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TheRealMafoo said:
Jackson50 said:
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From what I have observed from Akuma, I would not make the assertion that he is a far-left liberal. He simply understands that there are reasons other nations oppose us...reasons other than the US being a nation of freedom and liberty. I understand such nuance in assessing the situation will make unflinching patriots (such as you) uncomfortable. It is, however, an assessment steeped in reality if we accept the fact that we cause some of our problems.

Yes, we cause some of our problems. To some people, we cause all of our problems. To them, the rest of the world is generally good, and we screw it all up. That's so far from the truth it's ridiculous.

Well, I have never encountered a person on these boards who believes that we cause all of our problems.

 



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TheRealMafoo said:
akuma587 said:
Of course realmafoo wouldn't actually respond to my post...

lol, when have I shied away from a post?

Yes, when the government spends money not to protect you, it infringes on your rights. Glad we both agree. I am very much against the War in Iraq. We never should have gone in. I am not for the US policing the world. Never have been.

But we are, by far, the most powerful country in the world and we don't expand. When in history has a country not used there power to get bigger? Never.

We spend billions developing and deploying smart weapons. Weapons that can take out a building and leave everything around it intact. We do this because countries we are at war with like to put military targets next to school children and hospitals. When they do that WE do what we can not to destroy them, yet we are the evil ones. No other county in the world would give a shit. They would just bomb the hell out of the area. 

When we do attack unprovoked (a bad thing), we end up leaving the place better then we entered it. We are trying to do that in Iraq, but some want us to just leave. Fuck the people there. That doesn't sound very compassionate coming from the party that's supposed to be all about compassion.

But what in this thread is about us spending money? It's about removing North Korea from out terrorist list. You say it like they are not longer a country of evil. To you, that title seems to belong to us exclusively.

 

Lol, its cool, I just had to post something to bump the thread.

I agree that there are circumstances in which our military power can help countries throughout the world.  Darfur would be a great example.  Using our military force in Afghanistan is not a bad example either.

I agree that smart weapons are good, but that doesn't change the fact that smart weapons can never be perfect no matter how hard we try.  Bombs are bombs, and innocent bystanders are ubiquitous.  But investing in military technology is not something I am opposed to, although I think we spend way more money on it than we should.

From your perspective we have left Iraq in a better place than it was.  But your perspective is not important.  It is the persepective of the Iraqi people that is important.  And I don't think the thousands and thousands that have died and the over a million who have been displaced from Iraq would necessarily agree.  Nor would many of the people in surrounding countries whose lives have been similarly traumatized.

I am not saying everything in Iraq we have done is bad, and we are doing a pretty good clean up job at the moment, but its very selfish to claim that we are acting in their best interests.  That is for them to decide, not us.

Military intervention = spending money, military research = spending money, having the military power to back up threats against terrorist states = spending money.  Some of that money is justified, but I don't think all of it is.  The government is wasting more money in Iraq every two months than the pork barrel spending of Congress for AN ENTIRE YEAR.  I don't see how conservatives can ignore how much war costs.

And don't you think it would help our economy if we put that money here?  Hell, we could just throw it in the streets and it would do more good here than spending it in Iraq.

My point with the money argument was to just turn one of your favorite arguments against you.  In reality, I am more worried about our reputation and the danger acting so bellicosely towards other countries often creates.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

I think for our protection, the money we spend in Iraq from today forward, is far better (and cheeper in the long run), then just leaving Iraq to whatever it will become if we just pack up and leave.

I never wanted to go to war with Iraq. But now that we have, I am against just screwing up there country, and walking away.



akuma587 said:

I agree that there are circumstances in which our military power can help countries throughout the world.  Darfur would be a great example.  Using our military force in Afghanistan is not a bad example either.

I agree that smart weapons are good, but that doesn't change the fact that smart weapons can never be perfect no matter how hard we try.  Bombs are bombs, and innocent bystanders are ubiquitous.  But investing in military technology is not something I am opposed to, although I think we spend way more money on it than we should.

