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Rochey wrote:
At a wild guess, I'd say it's because your education system seems to be worse than any other first-world country.

No offense to Chakat here but this is the sort of thing that perpetuates the stereotype of the ignorant American, I know we can chalk part of it upto to shite education but frag sometimes it's hard to beleive that people can be ignorant of such a broad range of topics.

Indeed. It's no wonder that stereotype has cropped up.

Well, this is the information age - if the education system is failing you, then Google is there to fill the gaps.

Being British, I'd naturally heard of the Falklands - the image of Simon Weston was almost iconic when I was growing up. I've only now decided to go back and read about the events leading upto it. I was never into history at school, but have spent time lately trying to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge.

kostmayer wrote:Well, this is the information age - if the education system is failing you, then Google is there to fill the gaps.

Indeed but you have to be interested in broading your horizons. Part of the ignorant American stereotype is that they don't want to learn about the outside world.

unfortunately, Blackstar advocates this stereotype.

Captain Seafort wrote:

GrahamKennedy wrote:4) It proved the vital importance of air power. Almost all UK losses at sea were caused by aircraft.

Not just almost - all of them. The only serious casualty other than from aircraft was HMS Glamorgan, which was hit by an Exocet fired from a jury-rigged ground launcher just before the surrender. The hanger was badly damaged, her helicopter was destroyed, and she suffered heavy casualties, but survived.

My bad, I misremembered that; figured that the exocet fired from shore had sunk the ship it hit.

It's a damn good thing they didn't have another couple of dozen of those things.

GrahamKennedy wrote:My bad, I misremembered that; figured that the exocet fired from shore had sunk the ship it hit.

If it hadn't been for the CO's seamanship it would've - he waited till the last minute, then threw the helm hard over, which meant the missile only struck a glancing bow.

It's a damn good thing they didn't have another couple of dozen of those things.

Absolutely. We were also damn lucky they had incompetent armourers - if more of the bombs that hit the task force had actually gone off, we'd have lost a lot more ships and would probably had to withdraw.

Reliant121 wrote:unfortunately, Blackstar advocates this stereotype.

It does seem he is mistaken about a great many things.

Cpl Kendall wrote:

Reliant121 wrote:unfortunately, Blackstar advocates this stereotype.

It does seem he is mistaken about a great many things.

No, I just don't know about ever war foreign countries are in. I don't know if you noticed but we've had a few wars of our own to worry about. We spent a lot of time studing recent history like that then some war that happened over 20 something years ago.

the image of Simon Weston was almost iconic when I was growing up.

Who's Simon Weston?

Blackstar the Chakat wrote:
No, I just don't know about ever war foreign countries are in. I don't know if you noticed but we've had a few wars of our own to worry about. We spent a lot of time studing recent history like that then some war that happened over 20 something years ago.

What about everything else you've proven to be ignorant about?

Cpl Kendall wrote:

Blackstar the Chakat wrote:
No, I just don't know about ever war foreign countries are in. I don't know if you noticed but we've had a few wars of our own to worry about. We spent a lot of time studing recent history like that then some war that happened over 20 something years ago.

What about everything else you've proven to be ignorant about?

My history class didn't cover those things either

Blackstar the Chakat wrote:
My history class didn't cover those things either

Well you have my sympathies. I'm going to leave the thread now, before I Iose my temper.

Blackstar the Chakat wrote:Who's Simon Weston?

Simon Weston was a soldier in the Falklands war. His ship was bombed and he was very badly burned across much of his body, including his face. After the war he became something of a public figure in the UK. A number of programs were made about him - he underwent something like 70 surgeries to reconstruct his face. He used his fame to raise money for charity and such.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Weston

GrahamKennedy wrote:

Blackstar the Chakat wrote:Who's Simon Weston?

Simon Weston was a soldier in the Falklands war. His ship was bombed and he was very badly burned across much of his body, including his face. After the war he became something of a public figure in the UK. A number of programs were made about him - he underwent something like 70 surgeries to reconstruct his face. He used his fame to raise money for charity and such.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Weston

This is kind of what I was talking about. Why not take 10 minutes read up on something and then come back to the thread?

kostmayer wrote:

GrahamKennedy wrote:

Blackstar the Chakat wrote:Who's Simon Weston?

Simon Weston was a soldier in the Falklands war. His ship was bombed and he was very badly burned across much of his body, including his face. After the war he became something of a public figure in the UK. A number of programs were made about him - he underwent something like 70 surgeries to reconstruct his face. He used his fame to raise money for charity and such.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Weston

This is kind of what I was talking about. Why not take 10 minutes read up on something and then come back to the thread?

This way is easier