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Originally Posted by pdf27
(our egos couldn't take being less important than California!)
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Being a native Californian I'm not too sure how to take that... we are so insignificate that we are now geting our own Navy and Marines
If it is any consolation the UK is the worlds 4th largest economy and California is 5th. That would make you the largest economy in the republic.
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Originally Posted by nexxo
True, but sometimes the established government prefers to do business with your main competitor nations and because that choice may be largely ideological, or tied to all sorts of affiliations, nothing can be done to change that. Except changing the government.
Sometimes the government we have been happily wooing and bribing suddenly changes its loyalties (to wit: Saddam Hussein) and a change of government is again called for.
And THAT, my friend, is why we have propaganda! WMD, anyone?
Semantics. The idea remains the same.
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In the real world money talks bullshit walks. A good dictatorship gives lip service to ideology but acts very pragmatically. Saddam like all "good" dictators was simply pragmatic regarding the US. We lead the world ageist him after he invaded Kuwait. Thus we were no longer good business partners. Had we helped him get sanctions lifted then we would be good partners once again.
The WMD was not propaganda, just bad intel.
The problem with analogies is that they rarely stand up analysis.