Originally posted by Viking
I said often outdated not all outdated. And I was referring to all the WWI equipment you unloaded on the British like the crappy old destroyers you sold them.
The operative word here is selling. You weren't helping anyone anymore than a car salesman is "helping" me buy a new car.
Do you even have a clue to history? Do you understand how ridiculous your indignation is here?
Of course we didn't give other nations a tremendous amount of equipment, new technology or old. Do you think that stuff grows on trees?
Prior to 1942 the USA was basically woefully unprepared for a large war. We didn't have the military strength or size to fight a large war. The amazing amount of war material production, to include guns, tanks, aircraft came after we entered WW2, with just limited ramping up prior to the war.
Is it your belief the US government just snapped their fingers and this stuff appeared? If so, you're deluded.
The government didn't have the capability to produce that type of equipment, and certainly not in quantity. They had to contract civilian firms to produce the equipment, and it had to be paid for. Well, guess what, the US treasury sure as heck couldn't cover the phenomenal costs, so the gov't had to borrow the money, billions of dollars, and a large part of that came from the selling of war bonds to the American public. That's right, the average citizen had to help finance the war, spending what little spare money they had to help build the tanks, planes, make the rifles and producing millions of rounds of ammo.
So, you sit there and *****, cast your foolish accusations because the USA didn't just give away all the equipment needed to fight a war, try to remember the USA had to supply it's own forces, and wasn't prepared to do that until after 1941, and that equipment had to be paid for, it wasn't made free, it wasn't supplied to the US gov't free, and it sure as hell couldn't have been given away free to nations that sat in close proximatity to the German border. European nations had a front row seat watching the rise of National Socializm, and if they choose not to prepare for the inevitable, it wasn't our fault.
So, go on with your "The USA is supposed to give everybody everything, and do it for free mentality", but excuse me if I hold in disdain your sense of entitlement for free welfare supplies.
