Re: LOTR and 20th Century Western European Prejudices

"Öjevind Lång" wrote:
> 
> "Jordan179" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> skrev i meddelandet
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > It's not a matter of US bases in Europe, it's a matter of US military
> > might as a whole. If America were to withdraw from the world -- back
> > to the sort of isolationism that we practiced in the 1920's and 1930's
> > -- America would cease to be a major target for the Islamicists.
> 
> America would stop monitoring the world (particularly the Middle East) and
> no longer send troops and agents to ensure its political and economic
> hegemony and its supply of oil? That is unlikely to happen.
> 

Don't kid yourself.  There's an isolationist streak in this
country a mile wide, and there always has been.  It damn
near caused us to stand by and watch while the fascists
overran Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, and it hasn't gone
away; it was just quiescent during the Cold War -- and not
all that quiescent in the latter stages.  

And to be blunt, we don't need to import oil.  So far we
have chosen to do so, since a blocking minority exists to
prevent us from constructing nuclear power plants in
sufficient numbers.  

Europe has two basic choices:  They can have the U.S.
engaged in the world, or not.  In the former case, you would
be far better off cooperating with us, a la the U.K. and the
New Europe, than confronting us, as the Franco-German
leaders would have it.
In the latter case, you had better be damned sure that you
are ready to deal with the very real threats to your way of
life that still exist out there, on your own, without any
help from us.

-- 
Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable
from malice. -- seen on Usenet, 10/22/03 (with apologies to
Arthur C. Clarke)