Originally Posted by Anteater

To be fair, if America didn't use it first then Japan or Germany might have done it instead. It's not like taking America out of the picture would have stopped the development of nuclear weapons or that, say, Hitler or someone else might not have used one.

One of the reasons nukes aren't flying left and right is precisely because Hiroshima was so damn horrific. But I'm pretty sure someone was gonna get nuked no matter how you slice it.

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I'm pretty sure I know why Japan doesn't have nukes, but I imagine all those countries who have no ability to be any kind of top dog while also being the homeboys of a nuclear nation find no need to deal with that **** and don't want the scary **** that goes along with it. Basically Sweden is our beta male and smiles with our semen dripping out of their mouth. I'm honestly dubious that European democratic socialism isn't based on benefiting off of American imperialism so that they don't have to spend the military dollars on being imperialist themselves.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.

Originally Posted by jwb

They have absolutely counted on the American empire to defend them.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.

Originally Posted by The Batlord

So, OH, America isn't the evil empire. America is the face of an even vaster evil empire that pretends we're the entirety of the evil empire so the rest of them can sleep at night while benefiting off of our oppression.

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Defend implies we're talking about a defensive action.

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

In a certain frame of mind I can see that as a significant part of the story.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I'm not saying don't hate America. That's perfectly valid. I'm just saying that concentrating on America is like German Jews saying that Hitler was an isolated threat.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.