Which Country is the Closest Ally of the United States?

[Coito ergo sum]

You forgot to add California to the list.

California is included under Mexico.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You forgot to add California to the list.

California is included under Mexico.

Um... I'm looking at a map and it seems Mexico is under California?

[Coito ergo sum]

You might want to mention that to the Mexicans. They have a decidedly different view of it.

Maybe they look at the equator being the top.

[Eddie]

I'll believe the Kosovo is part of Albania when the Albanian Military mans the border with Serbia... Funny how they'd regard themselves as shqip but don't seem to be moving for becoming part of the greater community.
(unless of course they have some major vendettas with people the other side of the border).

and they ain't allies... they aren't even a self sustaining country, let alone in position to be anything to the US beside a yes man in the UN (are they even in the UN?)

They are moving towards it, it’s just that declaring independence and then immediately uniting with the neighboring country is too big step to be taken at once. There isn’t a single thing that binds Kosovo Albanians with the state of Kosovo, no Kosovo ethnicity, nationality, no patriotism towards Kosovo. The first thing you notice when you go there are Albanian flags all over the place and very few of those new Kosovo flags. The border between the two exists only on paper, it wasn’t guarded that well back when Yugoslavia still existed, I can imagine things aren’t so different now. They are getting there one step at the time. I see Macedonia and probably Montenegro falling apart in the future.
I say fuck em, we should let it go, since we are in no position to regain the province the only way that works in politics, by brute force.
Who needs a province where 80% of the people is not loyal to the government, unemployment is the highest in Europe, they are multiplying faster than a calculator, and the only good business is drug business.
When I said they were the closest ally, off course I didn’t mean they had any significant influence on US politics (although Albanian lobbies are quite strong). I meant that they were the biggest and most loyal ass lickers, which is what being an US ally really means.
Kosovo is not a member of the UN, but it doesn’t make less independent, since UN is an institution with a single purpose, that is to be ignored all the time.

[Svartalf]

Makedonia: Possible. Nobody likes them, and every one of their neighbors wants a piece of them.

Montenegro : less likely. They are moving to EU membership, and while we wouldn't mind if Greece repossessed Asia Minor at the expense of the Turks, we tend to be more helpful to other prospective members

[Tyrannical]

You might want to mention that to the Mexicans. They have a decidedly different view of it.

Maybe they look at the equator being the top.

That reminds me of one of those PC can't get any worse examples..................

In modern times, reversed maps are made as a learning device or to illustrate Northern Hemisphere bias

(once again, blame White people )

[HomerJay]

Someone voted for France?

I read that America wouldn't even exist if Frenchie hadn't helped them beat the British at Little Custerlaststan.

[Coito ergo sum]

Someone voted for France?

I read that America wouldn't even exist if Frenchie hadn't helped them beat the British at Little Custerlaststan.

I read that America wouldn't exist without the UK's help.

[Coito ergo sum]

You might want to mention that to the Mexicans. They have a decidedly different view of it.

Maybe they look at the equator being the top.

That reminds me of one of those PC can't get any worse examples..................

In modern times, reversed maps are made as a learning device or to illustrate Northern Hemisphere bias

(once again, blame White people )

Yeah, I mean, it actually makes sense to view the globe with the northern hemisphere on top, because most of the land is in the Northern hemisphere. And, at the time they first started making maps, the map makers only knew of only part of the northern hemisphere. Some maps were drawn by people who did not even know the world was a spheroid.

Maps are tools to be used to get around. They aren't tools of social policy. So, a guy in Greece in the year 2000 makes a map "biased" toward the places he knows exist and can replicate on a map. A medieval European mapmaker is biased toward Europe because he didn't even know what Africa or North America or China looked like. It was a partial map. They drew what they knew in a way that would be useful to them in their milieu.

Then when the knowledge of the world grew, they added more land and more land to the maps, and the convention was that what started as the top of the map stayed that way. It would only be confusing to reverse things.

If there were mapmakers in Australia or Southern africa or south america early on in cartography, then their maps may have had different conventions.

Now, of course, it's "biased" to have north be north, not just conventional.

[Ian]

Someone voted for France?

I read that America wouldn't even exist if Frenchie hadn't helped them beat the British at Little Custerlaststan.

I read that America wouldn't exist without the UK's help.

