Does he actually sound like a bully? Also, bombs.
On the radio news there was something about the emergency help the USA have planned against the financial crisis. The US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson supposedly said he'd "put pressure" on his international counterparts to take similar measures as the USA, and he'd "go about it aggressively".
Now, that is translated to English from German, which was was translated and shortened from English, so, has anyone in the US heard what he actually said? Or what I have to feed into google news to find American articles that do not talk only about the USA, or where else I could find the untranslated statements.
Completely unrelated, in the last week two 250kg WWII bombs exploded.
One did so spontaneously, leaving a crater 6 metres deep and 14 metres across in a field of a plant nursery in Vienna (Austria).
Another explosion was triggered by construction work in Hattingen in the Ruhr area (Germany). The cab of the hydraulic shovel was solid enough and there was enough luck involved that the worker got away with nothing worse than some cuts from splintered glass. 16 other people suffered blast trauma, and buildings and machinery up to 300 metres from the bomb were damaged. Estimates of damages are a "high six-figure number". Parts of the bomb flew as far as 1,5 km.
I also looked for "Blindgänger" in google news, and for the last week found articles about one 250kg bomb disarmed in Villingen-Schwenningen - with photos - one the same size in Ingelheim - with photos - one dud in Lake Starnberg being destroyed in a controlled blast producing a tens of metres high fountain, a 125kg bomb disarmed near Mainz, and attempts to precisely locate a bomb that is getting in the way of extending a bridge near Bielefeld.
Just a bit of a habit spreading the word; I think stuff like that is part of the reason why most Europeans are not as keen on bombing countries as the last American government.
Comments
I think you're very correct- Americans have very few reminders of what war actually looks like when it's on OUR side. The last war we had on our soil was a civil war, so no real bombs there (incidentally, there are people in the south who will never let that damn war die!). When we ARE attacked, it's a devastating tragedy to us. We feel safe here, and take safety for granted, probably by virtue of our size and relative isolation from any country that might seek to attack. We're bordered by vast oceans on two sides, and large friendly countries on the other two; we're just not used to actually bearing the wounds of war.
Please note that this is all my opinion, and it's an uneducated one at that. I'm sure that my history student friends might have more to say on this subject!
Stop doing this. I'd love to give you comments, but not outside LJ. Pfeh.
Either way, politico has the rundown on the entire thing:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13690.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8EoCY9YncE&feature=related
Thanks a lot!
I also remember some comments on linguaphiles saying in America "aggressive" was something positive (used instead of "assertive", possibly?), rather than being one step removed from "violent". *sighs* drated language differences.
Found the quote! Via a Canadian newspaper:
'"We have a global financial system and we are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world and encouraging them to do similar things," Mr. Paulson said yesterday on the ABC News TV show This Week. "And I believe a number of them will."'
The USA hasn't had a war on its own soil since the 19th century -- we've had isolated attacks, such as 9-11 and Pearl Harbor, but it's not quite the same as a sustained war. That probably explains a bit about our foreign policy -- I hadn't thought about that before.