question to Americans

[jpsj82]

<< Canada put nearly 2 million soldiers into that war! US didn't come near that number. >>

are you talking about WW2, if so the US had more then 2 million people fighting.

 

[Texmaster]

<<

<< <snip Texmaster's rant re: European press> >>


Gee, Texmaster, nice of you to join the discussion.
What took you so long? >>



LOL Sorry. Got a new laptop at work

 

[burnedout]

Canada put nearly 2 million soldiers into that war! US didn't come near that number.

The United States emerged from the war with global military commitments that included the occupation of Germany and Japan and the oversight of Allied interests in liberated areas. Almost 13 million Americans were in uniform at the end of the war; over 8 million of them were soldiers. But the impulse was strong to follow the patterns of the past and dismantle this force. Families pressed the government to "bring the boys home," and soldiers overseas demanded the acceleration of the separation process. American monopoly of the atomic bomb seemed to furnish all the power that American security interests needed. Some air power advocates even argued that the bomb made armies and navies obsolete.

Source

Do you even know what you are implying????????? Don't even begin to lecture us on history if your facts are not correct.

<edit> damn italics</edit>

 

[ToBeMe]

<< Canada put nearly 2 million soldiers into that war! US didn't come near that number. >>


Here's one tid-bit before I have to go.........

• Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the United States Army was a small professional force of 575,000 men. General George Marshall was appointed Chief of Staff in September, 1939, and he immediately ordered the production of high performance tanks and the latest field artillery. In 1940 the first peace-time draft took place and by the summer of 1941 the army had 3,400,000 men.
  
  When the United States entered the war plans were made to establish 105 divisions but in fact only 100 divisions were created before the end of the war. Under Marshall's direction, in less than four years, the army grew to a force of 8,300,000 men in the European Theatre. Winston Churchill believed that Marshall's achievements were monumental and described him as the "organizer of victory" over Germany.
  
  In May, 1942, Dwight Eisenhower was made supreme commander of European operations. Based in London, he got on well with Winston Churchill, and together they planned the 1944 invasion of Nazi occupied Europe. By spring 1945, the United States led forces along with the Brittish and with powerful support from the Russian forces advancing from the east, the war in Europe was ended. Overall United States casualties were 234,874 dead, 701,385 wounded and 124,079 imprisoned. The United States Forces and leadership provided the backbone which led to the ultimate defeat of Germany and the Axis powers.

 

[jpsj82]

<<

<< Since your link to the UN list of best countries was a Canadian site I will give you an American site.

CNN Article
CNN List >>


yo those links aren't working for me, when i click on them it just goes to a blank screen and never loads anything >>


OK because you never said if these links worked for you I will post parts of them.

"UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations Human Development Report has ranked 162 countries according to per capita income, health care, life expectancy and educational levels.

Top 20
1. Norway
2. Australia
3. Canada
4. Sweden
5. Belgium
6. United States
7. Iceland
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Finland
11. Switzerland
12. Luxembourg
13. France
14. Britain
15. Denmark
16. Austria
17. Germany
18. Ireland
19. New Zealand
20. Italy"
Note how Canada is not number one as you have said.

 

[nord1899]

<<

<<

<< Since your link to the UN list of best countries was a Canadian site I will give you an American site.

CNN Article
CNN List >>


yo those links aren't working for me, when i click on them it just goes to a blank screen and never loads anything >>

They work for me, how about everyone else? >>



Worked for me ... just took a moment to load up.

 

[Capn]

"at the time of ww2, Canada had the second strongest navy and strongest army in the world. MOST of US forces were actually fightning japan and not papa Hitler (in the interest of the country) so when you think that you are free from nazis through american fighting that is a small half truth, Canada put more into the war against Hitler than US did."

Strongest army?

"On Sunday, Dec 10, 1939 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced that Canada had formally declared war on Germany. At this time Canada had 16 modern light tanks, 4 anti aircraft guns and two anti-tank guns. Years of government budget cuts and neglect of the military caused this lack of weaponry. The regular army consisted of a small but very well trained 5,000 soldiers, and the militia with 50,000 members, which was also very poorly equipped. Fortunately many of the officers in the regular army were graduates of military schools in England, or the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. Many of the soldiers had gained valuable experiences in exchanges with officers of the British Army. The 50,000 Militia members were very enthusiastic, and this made up for their lack of experience and equipment. This very small force was the foundation, which would develop into a professional combat force of five divisions."

From here

This site lists the total number of U.S. combatants in WW2 as 16.4 million and Canadians as 780 thousand. No where near 2 million. If you can find a number close to 2 million I'll give it to you, but don't claim that more canadians fought in the european side of the war cause the facts are against you by a large margin.

