Glee - Thanks Glee. 
.
PingPong - Oh...Pingpong. Another nugget of wisdom. I like Phantom's responses, but I figure I'll throw in my own before I start studying again.
We definitely gave Indians smallpox infected blankets. That wasn't terrorism, but biological warfare. The key difference is that we weren't trying to frighten them or induce a panic, we just wanted to kill as many as could as efficiently possible. Sadly...that was not the worst thing that any of the major countries anywhere (America, Europe, and Asia) did during that time. That said, they would have probably done similar things to us if they thought it would help win the war.
Alright...one at a time.
1. Terrorism by definition can't be fought with honesty and openness. They are not rebels trying to establish freedom or anything remotely noble. They are religious fanatics in the same style as McVeigh. Their interest is to convert or destroy us. Terrorism by definition is a series of attacks with the intent of demoralizing or "terrorizing" the population. Inviting them over for tea won't make it better (unless we have some smallpox on hand ).
2. WTF? What does Iran have to do with anything. I don't even believe we are fighting any significant number of Iranians. Most of their people are being used to support Hezbollah and whoever the flavor of the month is in Palestine. They don't care about us that much.
An Aside for Phantom
He's been forcing Iran into every topic. He sees this as some prime example of corporate greed screwing up a country. He refuses to even remotely acknowledge the fact that it was a mixture of Cold War politics, red scare, fight for mineral resources, etc. that fueld it.
The irony is that I've told him time and time again to look at what we did in Central America 100 years ago. We really did take over entire countries so that fruit farms could have the lowest prices possible by using what basically amounted to slave labor.
End Derail
3. Which 3rd world countries are we controlling exactly. I don't think it takes covert ops to practically run a country. Most of them major countries have stepped back from covert action for political gain (mostly counter terrorism and general intelligence). The corporations do just fine at establishing beneficial contracts with third world countries. They don't really need our help.
4. Where exactly do you want to pull back troops from. We are on a workable extraction from Iraq and Afghanistan is a good fight. They actually want us there and are begging for help to stop the Taliban from taking back the country. As a special note, I believe that the Taliban issued a special order to target schools that teach women, because women shouldn't learn...this is what we are fighting. I've also seen a lot of reports from the Northern Coalition. Those guys risked everything to win their country back. We owe it to them to stand by them now.
5. Terrorist recruitment isn't usually based off of political anger. Insurgency in Iraq was in part, but most terrorists are produced by the radical Imams and teachers in their countries. Al-Qeada was primarily supported by middle-class and wealthy Saudis who want to support Islam and fight what they see as a threatening culture. They then use the Imams and teachers to convince the poor that it's a good cause to die for. Just one big cycle.
If we pulled out of the Middle East, then they would just find something else to hate us for. We would just go back to the capitalist pigs of the west (assuming that we even backed away from Israel).
--
I see there's more ranting about Iran. I don't even know who you are talking about this to anymore. We help some countries because we want to help them. We help other because it makes sense politically or economically. It may sound strange, but adults can view the world as many shades of gray. Our past actions can be anything from horrifying to understandable to altruistic.
. PingPong - Oh...Pingpong. Another nugget of wisdom. I like Phantom's responses, but I figure I'll throw in my own before I start studying again.
We definitely gave Indians smallpox infected blankets. That wasn't terrorism, but biological warfare. The key difference is that we weren't trying to frighten them or induce a panic, we just wanted to kill as many as could as efficiently possible. Sadly...that was not the worst thing that any of the major countries anywhere (America, Europe, and Asia) did during that time. That said, they would have probably done similar things to us if they thought it would help win the war.
Alright...one at a time.
1. Terrorism by definition can't be fought with honesty and openness. They are not rebels trying to establish freedom or anything remotely noble. They are religious fanatics in the same style as McVeigh. Their interest is to convert or destroy us. Terrorism by definition is a series of attacks with the intent of demoralizing or "terrorizing" the population. Inviting them over for tea won't make it better (unless we have some smallpox on hand
).2. WTF? What does Iran have to do with anything. I don't even believe we are fighting any significant number of Iranians. Most of their people are being used to support Hezbollah and whoever the flavor of the month is in Palestine. They don't care about us that much.
An Aside for Phantom
He's been forcing Iran into every topic. He sees this as some prime example of corporate greed screwing up a country. He refuses to even remotely acknowledge the fact that it was a mixture of Cold War politics, red scare, fight for mineral resources, etc. that fueld it.
The irony is that I've told him time and time again to look at what we did in Central America 100 years ago. We really did take over entire countries so that fruit farms could have the lowest prices possible by using what basically amounted to slave labor.
End Derail
3. Which 3rd world countries are we controlling exactly. I don't think it takes covert ops to practically run a country. Most of them major countries have stepped back from covert action for political gain (mostly counter terrorism and general intelligence). The corporations do just fine at establishing beneficial contracts with third world countries. They don't really need our help.
4. Where exactly do you want to pull back troops from. We are on a workable extraction from Iraq and Afghanistan is a good fight. They actually want us there and are begging for help to stop the Taliban from taking back the country. As a special note, I believe that the Taliban issued a special order to target schools that teach women, because women shouldn't learn...this is what we are fighting. I've also seen a lot of reports from the Northern Coalition. Those guys risked everything to win their country back. We owe it to them to stand by them now.
5. Terrorist recruitment isn't usually based off of political anger. Insurgency in Iraq was in part, but most terrorists are produced by the radical Imams and teachers in their countries. Al-Qeada was primarily supported by middle-class and wealthy Saudis who want to support Islam and fight what they see as a threatening culture. They then use the Imams and teachers to convince the poor that it's a good cause to die for. Just one big cycle.
If we pulled out of the Middle East, then they would just find something else to hate us for. We would just go back to the capitalist pigs of the west (assuming that we even backed away from Israel).
--
I see there's more ranting about Iran. I don't even know who you are talking about this to anymore. We help some countries because we want to help them. We help other because it makes sense politically or economically. It may sound strange, but adults can view the world as many shades of gray. Our past actions can be anything from horrifying to understandable to altruistic.
