In article
t,
(Leonard Martin) wrote:

Hyperpatriot American morons never listen to or watch international news.

snip

You do realize that this is posted to rec.radio.shortwave right.

Who is the moron now?

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

I agree that some of our government departments are huge. The
inefficiencies of our government are well known. Also well known are the
large amount of social welfare cheats. I guess we need a lot of people to
catch thes cheats though. We could decrease that numbe though if the
penalties for those cheats were much harder. Hard time maybe! As far as what
our country spends of defense, I believe it is necessary. I do believe that
we should not be in every police action though. The European countries and
also Japan do not spend a large percentage on defense because they are
depending on the U.S. to pull their, "chestnuts out of the fire", if
anything comes up. The United Nations is a joke and should go the way of
the League of Nations. A paper Tiger, especially with Kofi Anan at the
helm.

Mike Lindo
KG6IOC


--
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle
behind each blade of grass." --Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

"Dwight Stewart" wrote in message
link.net...

"Mike Lindo" wrote:
So, if what you say is true, where does
the money come from to pay for all
of those benefits?


Several facters. First, they generally have smaller governments.
Government is huge today, involved in some way or another in almost every
aspect of our lives. One or two of our government departments (say Health
&
Human Services and State) are almost as large as their entire civilian
government. Second, they hit corporations a little harder then we do here,
not a lot but somewhat harder. For example, business can't write off as
much. Finally, and here is a big one, they spend far less on defense. Our
defense costs are huge (annual military budget, debt, interest on debt,
research, retirement, medical benefits for injured vets, and so on). There
are certainly other facters, but these are the most obvious.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

"Mike Lindo" wrote:

(snip) The European countries and also
Japan do not spend a large percentage
on defense because they are depending
on the U.S. to pull their, "chestnuts out
of the fire", if anything comes up. (snip)


It angers me to see people in this country trashing Germany, Italy, and
Japan for not spending enough on defense. These countries have little choice
in the matter. The United States, with allies, set limits on the size and
character of their militaries following WWII. As such, it would take
significant changes to their laws to increase the size and capabilities of
their militaries (changes that would not likely be accepted by the USA, past
allies, or neighboring countries).

As for the other countries, both the UK and France have nuclear weapons
and can defend themselves, Switzerland and Sweden are long time neutrals,
Norway is a quasi-neutral, Spain is a quasi-neutral, Portugal is a
quasi-neutral, Austria is a quasi-neutral, and Russia still has one of the
largest militaries in the world. In the end, only the Netherlands, Denmark,
and Belgium are weak on defense, and that only because their populations are
too small to support a larger military.

So, if you want to see Germany, Italy, and Japan rearm, the people you
should be talking to are sitting in Washington. However, these are
independent countries with world views very different than our own. As such,
don't expect any more support for our global ambitions after these countries
rearm. Indeed, those renewed militaries may turn out to be a threat to those
ambitions.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

I don't think that that's the whole picture. Those countries use that as an
excuse not to participate in more peace keeping duties, in which the U.S.
has to fill the gaps, by these countries lack of full participation.
Changes in their laws probably will not happen due to their peoples lack of
willingness to participate in cleaning out the "rat nests" of the world. At
least until a few planes drop in an kill a few thousands of their citizens!


"Dwight Stewart" wrote in message
link.net...

It angers me to see people in this country trashing Germany, Italy, and
Japan for not spending enough on defense. These countries have little
choice
in the matter. The United States, with allies, set limits on the size and
character of their militaries following WWII. As such, it would take
significant changes to their laws to increase the size and capabilities of
their militaries (changes that would not likely be accepted by the USA,
past
allies, or neighboring countries).

Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

That would be great! Then they can feed the rest of the world and take the
burden off of the U.S. We wouldn't have to send so much of our tax dollars
out of the U.S.!

--

"Leonard Martin" wrote in message
t...

I'm putting my hope in Europe. It's developing quickly into a great
economic power, and as such it could counter the often-malign influence of
the US. I listen to all news about the European community that appears on
shortwave with the greatest interest.

Leonard

"Leonard Martin" wrote:

I'm putting my hope in Europe. It's
developing quickly into a great
economic power, and as such it
could counter the often-malign
influence of the US. I listen to all
news about the European community
that appears on shortwave with
the greatest interest.


Russia is still worth watching also. Russia still has the second largest
military in the world, a massive reserve of conventional and nuclear
weapons, a slowly recovering economy, a wealth of natural resources, and
growing trade with Western Europe. If they ever get their act back together,
they will be a major actor on the world stage again. And, thanks to that
growing trade, the future Russia will likely be very European.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

You demonstrate this regularly.

"Mike Lindo" wrote in message
om...

I don't think

Is that all you can say in your response? Nothing of substance?

Enough of this! This subject is off topic anyway. Goodbye.

--
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle
behind each blade of grass." --Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto


"CW" wrote in message
...
You demonstrate this regularly.

"Mike Lindo" wrote in message
om...

I don't think

I quoted the only meaningful thing you have said. Welcome to my kill file.


"Mike Lindo" wrote in message
m...
Is that all you can say in your response? Nothing of substance?

Enough of this! This subject is off topic anyway. Goodbye.

--
"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle
behind each blade of grass." --Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto


"CW" wrote in message
...
You demonstrate this regularly.

"Mike Lindo" wrote in message
om...

I don't think

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 16:30:35 GMT, "Mike Lindo"
wrote:

You don't mention that the working Europeans pay for all of that through
enormous taxation.

Depends on whether you call 21% + 8% social insurance "enormous
taxation" or not. Married, 1 child.

Volker
Soon to be EC3/EB3.