Ancient Rome vs Modern America

[pasternakski]

*sigh* and to think this all started with a simple little computer game joke in an attempt to head off what was comin'...

It'd be nice if some Dutch boy would step up and stick his finger in the dike, but god knows what direction this thing would run off in then

[UndercoverNotChickenSalad]

Ursa MAior, my country is perfect.  The USA has never ever made a mistake.  ever.
 
USA USA USA !!
 
[8|]

Do I fit the stereotype?

[Ursa MAior]

Undercover
That is clear speech. I dont argue with religious fanatics. [;)] Allahu Akbar or It is so cuz it is God's will and stuff means the end of ANY intelligent conversation.

Joke aside. IF you really think so I accept it and wont argue with you about this issue anymore. Is it so or am I missing a joke?

[sven]

ORIGINAL: Ursa MAior


All you MCS guys with this behaviour you screw what your forefathers have built: the image of America.

America was not built by people who wet the bed over what people who had no power fretted over. Further, they would laugh heartily at how voluntarily EUtopian nations have denuded their power projection capabilities. If you'd like cites I will happily provide you with some.

This is the creation they rendered and my family serves it well.

You'll notice my home state has a GDP the size of Australia, and for reference our neighbors have the punching power of (particularly funny so far as Terminal goes)Denmark, Argentina, Holland, Algeria, and Portugal. I am currently living in a state with the GDP of Indonesia, its neighbors having the punching power of Chile, Pakistan, and Canada. The economy drives the engine of our power not the other way around.

I'll ask about your infantile fascination with McDonald's some other time.

[Doggie]

Who says any country is above criticism?  Certainly not me, but some people around here seem to think theircountries are above criticism for the simple reason they've not accomplished anything for a century or so.

How many times have we heard, "well, we didn't drop a nuclear bomb on Japan" and "we didn't start an arms race?"  No, "we" didn't do a damn thing but sit on our asses.  If "we" had "our" way, "we" would all be smuggling rutebegas out of a collective farm in our rectums.

Interesting how "we" landed on the moon, "we" developed a satellite communication and navigation system, "we" discovered cures for polio, smallpox, and other diseases, but it's only us Americans who are destroying the environment and turning all the poor harmless Muslims in the world into homicidal maniacs.

I haven't noticed anybody around here blaming Hungary or Denmark for bringing the  apocolyspe down around our ears and conspiring to take over the world.  All we see is crap like this:

When you people will start to think about how a three letter word -which used to mean freedom and unlimited possibilities- have turned into the red textile, especially for people who are VERY similar to you (not Ahmed, Sergei or Ching Lee but William, Knut and 'Anri)?

I know that you dont care about the rest of the world, but most of you dont understand that your countries influence rests as more on CULTURAL influence (McDonalds, music, movies) as much it relies on military superiority. NO M1A1 will make me eat a Happy Meal, or watch 300 or play WitP for that instance.

All you MCS guys with this behaviour you screw what your forefathers have built: the image of America.

Of all the sanctimonious, self rightous horseshit.  How dare you.  WTF do you know about the "image of America?  Who are you to pass moral judgements?  Just who in the hell do you think you are?  What the hell did you or your forefathers ever build?  We're supposed to fall to our knees and give thanks for Zsa Zsa Gabor?

And in case you haven't noticed, us "steakhouse morons" are an international community with members from all over the western world.  Just who do you and Terminex represent, other than the European alliance of narrow minded bigots?

[Ursa MAior]

Edited
You dont worth arguing. Why I do it is a mistery even to me.

[Mad Cow]

ORIGINAL: Dave Briggs

ORIGINAL: m5000.2006

sorry for my post, it seems i opened up a Pandora's box...[:(]

Yeah....when I first saw your post I thought I'd give it a day and then make some kind of educated response. I am sooo glad I didn't bother. But I did buy a 30gig iPod last weekend. As a_white_rabbit would say, "s'cool".

I've had one for a year now. They do indeed rock.

[Mad Cow]

Sven, that map rules!

[robpost3]

Nope, can't be associated with Belgium dairy farms are taking a beating here...no choclate for you! At least of the milk sort[:-]

I'll ask about your infantile fascination with McDonald's some other time.

