I can't speak for many, but a country the size of J'ca doesn't get much chance to have an influence on a global scale (well, there's the pervasive undercover effort I can't tell you about until just before I kill you) except in arenas like the UN. We don't have the money, or the weapons of mass destruction or anything.

What do crimes by diplomats have to do with the UN?

So, if there is an unwanted draft will the Aussies split for NZ the way the Americans split for Canada?

Well, considering it would require a plane or boat to get there, probably not.

Of course, as someone who's never had to worry about the draft, it's a moot point for me. :)

It would take them a train or boat to get anywhere, unless...

t Trudy sees "Crocodile Dundee" in a whole new light

Oh, the crimes had nothing to do with the UN per se, but they did make the diplomats look like criminals hiding behind their immunity and made their high-flying speeches inside the UN itself look sort of hypocritical. Cars with Dip Corp plates parking wherever they please in scarce spaces were a running joke with late-night comedians for years.

But that taints all of diplomacy, not just the UN. Man, the difficulty I used to have explaining to people that my dad was a career diplomat, not a gift appointee, stunned me. I can't imagine why you'd hand someone an important spot like that because you kinda like them.

yeah, the concept of ambassadorships to random cronies never made much sense to me....i mean, giving them to the guy-from-your-party as opposed to the equally qualified guy from the other party, both of whom worked their way up the dip corps? That would be...well, maybe not sensible, but understandable.

oh, sorry...

t /american running away from thread so as not to further american-ly crowd it

Not got time or energy to jump into this right now. But go FayJay! Go FayJay! Go FayJay!

after all, equally adolescent Americans refusing to buy French wine

But we have been mocking them ruthlessly for weeks.

supporting mocking no big dif.

even Romanian peasants get satellite TV (along with their wood-burning stove, their scythe-cut grass and their milk squeezed fresh from the cow)

Stereotype much. Hillbillies get satellite too.

Here's the thing: Europe isn't a country. Europe isn't one ideology or one political system. So if you're going to base an argument on a US/Europe dichotomy we may have some problems, because Europe doesn't have or express one unified opinion about, well, pretty much anything. What with Europe comprising a shitload of different countries.

FayJay, you know people are using the phrase “United States of Europe” with a straight face now yes?

Hello, we are the UK, Rock, please let me introduce you to Hard Place.

I bet Marlboros (cigarettes) are all over the place, but giving those up would be too hard.

Not. Really now if I can anyone can. Slainte mhath!

But they seem to making it very clear what they're against without saying what they're FOR. What will they do against Saddam?

Nothing. The pressing need to do NOTHING AGAINST SADDAM. Monarchs / ultimate rulers / dictators NOT a new concept here no-one else is scared of him. Wheels need axles and all that jazz.

Oh, FayJay Re: European Union. The Queen of England is in a strong position here what with Germany being all dominaty.

IMO & IJS.

FayJay, you know people are using the phrase “United States of Europe” with a straight face now yes?

No, they're not. It was mentioned, in passing, in a list of about 20 possible names for an integrated EU (which, given that it would require a common foreign and defence policy, is dead in the water right now) in the appendix of Descardin's report on suggested development of the Union. Then the EUphobe press spotted it and turned it into a Big Fat Issue over here.

Oh, FayJay Re: European Union. The Queen of England is in a strong position here what with Germany being all dominaty.

In a pig's arse. A) Germany won't be dominaty in a (notional) eurosuperpower - it'll be the countries with nukes, seats on the Security Council, massive links outside Europe and internationally significant financial markets. German power has been restricted since WWII, and still is. Germany will be important, but the idea that they'll "Dominate" is laughable; they're the last country on earth to want to; more than anyone, they know where "domination" leads. B) WHy does the fact that the Hanoverians have German ancestry mean a fuck to the republic that is Germany? They were never kings over there - it'd be like a german relative of, say, the Dukes of Devonshire trying to exert influence in the UK. And C) The Queen has no powers in this country that she can use. The survival of the Monarchy depends on the Monarch not exerting the prerogative, and on him/her leaving it to the PM. Hence why Charles's political interventions are so embarrassing for Royalists.

even Romanian peasants get satellite TV (along with their wood-burning stove, their scythe-cut grass and their milk squeezed fresh from the cow)

Stereotype much. Hillbillies get satellite too.

Eh? Fay was making a specific point about the penetration of US monoculture far ahead of other tech - I could make the same point by talking about watching MTV in a shack in the Sumatran highlands with a petrol generator, while coffee beans dried in the mud and the wife of the chap I was watching with pounded clothes in the river. Or a 70-year-old guy on Pulau Siberut, 5 days walk from the nearest road, whose never seen a petrol engine, talking about how the Americans have walked on the moon. Now that's cognitive dissonence!