[Spike Knotts]

“Learn to read English. “in what became the United States” doesn’t mean exclusively “the original 13 colonies.”

Yes, it does. If you had bothered to read, you know, English, you’d have saw that I already dealt with your point.

“What became the United States” were the original 13 colonies, nothing more. If you join after the United States already exists, you’re not “becoming” anything...you’re joining.

Or do you believe that the United States didn’t exist until Hawaii joined in 1959?

Could you by the same token assert that people with names like Mahaulu and Aneko lived in what became the United States long before people with names like Smith did, because of course they did...in Hawaii. So how much do we owe to our Polynesian Founding Fathers?

Feel free to argue that point all you want...but only the original 13 “became” the United States.

[aruanan]

“Learn to read English. “in what became the United States” doesn’t mean exclusively “the original 13 colonies.”

Yes, it does. If you had bothered to read, you know, English, you’d have saw [sic] that I already dealt with your point.

This is a perfect example of someone (you) substituting his own meaning for some words used by another and then claiming that the other person meant the same thing and, therefore, was incorrect, even though it was completely obvious to everyone else reading it that that other person could not possibly have meant that.

Language and logic don't work this way regardless of what you think "you'd have saw" otherwise.