Re: The United States in Full Thrust

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard and Emily Bell <rlbell@sympatico.ca>
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2001 11:14 PM
Subject: Re: The United States in Full Thrust

> Shawn M Mininger wrote:
>
> > All that said, the Tuffeyverse is fun.  I have no
> > problem with it.  Besides, if this is what it takes to
> > make the Brittish feel better about themselves, then
> > fine by me. (heh heh heh I can't wait for the
> > responses on this comment)
>
> The British did fight two Viet-Nam style counter-insurgency wars, and
> they won BOTH of them (The Boer War, and the unpleasantness in Malaya,
> in the 60's), and have always shown up promptly when required to help
> save the world.

I wouldn't be too proud of the Boer Wars, after all.  In the first
place,
you lost the first one.  The later ones introduced the term
'concentration
camp' into the world's vocabulary and featured the first modern
attempted
genocide by a 'civilized' power against fellow Europeans.  We don't see
this
again until Hitler and Stalin.	(Turks exterminating Armenians doesn't
count
because Turks aren't civilized or European).  In neither of these cases
did
the British have to deal with a sanctuary to the north projecting a
regular
army into the zone of conflict and bankrolled by a superpower and a
major
regional power.  It's also real easy to tell a Boer from everyone else
in
South Africa.

Oh, and when it all came down you ended giving South Africa back to the
damn
Boers the minute you got them to the conference table anyway.

As for Malaya, it is also different from Vietnam in many ways.	It was
easy
to isolate geographically.  The only land border is with Burma.  Burmese
shoot Malaysians for fun.  The guerilla movement was restricted in
ethnic
terms.	Oh, and the Soviets and Chinese did not support the Malaysian
Commies with troops and massive weapons shipments.  And again, the
guerillas
did not have a sanctuary or a regular army to fall back on.

> The USA would not exist, at all, if the british had not defeated the
> french in the new world,

And the Brits were amply repaid for this.  Remember, the British Army
surrendered in Virginia to a force composed half of French Marines.  The
Continental Army was largely armed with French muskets, paid with French
monetary contributions, and many specialists (including the Chief
Engineer)
were French.  And that victory was made possible by the defeat of your
fleet
at the Battle of the Chesapeake by the French Navy.