Give it a go mate!

Dear Friends: "Let's get things back into perspective here!"

Since we did a piece on all the things Britain invented and discovered yesterday, I saw this question with a high degree of curiosity when it was presented on Quora discussions:

Given that no one can stop us if we wanted, should the USA take over the UK , Canada and Australia and use their natural resources (Australia, Canada) and geographic location (UK) to help enrich the USA?

To which they got THIS reply:

Nah worries mate, come on down and give it a red hot go, you could try but lets review the data of the last 70 years:

Failed arguably as the worlds mightiest nation of the time to successfully conclude the Korean War with a victory, now you are rocking with Kim.

Followed this up by failing to beat a bunch of rice farmers with AK47s who had been fighting a 10,000 day war against the French, The Japanese, The French again, each other and then the Americans.

Abandoned the mission in Somalia a country with almost no army and no central govt cause you could not win.

Pulled out of Iraq in Gulf War One with out toppling Saddam cause you thought they had felt the power of Pax America and you still had deluded views about Iran, which directly led to Gulf War 2 and the failure to conclude the successful invasion of Afghanistan.

Failed to support the Bazzra uprising thus helping to turn the Southern Iraqi Shia against the US

Failed to win the peace in Gulf War 2, implemented a failed policy of de Bathification despite having to hand the Marshal plans model of success in Japan, thus facilitating the rise of IS and providing an entre to the region as far as the Med coast for Iran.

Fought a 30 year war on drugs which did not work and alienated many Latin Americans from the US, it also contributed to flooding Central and parts of Latin America with US made Guns in the reverse criminal enterprise, drugs in guns out, now you have legalised weed after spending billions fighting it.

Backed the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan that morphed into the Taliban , Al Quedia and ISIS, which is now Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Phillpines.

You have fought close to a 20 year war in Afghanistan to a standstill with no victory in sight, you allies are rapaciously corrupt and unreliable, yet you stick it out in a policy free, tactic heavy, end game strategy absent vacum.

You backed Pakistan a frienemy, ditto the Gulf States , ditto Saudi, you chose Israel over Lebanon, Egypt over Tunisia, Libya over Algeria, you cant cap a trick South of Palermo.

You repeated the error of backing the Shah over Mohamed in Iran by backing Cisi over the democratically elected Govt which you did not like, it will play out the same way as Iran over a shorter temporal scale.

I wont bother with the details of backing Seske Mbouto in Congo Zaire or a range of Nigerian and other West African autocrats in the 60s , 70s and 80s.

You did beat Panama and Grenada both nations about as big as Rhode Island.

So come on down and give it a go, the data says you it might not go to plan.

As for the UK, well last time you took on your former imperial masters was the war of 1812, when the Brits were stretched to the max fighting France and the brilliant Napoleon, you attacked the North American Provinces loyal to the Crown in what is now Canada, ask yourself how did it go, how did the Whitehouse end up being called the Whitehouse after that conflict?

Peter Topping, Australia.

Then on top of this we had a Canadian guy jump into the fray:

I have been living in Canada for 8 years, and my biggest culture shock was just a few months ago.

I was at work chatting with some friends when a Canadian guy joined the group, he was old with a big white beard. We were talking about the new immigration policies in the U.S., and the overall fear of immigrants in different countries when he said "you know? I really don't get that.. a while ago a guy told me that his dream was to come to live in Canada, and to me that's awesome, I think it is a fucking honour that somebody wants to come to my country and be a part of my culture, I hope he comes, he's such a nice and hard working guy, I would be glad to call him a fellow Canadian".

I was impressed by the energy and honesty with which he said that, and then I saw the other Canadians in the group nodding in agreement. That stayed with me, including the fact that he is not part of the new generations, this open mind is simply part of the Canadian culture.

Around that time I was about to get my Canadian permanent residency, and that moment reaffirmed in me the decision of having picked this country. I had seen the Canadian niceness before, I knew how safe and comfortable it is to live in Canada, but that moment really showed me what Canadians are made of.

 Fernando Ortega,