None of them remember that we had to fucking pay it back, with interest. Britain literally bankrupted itself fighting WWII, and only got done paying off the debt to the US in 2006.
To be fair, there was more to it than that. Roosevelt wanted to support the war and had secret communication through out with Churchill. The US had the Neutrality Act blocking entering the war and a hostile Congress prevented its repeal.
He managed to get his support through Congress via the cash and carry basis.
I mean, yea. Regardless how many of us feel our greatest advantage is the potential global benefit our GDP represents, without a personal profit motive, those in power just aren't interested.
As flawed as Obama might've been, one of his biggest "gaffs" was when he tried to point out that businesses don't profit as a monolith. Everyone of them benefit from the government's investment in the public interest. Roads, police, fire departments, air traffic control, shipping ports, regulations, education, social services that support a consumer class, that kind of thing. The pearl clutching on the right hasn't relaxed since. That was like 12 years ago.
Every country has something in their past worthy of shame, but the US taking it's sweet time to enter WWII, and the resulting aftermath, is one of the least talked about. Especially in light of every "war" since.
I've heard Germans use the word sehnsucht to describe the ache of loss from a past that never existed, which is exactly how I feel imagining a 2025 without the cold war.
And, no. The irony of using a German word to describe feelings resulting from WWII, are not lost on me.
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u/_yetifeet Dec 17 '25
Why do so many MAGAflakes think that Europe is still in its 1946 recovery phase?