| "the notion that Poland should be grateful to Europe is rather farcical." Poland has always been in Europe, and so was Germany. The USSR was partly in Europe as well. Maybe you mean the European Union? In which case, it may be a temporary fix, because as Poland becomes wealthier, the cheapness of labour no longer applies. "The European war started in Europe." It was never purely a European conflict. Several major "Sure--and Sweden, Spain, Portugal, etc. were not heavily affected in Europe." Spain stayed out of the main conflict because it had just been in a war in which the USSR, Germany and Italy were all involved. Gernika/Guernica was famously bombed from the air by the Germans. Franco may not have even won without external help. Like Japanese aggression before 1939, it can be argued that the Spanish Civil War was the beginnings of WW2. Portugal's shipping was at heavy risk, especially to and from the Azores and Madeira. Macau ended up under informal occupation by Japan, with "advisors" installed there. Portugal was in no position to take on Japan. Sweden was in no position to negotiate and traded with Germany, Finland and Nazi-occupied Denmark & Norway. It was effectively a satellite state. "Based on a quick glance at Wikipedia this appears to be false." You shouldn't have to look at Wikipedia. Kursk was the biggest tank battle in history with thousands of units taking part. That should be common knowledge. It dwarves anything in the US civil war. "When it comes to authoritarians, I notice the US always does the wrong thing. If we cooperate with authoritarians, we are "propping them up". If we help resist them, we are "destabilizing". If we sit by and do nothing, we are "complicit". Whatever the US does, there is always a term you can use to explain why the US is the villain, without having to learn any details of the situation. It's a sealed system of knowledge akin to a religion." It was put succinctly by one American, if I can mind rightly... Someone was told that some dictator was a bastard, and the reply was "But he's our bastard." Something like that. Al Haig made similar statements. Kissinger asked about East Timor said something like, "that was an island, you should see what I can do with continents". Again quoting from memory. I think the "our bastard" mentality applies to Saudi Arabia and the Ukraine, which is an utterly corrupt country but in which there have been concerted attempts to orientate it away from Russia, even to the point of adopting the western date of Christmas. (I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Zelensky tries to advocate for the Roman alphabet in future as well.) The USA has helped create some positive changes across the world, but often does so with an iron fist and an end to help itself. This is my main worry with Cuba... It may throw off its Communist dictatorship, but just end up a corrupt US satellite as it was under Batista. |