 

[UltraQuiet]

How dare you people interject facts into this ignorant 12 year olds flame bait thread. Damn you people all to hell.

 

[jpsj82]

So lets review what we have learned today NonTechGuy.
1. You were wrong about Canada being the best country to live in.
2. You were wrong about the US being ranked low compared to other countries for education.
3. You don't know US History, Canadian History, or World History.

And your first question was why do average Americans not know what is going on in the rest of the world. To me it sounds like you don't know what is going on in the rest of the world.

Just remember get you facts right (at show us your facts) before you start talking about them.

 

[desy]

Ughh
Nontech guy is obviosuly some grade 11 history student and you are all giving his opinion way too much creedance!
Not only are his points seriously flawed biased and disorganized, but presented in english at a high school level.
Its seems his best sources of information are 'this hr has 22 minutes', a news parody show and unfortunately this is how a lot of Canadians get their news!
And that is a fact, as proved by an Angus Reid poll. . . .
So I'm Canadian and I've had this argument before, what Nontech guy fails to realize is the US has 10X the goings on just internally and probably the most dynamic political and economic systems in action anywhere on the globe. What I do whenever somebody around here "claims" american ignorance I ask them what is the name of Canada's third territory is? 1 out of 5 can answer it . . . .
Its Nunavut, tech guy just so you don't have to do a google search.

 

[rudder]

Most americans only know about what they are told by their tv. Of those that watch tv, 25% get their news from MTV news. The other 75% get it from the evening news which focuses on US news primarily.

interesting, in exactly which publication did you publish your research?

 

[DougyDanger]

No fair guys! Lets try and keep this discussion limited to anecdotal evidence, generalizations, and personal bias. Facts have no place in a discussion like this.

 

[yllus]

<< Ughh
Nontech guy is obviosuly some grade 11 history student and you are all giving his opinion way too much creedance!
Not only are his points seriously flawed biased and disorganized, but presented in english at a high school level.
Its seems his best sources of information are 'this hr has 22 minutes', a news parody show and unfortunately this is how a lot of Canadians get their news! >>

I totally and utterly agree, except for the last part about getting the news from parody shows. This guy sounds like a very ill-informed young'un who probably just walked out of grade 10 history with Canadian pride in his heart. His stats, especially the war contribution ones, sound dangerously off. Contributed 2 million men in WW2? That probably would have been a fifth of our population back then!

There's two truths in this thread, as far as I can see. One, there is DEFINITELY some number #1-hating going on in the world. America is very secure in its place as leader and needs no acknowledgement of this fact. Some ex-number #1's must really find that irritating.

Two, America does seem to have a larger proportion of loudmouthed nationalist buffoons in the media and on the Net than other countries, I've brought this up before in another thread. I think that much is attributed to the much higher amount of citizens with basic literacy, access to media outlets and the Internet than any other country on Earth. Coupled with the huge population, it sounds only natural we hear from American idiots proportionally more than, say, Canadian idiots.

By the way, let's not try to turn this too much into a Canada vs. U.S. thread. It was nice to hear someone in this thread say they'd take a bullet for our freedom as well - that goes both ways, neighbours.

 

[WA261]

<< I'm just wondering this, why do most Americans have no idea what goes on outside their country? >>




Whats the point? We rule the world....




<< a LOT of Americans think there's like 10 people in Canada who all live in igloos. >>



HOLD ON!!!!! this isnt true????

 

[ChrichtonsGirl]

<< How dare you people interject facts into this ignorant 12 year olds flame bait thread. Damn you people all to hell. >>



Dave, I like you. I really, really like you. You're cracking me up in this thread.

 

[Ryan]

Wow - this is such a good thread

 

[InfectedMushroom]

<< Where do you get your figures as to "most" Americans? Maybe there's a loud minority that don't know there's a whole world out there beyond our borders, but I rarely come across them where I am. Even my elementary school-aged son knows a great deal about other countries and what's happening in the world. >>



Well I agree with the original poster. And I will get my numbers from PERSONAL experience. I've been in the US for almost 10 years now. I have an accent so I get asked a lot where I am from. I say I was born in Romania. At least 75% of the time the ppl asking me that don't even know which continent that is on. I like in the bay area/san francisco. I would have hopped that ppl would know a little more but I do have to agree with the "americans are ignorant" (not saying dumb) stereotype.
You may base your experience on these forums, but most geeks who come here or other similar forums are actually a lot more knowledgeble about the outside world than most ppl you will meet on the streets.

 

[MrPabulum]

Hey, I also thought that they lived in igloos! Wait...??

