[americandream]

sixstring ignored me oif you will note.

Two points

1 Which America is he speaking of when he talks of foreign policing. His America of mortgages and modest incomes or that of the global capitalist who jet sets to his factory in China or oil field in Libya?

2 Which group is likely to benefit from the foreign policing and why would they ever want to decouple?

Ild love to see his response but as usual he will go on his deluded way. But there we are. The little man in oversized boots taking him nowhere.

[AndyA]

I finally had time to watch the doco. Starts with a false premise, so no wonder it ends up asking the wrong questions, and coming to wrong conclusions.

The US doesn't have bases in Germany and Japan etc, to defend Germany and Japan. LOL my goodness. Those bases were to prevent Japan and Germany from turning against the US and its allies after WWII. They are still serving that purpose, and rather well. The US doesn't disposes ruthless dictators et al. for humanitarian reasons, but they do dispose those whose plans run contrary to US interests. Look at which side they picked in Yugoslavia, both sides committed massive crimes, yet only one side was found guilty.

Nial Ferguson is pro US Empire, because he benefits from it, as he freely admits, but cheery picking his comments to fit the narrative, while not unusual is a bit lame. Though it does add some credibility.

Sixstrings, you have completely lost the plot WRT Crimea. They voted to become independent, then used said independence to join Russia, you have NFI of what annexation means. Now Kosovo, formerly part of Serbia, Yugoslavia (which the US was a party to a treaty which guaranteed the territorial integrity of) which you hold so dear as an example of US doing the right thing, simply declared independence, NO REFERENDUM! Given that there were Serbians living in Kosovo the outcome of any referendum was no way near what occurred in Crimea. Comparing Crimea to Kuwait is brainless. Serbia asked for a ruling from the World Court on the legality of a group on interim gov. declaring independence, and the World Court ruled it legal (at the urging of the US). So Crimea river. This is all legal, an follows international norms, you need to get over it, like the GOTUS had to.

[AndyA]

All of Europe and Russia would be speaking German today if not for the American Industrial capacity.

That is total bullshit. Even a cursory reading of WWII will show that Operation Barbarossa was a fatal mistake. As was Napoleons Russian invasion. Sure the league of nations, and the allied powers came in for the kill, but the killing blow had already been dealt.

[Strummer]

The USSR would not have been able to defend itself without the US lend and lease supplies (most importantly trucks), that's a historical fact. The mistake was not Barbarossa itself, but not taking Moscow and failing to take Leningrad. If those two cities fell, the USSR would collapse due to logistics (Moscow being the main railroad hub and Leningrad being the gateway to Murmansk and Archangelsk).

[americandream]

The USSR would not have been able to defend itself without the US lend and lease supplies (most importantly trucks), that's a historical fact. The mistake was not Barbarossa itself, but not taking Moscow and failing to take Leningrad. If those two cities fell, the USSR would collapse due to logistics (Moscow being the main railroad hub and Leningrad being the gateway to Murmansk and Archangelsk).

That's highly debateable as we have no way of knowing what might have happened without that option. What we do know is that that region is notoriously difficult to invade let alone hold and the Russians were fighting from an ideological perspective which alters the dynamics.