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Old 14-06-2012, 16:59   #62
Eric
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Re: funny how democracey works for some and not others

Quote:
Originally Posted by ToffeeGuy View Post
The precursors to the EU, EEC etc, and the Nato Alliance provided strength during the Cold War. So thanks for providing me with another reason for why the EU is a good thing. Resisting Communism during the Cold War.

Plus I think you'll find the Enigma machine had a big hand in winning the war, helped by our current EU colleagues the Poles. Hitler trying to take on Russia didn't help. But basically we wouldn't have won the war without the US. But that's another subject altogether.
Western strength in the cold war was sitting in missile silos in North Dakota, on US nuclear submarines, and in the bomb bays of SAC planes. And what has communism got to do with it? The Soviets stopped being communist when Stalin took over, maybe even before that ... State Capitalism would be a more accurate term for their political system. And looking back on those times it is difficult to judge who was the bigger threat to world peace: The USA or The USSR ... In those heady brinkmanship days of the early 60s each of them took us to the edge of anihilation ... many think that the yanks took us too close in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

And the Enigma thingy ... a lucky break indeed, the kind of thing one needs in a war, like Il Duce invading Greece without telling his boss ... and one can go on and on ... breaking the Enigma, particularly after the huns added a fourth wheel, did give us the computer (thus allowing us to argue over great distances) ... It was a great aid in the fighting of the Battle of the Atlantic; but lets not forget the thousands of brave merchant seamen and those who served on convoy escorts (many of which, by the way, belonged to the Royal Canadian Navy). It was primarily through the efforts of these men, and not the eggheads at Bletchley Park, that the U-Boats were defeated.

And I'm not aware that I said the war could have been won without men and materiel from the US. I did suggest, however, that without a victory in the Battle of Britain the war might have ended in favour of Germany, leaving a militarily weak US to deal with the mess, or come to terms.

You really do seem to be clutching at straws.
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