Bribed by who? How can you say things like that and not even contemplate the possiblilty that your own government had another agenda. How about the very close connections between Bush' family and the Saudie's?Quote from jficquette:
Europe is a corrupt basket case whose leaders stayed out of Iraq simply because they were being bribed.
Yes, I agree. Help was needed and we thank you for that (in those days the US still could count on a lot of respect).
Europe doesn't spend any money on defense because they know America will pull them out of any jams they get into. Europe couldn't even handle Bosnia without the USA.
But the effectiveness of that help had nothing to do with the spending or non-spending of these ridiculous amounts of money on a global army.
At least our governments aren't as scared as yours' are to confront the voter and let them pay for reality.
Europe pays so much for Oil simply to keep its socialist governments in power.
And please explain how any government could lower the price of oil.
Also, notice how the oil-price rises with the demise of the dollar. We in EUR do not suffer as you do.
I personally think the US economy is in shambles and is artificially prolonged by attracting foreign money. No country permanently at war can sustain without a war-economy of some sort.
I hope you realize that all this was predictable, and I don't think this ruinous path would have been chosen without someone profiting BIG-TIME from it.
Ursa..
