[Destro]

The "Muslim Turks" were the major force for secularism and modernity in the Islamic world.

Proves your ignorance. The birth of Turkish modernity and secularisim only happened after WW1 with Attaturk and he was barely civilized.

Germany and Austria were a blight on civilization and deserved their just fate - twice.

[saradippity]

Didn't Germany try to get in on the cut? I heard they were tired of being used as a conduit to redirect the money flow from "capitalists" to "communists",two sides of the same coin. Kind of like democrats and republicans in the U.S.,these days.

Altho,observing the passing scene,I think maybe our President is a little too independent than the folks who placed him would like him to be. I seriously wonder if he really wants us to be where we are. I often think NOT.

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

The United States and England have done far worse, not only to foreigners, but to their own citizens, or -- in the case of the U.S. -- those unfortunate natives who happened to be in the path of its expansion.

Unless of course, you are one of those who believes in "my country right or wrong", which is evidently the case.

For an American to call any other nation a blight on civilization is the ultimate hypocrisy. Look around you.

"America is the first country to have gone from barbarism to decadence without the usual intervening period of civilization." -- Oscar Wilde