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Give? Sold? Whatever. We had more destroyers in reserve than we could use. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Point_disaster Yeah, losing 7 destroyers in a single September evening was something we just kinda shrugged off and called "Tuesday".

Most countries can't do what the US did during WWII before Pearl Harbor: Britain: "We need more destroyers" The US: "We can give you 50" Britain: "Thank you" The US: "You're welcome"

The Swedes bought copies of the blueprints. Volvo makes the jet engines their air force uses.

There's not really much of a difference becauase most countries can't even afford one of either.

Yes. The AEGIS system is also so stupidly expensive that $8.2 billion would basically eat 1/6 of Russia's military budget all by itself.

The Hyuga's have AEGIS radar. The Spanish, French, and Egyptian ships in question do not.

Um, the Civil War killed more Americans than every other war the US has participated in combined up until sometime during Vietnam (low casualty estimate) or ever (high casualty estimate).

The US during the Civil War. England during the Anglo-Dutch wars. Rome during the Punic Wars against Carthage.

Industrial warfare has always been a thing. When the Romans were saying "fuck you" to Carthage they could afford to lose about 65-70 thousand troops in a single battle (Cannae) and not really give a shit.

The American Civil War, for both sides. When all was said and done roughly 10% of all southern white males of all ages alive in 1860 had been killed by disease or gunfire. Then there's the Paraguayan War (1864-1870). That one devastated the Paraguayan male population. When it was over the...

Germany wanted to pick a another fight with France and practically everyone in the Balkans has issues - to put it mildly - with their neigbours. The planners didn't take into account that the British Empire would say "knock it off" almost instantly with a very annoyed and reluctant United States...

Both the left hook and right hook had an "I wouldn't do that if I was you" attached to them. With a left hook of through Switzerland you just irritated the Pope and every Catholic country is now upset with you. The right hook through Belgium irritates the British and drags them into your stupid...

The Gadsen Purchase was finalized in 1854. As for the Rockies vs. the Urals? I wouldn't want to be a General with orders to cross either because I know just how expensive a paved road in the Rockies can be. A Colorado-class battleship wasn't as expensive as US-550.

The Rocky Mountains. The US actually bought a bit of Mexico in 1854 (see: Gadsen Purchase) so that going around instead of going through was possible. We also bought Alaska from Russia, but that's a different story.

There's a reason why the Vatican is the only country in the world that's allowed to hire Swiss Mercenaries. They protect the Pope.

"Shoot twice and go home" according to an apocryphal story of how someone Swiss said they'd respond to a German invasion where the Swiss were outnumbered 2:1.

Um ... The Swiss Army is basically "every able-bodied man of millitary age" even though only a tiny percentage of them are regulars on active duty. The Germans also would have gotten the "special door prize" of Alpine Combat against people who call the Alps "home". If the Germans had...

Meanwhile the Beretta sidearms Italy's officers got have a grand total of 39 parts and an estimated service life of over a century.

That's one of the biggest issues with German WWII equipment. German engineers tended to go for overengineered and fancy without paying much attention to the fact that some poor shmuck in the rear has to keep it functional. Fr'ex: The Heinkel He 177 was somewhat comparable to an Allied heavy...

Without the US basically saying "don't worry, I've got this." the rest of NATO would have been either much better prepared or would have been completey wiped out.