UCLA Bruins

[innocentbystander]

I concur with aTm. We stayed out of World War II for as long as the Jeanette Rankins of congress would keep us out. We wanted absolutely nothing to do with Hitler, Tojo, or Mussolini, and Churchill was not going to change our mind. Irrelevant. War was inevitable for the USA in World War II. Japan had no oil. Not a drop. And there was no oil for them to get in the Pacific. Maybe there is technology now to get oil in the Pacific with offshore drilling, but in 1940, no oil. And they weren't going to go LOOKING FOR IT the way we did and have done for almost a century at that point. They needed existing oil production. The closest existing oil production for Japan in 1940 was the United States and when we turned off the spigot, that pretty much put them on the clock. Their choices were

• #1) re-convert their entire navy to coal (very possible, they knew exactly how to do it, but it reduces their ship speed and cruising range by 50%),
• #2) make a bee line for the Middle East via the Indian Ocean (long fucking way to sail, because going by land was logistically impossible given that there were 580,000,000 Indians loyal to King George sitting right in the path),
• #3) go over the top of India and push much harder in Southern China and make a bee line for the oil in Caucus and Southern Russia (again, a logistical nightmare given the thousands of miles of the tallest mountains in the entire world plus another 300,000,000 Chinese to kill),
• #4) surrender to Chang-Hai-Sheck and China or
• #5) sneak attack the United States with such a devastating blow (sink every Capital ship we have) that our morale is obliterated, the 14 million people of California become so paranoid of invasion that Japanese soldiers were coming to rape their wives and daughters, and that they HAD to beg FDR to re-negotiate for oil trade once again.

All I see there are bad, worse, and impossible choices. We know which one they picked. I would have removed every diesel engine from all 10 aircraft carriers, from all the battleships, and filled the damn boats with coal. And focus entirely on China and knock them completely out of the game.

World War I? Meh. I am sure we would have stayed out of it had the Lusitania not been sunk. That was Wilson's entire campaign promise for his 1916 re-election, he will keep us out of war. But as it turns out, our presence there may not have made that much of a difference. God ended that war with a flu that (very quietly) killed millions of people on both sides and left the trenches filled with corpses that neither side had the time or desire to gather up and burn. Germany may have been determined but Austria-Hungary and Turkey had both already tapped out when the Germans got Russia to tap out (remember Russia "surrendered" to Germany in 1917 so they could fight their own damn, civil war) and it was pretty damn clear, Germany was not going to beat the French and the British. The Western front didn't move for 3 years (All's Quiet on the Western Front), they weren't going to start moving in 1917 even with ALL the troops moved from the Eastern front to the West AND if USA stayed out of it.

[Tree]

#5 is a joke. You can't possibly believe that you fucking commie. You are no American, sir. The Japs knew we were getting involved soon b/c of how bad the UK was getting obliterated. And frankly we could have easily stepped in sooner but I suspect we were letting them take it up the ass on purpose so we could come out as the by far top world power at the end of the day.

[innocentbystander]

UK was doing fine.

They had already won the air war vs Germany long before we got involved. There would be no sea lion. And the entire 6th Army was bogged down near Stalingrad.

UK had plenty of oil from the Middle East. All they needed from us was food and planes. And we were giving them planes Lend-Lease style. It takes the dollar sign out of it as FDR said. True, they could not win the war without the US, there would be no Normandy. But they weren't going to lose the war either. UK beat the Germans and the Italians in Africa, Cairo was never attacked, and they had already broken Enigma. I mean, they were doing just fine, stalemate.

[eCat]

lady, you don't have a sleepwalker you have a werewolf - on my facebook page this morning

[DooKSucks]

Yeah, I'm of the opinion that people call DSS/Child Protective Services way too much based on my professional experience, but that raises red flags for me.

[Tree]

It's no Buffy or OC but I do 'preciate some Breaking Bad.
 

[eCat]

we're all going to die

[sardis]

Pretty much showing me sitting on the couch and going to the fridge. Not much else I do inside the home.

[eCat]

Alexa, was eCat home last night or was he as Jolenes house?

[Jungle Rat]

Hope they like looking at me naked until noon.

[eCat]

just looking at the character, I never liked Martin Short playing Jiminy Glick so I refused to ever watch it,

I'm a Bill Hader fan though so I watched this and Short is actually great in that role

[hedge]

Love Jiminy. Watch this one...

[Dave23]

This is my favorite Bill Hader clip…