Mein Gott! America is the new Germany

The Times (U.K.) ^ | 06/21/03 | Matthew Parris

[bribriagain]

"about what?"

About Americans of German ancestry. Your posts in general are off the mark, imho.

[Shermy]

"A group of prominent intellectuals and activists formed the Project for the New American Century, for the purpose of influencing American foreign policy. Some of these thinkers were advocating the overthrow of Iraq well before Dubya ran for President, so it seems fair to treat them as important."

The problem I have with identifying conservatives with overthrowing Iraq is it's not historically accurate. So did liberals. So did Clinton/Gore who initiated regime change and made it our policy.

2003 was a result of 2001. We were engaged, militarily in Iraq throughout that time. The bombings, the inspections. Hindsight's easy to invoke, but the only people it benefitted were the other OPEC members - suppression of Iraqi competition and usurpation of previous Iraqi Opec production allotments.

We had 3 choices. Pull out - thousands of Kurds we were predicting would be dead, among other things. "Containment" - continue that for how long? Finish the job.

9/11 gave Bush the "fire in the belly: to finish our 12 year war of attrition.

Many people thought it should be finished. The "2003" Iraq war wasn't whipped up out of nowhere. It came from our, and the UK's, being stuck there in the firstplace.

[jagrmeister]

Foreigners often misread America. As a melting pot, we largely leave old allegiances behind. Ethnocentrism gives way to a binding identity as Americans and what this country stands for, not a fixation with our lineage. Other countries, far more homogoneous than our own, and which deal with ethnic strife even still can't possibly imagine the harmony that exists in this nation of immigrants.

[DallasMike]

The story of my German great-great-great-grandfather, who came to Texas in 1838. Our eyes are similar and I could pick him out of a crowd as a relative. He could've used a better hair stylist.

[DallasMike]

Make that 1848.

[PJ-Comix]

Idiotic article. Dwight D. Eisenhower was of German descent but was there anything in his character that distinguished him from someone of British descent? All that was German about Eisenhower was his name.

[PJ-Comix]

Truman was English...

Actually Scotch-Irish. There is a difference.

[Thud]

Would you like the recipes which need an Igor to get the ingredients? Sour lung soup, brains with eggs, etc.?

[Prodigal Son]

Thoughts to posts number 7, 11, 44 and post number 50?
I did the best I could translating the first stanza.

[Thud]

We are ready to forsake a separate identity!

We still stand foursquare for the lifestyles of the Strong And Certain! True Courage is based on the ability to Face Up To The Facts without flinching, but True Wisdom is the ability to Make Others Face Up To The Facts!

[Thud]

German-Americans are Never wrong!

[Little Bill]

The Scots Irish genes do have an influence on your behavior, the results can vary. Truman is an English name, North of England, didn't his Grandfather use his Masonic connections to rip off Brigam Young, also a Mason, when he founded Utah, that is the story circulating in my family.

[Thud]

Tell that to the Swedes, Portuguese and Assyrians in my town. We left old allegiances behind but are ready, willing and eager to find new animosities, and practice miscegenation daily to create new opportunities for family feuds. There's an Inga Badal-Chamaki in my town's phonebook.

[Thud]

Nope, his family was Mennonite - aka a German Baptist sect. His shocked mother hid the war/military history books he collected as a kid.

[Dead Dog]

Aint that the truth. I'm German and Choctaw, and I have a hell of alot more in common with the Britts I know than any German national I've met. Nothing against Germans, but they remind me of cats.

[struwwelpeter]

I like this one better.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

I would every time....but my bloodlines are 3/4 Irish.

I'm only half... but the Irish rule.

[epow]

I assume the author is an Anglo-Saxon Englishman. I wonder if he knows who the Angles and Saxons were.

[MattAMiller]

Would you like the recipes which need an Igor to get the ingredients? Sour lung soup, brains with eggs, etc.?

I'd give it a whirl. Maybe I was dropped on my head as an infant but that stuff doesn't bother me. Bugs, brains, whatever. Somebody somewhere eats it without keeling over so why not give it a try?

[wideminded]

A guy I worked with had come from a well-known German company with offices in the US led by German managers. One day he noticed some of the Germans laughing heartily together. A coworker translated what they were saying: "Ha ha, America is our Mexico!".