white mende man's Comments (288)

“I disagree. By your logic you'd have to assume that Europe could fall into another crusades or inquisition type stance at any time. They won't as they have progressed and are, for the most part, secular. I can't say the same for the Middle East, as they are fighting over the same illogical religious/tribal dogma today as a thousand years ago (with the same brutal intensity). AS I said in my earlier post, the only means to unite the ME is an invasion by an outside entity, but once that passes they will go on killing each other over the same differences as they always have. Or succomb to brutal dictators who use extreme violence to keep all in line. Every Sunni leaning country is at war with every Shiite leaning country, whether you believe it or not. They will continue to kill each other over the seemingly rediculous difference in the succession of prophets until enough progressiv­e/educated generations have passed to cause acceptance of each ones views. Europe, as far as I know, isn't at war with other members of its region.”

“If I'm not mistaken, Sumer and Amor went at it before the tribes in northern and western Europe had even learned about bronze.”

“You are totallly WRONG. There have been more wars between warring tribes within said countries. They have torn themselves apart from the inside, more than we can/could pull them apart from the outside.”

“like the commies were going to spread over all of southeast asia --viet nam era?”

“i thought "the taliban" were different unaligned groups spread out all over the place under competing warlords”

“As FDR noted before WWII, "I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster." Yes companies get rich during war, but the Bush administration sent us to war with the express purpose of lining the pockets of their cronies and masters. That's why we had the debacle of Blackwater mercenaries doing the jobs of well-trained US military personnel at merely 30 times the cost of paying said military personnel. That's why Halliburton was contracted to perform support services for the military at tens and hundreds of times what those services would have cost if performed by the military itself. That's why we paid "no-bid contractors" enormous fees to perform tasks at many times what it might have cost if the projects were properly, ethically and legally managed. Both of these wars were begun to siphon trillions of dollars out of the US treasury and into the pockets of the Bush/Cheney cartel.

The "whole world was behind us" when we entered Afghanistan because they wanted to give us the benefit of the doubt and were willing to accept that, after the horror of 9-11, the US knew what it was doing. They, like we, were lied to. As other nations do what the US will not do, investigate the run-ups to both wars, we are finding out what kinds of lies were told by the Bush, Blair and other administrations around the world.”

“You are a sort of Christopher Hitchens "lite", aren't you?”

“The Soviet Union withdrew, because Afghanistan was not meeting expectation and the mission statement was wrong all along. Russia and then the Soviet Union has traditionally tried to obtain an ice free harbor since Peter the Great. It is a simple economic formula and just that. Choosing Afghanistan was already a bad idea to begin with, because she does not have access to the Indian Ocean. Pakistan and Iran were in the way, and other targets inaccessible because they belonged to the Western Alliance. For anyone thinking of the Baltic Sea, is mistaken because it is not year around ice free, like Vladivostok. The mission was just so out of reach, that they cut their losses. Your reasoning misses out on some historic facts.”

“The Bush mission in Afghanistan was nation-building, so that al-Qaeda would no longer have free run of the place. The Bush Administration seemed to view the rest of the world as a vacuum, just waiting for the USA to give it form and substance; they didn't take into account the many historical forces that resulted in the current day status of Afghanistan (or Iraq, for that matter).

Our government continues to multiply uncertainties, yet come up with the wrong answers. There is no "positive" outcome to the US presence in Afghanistan; we need to cut our losses and come home. We still have cruise missiles and satellite surveillance; let's use those more cost effective measures to deter al-Qaeda.”

“your post sounds like the US went to afghanistan to fight "the taliban" ---i thought they were chasing osama bin laden ----”

“And that noble venture is?

tick, tick, tick, (chirp, chirp, chirp)

Yeah I didn't think so.

There is no noble venture in George's Bush's private little wars. We were never going to stop Al Queda by invading Afghanistan, nor were we ever intended to do anything but exact a petty private revenge in Iraq. We know this, the world knows this. We just have to find a way to remove the massive, entirely taxpayer-funded, corporate welfare trough from under the noses of the tiny handful companies that make billions of dollars in profit off the deaths, maiming and suffering of thousands of American soldiers and millions of innocent Iraqis and Afghanis.”

“Nice!”

“Imagine if the safety I understand was built into it were used today to fix things. I think a new Constitution would have in it the worth to a well running, innovative, and kind society a person's work or skill had constituted their place in society in that sense. Single-payer, and fixing this cruel health for profit system is required with dental, vision, prescription, alternative and preventive care inclusive in it. All it should take for treatment is a social security number associated with you, and treatment should be personal with actual interactive conversations so the doctor may understand the patent's reality better. Electronic medical records in a universal format so there are no fixes or patches required, build it correctly from the start.

Scaring the elderly, or using the elderly to scare the uninformed is just mean and contains bad intent. The entire system is broken as people are waking up to how broken it is, and that we have to fix it as the alternative isn't pretty. Let's use the rules that exist to change the rules so that society can work together and thrive. We started going downhill when we started locking up and owning food, we can fix us if we just continue realizing we are all in this together. Keep waking up peoples. Thank you.
Love
Bette”

“Even better...I­magine the United States if the Constitution was followed as the writers intended.”

“I got a headache”

“And yet, I can't remember the distinction before. That's my point. When 'Protesters' disrupted things during the previous eight years, they were called Protesters. Now, all of a sudden, we have a pretty inflamed term - Mob - being used. Why the difference? Protesters before did quite a lot to disrupt things and shut down speeches. Why the difference all of a sudden? Of course I know the answer. The question is rhetorical. But it illustrates a favorite tactic used to quell dissent and railroad agendas.”

“Another good idea.”

“instead of hitting them physically, why not do something to totally embarrass the heck out of the person? you could stand up next to the person and in a similar tone and volume and your fingers in your ears and match them word for word with "la la la, la la la, la la la" or "blah blah blah blah!" my guess is that person would either shut up and sit down or attempt to pop you - in that case you're welcome to defend yourself.”

“Not a good idea and you would be stooping to their level. Just turn to them and tell them to shut up or leave. If they don't ask them what kind of benefits they receive from the gov, such as medicare or soc sec. If they receive either then ask them if they really want to give them up in an effort to stop this reform. Push them on this and see what your answer is. I bet they shut up.”

“What you could do is to hold up a sign reading "CORPORATE SHILL" with an arrow pointing at the teabagger.”

“so you believe violence is appropriate to use when you don't get your way?”

“Please don't do that.”

“Reagan was an actor, not a cowboy. He was born in Indiana. How many cowboys are from Indiana?”

“Yeah, and the labor unions were great back then. Now all they've done is kill the American auto industry through greedy contracts. Thanks.”