[:D]
Think I got your dial tone
Think I got billy baxter’s bone
Think I got a bubble-sac
Think I got a big mac attack
Hold the pickles hold the lettuce
Special orders don’t upset us
All we ask is that you let us
Serve it your way
Too much paranoias
My momma’s afraid to tell me
The things she’s afraid of
I been dipped in double meaning
I been stuck with static cling
Think I got a rupto-pac
Think I got a big mac attack

[Culiacan Mexico]

ORIGINAL: tc237

My vote is Rome.
Rome was a powerful Empire bent on conquering the known world and basically achieved it's goal.
USA is a nation that doesn't want airplanes flying into it's skyscrapers, it doesn't look like it will be able to stop that.

By the way another worthless thread, started on a game company's forum, with the purpose of giving sneaky little cowards an excuse to blast the USA with cute little snide remarks.
Good show Matrix.
Delete my account please.

I don't think the comments in the link was from someone trying "to blast the USA with cute little snide remarks", but rather someone trying to display both their ignorance of the US and of history. [;)]

[Culiacan Mexico]

ORIGINAL: m5000.2006

Interesting comparison here ---> http://militaryhistorypodcast.blogspot. ... erica.html

I've been wondering if there are any other possible similarities. Loss of Military Strength is particularly interesting. Although, I'm not sure if it's exactly true. War in Iraque isn't popular in the USA, but does that mean it is a nail in their coffin. I think not. Also, is the USA really 'overextended' militarilly?

One of the problems Ancient Rome had was their strange reluctnace to use horsemen on a large scale, Roman armies relying strongly on infantry. In other words, they would refuse to make progress sticking to their traditional way of waging wars. It seems not to be true of modern US Army.

I read some of the comparisons... the writer is clueless (to put it politely).

• Loss of Identity
• Rome: Germanization of Army and empire
• America: Hispanic Immigration boom into army and country

Hispanics in the US enlist in the United States Marine Corps at the highest rate of any minority. When you join the Marines you lose your identify and receive a new one.

• Loss of Unity
• Rome: Eastern and Western Roman Empires
• America: Country vs. City, Democrat vs. Republican

Ridiculous, in comparison to France or Germany (I am living here now) American politics are homogenous.

• Loss of Economic Strength
• Rome: Lack of gold, lack of exportable goods, income disparity
• America: Outsourcing, economic decline, income disparity

Not based on statistic.

• Loss of Military Strength
• Rome: Overextension, Middle East problem
• America: Overextension, Iraq

Uniformed conclusion.

• Loss of Population
• Rome: Plague, Lead Poisoning
• America: Avian Flu, Obesity

Population growth is up in the US.

• Loss of Environmental Security
• Rome: Salinization of North Africa
• America: Lack of oil security, global warming

Stupid.

• Loss of Civic Virtue:
o Rome: Laziness

Incorrect. Statistically, the average American works longer and harder than most other people do.


This is purely an informational episode. I am not trying to persuade anybody or make any generalizations or make any predictions about the future. I am trying to support famous claims, but this does not mean that these claims are foolproof. Feel free to comment with your opinions.


-----------------------------------------------------


Obviously an uniformed opinion based on ignorance.

[Culiacan Mexico]

ORIGINAL: Terminus


I apologize to my American friends on this forum. I know that 99% of citizens in the United States are ordinary, good people who just want to live their lives in peace and don't wish harm to anybody. Unfortunately, extremists like Doggie and his Steakhouse groupies shriek so loudly that they drown out everybody else…

Thank you. It is nice to be noticed.

[Culiacan Mexico]

ORIGINAL: sven


Nah to be fair there probably could be an intelligent conversation or three about why Rome excelled vis a vis other nation-states, and how the US is playing the game at a different level than its competition. You could even make the argument that we are losing touch with what allowed us to exert more punching power per pound than our foes in the past and why it is seemingly a diminsihing capacity. The thing is for any of that you'd need to muzzle the usual suspects from playing the "Bang Chimpy Action Hour" and force them to stay On Topic and apolitical or it is a raging violation of the "no politics" meme.

