^ This is a surprisingly large figure. Are you confusing "occupying" (which implies controlling the govment and people by force) with "maintaining a presence in"? Plankton can explain the difference, I imagine, because he was stationed in Germany as part of a continuing US military presence there. I don't think he would have considered himself as part of an occupying force and nor should he have.

^ I agree with Exo, and especially the bolded. I'm no fighter either, but in the face of physical aggression, it's a natural response to physically protect what is yours - and that applies at an individual, tribal and national level. During the First World War, the military authorities in Britain had this question for people who claimed to be pacifists, "If you saw an enemy soldier raping your sister, what would you do?" There were some true courageous pacifists who wouldn't resort to violence, but most people, of course, opted for a violent solution. As such they were considered not morally so far from fighting men and therefore suitable for conscription.

Ja I was just going by military presence. Still concerning.

I once crushed a roach with a dictionary, and a little white semi-transparent roach with a halo and a harp rose up from his flattened corpse and disappeared into the ceiling with a tiny flash of light.

Why?

Also, how small is the presence? According to this we had a grand total of 8 members of the US military in Ireland in 2011. Does that mean the people in question were just guards for the embassy or something?

That's a beautiful story, Janszoon.

He told me he forgave me. I could tell it wasn't in English or any other human language, and yet I understood.

If China ends up building a military base in California will you not be concerned?

Might be a little late, but is anybody really surprised that Madden is the game that enraged somebody enough to shoot up a tournament?

Luckily we don't have Monopoly tournaments.