Posted on 07/27/2012 6:00:55 AM PDT by C19fan
Top political figures in Britain have been queuing up to criticise Mitt Romney after he kicked off his first foreign tour by publicly questioning whether London would be able to run the Olympics smoothly. The most high-profile humiliation came when thousands of Brits jeered him after London's Mayor Boris Johnson mocked him at a concert to mark the end of the Olympic Torch relay. However, behind the scenes officials were even more scathing about the Republican presidential hopeful, describing his visit as a 'car crash' and comparing him unfavourably to Sarah Palin. Another official who met with the former Governor of Massachusetts said he was 'apparently devoid of charm, warmth, humour or sincerity'.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
What we object to, ALL we object to, is the ‘we saved you’ drivel. THAT’S when we tend to play the 1941 card as a retort.
Yes, there have been mistakes.
We never said we were perfect. And frankly given 1996, we are a little miffed/surprised to see Americans criticising Olympic organisation.
And even criticising security, given that the world’s greatest military power was blindsided 11 years ago by 19 civilians with boltcutters.
It comes across as short-memoried and hypocritical.
You’re wasting keystrokes. The British narrative is that we got into the war late, as if it were some kind of mutually-agreed upon game to which we had been tardy. In truth, we fought Germany mainly because of sentimental ties to Britain (in spite of equally strong sentimental ties to Ireland, Italy and Germany), but the average Brit seems to think we were late to the game, as if it were any of our business, in the first place.
_________________________
Their egos seem to require an alternate history, but facts are facts. Perhaps next time they need something they can ask Iran for help.
We did save you. Without Lend Lease, you'd be speaking German today. Without direct American intervention, hundreds of thousands of additional Brits would have died in that war, either in defeat or in retaking North Africa and continental Europe. And that's just WWII. Without American intervention in WWI, hundreds of thousands of additional British servicemen would have died and the war might have ended in a defeat rather than a victory. The only occasions on which British troops have fought in proximity with American troops in which American sovereignty was in jeopardy were during the War of Independence and the War of 1812.
While I'm sure our cousins across the water would jump in on our side if we were invaded, it ain't happened, yet. Until that happens, and Britain sustains large casualties in doing so you kind of owe us, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.
‘We did save you. Without Lend Lease, you’d be speaking German today. Without direct American intervention, hundreds of thousands of additional Brits would have died in that war, either in defeat or in retaking North Africa and continental Europe. And that’s just WWII. Without American intervention in WWI, hundreds of thousands of additional British servicemen would have died and the war might have ended in a defeat rather than a victory. The only occasions on which British troops have fought in proximity with American troops in which American sovereignty was in jeopardy were during the War of Independence and the War of 1812.’
No you didnt.
Firstly, Britain was safe by late 1940. We had won the BoB and had slowly turned the tide in the Atlantic. We werent and would not have been strong enough to re-invade Europe, N Africa and the Med without American and Canadian troops and support, but that dosent mean you saved us or that we would have been defeated.
The Germans could only have defeated us in summer 1940. And they failed. At worst, the British would sans America have been in a stalemate with Germany and Italy, certainly Germany (the UK could have still knocked Italy out of the war as it did in N Africa in 1940-41 and crippled the Italian Navy in 1940).
Britain couldnt have won the war without America and Canada (who were actually our biggest supplier of arms and material btw, not America). And the Commonwealth and Empire.
Without the US-Canadian armies, we couldnt have solely taken on and defeated the Nazis and Italians, Vichy French and the Japs. Also of course the huge USSR contribution which kept 75% of all Germans away from the West....
BUT America couldnt have won the war without the British. Without our (then still) huge resources, manpower and material and those of Canada, India, NZ, SA, Australia.
American troops would never have landed in Europe or N Africa without the Royal Navy. And the RAF.
79% of all ships on D-Day were British, as was 50% of all air cover.
In fact without the predominately British-Canadian victory in the Battle of the Atlantic, US troops would never have crossed the sea....
And where would America have been without the British nuclear secrets OR the British codebreakers?. Or the many British technological breakthroughs (Colossus, Bailey Bridge, PLUTO, the Mulberry Harbours etc etc)?......
So the idea that America saved us is pure fiction. And insulting.
Secondly, you are clearly unaware of ‘reverse lend lease’, where Britain GAVE America £1.2B (thats $12b) in arms and material from Jan 1942 to Sept 1945. A lend lease thats been forgotten.
You also make the huge mistake of assuming the British relied on lend lease for our military strength.....LL didnt build the Spitfire, Hurricane, all the great RN ships, all the British tanks of ww2, the Bren gun, the Sten........if you think we couldnt have built our arsenal without LL, you are wrong.
Thirdly, you are utterly utterly wrong on WW1. American troops didnt fight in large numbers until April/May 1918, and an American army didnt undertake a solo major offensive until SEPTEMBER 1918, at St Mihiel.
It was the British (along with French and Australian and Canadian troops) who took the brunt of the German counterattack in Easter 1918 (the ‘kaiserschlact’). And it was the BRITISH who bore the brunt of what became known as the ‘Hundred Day Offensive’ in the summer of 1918, that drove the Germans back to the German border. Frankly the Canadian and AUSTRALIAN units in 1918 did as much, if not more, to drive the Germans back.
