I did not forget Canada. They were involved in the French and Indian war, 1812, and played critical roles in WWI and WWII. They did have some combat personel, but a large portion of the supply fleets that kept England in the war were manned by Canadians, and many gave their souls to keep her fighting. The red on Canada's flag has just as much blood to do with it as any other nation's, but it is now a liberal paradise that I would be honored to live in, and probably will someday. --- VH16

I was gonna cite australia as one of the least bloodied nations, but then i remember the stolen generation, the Dardinelles, the bombing of Darwin, Eureka Stockade, and now the Iraq war... damn, i thought us aussies were civilised, but the whole human race seems to have a gene for hatred...

Do you know *both* verses of the anthem Vi?

viva, calm down else this will get locked, and shrooms stop inciting him.

Unfortunately, I can't even sing you the second verse of my own star spangled banner, although knowing the first is a lot better than most americans. One credit to our song, we have an interesting habbit of shouting the "O" at the end of the first verse at sporting events in Northern Virginia, in honor of the Baltimore Orioles. I also know the first verse to the Canadian national anthem, the Internationale (well, one translation of it, anyway), and I'm trying to learn god save the queen because it's easy enough to do. I don't focuse on second verses, however. As for being clicked, I hope this won't be. Is it borderline political, yes, but I think we're keeping it fairly clean. --- VH16

I really like the Soviet Union National Anthem...

@Corsair: same, its a bit of a nice ditty. lots of "my national anthem is better than yours" it seems

i have never heard the German anthem
the french has a nice beat but is pretty gory
i like the untouched canadain anthom (most of you won't know) when my dad was kid they sung it. i was about canadians buety and untoached forests and how we were proud to be cnadaian and proud of our land

I liked the old East German national anthem a lot. that's one of my favourites, i have it on mp3 somewhere.

although not national anthems, some of the wartime marches reached the status of national songs. Quite perversely, I have a real liking for "Wir fahren gegen Englland," "Horst Wessel Leid" (yes I know, I shouldn't, but it's a belting song, "Danzigger Marz," that's the one used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and the Shostakovitch-inspired Soviet wartime music.

the Marseilleise is prob the most stirring national anthem, imo. It does inspire in the mind scenes of barricado and uprising, citizen volunteers flying to the colours etc.

the Internationale is a dam fayne tune too, for much the same reasons as the Marseilleise. Good rythym, stirring imagery, easy to learn words and generally translatable too.

gosh, aren't I a terrible old militarist? sorry, Ed.

well milatary songs are very clever ways of getting people stirred up. the scotish (yay up scotland) sung battlesongs before the marched off to kill english people and such so they were really sitrred up and pissed
i believe hitler might of used simaler methods to rouse his troops


______________________________
well all must have waffles all of us
we must have waffles forthwith

hmmmmmm, Hitler in all earnest, for the most part didn't have to rally up his troops. Simply because of the Fact Hitler (1933-1937) (re)built a nation, for the german people, Hitler represented sort of a Messiah, he helped to make Germany prosperous again, he did however also let Films be made, films that inspired strength into the people and, by all means, printed the image of racial purity into the heads of the german citizen.

As for my favorite anthems??
I absolutely love the Soviet anthem although I can only sing a few words of it, I love the internationale, although I can't sing it (tone deaf), just because of the words, they inspire me to do greatness, aside from that, I like the Dutch national anthem, and the British, but I also kinda like the Marseillaise (sp?) but can't sing a bloody word of it, simply because im completely oblivious of the french language.

hmm soviet... im a commie by the way does anyone know the vietnamese anthem

Soviet national anthem (just for you )
Internationale
la Marseillaise

Edited by - Radio Free Tawakalnistan on 9/4/2004 3:31:44 PM

i love that anthem as much as i love canada's and for me thats alot