I disagree in regards to Afghanistan. I understand invading Afghanistan was a politically popular response, but I believe it was a strategic error. Anyways, I do not wish to derail this thread.

 



He looks like he's in good condition here in this picture.

 

http://beconfused.com/images/2007/10/North-Korean-leader-Kim-Jong-Il.jpg

 

I didn't embed it because its him sitting mostly naked in a chair with what I assume to be beer in front of him... Lots of skin, but no naughty bits showing.  And well, probably not safe for lunch or work, so click with extreme caution.



 


Get your Portable ID!

 

My pokemon brings all the nerds to the yard. And they're like, "You wanna trade cards?" Damn right, I wanna trade cards. I'll trade this, but not my charizard.

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Jackson50 said:
akuma587 said:

I agree that there are circumstances in which our military power can help countries throughout the world.  Darfur would be a great example.  Using our military force in Afghanistan is not a bad example either.

I agree that smart weapons are good, but that doesn't change the fact that smart weapons can never be perfect no matter how hard we try.  Bombs are bombs, and innocent bystanders are ubiquitous.  But investing in military technology is not something I am opposed to, although I think we spend way more money on it than we should.

I disagree in regards to Afghanistan. I understand invading Afghanistan was a politically popular response, but I believe it was a strategic error. Anyways, I do not wish to derail this thread.

 

You're preaching to the converted in this case.  I'm about as anti-war as you can get.  Although I was far more upset about the decision to invade Iraq than the decision to invade Afghanistan.

We should have a reverse draft, where we send the oldest and whitest people to war first.  If that were the case, war would be a thing of the past in the US.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

Jackson50 said:
akuma587 said:

I agree that there are circumstances in which our military power can help countries throughout the world.  Darfur would be a great example.  Using our military force in Afghanistan is not a bad example either.

I agree that smart weapons are good, but that doesn't change the fact that smart weapons can never be perfect no matter how hard we try.  Bombs are bombs, and innocent bystanders are ubiquitous.  But investing in military technology is not something I am opposed to, although I think we spend way more money on it than we should.

I disagree in regards to Afghanistan. I understand invading Afghanistan was a politically popular response, but I believe it was a strategic error. Anyways, I do not wish to derail this thread.

 

Out of curiousity, how do you believe invading Afghanistan was a strategic error?

 



akuma587 said:

We should have a reverse draft, where we send the oldest and whitest people to war first.  If that were the case, war would be a thing of the past in the US.

 

Or, we should live in a country where you don't send anyone. The people, once they hit adulthood, have the right to chose to enter military service... Oh wait, that's what we have.



TheRealMafoo said:
akuma587 said:

We should have a reverse draft, where we send the oldest and whitest people to war first.  If that were the case, war would be a thing of the past in the US.

 

Or, we should live in a country where you don't send anyone. The people, once they hit adulthood, have the right to chose to enter military service... Oh wait, that's what we have.

Do you know many people in the military?  A lot of them joined for money, for college, because they want to shoot people (yes, I have heard a few people actually say this...which is just sad), and for lack of anything better to do.

I am not going to badmouth the troops, as I know a lot of good people who are in the military or have been in the military, but you are overestimating how noble many people's decision to enlist is, or how voluntary that choice is in some cases.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

gomezc said:
Jackson50 said:I disagree in regards to Afghanistan. I understand invading Afghanistan was a politically popular response, but I believe it was a strategic error. Anyways, I do not wish to derail this thread.

Out of curiousity, how do you believe invading Afghanistan was a strategic error?

 

There are more effective and efficient strategies to combat terrorism. The use of military force, the tactics we used in Afghanistan and Iraq, are highly ineffective. There were more desirable alternatives available in regards to Afghanistan and UBL, but we decided on the politically popular choice at the time-war.