Quote:
Originally Posted by TheseDays2005
Exactly the same is happening with Russia only they are not 'supported' by the US but by European countries with huge deals made over last few years.
In principal we are all indirectly financing their military & weapons as both countries only use the cash to invest in that unlike in healthcare etc etc.
It isn't really weird that Russia has most millionairs nowadays (almost all from oil industry), even outbeating China, Japan & the US when I can still remember the pictures thousands of people fighting over the last bread in some town...not too long ago...
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there will still be people fighting over food in russia...
but now that the oil isn't owned by the government it means there's alot of rich people who do own it...
but i digress i saw this today and thought it was pretty cool that obama is doing this.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/7522738.stm
Obama in Germany on European tour
Mr Obama held talks with Chancellor Merkel
White House hopeful Barack Obama has landed in Berlin to begin the European leg of his international tour, ahead of November's US presidential poll.
The Democratic senator is meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Berlin's Mayor Klaus Wowereit.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather later when he makes the only public speech of his tour.
Mr Obama, 46, is due to visit France on Friday and Britain on Saturday.
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg, in Berlin, says the Illinois senator is very popular in Germany, where surveys suggest three-quarters of people want him to be the next US president.
Hopefully [the speech] will be viewed as a substantive articulation of the relationship I'd like to see between the United States and Europe
Barack Obama
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He says Mr Obama will be hoping that once TV pictures of him addressing cheering crowds of Berliners have been beamed back to America it will boost his image as an international statesman, and his chances of beating Republican rival John McCain this autumn.
Mr Obama flew to Germany after visiting Israel and the West Bank.
On the eve of his arrival in Berlin, Mr Obama told reporters: "Hopefully [the speech] will be viewed as a substantive articulation of the relationship I'd like to see between the United States and Europe.
"I'm hoping to communicate across the Atlantic the value of that relationship and how we need to build on it."
German Country and Western fans explain why they support Obama
Big crowds are expected for his evening speech - which will be shown live on German television - at the Victory Column in central Berlin's Tiergarten Park.
Ms Merkel reportedly blocked his campaign team's plans for him to deliver the address at the Brandenburg Gate, which stood behind the Berlin Wall for decades as a potent symbol of the Cold War.
The Gate is where President Ronald Reagan famously urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" in 1987.
President John F Kennedy - with whom Mr Obama is sometimes compared - also visited the Gate in 1963, although his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech was delivered elsewhere in the city.
On Friday, Mr Obama will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris before wrapping up his tour in London by calling on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his predecessor, current international Middle East envoy Tony Blair.
Mr Obama has also visited Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan in the last few days.