Re: OT Conversations during Turkey Day

Jan, with all due respect to your father (I also have a WWII vet in my
family unit), one point to consider is this (it was addressed in an article
about the possibilities for post-war reconstruction in Iraq):

Germany & Japan (not sure about S. Korea) were already industrialized
countries before WWII; when given aid, they could & did rebuild.  I find it
difficult to imagine that the same could ever be said of Iraq.  (Admittedly,
I don't have any statistics to cite about German or Japanese citizens
trashing the infrastructures of their own countries to compare with the
sabotaged facilities in Iraq.)

As for Vietnam, I don't think there were any winners there.  I do, however,
admire George Aiken from Vermont, who suggested that the US simply "declare
victory and leave."

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC



"~ jan JJsPond.us" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I'm sure someone can tear down this light-hearted history in a nut shell,
> but.....
>
> Interesting conversation that I could hear from the kitchen during Turkey
> Day. My dad's teaches English to Agricultural Japanese students. They got
> into a conversation about America always going to war. To which my dad
> said, the countries we go to war with always come out ahead. We beat
> Germany and now they are a rich country. We beat Japan, they became a rich
> country, S.Korea, ditto and when we're done with Iraq they will become the
> richest country in the middle east.
>
> To which the Japanese student said, but what about Vietnam?
>
> He said, We didn't win that war. ;o)~ jan
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>
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