What the..... GET THE US OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST!

[lemit]

Originally Posted by Larv

lemit, I’m with Pogo. The United States has meddled atrociously in too many affairs beyond our borders. It started with Panama and never quit. Our capitalistic military-industrial complex only fuels our foreign intrigue. We think nothing now of pre-emptively invading a sovereign nation and taking out its leader. When there’s big bucks to be made on military matters and warfare a capitalistic society will grind the wheels of industry to make those bucks.

And we’ll do in the name of Jesus and natural security.

I guessed right, although partly for the most superficial of reasons: your avatar looks a little cartoonish.

I suppose your Panama reference is 19th Century Panama rather than 20th Century Panama, which was kind of in the middle of the game.

As I write this, I'm watching "Apocalypse Now Redux," the re-edited "Apocaplypse Now," with an extra hour. I think all U.S. Diplomatic Service people, including janitors, should be required to read Heart of Darkness until they understand it better than Conrad did.

--lemit

[Larv]

Obama’s Afghanistan is "serious and deteriorating". How utterly predictable! Here it comes again, folks. We never, never, never, never learn how not to do this. It’s a sure bet that we’ll go right on doing it anyway.

And now Obama owns it. He’s only seven months into his term of office and he already has two big potential losers looking him squarely in the eye: healthcare reform and Afghanistan.

“Serious and deteriorating,” indeed!

[Theory5]

According to the most recent polling, just over 50 per cent of Americans believe the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting, and Americans are against sending more troops by a ratio of two to one.

Hey, look, Vietnam all over again!

Seriously, this war was never a necessity, and it should be stopped at once. We have destroyed so many countries with our notion that we need to police the whole world. Jeez, we are worse than Team America at this.
Take the Panema Deception, we go in, blow stuff up, arrest the "president-for-life" which was the only good thing, and then leave, take all our troops with us and leave nobody to police the area, allowing for widespread looting and killing, screwing up their economy and killing most small businesses.

One of the biggest things about this war is how much was covered up or how much the american people dont even care about it. Do you remember, back in Iraq, where two soldiers (a man, and a woman) made a pyramid out of naked prisoners of war? It was all over the news. But ofcourse, nobody Ive mentioned it to remembers. Then what about our collective punishment, siegeing towns and cities, killing thousands of innocents, and refusing to allow medical care to help them?

RAMADI, Sep 18 (IPS) - U.S. forces are taking to collective punishment of civilians in several cities across the al-Anabar province west of Baghdad, residents and officials say.

taken from IRAQ: U.S. Resorting to 'Collective Punishment' - IPS ipsnews.net

"Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar province, is still living with the daily terror of its people getting killed by snipers and its infrastructure being destroyed," Ahmad, a local doctor who withheld his last name for security purposes told IPS. "This city has been facing the worst of the American terror and destruction for more than two years now, and the world is silent."

taken from IRAQ: U.S. Resorting to 'Collective Punishment' - IPS ipsnews.net

I think we are doing exactly as bush said we are doing
[paraphrase]It is our job to bring the war on terror to iraq[/paraphrase]

Who are the real terrorists? We have invaded two nations and are terrorizing them in the name of "freedom". So, how many more terrorists have we arrested? Or are our troops on shoot to kill orders of anybody not part of the American army?

On the evening of April 28, 2003, a crowd of 200 people defied a curfew imposed by the Americans and gathered outside a secondary school used as a military HQ to demand its reopening. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne stationed on the roof of the building fired upon the crowd, resulting in the deaths of 17 civilians and the wounding of over 70.[9] The events leading up to the event are disputed. American forces claim they were responding to gunfire from the crowd, while the Iraqis involved deny this version, although conceding rocks were thrown at the troops. A protest against the killings two days later was also fired upon by US troops resulting in two more deaths.

taken from Fallujah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Larv]

Anger at Israeli settlement plan: Israel has officially approved the construction of more than 450 new homes in the occupied West Bank.