And in ww1, half of all US troops carried across the Atlantic were carried by the Royal Navy. And ALL US troops taken from England to France were carried by the RN.
And the AEF in 1917-18 relied entirely on British and French tanks, airplanes and artillery pieces. And all US combat training in France was given by British and French officers and trainers.
The American contribution to WW1 and to 1918 and final victory, although helpful and brave, has been grossly exaggerated.
It was the British who won the Western Front in 1918. And I am not saying that because I am British. Its because its the truth.
Frankly, you really need to learn your British/Commonwealth WW1/WW2 history. Your ‘facts’ and assumptions are at best faulty and at worst simply nonsense.
Finally, we owe you thanks and respect for the brave American men who died 1917-18 and 1941-45. Nothing else.
"The last straw for me was when NBC showed the Ladies Figure Skating finals from two years ago on tape delay despite that fact that it was happening in Vancouver. Of course, NBC spent more time on not showing the premier event of the Winter Olympics and they only showed perhaps a half a dozen routines. I remember when ABC was broadcasting and they showed every routine live." --C19fan
Womens. Figure. Skating. Fanatic.
Ok then...
Again, you miss the basic point, which is that neither WWI nor WWII (in Europe) was our war - we participated for sentimental reasons despite foreknowledge of the massive casualties we would incur. If we hadn’t jumped in we wouldn’t have lost 400K men. British contributions to allied campaigns with the US since WWII have involved less than 2,000 dead, from Korea through Iraq. 400K is a lot more than 2K. You yourself have said that you could have done without American intervention. Without that intervention, that 400K dead would have been British dead. It’s that simple.
And nothing reinforces our natural sense of superiority as watching the country we **** all over when they owned 25% of the world continually reduced and reduced and reduced to a small vassal state of the EU. Scotland will go in a couple years. NI will certainly follow. I suppose Wales figures they have nothing better but you never know. Once its just little England all alone again it won’t be long until the city decides its tired of carrying all that dead weight.
Watching our lapdogs go from an empire to a city in the span of less than century certainly does provide quite the laugh and help take ones mind of the business of running the world.
Again, in war, the coin of gratitude isn’t words, and definitely not insults - it’s human sacrifice of the kind we contributed towards Britain’s wars. And in those terms, the UK is a long way from repaying the debts incurred within living memory.
Yep, absolutely disgraceful.
This is the same country that basically loathed Churchill pretty much his entire career so saying you’re going to bring back his bust means nothing to them.
My negative impressions were formed by observing young people in Carlisle and York, mainly--but they seemed to be typical English towns.
Anyway there are still plenty of countries I am hoping to get to for the first time.
We never said we were perfect either, NED.
I don’t give a flying eff if you and your empire-mates are miffed or tiffed or even poofed, for that matter.
That fact that you and Cameron and all the rest have your freakin’ panties in a knot over a bland (as usual) but accurate comment by Romney only indicates, one, how insecure you all are and, two, the cowardly limits to which your indignation inspires you to action: i.e., sneering about 9-11 while knotting your tinkled and tattered panties.
Piss off Schemie-boy!
We lost 750,000 dead in WW1. Another 1.5m badly injured. Another 2.5m permanently disabled. Another 65000 from shell shock or gas. And thousands of British civilians killed by German bombing.
In ww2, we lost nearly 450000 men and women and children, 382000 military and 61000 civilians.
Our country was bombed and blockaded. Our cities reduced to rubble night after night. We bankrupted an Empire and a nation to fight the Nazis and Fascism, a fight we fought alone for a long time.
The British ‘owe’ nothing.
We have paid our dues in blood.
And then some.
Well over a million dead, millions maimed, injured, missing, made homeless.
And you think we owe the world?.
We?.
Funny coming from a user named after a famous Canadian.
Its still a great country.
I could form a negative impression of America just as easily, remember. From my visits and from the media, tv, film.
I didnt and wouldnt sneer about Sept 11th, my point was that to criticise other’s security, when the security of the world’s most powerful nation and military were ‘defeated’ by civilians with the most basic tools (literally), is short memoried and hypocritical.
Americans have NO right to criticise our security.
Why? Simple: 1996 Atlanta and 2001 NY. Get your own security in order before you attack others......
I was making a valid point. NOT sneering.
Yes, Romney’s comments werent appallingly offensive, but the fact remains that to do so in another country where you are the guest is rude. If Cameron did it in the US, it would be rude and no doubt he’d be a pompous Limey/Euro and rightly get criticised.
Had Obama made the exact same comments, you and everyone here would be attacking him for it.
Are Americans aware of just how many major sports events and tournaments Great Britain hosts and has hosted in recent years?. And how many it is due to host just this decade?.
Not one so far with any violence, terrorism or problem. From Glasgow to London, Cardiff to Edinburgh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_sports_event_hosting_in_Britain_during_the_2010s
Are Americans aware of just how many major sports events and tournaments Great Britain hosts and has hosted in recent years?. And how many it is due to host just this decade?.
Not one so far with any violence, terrorism or problem. From Glasgow to London, Cardiff to Edinburgh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_sports_event_hosting_in_Britain_during_the_2010s
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.