Fourth of July

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The last one the pursuit of "happiness" was changed from "property" AFTER the civil war.

fandango wrote: Hey come on.. what the heck did you expect The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark or even Norway to actually do?  1) Today, the joint population of those countries is 35 million; Germany's would have been over 100 million. 2) They hadn't planned on warfare, whereas Germany had been starting to stockpile since 1933. 3) None of them had an 'Industrial Heartland' to speak of, or any real Natural defenses. Despite this, the Belgian people still slowed the German progress through flooding their land, and many lost their lives in the resistance. You can hardly compare Benelux with the USA, can you?

Actually from the German-Belgian border to the Belgian industrial heartland , it is all the way dowhill. This makes for an immeasurable advantage when gravity helps you. Especially when they were almost past Liege (famed FN weapons, but a lot more then riffles back then) got overtaken some ten hours after crossing the border unexpectedly!

Not quite correct!! The Flooding thing was during the first World War!! Belgium was more heroic on that one!! Also took a major beating as far as casualty is concerned  and the rebuilding porocess of Belgium, Northern France  was done by forcing Germany to pay for damages , which drove Germany to famine , crisis and allowed for this Nazi thing to come up!!

However, Belgian Forces did oppose 18 days resistance in order for all the outside (mostly UK)troops to retreat to UK, and give time to the French and Belgian resistance to flee to London.

Holland was Neutral (did not even particiopate in WW1) and was not expecting an attack and only lasted two days because they were not prepared at all!

Some French politicians of those days , actually hit on Belgian indecision between Neutrality and Allied Forces which is the reason why the French Maginot line of defence got overtaken by the back as the German simply invaded Belgium and took them by reverse.

Sean Trane wrote: Not quite correct!! The Flooding thing was during the first World War!! Belgium was more heroic on that one!! Also took a major beating as far as casualty is concerned  and the rebuilding porocess of Belgium, Northern France  was done by forcing Germany to pay for damages , which drove Germany to famine , crisis and allowed for this Nazi thing to come up!!

I'm sorry Sean, you are absolutely right...to be honest, I actually remembered this after posting it and should have corrected myself, for which I apologise for typing away without thinking!

Now that I remember, the 'In Flanders Fields' museum in Ypres has a very interesting section on this incident, along with the heavy sacrifice that the Belgian people made in 1914...

NetsNJFan wrote: Garion81 wrote: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.   The last one the pursuit of "happiness" was changed from "property" AFTER the civil war. no it wasnt, Jefferson ripped the line off from a British writer, (I forget his name) and THERE the line had property.  It was always Happiness

Your right too much beer last night.