Not to mention all the Americans who are quite happy to diss the Greeks and slam them for all their economic problems. If not for the Greeks standing their ground at Thermopylae, you'd all be speaking Persian right now. 
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Should the US pull out of NATO?
- Thread starter NobleSavage
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Not to mention all the Americans who are quite happy to diss the Greeks and slam them for all their economic problems. If not for the Greeks standing their ground at Thermopylae, you'd all be speaking Persian right now.
Hey, that is a cheap shot. The Greeks lost at Thermopylae. They won at Marathon.
At least 384 times a year, large numbers of Americans strip down to their underwear and run 26 miles and 385 yards(42.195) for no other reason than the Greek victory at Marathon. If not for that, we would never know gyros and chicken shawarma.
Lighten up, Francis. If the Netherlands made some contribution to the American Revolution, I am eternally grateful.
We are used to hearing "What have you done for me lately?" It comes with the territory.
4321lynx
Veteran Member
Not to mention all the Americans who are quite happy to diss the Greeks and slam them for all their economic problems. If not for the Greeks standing their ground at Thermopylae, you'd all be speaking Persian right now.
Hey, that is a cheap shot. The Greeks lost at Thermopylae. They won at Marathon.
At least 384 times a year, large numbers of Americans strip down to their underwear and run 26 miles and 385 yards(42.195) for no other reason than the Greek victory at Marathon. If not for that, we would never know gyros and chicken shawarma.
Both wrong.
Salamis and their navy did the job.
(Thinks ?? is that why the Italians call salami, salami, 'cos the Greeks chopped up the Persians like so much meat for sausages??
)Both wrong.
Salamis and their navy did the job.
(Thinks ?? is that why the Italians call salami, salami, 'cos the Greeks chopped up the Persians like so much meat for sausages??
It was a combination of both. The Athenian navy prevented the Persians from shipping troops over water to get behind the Spartan army and the Spartan army prevented the Persian troops from getting to the docks and cutting off the supply lines for the Athenian navy.
dystopian
Veteran Member
Well, let's see; your declaration of independence and early government were directly modeled after and inspired by ours; and without the massive loans and weapons the Netherlands provided you with, you wouldn't have been able to sustain the revolution. The 4th Anglo-Dutch war was started as a direct consequence of our aid to the American rebels; a war that, by the way, cost the country our Great Power status and paved the way for Napoleon's invasion which ended the republic. Our country gave up a great deal to help ensure American independence and ensure its financial security immediately after; something few Americans today are even aware of. However, nobody here is so arrogant as to think that entitles us to anything *today*. I can take no credit whatsoever for the things my ancestors (or more likely the people that ruled my ancestors) did, and I certainly don't think it remotely reasonable to respond to any American criticism of my country by talking about what my country did for theirs in the distant past; in stark contrast to many Americans, it seems. The past is a history lesson; not an IOU.
When Americans start saying shit like how we only get to say what we want today because of what their parents or grandparents supposedly did (not true, in fact; it was Canadian forces that liberated the bulk of my country, not American forces but let's ignore that for a moment); they're making certain less than friendly implications, and you can't reasonably expect people to be anything other than insulted or annoyed by such a tone; ESPECIALLY when it's done in the context of a discussion like this; and especially when we've been hearing about it for as long as we have. Yes, we get it already; apparently Americans are the heroes, Europeans the damsels in distress, and somewhere in there is something about how the French are cowards and how you singlehandedly prevented us all from having to speak German. We get it already; having to hear about it so much was already tiresome 20 years ago.
300 years past, or 70 years; it makes no difference when it comes to whether or not we owe one another *today*. If you want another country to owe you 70 years from now, you have them sign a treaty to that effect; because that is the kind of commitment that matters between nationstates, not because of pointless and embellished dickwaving about past glory that supposedly entitles people that had nothing to do with any of it to some sort of deference or respect.
And some Americans wonder why the world doesn't trust them to keep their word? If that's the sort of phrase that describes an attitude Americans find perfectly normal, then one really has no business being puzzled by such matters, don't you think? Maybe you should try and get used to a less selfish question so you can't try and justify bad decisions by arguing it's because you're used to it. Just a thought.
Now, there are certainly legitimate problems the US have with European commitment to NATO; I fully acknowledge that. But 'what have you done for us lately' (plenty, actually, but people already pointed that out); nor any other argument for that matter; does not justify just walking away (quite apart from how that'd completely fuck America itself over)
This is a use of the instruction, "lighten up," with which I am not familiar.
Keith&Co.
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Maybe he read it as 'tighten up?'
dystopian
Veteran Member
Telling someone to 'lighten up' while simultaneously subtly insulting them is counterproductive, as I'm sure you're well aware.