JAG

Well yes, certainly for Korea, Iraq (twice) and Afghanistan! I believe we were asked to contribute to Vietnam, but a staff study concluded that the (North) Vietnamese were doing rather well on their own!

I think it is sufficient to label him ( the Parish Councilor as a see you next Tuesday!

Indeed Bob, there is even a chap who posts from Dorset. He uses multiple identities but doesn't fool anyone.

Rereading this thread, this statement rather leaps off the page at one. American troops began arriving in numbers in France at the beginning of 1918. They initially were occupied in training and preparation for war, remember that until 1917 the American Army was very small. The draft introduced in 1917 brought millions of men into the army, but they had to be trained, both individually and then as the units, Battalions, Regiments (brigades) and Divisions they were sent to. They did not enter full scale combat until mid 1918. They took part with, and to a certain degree replaced, the utterly exhausted and largely "fought out" French formations on the central and southern sectors of the Front. The massive German offensive, largely made possible by the transfer of troops and material from the east following the collapse of the Russians in 1917, fell on the British, in Northern France and Belgium; who together with (whisper it quietly) the Canadian's fought it to a standstill, counterattacked, drove back and comprehensively defeated the Germans. This crushing defeat, together with the prospect of much larger American armies joining battle in the winter of 1918 and early 1919, are what led Germany to ask for an armistice, which ended the fighting on November 11th 1918. It is not the case that the Germans were winning until the Americans arrived; it was the case that their arrival, and the impending arrival of many more, persuaded the Germans that they could not hope to recover from the defeats of late summer and early autumn 1918.

What are you wittering on about - Field Marshal Haig commanded the British Army on the Western Front in the First World War. He died in 1928.

By you guys, do you mean the British or the Danes? If you mean the British then your question reveals stunning ignorance, such that it is not worth dignifying with an answer! If you mean the Danes then 29 Danish ships took part in the invasion, one, the "Aero", transported troops and armoured vehicles to Omaha Beach. Individual Danish aircrew flew with the RAF during the invasion, individual Danish soldiers served with the British Army.

Whisper it quietly, Denmark was liberated by the British and (horror of horrors for MAGA) the Canadians!

Duplicate post.

I know Denmark well, it can be accused of things but certainly not exploitative colonialism. It did step up to the plate and took part in the American led campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of there young men and women died. How many divisions do they have? Wasn't it Stalin who originated that quote?

Or possibly, "Europe finds a lot to take the piss out of with JD!"

The nature of war fighting, defence and offence has changed dramatically since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the withdrawal of the Soviet Military from Eastern Europe and the fall of the "puppet" communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Then (1960s, 70s and 80s) we thought,. and were prepared to fight, in terms of massed armies ranged across Europe, from the Alps to the Baltic. Largely armoured, you had the NATO corps, each of up to 4 divisions , German, US, Belgian, British, Dutch and German again. The second wave was a massive airlift of American troops from the continental USA , practiced in various degrees in the big NATO exercises - which almost always included a "Reforger" component from the USA. The armies were manned, with the exception of the British and latterly the US, largely by conscription. The opposition, Group of Soviet Forces Germany was deployed similarly, albeit in a more offensive posture, backed up by their Warsaw Pact allies and second wars drawn on mobilisation from the Soviet Union. The whole business has changed. Formations are smaller, more agile and far better equipped, the brigade has replaced the Division and Corps as the fighting formation. Brigades are far more practiced, trained and expect to fight alongside brigades from other nationalities; in fact multinational brigades are common. Conscription is much less of a feature. Equipment commonality is much greater, communications, command and control more effective and faster; artillery and anti tank guided weapons are far more effective, particularly in defence, and the development of drones both for surveillance and delivery of munitions has opened up a whole new dimension. All this, training and equipment, has become much more expensive of course, but you now have a vastly different battlefield, to that which NATO was created to fight on. There is a need to spend more, there will always be a need to spend more, however the core reliance upon the US for reinforcement in manpower and weaponry is much reduced - "Reforger" has not been played for decades, and US withdrawal from or prevarication over NATO will have less impact than it would have done in the days of the Cold War. Europe would lose the US nuclear umbrella, but the UK and French strategic deterrence would remain. My point is, NATO has changed, Europe has changed, militaries have changed. US withdrawal will be a great blow, but not as fatal as it would have been to "the old order". New countries are emerging as drivers within NATO, in particular Poland and the Scandinavians. The current regime in the USA has cast significant doubt as to wether they could actually be trusted to follow the core rule of the alliance, article 5 of the treaty, an attack on one is an attack on all. NATO and Europe will have, are having, to learn to live without the USA.

The devil is in one particular detail: is it to be under the control and oversight of congress, or the executive branch? Maybe there should be an independent head of the fund, there is a chap called Elon Musk who is eminently suitable, alternatively there are members of the Trump family who are well versed in handling large sums of other people's money! Incidentally, given the massive debt which the USA faces, why the plan to channel huge amounts of money into such a fund?

That is the intention - the longer they can spin it out, the more time to re-establish themselves as the power in Gaza, and gain worldwide support as such. The longer the ceasefire "holds" the harder it will be for Israel to end it - Israel has domestic as well as international politics to contend with. Once Hamas are back in control, a couple of years to sort themselves out and bingo, round two!

I don't think it needs explaining.

It is you that are suggesting (wrongly as it happens) that I am claiming any moral high ground or "allusions of superiority".

I make no claim to the moral high ground. I was merely offering an opinion - sauce, geese and ganders and so forth.

1) don't presume to tell me what I can think or post. 2) on second thoughts, as a single white male living in Cambodia you may be qualified to ruminate on prices...

No duplicity in what I said, @Yagoda said it, and has reiterated it several others; you however perhaps demonstrate some considerable duplicity in suggesting that he said no such thing!

All you can do is turn to abuse!

Read @Yagoda's reaction to my comment. I would say it leaves no doubt whatsoever that he was referring to Danielle Sassoon.

You really are a piece of work, remarking about a particularly offensive slur you made about a woman ( and yes I do defend her against it) does not make me in any way a supporter of the trans agenda, and especially of your twisted and bizarrely hate filled interpretation of it.

A remarkable, and revealing suggestion, especially as Danielle Sassoon is rather an attractive young lady! The suggestion that she is a whore says far more about you than it ever does about her.

I should imagine NATO have been on the case for a while - at least since those boxes of files were found in Donald's sea side khazi!

Or perhaps, as the law is reported as being intended for refugees from Ukraine, it was interpreted by the judge somewhat,umh, flexibly? Says the poster formerly known as "herfiehandbag", don't worry, it's all above board!

Hell no, "Uncle Sucker" is the name of his favourite bar!