likely to do so if they have a gun, than if they only have a hammer. Using a melee weapon is very difficult, as the person you are trying to kill may kill you in self defence, and poison has been mostly abandoned as the police can easily find it. A gun just requires you to aim and twitch your index finger to make their brains exit their right eye. Comparing the murder rates (murders per 100,000 people) of the US, with the murder rates of the UK, the US has almost a 4 times higher murder rate (5.6 vs 1.4) as of 2007.
Bulletinmybrain said:
Here is an interesting fact: The VA Tech incident could have been stoped if firearms were allowed to be held by the students. (Notably, there is a gunclub) But no, they banned them. Somebody still got onto campus with them and killed 30 people.
Another argument I hate. What is to stop them commiting murders on the campus (Not killing sprees, just shooting someone and running). The more places that are gun-free the better.
Bob the Average said:
Secondly I wouldn't call the media as rabidly patriotic every one but fox spent the last eight years whining about every time Bush pooped (of course now they praise anything Obama does). As far as the Nazi thing goes: firstly hell no, second no one has proclaimed America to be superior to all others and no president in our history has had such silly facial hair.
From what I've seen, FOX is about as right wing as the Nazis, still occasionally complaining about communism (In their coverage of the mass protests in London regarding the economy months ago). Regarding the facial hair, Hitler ruined the excellent Charlie Chaplain moustache, which the bastard copied to try to be popular.
Also, sorry about forgetting to use the search button.