The US might not exist if the French hadn't blocked off Chesapeake Bay from the British before the Battle of Yorktown. Or if Washington's troops hadn't escaped through the fog in Brooklyn in August of 1776. Or if... hell, there's a thousand "ifs" from the Revolution.

And what if Canada had been a part of the Revolution, and thus become states of the US instead of remaining British provinces?

If the US had lost the Battle of San Jacinto, Mexico would probably look a lot larger and the US a lot smaller ever since. Perhaps they'll have their revenge within a few more generations, and Mexico will attempt to re-conquer the American southwest...

And what if the Confederacy had managed to survive?

And what is Russia had not been agreeable to selling off Alaska to us?

And what if the US and the UK wound up at war with each other around 1896, as might very well have happened?

I think I'll stop wondering about all this stuff before I get to the 20th Century...

[Coito ergo sum]

Someone voted for France?

I read that America wouldn't even exist if Frenchie hadn't helped them beat the British at Little Custerlaststan.

I read that America wouldn't exist without the UK's help.

The US might not exist if the French hadn't blocked off Chesapeake Bay from the British before the Battle of Yorktown. Or if Washington's troops hadn't escaped through the fog in Brooklyn in August of 1776. Or if... hell, there's a thousand "ifs" from the Revolution.

And what if Canada had been a part of the Revolution, and thus become states of the US instead of remaining British provinces?

The US could very likely have taken over all of the Mexican Empire after the Mexican war, and kept it after the sack of Mexico City. It may have seemed quite natural to do so, with our otherwise complete dominance of North America. There may have been a drive to Panama to unify the continent. It would have been cool. We also wouldn't have had to buy Alaska, or we would likely have gotten an even better price, and earlier, which might have meant the Alaska gold rush would have occurred earlier. It would have seemed to the Russians too tenuous to hold.

If the US had lost the Battle of San Jacinto, Mexico would probably look a lot larger and the US a lot smaller ever since. Perhaps they'll have their revenge within a few more generations, and Mexico will attempt to re-conquer the American southwest...

We wouldn't have lost to Mexicans, lol. We'd've won during the siesta.

Well, Mexico's claim to the southwest is bullshit on its face. Texas won a war of independence in 1836. Mexico, however, refused to acknowledge Mexican independence. When Texas sought to join the United States, as was its right as an independent nation, Mexico said that would mean war. The US annexed Texas, and then the Mexicans invaded. The US kicked the ass out of the Mexicans and as part of the peace treaty, Mexico paid the price by the border between the US and Mexico extending along the Rio Grande, more or less to the Pacific in its current line.

Somehow, it has become fashionable to consider the US as the aggressor in that war, when it was precisely and inarguably the opposite. The only way the US can be said to be the aggressor is if we give Mexico some inherent right over Texas. Texas won its independence from Mexico just as the US did from the UK. That may have stuck in Mexico's craw, but such is life.

It's important to note that

And what if the Confederacy had managed to survive?

It has. It is just sleeping, and it will rise again!

And what is Russia had not been agreeable to selling off Alaska to us?

We would not have had Sarah Palin as a VP candidate in 2008. Think about it.

And what if the US and the UK wound up at war with each other around 1896, as might very well have happened?

Or, even in the 1930s, or even in in 1917.

I think I'll stop wondering about all this stuff before I get to the 20th Century...

An interesting what-if would be what would have happened if we had opted not to start the war in Afghanistan and as a consequence not start the war in Iraq.

That may be an interesting alternative history thread.

[Eddie]

Makedonia: Possible. Nobody likes them, and every one of their neighbors wants a piece of them.

Montenegro : less likely. They are moving to EU membership, and while we wouldn't mind if Greece repossessed Asia Minor at the expense of the Turks, we tend to be more helpful to other prospective members

In the current political climate, Montenegro is safe, but in this region things turn around very quickly. If it enters the EU, it's safe as long as the union is stable. The thing is, I was watching Montenegro National Television the other day and they were showing the news in Albanian. These guys are everywhere, with the high population grow the Albanians have, within a few decades Montenegrins might end up being a minority in their own country. Even now, they make up less than 50% percent of the population, and have declared independance thanks to the Albanian votes. And if it enters the EU it wouldn't be the only country there which has problems with separatist movements.

[Coito ergo sum]

Montenegro? How dare you....I'm notifying Al Sharpton.

[Mallardz]

It be Britain?

[Jesus_of_Nazareth]

As you can all see - I come from a small island on the edge of the world......and USA is cut off.