Dude, really? I thought you were smarter than that. France was "contractually and honor bound" to start a full scale assault on Germany 15 days after Germany attacked Poland. Instead they made a halfhearted attempt, didn't even finish that, watched Poland get crushed, then did nothing for seven months while waiting for the Germans to attack. And Germany didn't have the ability to destroy every major French city inside of an hour.

If you think the American body politic would rush headlong into war against a country with 8,000 nuclear weapons over the Baltic States I've got a bridge to sell you. We might honor our treaty obligations, but there would be much dithering involved, consultations with the other NATO countries, resolutions at the Security Council, and so on. It's an open question as to whether or not the nations of Western Europe would honor their commitments and without them what does the US do? Glass Moscow? Because that's about the only recourse we'd have; we can't stage the US Army into the theater without cooperation from local allies.

NATO expansion has so diluted the organization that it's hard to take seriously. The lion's share of members can't take care of themselves, never mind contribute to collective defense. There are only FOUR members (out of 28!) that meet their obligation to spend >=2% of GDP on defense. Most every country in Europe continues to cut defense spending even as Russia dismembers one of their neighbors. Would you take NATO seriously if you sat in the Kremlin? I sure as hell wouldn't.

NATO's mission was once summarized as "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." Guess what? The Russians are in, the Americans are disinterested, and the Germans have taken over the continent without firing a shot.

I truly don't understand this argument against capital punishment. People who receive hefty non-capital sentences don't get the luxury of automatic appeals or access to legions of highly qualified lawyers that come out of the woodwork to take capital cases at the appellate level. Frankly, if I was to be convicted of a crime I didn't commit, I'd prefer my chances of eventually being vindicated if I was sentenced to death. Anything less than that and both society and the system forget about you.

I also find this argument a tad bit hypocritical, because most of the people making it don't lift two fingers to reexamine the guilt or innocence of people who receive non-capital sentences. It's a bit like pro-life politicians that loudly condemn abortion while simultaneously cutting the social safety net. "Protect the children! Until they're born, then fuck 'em, it's a dog eat dog world...."

I'm not sure the United States would really march for NATO. An attack on Germany, Italy, the UK, or France? To the ramparts! The Baltic States? Would we really go to war with a nuclear armed state over them? That's the ten million dollar question, isn't it? We're talking about three countries no one has heard of, that have no significant cultural, historical, or economic ties to the US, with combined population roughly that of Maryland. I'm not certain you could sell it to the current United States Congress, never mind the general public, most of whom can't even find Latvia on the map.

The only countries/regions I can say we'd definitely march for are Western Europe, Canada, Australia, South Korea, and Japan. After that it gets kind of hazy. Israel is most probably on the list but to put it mildly that's a complicated geopolitical relationship.

You'd do well not to underestimate island nations or to assume that you can defeat them by cutting off their trade. See "United Kingdom" and "Battle of the Atlantic" for further study.

Couldn't have won? The United States could have destroyed the entire fucking country a few hours after the President picked up the phone. Don't want to play the nuclear card? Fine, we could have simply engaged in a conventional war of attrition until they ran out of military age males. Even at a 1 to 1 exchange rate (hint: it was many times that) we eventually win. Don't confuse political realities with technical ones. The United States is a democracy, where public opinion shapes public policy. The policy may lag behind opinion but it is still shaped by it.

Even if your reading of history is accurate (hint: It's not) it's completely irrelevant. China ratified the Convention of the Law of the Sea. They gave up their "right" to claim the entirety of the South China Sea when they did that.

They undoubtedly have national security interests there, just as the United States does in the Gulf of Mexico, the difference is that the US doesn't lay claim to the entire Gulf. There's no need, we simply buy the fucking resources from the other states with claims, which is a course that China could pursue with equal success (she certainly has enough cash) if she didn't have a massive inferiority complex to overcome.

Umm, seriously?

You fail basic history. The United States Navy was shooting at German warships months before Pearl Harbor. We were giving weapons to Germany's enemies. It was the intention of the FDR Administration to intervene openly in the conflict as soon as the political situation allowed. Nobody in Washington wanted a war with Japan and the plan if forced into one was to fight a defensive action against Japan until such time as Germany was defeated.

The GP is correct, a Democrat (FDR) "got us into" WW2, by openly siding with Germany's enemies. FDR's actions in 1940 and 1941 were a wholesale violation of international law concerning neutral powers. The United States was destined to intervene in WW2 regardless of Japan's choice to attack us.

The "tragedy of errors" bit is applicable to Pearl Harbor, more so than the Gulf of Tonkin. Exactly what happened to the USS Maine is disputed, we'll never know for sure, but the simplest explanation (remember Occam's Razor) is an accidental explosion in her coal bunkers. This was the hypothesis of Admiral Rickover, who investigated the historical record, and whatever else one can say about him you can't dispute his thoroughness and talent for engineering.

There are conspiracy theories surrounding both the USS Maine and Pearl Harbor but none of them pass the smell test. People can never accept the simple explanation for tragic events, it's easier for them to believe that shadowy figures were at play rather than accept the fact that incompetence occasionally combines with bad luck. Ronald Reagan was shot by some mental defective who was trying to impress Jodie Foster. Would people have accepted that explanation if he had died? Scary thought: What if someone shoots the current President? More likely than not it would be that simple, some mentally deranged individual, but almost nobody would be willing to accept that.

We do. This is the real world, not Star Trek, there hasn't been an awakening of all humanity that has showed us the error of our ways. The only thing keeping our aggressive tendencies somewhat in check is the fear of mutual destruction. Be happy for that bit at least; we simply flirt with total war these days, we don't actually engage in it.

If you're relying on circumcision for public health your country is already screwed. There are countries where circumcision is virtually non-existent that have HIV rates considerably lower than the United States. Conversely, there are countries where it's nearly universal that have rates considerably higher than the US. The US, incidentally, falls somewhere in the middle, and circumcision rates vary based on ethic background, age, and region.

The WHO would be better served promoting condom use than circumcision. Would you stick your circumcised dick into someone with an unknown STD status without using a condom?

Duh. That's kind of how they work. The cellular network can't deliver calls or data to your phone if it doesn't have a general idea of where you are. If Verizon knows then it's a simple matter for anyone else to find out, ranging from NSA to the private investigator working for your wife's divorce lawyer.

Thanks for the insight RMS.

"Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink."

It was good advice before the electronic era and remains so today. For reasons a lot more applicable to us mere mortals than NSA and CIA.

Depends on which State you live in......

Mein Kampf can be found in virtually every library in the United States. I had assumed it was the same in every country that values free speech. You should read it; it's a painful slog of atrocious writing but it's an important read nonetheless.