MSBS -
If Germany was never a threat to the US then we must have been pretty stupid to enter the war with them at all.
Agreed. And yes,
Germany was never a threat to the US.
Japan was.
Why should we have spent our blood and treasure on a war that had nothing to do with us?
Er... perhaps because it would have been the decent thing to do, considering your country's loud and highly repetitious rhetoric on the subject of freedom...?
Pardon me for expecting you to live up to your oft-espoused principles.
On one hand you say we were not threatened
No, what I said was that
the war never actually came to your country. Your people were
never personally threatened with invasion.
and on the other you criticize us for entering the war late.
Yes, that's right. Remember, Canada and ANZUS came into the war
despite the fact that they were not personally threatened by the German invasion of Europe. And we
remained in the war until it was finished.
The
eventual Japanese offensive in the South Pacific (which was clearly of great concern to Australia) was the catalyst for America's participation.
Not very consistant with your logic, are you?
I'm perfectly consistent with my logic. (See above.)
Secondly, while our combat troops where not engaged in Europe until after Germany and Italy had declared war on us, the US was supplying money and equipment to the USSR and the UK years before that. To top it off, US naval forces were engaging German u-boats in the Atlantic in 1940 and 1941, prior to formal declarations of war.
I have never denied this. You're attacking straw men. I agree that your country wrote cheques in a most honourable and courageous fashion, and that you enjoyed the ocassional tussle with a U-boat or two.
I give you full credit for that.
Our contribution was negligible, eh?
Compared to the rest of the Allies?
Most certainly.
We pretty much went it alone in the Pacific war--
So what? That was child's play compared to what Europe had already endured.
And in any case, Britain did better when she "pretty much went it alone" in the Blitz and the Battle of Britain.
Australia made for a great base, but the token forces they fielded didn't have that much impact.
Yes, well we were reduced to "token forces" by this stage, because we had actually been fighting a war for the past 3 years. You see, there was a war on, and we were busy fighting it. So yes, by the time the Japanese caught you napping in the Pacific, Australia was a trifle fatigued, having just finished routing the Axis powers in the Middle East. If we'd known that you wanted us to fight off the Japanese
as well, we might have had got something together in time.
Sorry about that.
How do you want to measure the amount of work we did in the war?
I've already made this
perfectly clear - hence my emphasis on your economic support (as opposed to firepower and manpower.) But if you'd like to try it a few other ways, we can start with "the number of years in which you took part", and work our way up to "the amount of damage inflicted upon your country."
Number of soldiers that were killed? The US took more casualties in the battle for Okinawa then Australia did in the whole war.
*snip*
So what? Am I supposed to be surprised? Impressed? Sheesh...
Look, you have a larger country, so you had more cannon fodder to spare. That's a no-brainer.
Proportionately, however, our contribution was larger. (And remember, Britain's number of war dead was almost as great as yours; she lost about 388,000.)
We also spent more money on the war.
Oh, I agree! I haven't disputed this fact at all!
Lastly, after the war, we spent billions of dollars rebuilding the devastated countries of Europe and Asia, including those that had been our enemies
As well you should!
instead of, as the UK and France did after World War I, plundering the countries we had defeated for all that they were worth.
A more accurate way to look at it, is that the US paid the due cost of her war crimes in WWII, while at the Treaty of Versailles, the UK and France took care to weaken her enemies after WWI, in an attempt to preclude a second world war. (I guess they should have been tougher, after all...)
BTW, if you think that Wilson's plan was representative of the American consensus, you can think again.
Yep, I guess we are just a bunch of jerks that took all the credit without doing anything. :
Straw man.