Text 4601, 76 rader
Skriven 2007-07-17 16:54:26 av Ross Cassell (1:123/456)
   Kommentar till text 4597 av Björn Felten (2:203/2)
Ärende: FidoNews 24:29 [02/06]: General Articles
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Hello Björn!

17 Jul 07 16:25, you wrote to Ward Dossche:

 WD>> The Kingdom of Hawaii was not overrun by military power, annexed
 WD>> and later forced into statehood? No?

 BF>    It sure was one of the most disgusting acts of colonialism in
 BF> modern time. But I personally like the story about Alaska more. At
 BF> $7,2M when "purchased" from the Russians, I'd say it was a bargain.

The Hawaii thing didnt happen as horrendously as Wards sentence infers, but US
involvement wasnt a glittery bright spot.

Louisiana Purchase wasnt that bad either.

Dont be bitching about Colonialism, the Americas became what they are because
of it. Spain, France and England then stir in a little dutch, some Vikings, a
little Leif Ericson and shake vigorously.

See how I mentioned Vikings, by this time they had abandoned paganism and
adopted christianity (horrors)!

Colonialism is something we learned from Europe, England being the worst about
it I suspect. I still question their need for the Falkland Islands?

and do remember attempts to Colonize Africa by European powers werent glorified
successes..

France had algeria, <Billy Joel singing> "Belgians in the congo"..

Then you had a hotbed of European racism in South Africa!

 BF>    One interesting note about Alaska is that it was the only part of
 BF> the North American continent that was occupied by the Japanese in WWII
 BF> (the outer Aleutian Islands -- Attu, Agattu and Kiska).


The Japanese gambled and lost..

The Invasion of those places was supposed to have been a diversion to lure our
forces away from Midway and other Pacific Outposts. Fortunately we didnt bite
and successfully crushed the core might of Japanese Naval power at Midway, this
was seen as the turning point and reversal of Japanese fortunes.

Of course we did suffer high casualties when we did turn our attention to the
occupiers of those places in order to evict them.

Speaking of ww2, did you ever see the Movie "The Final Countdown"? It was a
scifi flick of sorts, starred Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen. Setting 1979, USS
Nimitz patrolling Pacific outside of Hawaiian waters, some sort of phenomena
takes the carrier back in time to just days before Pearl Harbor. Once they
realize what happens, they launch their air cover to look for the Japanese
fleet to decide if they should intervene or withdraw. One scene I enjoyed was
they had a pair of F14's patrolling at high altitude, the pilots observe a pair
of Zero's strafing an american Yacht, the pilots of the F14's request
permission to engage, are initially told to stay put, then are told they can
use anything but lethal force to discourage the zero's.. So then both pilots go
into delta wing mode, throttle up in a full dive towards the zero's pull up and
catch both zero's in their jet wash, the zero's flapped around like leaf's
blowing in the wind.. Funny.

Anyway they decide they are going to engage the Japanese fleet, after lauching
their offensive aircraft, the phenomena returns, they recall their planes and
return to the future.

Oh well a fun what if to ponder inside the envelope of a scifi flick..


==
Ross
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--- GoldED+/W32 1.1.5-30413
 * Origin: The Eastern Star - Spartanburg, SC USA (1:123/456)