In the end, however, I don't think the reality is that all political ranting is OT, I suspect political ranting that sets off the 50,000 decibel EUtopian/Mega-Leftoid "I am outraged and ready to boycott MatrixGames!" machine is OT.

IE "an unfair(by necessity) muzzling of only SOME PoVs".

Agreed.

[JudgeDredd]

Well my understanding is this...you cannot have a serious discussion on these forums when the USA mentioned.

Whether that's due to Americans or whether it's "the rest of the world" as it's popularly categorised by a few, I don't know....but I do know that as soon as USA is mentioned in a thread, it goes downhill, which is why I posted so in the 4th post. It's kind of an unwritten law.

To the Americans thinking there was bashing going on, I will agree...eventually it went that way. As usual another post went into the gutter because America was mentioned, innocently at first or otherwise...but I have read through this thread, without making comment on your nation and I've seen several posts about EUtopia...if I was to be as touchy as you, I could join the fray. Perhaps if you just realised that your country is ran by the same category of crap (just a different type), then people would move on. Your government is as crap as anyone elses...just deal with it and move on.

I don't know why you don't just let them get on with it...it's the little kid syndrome...if you bite, they'll continue to get a rise out of you until...well, you don't, in which case they'll get bored.

[sven]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

Well my understanding is this...you cannot have a serious discussion on these forums when the USA mentioned.

Whether that's due to Americans or whether it's "the rest of the world" as it's popularly categorised by a few, I don't know....but I do know that as soon as USA is mentioned in a thread, it goes downhill, which is why I posted so in the 4th post. It's kind of an unwritten law.

It sort of started back on 9/11/01. Seems, "you guys deserved it," was considered a nice way of saying hello by lots of EUropeans. You'd be shocked at how many of us long-term members of the Matrix community still carry a warm spot in our hearts over it.

When the first response to my nation getting hit is, "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD YOU CANNOT RETALIATE! THINK OF THE KIDS!" and the fires aren't even out it is not the action of a real friend.

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd
To the Americans thinking there was bashing going on, I will agree...eventually it went that way. As usual another post went into the gutter because America was mentioned, innocently at first or otherwise...but I have read through this thread, without making comment on your nation and I've seen several posts about EUtopia...if I was to be as touchy as you, I could join the fray. Perhaps if you just realised that your country is ran by the same category of crap (just a different type), then people would move on. Your government is as crap as anyone elses...just deal with it and move on.

I don't know why you don't just let them get on with it...it's the little kid syndrome...if you bite, they'll continue to get a rise out of you until...well, you don't, in which case they'll get bored.

I crafted "EUtopia" back in the old AoW as a response to geniuses of the sort Terminal and Big Bear embody preaching 24/7 about what a hellhole and a pariah the US is. Ohio's national guard/air national guard is as powerful force projection wise as Europe and its economy is more powerful than Hungary or Denmark. The US may be a lot of things but we are not Nazis(another favorite pastime of the dynamic duo to compare us to) and we are not bloodthirsty monsters bent on "stealing" the world's resources.

Were we Iraq would have been solved in about a year.

[Twotribes]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Yes, but remember, only America really matters...

Wonder if Doggie's head is going to explode once China and India finally surpass the West, including Festung Amerika...

I apologize to my American friends on this forum. I know that 99% of citizens in the United States are ordinary, good people who just want to live their lives in peace and don't wish harm to anybody. Unfortunately, extremists like Doggie and his Steakhouse groupies shriek so loudly that they drown out everybody else. Equally unfortunately, they're incapable of grasping the fact that other people can disagree with them and still not be their mortal enemies...

Giving this type people the silent treatment isn't going to work, because they'll still continue shrieking, deriving orgiastic joy from hearing themselves lord it over the rest of us.

This from the troll that STARTS posting insults and personal attacks in every thread he is involved in.

[Erik Rutins]

You know, it would be really nice if one day, threads like this could actually lead to interesting, considered and fact-laden discussions that look at the original question and actually lay out historically backed cases for and against without insults or name-calling. Personally, I'd definitely prefer a forum where I could learn something from such a thread instead of seeing the same darn thing I see in every other forum when a topic like this is raised. Until such a day comes... locked.