If there were a war between the US and your ancestral country

[RB TexLa]

where would your loyalties fall?

[htuttle]

1. Which one?

It gets a bit less important when you can trace your ancestry to more than a half-dozen countries.

[RB TexLa]

4. True

I was just going let the voter chose or chose based on one of them being the counrty.

[RagingInMiami]

2. That all depends on the reasons for the war

And who started the war.

[Dhalgren]

3. I would side with my ancestral country, but it is moot because

the US has already killed off my "ancestral country"...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. Neither. I'm anti-war.

Besides, my grandmother didn't flee Ireland because she was in love with the place.

[zcflint09]

6. With the US

Us losing any war, especally any type of escalated conflict, would result in a drop in our economy, dollar, and if this is a nuclear war, I'd then like to refer you to Brendan DuBois's Resurection Day to show you just what very well may happen as a result of the destruction of a few American cities. If we win, we lose very little infastructure, and are less likely to have riots, etc, which gives fundies less of a justification to declare martial law. We would be worse off in every regard, even if we were occupied by another country.

[smokey nj]

7. It would depend on the situation. n/t

[bdamomma]

8. Yes, especially if my ancestral country did not ask to be

invaded. but it would depend on the situation.

[Sammy Pepys]

9. While I appreciate my ties with my ancestral countries

I'm at least a third (possibly fourth) generation American.

[BlueStateModerate]

10. For those of you that would side with your ancestral country...

...From where do you hail?

Personally, I don't really have to worry about it - my family is mostly from Britain, but has been in America since the 1700s.

[Igel]

11. It's unlikely I'd side with my 'ancestral country', but if I did,

it would have nothing to do with it's being 'ancestral' to me.

Just as I place no importance on the language or culture that was borne by the people that carried the genes now mostly determining my biology, so I place no importance on where the people that carried my genes lived.

Otherwise I'd be much more upset over the problems in E-Central Africa, completely torn up over the Middle East (since my ancestors most certainly migrated through there, and probably took a few generations to make the trip), and be distraught over the state of E-Central Asia where some of my genes continued their changes.

In fact, I rather like the language and culture derived mostly from a people that was not ancestral to me, but which conquered my ancestor's homeland and let them starve because there was little point in preserving the overpopulation. I do keep the ethnic label, and reject being labelled with the name of the conquerers, but that's about it.

[lastliberalintexas]

12. Such a question is hideous

Personally, I find the notion that "land" or "country" is more important than the people who actually inhabit that land to be abhorrent. The fact that people are willing to die for "land" or "country" is truly astounding to me, as I am one who would not under any circumstances. The idea of being loyal to "land" or "country" rather than to principles such as justice and liberty is rather frightening to a peacenik such as myself.

I hope that I would be willing to die to protect another person, but I just can't muster that kind of emotion for mere land.

[negativenihil]

13. Depends on the reason

If we just up and decided to invade Canada, i'd have to side with Canada.

If some other situation came up, i'm really unsure...

[Jacobin]

14. Well, my ancestors fought against my ancestral country

in the War of Independence and the War of 1812, as did most Americans who came from the British Isles.

Of course, those were before the days of a country being equated to some divine bullshit entity.

On edit, I should add that British Loyalists in the colonies after the War of Independence were forced to leave America or otherwise given hell for not being loyal to America.