 

[desy]

When I was travelling once we met these girls from Austrailia and told them we had to shoot the Buffallow to keep them off our lawns and they believed us
If the thread was phrased like "why is it that americans are perceived as having little knowledge beyond their own borders?"
We actually might of had some interesting theories bandied about instead of useless tit for tat

 

[CanOWorms]

<<

<< Where do you get your figures as to "most" Americans? Maybe there's a loud minority that don't know there's a whole world out there beyond our borders, but I rarely come across them where I am. Even my elementary school-aged son knows a great deal about other countries and what's happening in the world. >>



Well I agree with the original poster. And I will get my numbers from PERSONAL experience. I've been in the US for almost 10 years now. I have an accent so I get asked a lot where I am from. I say I was born in Romania. At least 75% of the time the ppl asking me that don't even know which continent that is on. I like in the bay area/san francisco. I would have hopped that ppl would know a little more but I do have to agree with the "americans are ignorant" (not saying dumb) stereotype.
You may base your experience on these forums, but most geeks who come here or other similar forums are actually a lot more knowledgeble about the outside world than most ppl you will meet on the streets. >>



No offense, but that country isn't exactly "popular." It would be like someone expecting you to know exactly where some small Pacific nation was. I don't even think I've seen Romania in the news in the past 6 months and I read several international news websites everyday!

 

[InfectedMushroom]

<<
No offense, but that country isn't exactly "popular." It would be like someone expecting you to know exactly where some small Pacific nation was. I don't even think I've seen Romania in the news in the past 6 months and I read several international news websites everyday! >>



Well exactly. There isn't much information in the US news outlets about things going on outside the country. Take for example the San Francisco Chronicle. It has maybe 1 page of world news that is not directly related to the US, at the end of the first section. That's it! in the whole big paper.
And my example was more to the point of: "i can't freaking believe that someone doesn't even know what CONTINENT a country is on".

radu (aka infectecmushroom)

 

[CanOWorms]

<<

<<
No offense, but that country isn't exactly "popular." It would be like someone expecting you to know exactly where some small Pacific nation was. I don't even think I've seen Romania in the news in the past 6 months and I read several international news websites everyday! >>



Well exactly. There isn't much information in the US news outlets about things going on outside the country. Take for example the San Francisco Chronicle. It has maybe 1 page of world news that is not directly related to the US, at the end of the first section. That's it! in the whole big paper.
And my example was more to the point of: "i can't freaking believe that someone doesn't even know what CONTINENT a country is on".

radu (aka infectecmushroom) >>



I sometimes live in Huntsville, AL and it has a newspaper and there are always pages of international news! Kind of sad that a big newspaper would have less than a small-town paper. The U.S. is a rather large country so covering all the US news itself would take up a lot of space

And like I said before, I read a lot of international news websites and NEVER have I seen news on Romania Sorry.

Most people outside the US probably get their "facts" about the US from Hollywood movies or MTV anyways

 

[AreaCode707]

Without reading this entire thread, my answer blames a lot on the media. The big news shows feature the most inane happenings inside the US and ignore the rest of the world. Watching the BBC World News is a shocker if you're used to hearing about the Kansas School Board evolution/creation debates. It's like, whoa, there are wars going on somewhere else? The stupid US media feeds the complacency and ethnocentricity.

 

[InfectedMushroom]

<<
I sometimes live in Huntsville, AL and it has a newspaper and there are always pages of international news! Kind of sad that a big newspaper would have less than a small-town paper. The U.S. is a rather large country so covering all the US news itself would take up a lot of space

And like I said before, I read a lot of international news websites and NEVER have I seen news on Romania Sorry.

Most people outside the US probably get their "facts" about the US from Hollywood movies or MTV anyways >>



hahaha. well, yes there are a few pages on things going on outside US in the Chronicle, but 90% of them are related to either war in afganistan or other places where US is involved, and only a half a page or so has information about the outside world completely unrelated to things going on in the US.

I was just surprised for the first year or so to realize people would not know on which continent a country is. Never mind what country.

What surprised me even more thuogh was that most people had the attitude of not even caring that they didn't know. They were not in the least embarased that they don't know anything about what is going on outside of the US. They seemed to be proud that they don't care about anything else. That is ignorance and stupidity.

just my thoughts...

 

[element]

<< i bet i know a lot more about US global policies and actions than most americans do to tell the truth. >>



That's because the U.S. is always doing something, whereas your lazy country never gets involved in world affairs.
The United States is the police force of the world. If it weren't for us the rest of the world would be a bad neighborhood!



<< ask any Canadian or Brit or German to name 3 cities in the US i bet most could do it. conversely i don't think the average American could name even 2 cities in Canada, Britain or Germany >>



That's because what the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world. Similarly, lots of people interested in cars know the specs of a Ferrari, or Lamborghini, but they don't know squat about the Yugo. That's cause the Yugo sucks! Who cares about it?