What has Israel done for you lately? For me, it has continued to fulminate trouble in the Middle East, causing great costs in lives and treasure. Israel’s game is to provoke terrorists and exacerbate conflict. America’s complicity in Israel’s aggression is shameful. We never, never learn. Why? Because we are capitalists and we value all things in terms of money.

As such, the good side of all of this is that the Bible says Jesus will come as a result of Israeli aggression and conflict—Armageddon, you know. Furthermore, that said same Armageddon will be good for capitalism, not unlike WWII. The world will need a lot of Big Macs and Cokes get us through. "We are the world. We are the children..."

[Theory5]

Originally Posted by Larv

Anger at Israeli settlement plan: Israel has officially approved the construction of more than 450 new homes in the occupied West Bank.

What has Israel done for you lately? For me, it has continued to fulminate trouble in the Middle East, causing great costs in lives and treasure. Israel’s game is to provoke terrorists and exacerbate conflict. America’s complicity in Israel’s aggression is shameful. We never, never learn. Why? Because we are capitalists and we value all things in terms of money.

As such, the good side of all of this is that the Bible says Jesus will come as a result of Israeli aggression and conflict—Armageddon, you know.

The middle east is always in turmoil because of religion. They can not simply accept other peoples believes, they think that there religion must control or wipe out the others. Because of this, there is always going to be fighting until somebody detonates enough nukes to wipe them out, our soldiers kill them all, or one religion prevails.
I'm not sure why we are allies with Israel, or why we try to insert ourselves into middle eastern affairs. Perhaps its because they have huge reserves of oil. Or we want their sand...
People claim addiction is bad yet they fuel an addiction every day. They fuel their oil addiction. The oil and gas companies love being the sole providers of fuel, because that gives them sooooo much control over everybody. Let me ask you this, how long did it take to pass the emissions laws? Why was so much time given to these companies to change their ways? I bet it has something to do with the politicians getting a cash 'supplement' from these companies.

Furthermore, that said same Armageddon will be good for capitalism, not unlike WWII. The world will need a lot of Big Macs and Cokes get us through.

This is another thing that is wrong with this country. Wherever there is war, companies will profit, where ever there is mass destruction, companies will profit. Where ever there is fear, companies will profit. They Will and the Do, always. They exploit the masses for their own gains, building on fear and instability.
Peace Is Unprofitable!

[lemit]

The last time I read Heart of Darkness I came away with a feeling Conrad demonstrated in the book but seemed to be unaware of; his mind, I think, was more on the English than on the Colonials.

Conrad, seemingly without attempting to, cemented my feeling that people should not interfere in other people's lives or cultures. I've been lucky to work with museums and libraries devoted to preservation of local culture, as well as the other kind, and have thought those which showed what their area had to offer were much more informative than those which showed what money and military superiority could obtain.

For the most part, those who are most interested in keeping us in foreign countries are also the most appalled at the idea that people might actually come here from those countries. Israel has a different group of supporters. It is, like Liberia, something of a penance. (We're sorry for your suffering. Here, take some land.)

Still, we need to find a way to provide aid and comfort to people without distorting or removing their cultures. They all have their own version of The Golden Rule. They know when we aren't following it.

--lemit

[Theory5]

Originally Posted by lemit

Still, we need to find a way to provide aid and comfort to people without distorting or removing their cultures. They all have their own version of The Golden Rule. They know when we aren't following it.

--lemit

Interesting, I will have to read Heart Of Darkness. Every person and group of people who try to 'help' other countries have their own agenda's. I belive it is not the American Government's goal to provide help for most of these countries, because if it was they would have sent supplies to help with the H1N1 (swine flu) in Mexico. While swine flu is like the flu, Mexico has a particularly difficult time when hit with any such illness because most of their population doesn't have enough money to adequately protect themselves, and some cant even keep themselves clean enough to prevent disease. Here its only a problem for the young old and ill because we have good health care, and we keep ourselves clean.

There are thousands of things we could have done and could be doing to help other countries, without changing their ways except for the better (not like the way WE think is better like creating a new government for these countries, I mean medicine, better shelter, protection, food, clean water, etc.).