Er umm - not Quite so simple a dismissal please

despite the just plain roll-in-the snow this has all become..

OK Dan, let's look at the quote One More Time:

Dude, did you ever leave Berlin? I was on border sites (THE FUCKING WALL) nowhere near Berlin... It ran the entire length of the country.

Yes, the focussing upon the semantic difference between wall and various synonyms/overlapping classes has reached the height of punctiliousness. Still.. context: there are indeed many folks who imagine that there was a *WALL* exactly like the one seen in many pics in BERLIN == all the way across Germany.

Imputation that "a person saw 'The WALL'" outside Berlin, might or might not trigger a certain skeptical note about whether that person had any more info than Berlin photos (though a question addressed to the statement would surely clarify. That step got omitted..)

Underneath that red herring however - lie some other statements of yours, which I deign not to go back and link-to: re the Purpose of that wall/barrier. That point is not so trivial and is further cause for a listener's skepticism.

Now I have no doubt of your Russian language experience, as we've talked. Nor do I imagine you invented / would invent your itinerary over there. Nor is Brandioch or anyone entitled to confuse a healthy skepticism with proven dissembling. BTW the 'liar' tag was levelled at the quote above regarding the wall, IIRC. Then later, your other claims were listed as 'unproven' - which of course they are [For example no one here is even remotely aware of my extra-Terrestrial origins, and wouldn't believe them if I claimed them].

All in all, I believe that it is a rather large misapprehension to have confused the reasons for US troops in Germany (at least.. many years after the end of WW-II). I thought it was obvious since the '50s why 'we' were there and planned to stay the duration of that Cold War\ufffd. Nothing or little to do with "keeping Germans away from beer-halls festooned with odd red, white and black banners, with Erwache at the bottom".

HTH,

Ashton

but given my background - B.S. in Russian after the army, I tend to take a Russian historical perspective of the wall and "why" it existed. It is an oversimplification to say that the Russians put it there solely to keep Germany from reuniting, this is true. But the Russians did have a justifiable fear of Western Europe - Germany in particular- and they (the Russians) felt justified in keeping forces in the Eastern Block of nations to ensure that they would not attack again. This is the meta I was after in the original thread with Brandioch. That it is not uncommon after a "hot" war to insist that terms of surrender are kept - be they by UN inspection or by keeping occupying forces in the conquered nation.

I also know that you and I disagree (maybe) on whether appeasement as a national strategy is effective. It's something that I haven't totally made up my mind about but I am leaning towards non-appeasement/military as I think that the oil reserves (yep, it's all about the oil) make this particular tyrant a little too dangerous. What I haven't determined is if my fear is rational or irrational. That is the million dollar question for me. A little rational fear, such as don't put your hand in the fire, has kept this species going. The little men that go bump at night (relatives of yours, alien master?), etc. being the irrational. I don't know exactly where Hussein fits on this scale. But I digress...

I already attempted to diffuse this. We'll see what happens.

Welcome to IWETHEY!