Iraq is not Germany
Iraq is not Germany. Never was; never will be.
The current US GDP is eleven trillion dollars. Thats 11,000 billion. The GDP of Iraq is around fifty-four billion. That's 54 billion, or 0.5% of US GDP.
In 1940 the US GDP was 943 Billion and German GDP was 387 Billion. Thus, German GDP was 41% of US GDP, which represents eighty times (80x) the GDP of Iraq relative to the US.
It is hard to understand how anyone could make the claim that the threat presented by Iraq in any way resembled the threat presented by Germany in WWII. Any analogy is preposterous.
Someone making that analogy simply doesn't know his facts, or he thinks you don't know your facts.
Of course, that doesn't stop George Bush from trying. See Bush equates bin Laden with history's greatest tyrants.
There is no economic miracle on the face of the earth that could ever allow Iraq to present a real threat to the US in our lifetime.
And even if there was linkage between Iraq and terrorism, which there isn't, this threat can be handled with heightened US security measures and controls. We now know that 9/11 was a long sequence of security misteps. We have taken many measures to improve the situation and we could take many more steps if we had the political backbone.
Any threat of terrorism is only made real by our unwillingness to take strong preventative measures including strong immigration control measures and a foreign policy that places the interests of the United States at least a notch above other interests.
Terrorism was not a concern in WWII. What did we do then that we are unwilling to do now?
Iraq missle deployment circa 2001 (Parody).
German battleship gun factory circa 1940.
Hat Tip: Thrasymachus
GDP
GDP 1940
The current US GDP is eleven trillion dollars. Thats 11,000 billion. The GDP of Iraq is around fifty-four billion. That's 54 billion, or 0.5% of US GDP.
In 1940 the US GDP was 943 Billion and German GDP was 387 Billion. Thus, German GDP was 41% of US GDP, which represents eighty times (80x) the GDP of Iraq relative to the US.
It is hard to understand how anyone could make the claim that the threat presented by Iraq in any way resembled the threat presented by Germany in WWII. Any analogy is preposterous.
Someone making that analogy simply doesn't know his facts, or he thinks you don't know your facts.
Of course, that doesn't stop George Bush from trying. See Bush equates bin Laden with history's greatest tyrants.
There is no economic miracle on the face of the earth that could ever allow Iraq to present a real threat to the US in our lifetime.
And even if there was linkage between Iraq and terrorism, which there isn't, this threat can be handled with heightened US security measures and controls. We now know that 9/11 was a long sequence of security misteps. We have taken many measures to improve the situation and we could take many more steps if we had the political backbone.
Any threat of terrorism is only made real by our unwillingness to take strong preventative measures including strong immigration control measures and a foreign policy that places the interests of the United States at least a notch above other interests.
Terrorism was not a concern in WWII. What did we do then that we are unwilling to do now?
Iraq missle deployment circa 2001 (Parody).
German battleship gun factory circa 1940.
Hat Tip: Thrasymachus
GDP
GDP 1940
posted by Brian at 6:44 AM
1 Comments:
Circa 1914, actually.
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