Ok, not football at all, but it matters, eventually.

[ozleeds]

Was watching a PBS documentary about the aftermath of the Vietnam war. Apparently in the 8 or so years of US military involvement in what many historians consider to be one of the most lethal episodes of military conflict, nearly 60,000 US military personnel were killed.

Fast forward to a time when there were no wars involving American "boots on the ground" anywhere in the world and certainly not in the continental USA, 2016 - 2024. During that period, in the USA over 365,000 people died as a result of gunshot wounds, with over 100,000 of those being homicides.

That means that overall five times as many have died in the USA from gunshot wounds inflicted by owners of legally held firearms than the US military suffered in the whole of the Vietnam war.

In the UK over that same period, the figure was between 225 and 250 (NOT thousands!).

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people" is a widely used slogan, popularized by the NRA and gun advocates, emphasizing individual responsibility in gun violence, though it's debated as a fallacy by gun control supporters who argue guns significantly enable killing. The phrase highlights guns as inanimate tools, but opponents counter that these tools drastically increase the lethality and ease with which people can cause harm, making the object's role crucial, not negligible, as shown by studies suggesting fewer gun deaths with fewer guns.

I know where I'd rather be.

So why do you think Trump is trying to do? The crooks have led a once proud nation to be the worst in the world. From BS black gay presidents to old men whose brains no longer function, to a wannabe president who doesn't know if she's white indian or black African.
Like most countries, they let in sickos from all over the world, and they let drugs run amok. If you want to know what sickos in power are, look at the pics coming out from the pedophiles' files.
Trump is not perfect, and I would even say dengerous but he's the only one in the western world doing something, and just like Israel is fighting a lone hand while the others dine and wine and make BS public appearances.
On trhe vietnam war Nixon caused that, and as everyone knows, he was just another loser.
On the other hand, so many lost their lives in that war, and yes, Australians also, but not from fighting, but from the orange spray.
We have European powers concerned about saving Islamic terrorists and the 60k poor lost souls bla bla but do nothing in their own soil, where so far 2 million lost there lifes and yes christian due to a mad dictator.
Anywhere you look at it WTF and others, the world is farked and nothing will be done about it till it's too late, and than were all doomed and will be living the lives of Gaza and Ukraine and looking for shelter in Africa.
No one is wrong, right, talking about this crap, it's just reality.

[WTF11]

Said it before and I suspect I'll say it again, often.....I love the USA and it's people, at least those have had the pleasure of living amongst and working with over three decades and from east to west coast. At their best they are what humankind can and should aspire to, brave, honest, courageous, open-hearted, generous (to a fault!), welcoming and true to a human spirit borne out of adversity and the desire to make a better world. The sacrifices made by Americans in the pursuit of democracy and the freedoms of individuals to live their lives free from the fear of "might is right" are the stuff of legend.

But, as Reagan said after the Challenger disaster, "we discovered that we are human, with human frailties, but we learn and we overcome" (the quote may be slightly paraphrased but the meaning is true). The USA, suffering disasters at home (Apollo 1), abroad (Vietnam), and literally out of this world (Apollo 13, "a magnificent failure"), grew and became the greatest nation on earth.

Now?

A Commander in Chief who seeks to do grubby oil deals on the back of an illegal kidnapping of the head of state of a nation he doesn't like, but which happens to have the world's largest oil reserves. A Commander in Chief and his acolytes who suggest that a sovereign state and a founding member of NATO should surrender one if it's protectorate simply because "we need it".

How the mighty have fallen.

[WTF11]

Btw, the only reason Trump can justify the statement that the USA "needs Greenland", given that Greenalnd is a protectorate of Denmark, a founding member of NATO, is that he no longer considers that relationship as relevant to USA strategic defence. Ponder the significance of that delusion.

[norfolk white]

Being a complete novice in world matter or politics, but trump taking Greenland is the same as putin taking crimea.

[ozleeds]

Being a complete novice in world matter or politics, but trump taking Greenland is the same as putin taking crimea.

Or the same as Europe taking the piss.

[norfolk white]

Yep, bit like my daughter always reliant on me to bail her out.

[WTF11]

Being a complete novice in world matter or politics, but trump taking Greenland is the same as putin taking crimea.

Completely different. Crimea has been at least partially "occupied" by ethnic Russians for a long time, and the annexation by Russia was met with general approval not just by the ethnic Russians, but by he whole of the population who (at the time) saw Russia as more "inclined" towards them than the then government in Kyiv. In addition Crimea was never a separate state, rather a region of Ukraine, and then (and now) Ukraine had no defence pact with other nations which would have deterred Russia.

Greenland is, and has been for longer than the USA has existed, part of the Danish empire, whether Trump or anybody else likes it or not. As part of the empire, Greenland is afforded the protection under the NATO treaty that all members of NATO benefit from, in particular Article 5, which effectively treats an attack on one as an attack on all, hence why Putin wouldn't cross the line into a NATO country, and why he doesn't want Ukraine to join. As long as NATO exists, the US in general and Trump in particular has no need for control of Greenland, the US already has a significant military presence there, as part of the joint defence mechanisms of the NATO allies. As I suggested in a previous post, the ONLY justification for the US to have an interest in controlling Greenland is if NATO were to cease to exist. The consequences of NATO no longer being that deterrent to Putin don't bear thinking about, but such an eventuality is not only possible but probable should Trump seize Greenland without both Danish and Greenlander approval, which he won't get (85% of Greenlanders effectively told him to shove his dollars where the sun don't shine in early 2025). NATO could no longer function when one member country illegally seizes the territory of another.

So no, the Crimean and Greenland situations are very, VERY different.

[norfolk white]

I stand corrected

[WTF11]

I stand corrected

I should.add that not only is Denmark a member of NATO, it was one the FOUNDER members, and the rapid entry of Finland and Sweden (after over century of neutrality), into the alliance was prompted specifically by Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Destroy NATO (as Trumps illegal seizure of Greenland would do) would spell the end of what we see as Western Europe. Without a joint defensive structure, Russia will see no deterrent.

[WTF11]

And tonight, on the streets of Minneapolis, a video shows that the driver of an SUV was attempting to leave the scene BEFORE BEING SHOT DEAD by an agent of the "heroic" ICE organisation. The video shows that no attempt was made to injury any of the law enforcement staff, the driver was shot from behind, an "inspiring" example of the depths to which the federal authorities will sink.