The once great German Army is now a laughing stock ...

[dogtag]

They were stupid to try then, they are stupid to let their country die now. Stupid is as stupid does. In WW2 the dumb asses thought they were going to take on the US without a production 4 engine bomber. Sounds like they believed that super race crap. We showed them the errors of their ways, just like we did with the Japs. At least the Japs lasted a little longer until Little Boy and Fat Man said "Hi".

You seem to forget that at the outbreak of war in 1939, America, like Britain was
almost totally unarmed. Had Chamberlain declared war instead of "Peace in our time"
Britain would have been invaded. The captured Royal Navy, the Italian, the French plus
it's own Navy would have given Germany a formidable navel force. The US had not built
the Enterprise or the Missouri yet, and her old cage mast "dreadnoughts" would have
lasted about as long as a Mayfly. Add to that the Imperial Japanese fleet and you've
got the real possibility of invasion. As unprepared as she was, America could have succumbed.

Chamberlain gets a bad rap from people who are ignorant of the facts.
He knew he could not oppose Hitler until Britain was ready, so he ordered
re-armamament "on the double" and put Lord Beaverbrook in charge.
It was also Chamberlain who declared war on Germany in 1939.

[togor]

Chamberlain, with his Tory businessman's sensibility, sincerely thought Hitler had a price and that it was his job to find it. Being of a certain sort of Englishman he stubbornly resisted counsel that offered a dissenting view.

The idea that the Chamberlain government was cannily buying time with it's appeasement of Hitler is nothing more than putting afterwards the best possible face on a collosal lapse of judgement. Had France, with England's backing, chased the German Army back over the Rhine in '36 then the Hitler government collapses. Chamberlain was Exchequer then, and genuinely felt like all Tories save a few in the Churchill clique that Bolshevism was the real threat and Herr Hitler was a bulwark against it, and that there was no compelling reason this arrangement could not continue indefinitely if Herr Hitler's price could be determined. That would certainly be cheaper than an expensive rearmament program. So Chamberlain's bean counter logic ushered in WW2.

[Mark in Ottawa]

Bostonbound: I don't really think that most Canadians want these people who are crossing our borders illegally and creating enormous costs for the provincial and municipal governments. The mayor of Toronto and the new Premier of Ontario (like a US state governor) have just told our prime minister that they expect him to pay the cost and not create a problem and dump the cities and provinces with the bill. There have been about 20,000 people (mostly Haitians but also some Africans) who have crossed from the US to Canada in the last 6 months. Really, we don't mind of you keep them all.

As far as our military spending is concerned, yes we are not spending enough and haven't been for a long time. Having said that, virtually everyone in a Canadian combat arm unit has served in Afghanistan at some point, many of them more than once. We have a lot of troops in the Baltic now, as a tripwire against Russia. We have sent ships to combat piracy in the Horn of Africa and we are now sending troops to Mali. Recently one of our snipers in Iraq recently fired the longest provable kill shot in history and 3 of the top 4 sniper kills are by Canadians (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longes...d_sniper_kills). Our military may not be big but they have a lot of combat experience and we have nothing to be ashamed of.

[S.A. Boggs]

Bostonbound: I don't really think that most Canadians want these people who are crossing our borders illegally and creating enormous costs for the provincial and municipal governments. The mayor of Toronto and the new Premier of Ontario (like a US state governor) have just told our prime minister that they expect him to pay the cost and not create a problem and dump the cities and provinces with the bill. There have been about 20,000 people (mostly Haitians but also some Africans) who have crossed from the US to Canada in the last 6 months. Really, we don't mind of you keep them all.

As far as our military spending is concerned, yes we are not spending enough and haven't been for a long time. Having said that, virtually everyone in a Canadian combat arm unit has served in Afghanistan at some point, many of them more than once. We have a lot of troops in the Baltic now, as a tripwire against Russia. We have sent ships to combat piracy in the Horn of Africa and we are now sending troops to Mali. Recently one of our snipers in Iraq recently fired the longest provable kill shot in history and 3 of the top 4 sniper kills are by Canadians (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longes...d_sniper_kills). Our military may not be big but they have a lot of combat experience and we have nothing to be ashamed of.

Canada has everything to be proud of as a warrior army. As for not paying enough, Canadian Club could be a good throw in. As to the "foreigners" that slip from our shores, perhaps Canada and America could put them on some of our mothballed ships and do a ferry from one of your ports with a one way trip south. Then again, California has a liking for them as well.
Sam

[Dolt]

You seem to forget that at the outbreak of war in 1939, America, like Britain was
almost totally unarmed. Had Chamberlain declared war instead of "Peace in our time"
Britain would have been invaded. The captured Royal Navy, the Italian, the French plus
it's own Navy would have given Germany a formidable navel force. The US had not built
the Enterprise or the Missouri yet, and her old cage mast "dreadnoughts" would have
lasted about as long as a Mayfly. Add to that the Imperial Japanese fleet and you've
got the real possibility of invasion. As unprepared as she was, America could have succumbed.

Chamberlain gets a bad rap from people who are ignorant of the facts.
He knew he could not oppose Hitler until Britain was ready, so he ordered
re-armamament "on the double" and put Lord Beaverbrook in charge.
It was also Chamberlain who declared war on Germany in 1939.

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts we would all have a Merry Christmas! I love the intercourse we have on this site!