Yeah, I read his response and saw that he didn't mean what I thought he did at first.

Wow, I've heard the canard that Reagan's arming of the rebels in Afghanistan caused the fall of the USSR (a pretty silly simplification, but whatever) but this is the first time I've heard someone ascribe the Soviet's losing in Afghanistan to Vietnam.

I agree with the sentiments above.

I also know that at the last count I saw, a few years ago, we had people in 130 countries.

That's ****ing ridiculous. That smells like an empire.

FYP

Counting countries we have troops stationed in is a ridiculous measure of us being an empire. First of all, there are like 12 countries where the US has more than 1000 troops stationed. Those include the UK, Germany, Japan, S.Korea, Spain and Belgium - all modern democracies where we are a more than welcome part of their defense. We now have less than 15k troops in Iraq and Afghanistan total.

The only US military presences I would entertain as having anything to do with Imperialism would be Bahrain and Kuwait.

The Soviet Union pretty obviously failed for the same reason that the economic systems of China and Vietnam, which are both only nominally communist, eventually failed.

I'm a tard and I'll poli no more. Except **** all those countries with those economies. Who the hell are we defending Germany from? And why exactly do we need striking power from Germany?

For the better part of the post WWII period we have clearly been occupying/protecting Germany. Protecting Europe from Germany, while also protecting Europe from Soviet expansion. We now have a considerable legacy of military bases in Germany.

Mostly I agree that it's not needed and that Western Europe can take care of itself, but there still is a little Russian aggression maybe. Post cold war, I do think our military is too large and to some extent: having a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

American Sniper is on pace for a $60m second weekend gross. Looks like it is going to blow away Mockingjay & Guardians ($333m for each) to become 2014's #1 grossing film. 1st time an R-rated film has won a box office year since Saving Private Ryan.

And it has a decent chance to be the #1 grossing R-rated film in box office history (current record is $370m).

He did have to deal with two "brink of war" crises in Berlin and Cuba.

finally saw it.

meh, pretty underwhelming.

also LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL at a seal team member (or any soldier) being in the middle of a desperate fire fight vs a superior force and putting his ****ing weapon down and calling his wife.

just wtf.

What answer would be good enough for you to find the bases warranted?

Anti-USA sentiment in Spain is pretty much the norm across the political spectrum. People love the culture but hate the country and the politics. They think it's a joke that there are US bases here, and know it's because they can't do anything about it.

Calling Spain a "modern democracy" is a bit of reach too.

Saw it - read some where that 40s and 50s westerns were an inspiration and def felt that. Was a little heavy handed and over the top at times but still a enjoyable movie. After reading up on it seems like it might have been more interesting if they grounded it in reality rather than making up so much of it esp the whole Butcher/Mustaffa storylines.

The whole mustaffa thing was made up?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/kyleclaims.asp

Snopes weighed in on Kyle's various claims.

According to Kyle's book, Mustaffa was a silver medalist in the Olympics and he was killed by someone else.

Does that snapshot include the whole ridiculous plot line of

The movie is an adaptation of his book. I would hate to spend good money and see a 2 hr version of Generation Kill which might have been realistic but incredibly boring and tedious. In these times, 95% of modern warfare is boring and tedious. The only reason this story is remotely interesting is that urban and "humane" warfare levels the playing field to 1940s - 50s tech. Put all these enemy combatants on open terrain, on water or air and the war is over in 1 week. Desert Storm was a joke because Saddam actually thought he could win a war against us and he got slaughtered. It was so one sided against him that people actually felt bad for him and his soldiers.

wait wtf?
generation kill was amazing.

vastly superior to American Sniper.
I honestly almost fell asleep during sniper.

Amazing like Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now or Platoon?

GK isn't even close to that category of amazing.

lmao

i read it as dripping with sarcasm as possible and it made my day.

If we didn't have missiles in Germany, Putin would have annexed it by now too.

Was a pretty boring film overall, coupled with the "because america is the greatest country on earth" rhetoric which was cringey. The Lion King kept popping in to my head also.