Telumar -> RE: OT - They got Osama (5/4/2011 12:05:49 AM)
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ORIGINAL: Wirraway_Ace quote:
ORIGINAL: Telumar quote:
ORIGINAL: Wirraway_Ace If they so distrust the world's oldest functioning democracy, That was 70 to 65 years ago. Different time, different circumstances. You might put the word functioning into parenthesis. EDIT: Nitpicking here, but Switzerland was before you... I am led to believe the current Swiss constitution is barely 10 years old; even stretching the definition of existing form of government only takes the Swiss back to the middle 1800's. The current form of the US government dates from the late 1700's. It is, I believe, the oldest existing defined (e.g. a specific constitution) form of government in any country--and has issues related to that age that are well understood within the US and outside it. I often refer to the Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index (as opposed to my own semi-informed opinion) when chosing how to describe a democracy. In its latest ratings, the US remains a "Full Democracy". The form and function of the US Government is essentially the same now as in 1941. In fact, the flexibility of the President to send troops into combat has been slightly curtailed by the War Powers Resolution of 1973. The war in Europe and the events of Dec 7th, 1941 are largly the circumstances that led to the US changing from isolationism to major international player. Bottom line: I still don't get where you are coming from in terms of a forum dedicated to the Pacific War.... RE: your bottom line... Finally someone asks, i already have wondered why it took so long. I don't know ..i only realized that it was the PacW forum and not the General Discussion forum after i felt provoced enough by all the hooray patriotism to post..[:(] You may come over to the TOAW forum anytime .. [;)] Re your other writings, you sure may be right and i am not anti-american at all and have deep respect for your country's democratic tradition. It's just that i think that your once so proud democracy got corrupted and hijacked. It's blatant. I'm sure i am not alone in this. English Wikipedia article about swiss history is an interesting read btw. "In the 16th century, the Old Swiss Confederacy was composed of thirteen sovereign cantons, and there were two different kinds: six land (or forest) cantons and seven city (or urban) cantons. Though they were technically part of the Holy Roman Empire, they had become de facto independent when the Swiss defeated Emperor Maximillian in 1499.[3] The six forest cantons were democratic republics, whereas the seven urban cantons were oligarchic republics controlled by noble families." Of course they had not that written form of a constitution as the US gave themselves in 1776, but still..[8D]
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