PrinceThrakhath's insults are uncalled for. But I think you misunderstood him about the WWII thing.
Of course Germany lost both wars but he wasn't refuting that, rather that the U.S. was responsible for the ass kicking.
"And Germany did loose both World Wars... World War I was pretty much because of the US, World War II was more the Russians, but you guys did take a beating."
Let's start with World War I, Cricket. By 1918, both the Central and Allied powers had suffered huge amounts of casualties and were on the verge of economic collapse (especially true for the British). Saying that the U.S. was the major allied contributor is ridiculous considering the U.S. joined actual fighting in the last 2 months, when the war was effectively over. Besides, the entry of the U.S. was counterbalanced by the Russian defeat. The war ended when the Kaiser abdicated and the new government, being pro-peace, initiated talks for an armistice (which differs from an all out surrender; remember Germany won huge territories from the Russians in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and Germany was still occupying territory in Belgium and France and hadn't lost any of its own territory yet).
Anyway, let's move on to WWII...
Here you are right, Cricket: The Russians were the major contributor on the side of the Allies for victory. Britain barely averted a German invasion and was in no position to attack mainland Europe. France was defeated and other European nations were in no position to offer resistance. The only two major allied powers were the U.S. and Soviet Union. It is fact that the U.S. was the strongest economical nation in World War II, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was in military terms as well. Take, for example the the kill ratio of 8 to 1 for German tanks over American tanks. On the other front we have the tenacious Russians, who suffered more casualties than the Germans. They were also the only nation with tanks that could match German counterparts. Had it not been for the Russians and with its second front, the D-day invasion would have had to face 100% of the German forces instead of the the 40% (about 60% were fighting on the eastern front)
and when you consider that the Battle of the Bulge almost drove the allies back, then what would have happened with Germany's entire military force on the western front? To sum it up, Thrakhath meant to say that the U.S. shouldn't take all the credit (Russia clearly deserves more credit) for winning WWII and top it off with making it seem like it was easily won by the Americans. Had that been the case, WWII would never have developed into this big deal and would have been forgotten like the short Spanish-American War.
"Why can a soldier talk to you that way and not a college student? One of the bigger reasons we kicked your sorry racist asses was intelligence and tactics. The soldiers did the direct work, yes, but without the well educated generals, etc., leading them, and worse, without the extremely well educated code breakers to get through your transmissions, the soldiers wouldn't have done so well. Just because you can carry a gun doesn't mean you're special. Well, except in your case. You're speshul."
Well, believe it or not, even NOW, American military academies are teaching about tactics of brilliant German generals/fieldmarshalls, Rommel the Desert Fox, comes to my mind. Furthermore, American Generals like Patton got famous for their usage of tanks, which was an adaptation of the German blitzkrieg tactic, pioneered by Generals like Heinz Guderian (yes, a German). Without his works on military tactics we might still be using the ever effective concept of rows of infantry slowly charging into artillery fire or machinegun fire like in the Civil War/World War I. And talking of intelligence. German scientists came up with weapons the U.S. military put into service 10 years after WWII! For example, real jet fighters, air to air guided missiles, ballistic missiles, and others. Talking of missiles, it was GERMAN scientists who developed the huge rockets for the Apollo program(BTW, I used to live in the city where Wernher von Braun (you guessed right, another German) led NASA's rocket program, namely Huntsville, Alabama) and not just on the U.S. side, but also on the Soviet side. As far as the code breaking is concerned, I think the British deserve more credit for that than the Americans.
I guess I have said enough on this. So please, if we are going to discuss history, get the facts right!
Oh, and TyeDyeBoy:
"One of the bigger reasons we kicked your sorry racist asses"
I don't see how identifiying all Germans as sorry racists makes you any better than the Nazis identifying all Jews as subhumans. Please be more considerate in the future.