Hey sweety pie Danielle, "the US is wrong because... because... because the facts speak for themselves..." Happy Xmas... hopefully the Christian spirit of this auspicious time of year will make you see the light OK that's enough debate for me... time to go to church... Candletrader
We had the unmitigated audacity to try to trade with people in the middle east... Therefore we should go to church and make sure we ask for the appropriate punishment!! We had the absolute insensability to create a society that is so technically advanced that we should let some psychopaths from half way around the world destroy our property and citizenry and cut off our energy supply!! While you are in church think about the Christians in Africa. How do you think they feel about Islamic fundamentalists? I'm talking about the ones that slaughter them mercilessly. I'm pretty sure they would think that mindless peaceniks over here are idiots. If anybody feels really, really guilty about the bad old Imperialist US trying to actually do business with people in the middle east while being ever-so-patient with the terrorist element for decades [the US Marine Corps. was started a couple hundred years ago to give us the ability to deal with problems in.... guess where!!.. The middle east!!] then go punish yourself appropriately!! I would think running into a brick wall full speed should do it. Let me know if you feel better after that, I know I will, knowing that you have found a way to deal with reality!! Or better yet, just sit on your hands for a few years and wait for a nuke to take out your friends and neighbors and yourself, you won't feel confused and guilty after that!! Max
... the US Marine Corps. was started a couple hundred years ago to give us the ability to deal with problems in.... guess where!!.. The middle east!! ... Smedley Butler on Interventionism Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC. War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism. It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service. I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
i like this quote enuf to print it, wild, and it wouldn't surprise me if it is accurate on the whole, but in this age of INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSLES there is no longer a "coastline" or line in the sand to stand our ground.
I agree completely, and I think McCarthyism is a perfect analogy. Let's take what happened to Bill Mahr for example: All the man said was that the pilots on 9/11 were brave not cowards. That is an absolutely true statement. They were immoral, misguided, even evil, but they flew themselves into buildings at 500 mph, and that certainly takes balls. When Mahr stated this simple fact he was nearly publically stoned. And his show is called 'Politically Incorrect' for God's sake! People in the public eye are not allowed to even suggest that America's actions had a part in causing 9/11. In my opinion this is very dangerous, because if we aren't allowed to talk about the true cause and effect behind 9/11, then we inevitably are denying the root cause of terrorism. Hence the present tactic of bombing away the symptoms of terrorism instead of somehow addressing the cause.
LongShot, full version of S. Butler´s speech at http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm regards wild
Don't confuse religious fanaticism with bravery. All it took was a belief that they were going to Paradise where each of them would be granted 72 beautiful virgins and, presumably, a new pair of balls.
LOL when you think of it 72 virgins isn't a lot for an eternity. i could go through those pretty quick...
I understand what you're saying, but there's a problem with that way of thinking. Say for instance a U.S. soldier is a good Christian man and firmly believes that when he dies he will go to heaven, and furthermore, he will certainly go to heaven because he is fighting on behalf of a 'just' country against an 'evil' country. If that man dies in an heroic act, was his act not brave? After all, he firmly believed that he was going to paradise as well. Bravery is bravery. I don't care what you believe will happen after you die, you still must overcome the fear of killing yourself in the meantime. Isn't bravery being afraid yet going forward anyway? Don't tell me those men flying the planes weren't afraid when they were accelerating into the trade center. The only scenario in which I would buy your logic is if a person is mentally insane, that way the person would not feel fear. I doubt the pilots were all clinically insane.