It's worse than that, it's not only a control of the borders issue, they were letting them immigrate in numbers that pretty much make up around 15% to 20% of their population now.

France, like Japan, has a real problem with procreation... just not enough kids being born, so they were taking in waves of immigration to back-fill the workers retiring. Japan doesn't do that, they are just suffering through a lack of workforce (that is destroying their economy).

Not sure where you were going with that? Target is not a French company, it's owned by Dayton Hudson Corporation (also owns Daytons and a string of other stuff) and is based in Minneapolis.

For the most part, the French have as bad of immigration problems as we do, they have let in waves of Muslims to the point that it stifles their politics... overtly support the US on an action in the Middle East and they burn Paris to the ground. I don't think that in back rooms they have ever wavered in their support of us, but their situation is like an American politician speaking openly about illegal immigration or gay marriage - suddenly the militants are fire-bombing their home, their business, and publicly humiliating them.

I could go into a whole dissertation about prejudice, suppression, the promise of socialism, and tradition, but I won't. Let's just say that as a group, with all their sophistication and accomplishments, politically they are still at the turn of the last century.

no reference to being a fan of them, only stating that our ties run deep. They did, after all, provide us weapons against the British during the Revolutionary War. For the most part, they have been fair-weather friends since.

You would be surprised though, ran into the French Foreign Legion in a lot of unlikely places overseas.

Saw 2 dudes kill a kid over a $5.00 bill.

It always boggled my mind (still does) how so
many Jews still support him in view of his
obvious prejudice. Can understand the Blacks'
adoration, having something in common with
him, but the Jews? Guess image is all, and
character meaningless. Too bad...too sad

Perhaps it would have been worth it if you had been fighting for Liberland, not far to the north of where Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia come together

On that we can agree. The amount that goes to Medicaid is completely out of hand. I learned that in dealing with my mom's decline over the last year.

America does not need a million people in its military to project power, nor does it need to project power. With a few thousand from each branch of the military, we could achieve whatever objective we wanted to. The rest of the world can be left to their own problems. We have enough problems of our own. In fact, that was the first premise I had to check. I worked with tritium before I read AS, and realized the magnitude of what I was trying to make safe.

I agree they do hate us because we do not practice Islam. We will not change their minds. I have tried numerous times. It has been a waste of breath. Lets the Muslims overrun all nations except the USA, maybe even the US. If it gets to that point, I will have shrugged to my own little paradise.

The Bosnians... greatly...

The Rwandans... 50% yes, 50% were shooting at us.

Sometimes friendship is worth more than time or treasure. Are the Brits "not worth our time or treasure"? We have a deep commitment to them, and deep ties. How about the French? Or any of Europe.

Just because you don't think so, doesn't mean the majority of America doesn't think so... in fact.. you are really in the minority on that.

Either way, you are talking about 1-2% of the budget of the United States at the absolute most. Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security is 71% of the budget... if you are worried about time & treasure, that shit needs to go in the trash can.

Like Ron Paul, I stand for non-interventionism. Isolationism probably is too strong a word. If a country or its citizens affirms Objectivist values, then I will gladly do business with them if they have something of value to offer. Many people from other countries do.

That's where we disagree, your argument seems to be to disengage from around the world while maintaining a million-person military (camped out at bases in the US?). I make the argument that the difference in cost of posting them at overseas locations vs. posted in the continental US is negligible.

We didn't go looking for a fight in Afghanistan, it was likely the most non-US influenced area in the world, the extent of our involvement was selling them the arms they were asking for to fight the Russians with.

Withdrawing our presence around the world doesn't suddenly mean that Russia or China will.. Do we abandon Western Europe to Russian influence?

Do we abandon the fight against ISIS and tell our Israeli and Turkish allies "oh well"? Turkey is a member of NATO... Jordan is also a close ally, and there is that insignificant seaway called the Suez Canal to consider... How about the Saudis? And we don't do those for free... they generally foot all or most of the tab by the way.

As much as I don't like Obama, his tough love strategy with some of these has been fruitful, and it was needed... The Saudis and Egyptians in particular have picked up the fight against ISIS, but the problem and risk is that they just don't have the training and weapons to get the job done before ISIS gets out of control. Maybe they will, maybe they won't... if we led the fight, it would be a certainty, but that drops precipitously with less US involvement. Do you honestly think ISIS would be happy to only rule their little corner of the desert?

The bitches that they have against the US is a long and detailed list... starting with the Crusades. Nevermind the Crusades were retaliation for Muslim and Mongol invasions of Europe in decades prior, but that little tidbit is never discussed.

The point is, the belief that we can sustain the largest economy on the planet (and still not large enough to employ our population), or that despots and religious zealots would just leave us alone if we're nice to them... is completely dream land.. We are very definitely on the buildup to World War III... that is pretty obvious, what's not entirely known is where the alliances and battle fronts will be drawn yet, but the world is polarizing itself very sharply. Selectively reducing tensions by the elimination of despots and hostile nations has proven generally pretty effective in the post-Cold War world, but in many ways, the world is much more dangerous now. 20 years ago, we knew exactly who are enemy was. We could see them on a map, we saw the red star on their naval vessels, and we could chase them out of the skies over Alaska, Canada, and the Western US while our attack subs could find and follow their boomers at sea. That enemy was very lethal, with one of their dozens of subs carrying some 200 nuclear warheads, yet, we somehow kept the peace for almost 50 years.

Now, we can't even pronounce the names of the enemies, let alone find them in their caves very easily. I'd venture to guess that most have never even met an American, but they hate us because we don't pray to Allah or practice Islam.

You have my condolences on being deployed to Bosnia and Rwanda. How many people there appreciated what you did?

We the people are manipulated into fighting the wars that our government wants to fight. I am about done with that.