Davidwith the dimocrats converging on boston, i thought i’d go ahead and post a few facts about the dimocrat front runner.
as i sit here typing the opening speech is playing. is that glenn close? do i care? the hollyweird elite are lining up to pay homage to their master. i wonder if they have ever actually taken a look at kerry’s voting record. i think they are just towing the party line. slaves to their liberal masters.
this is a little email running around the net about kerry’s voting record on defense. just defense mind you. i may post some more facts here shortly as the convention winds on.
he voted to kill the bradley fighting vehicle
he voted to kill the M-1 abrams tank
he voted to kill every aircraft carrier laid down from 1988
he voted to kill the aegis anti aircraft system
he voted to Kill the f-15 strike eagle
he voted to Kill the block 60 f-16
he voted to Kill the p-3 orion upgrade
he voted to Kill the b-1
he voted to Kill the b-2
he voted to Kill the patriot anti missile system
he voted to Kill the fa-18
he voted to Kill the f-117
in short, he voted to kill every military appropriation for the development and deployment of every weapons systems since 1988 to include the battle armor for
our troops.
he also voted to kill all anti terrorism activities of every agency of the u.s. government and to cut the funding of the fbi by 60%, to cut the funding for the
cia by 80%, and cut the funding for the nsa by 80%.
but then he voted to increase OUR funding for u.n. operations by 800%!
they’re playing amazing grace right now. as if there is a religious person in that place.
I can’t even stand to watch the left kiss ass with eachother and “pretend” to actually like one another. They think their so good and want what’s best for the country and the world. Their voting record and policy changes, some of which you point out, speak otherwise.
Can you imagine, after the 2000 debacle, that Clinton and Gore would be speaking at the same engagement within the same week? Actually sharing a stage? I can’t.
Oh, and btw mlah, just wanted to let you know that the Support the Troop Rally has been finalized:
IF ANYONE READING MLAH’S BLOG HAPPENS TO BE AROUND NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA ON AUGUST 14TH, STOP BY DERENICK PARK IN TAYLOR (THAT’S NEXT TO SCRANTON) AT 11AM TO SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!!WE WILL HAVE BINS FOR ITEMS THAT WE’LL BE SENDING TO OUR MEN AND WOMEN WHO MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO SURVIVE IN THIS CRAZY WORLD!!!IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED THEN LET ME KNOW IN YOUR COMMENT. IF YOU CAN’T MAKE IT THEN MAKE SURE YOU SEND YOUR THOUGHTS TO THOSE IN UNIFORM!!!!!!
Thanks, mlah!!!!!!!
What’s he gonna do, pass out ketchup to the soldiers and tell’m to use that as weapons? You know, like how you use aim and pound the ketchup packets?
Madame Butterfly
maybe it’s spoiled ketchup?
the un thing really irritates me.
First off, I would like to congratulate CJ on his prolific use of exclamation points. Second, Kerry sucks, but Bush is a dumbass. Who are you going to vote for? I mean honestly, I don’t know how that man has been able to keep our country functioning (and even that is open to debate). I’m just happy I don’t have to worry about this election, because I’m turning 18 right after it….
Fascism would be a lot easier. Oh wait. Never mind.
Which of those weapons/systems would have stopped the 9-11 terrorists (our only natural enemy lately)? Our conventional forces have been without peer since before the Soviet Union dissolved , and while those items you named have made us uber-dominant, they haven’t been necessary for anything approaching our defense. They’ve certainly kept the defense contractors busy, though…
So, Medium John, if you *could* vote, who would you vote for, and why?
Gus, what sociopolitical realm do you live in, bubba? “they haven’t been necessary for anything approaching our defense”? You sound like those wonks who wrote the 9/11 commission report. Allow me to rant: they claim that W had 6 opportunities in 8 months to prevent the 9/11 attacks and he missed them. The oaf (Bubba only had 4 such opportunities — I begged the Saudis to take bin Laden because we had no legal basis on which to hold him, but they refused. Billy-boy, 2002). Of course, that assumes that W’s ‘faulty intelligence’ apparatus actually put data points one, B, and Zaphod together to get the proper answer obvious through the crystal clarity of 20/20 hindsight. (I only wish I could do that, I’d be a millionaire!) And given the national approach to terrorists in those days, what could we as a nation do in advance of the attacks? Arrest the middle eastern men who were video taping the twin towers? (Of course, Dick’s Minority Report gives us that paradigm in which to act….) Bust into their computers and rifle through their files just because? (Oh yeah, the much-damned Patriot Act. Oops, that wasn’t invented until after the attack.) Rant tangent vectored back on track now. If we knew exactly who we would be fighting 10 years from now, we could custom tailor our weapons systems to perfectly meet and counter our future foe. However, Gussy, unless your crystal ball is working better that mine, we can’t be so precisely predictive. So as a matter of national policy, we expend the assets available to us to prepare for a future conflict based on the lessons learned from our past and present conflicts. [Presuming the members of Congress allow us to do so, because they have horses in the race, too (my district has 12 defense plants that MUST remain open and under contract, I don’t care that they all produce cannons model 1864! – notional pork-barrel member of Congress).] In terms of military planning, that’s really the only course of action open to us. Since a fundamental Constitutional function of the Federal government is to provide for the national defense, then that’s one of the prime responsibilities of the members of Congress (which includes the Senate). If Senator JfK wants to be President of the entire United States (and not just Drunk Driver’s understudy in the Senate), and he voted against these weapons systems, then he should have to answer for his votes. Tell us all why he did so. Did he have some sort of cosmic message telling him that those weapons systems would be unnecessary in our future war on terrorism? Then it was his fundamental responsibility to notify the rest of the nation of the danger we were in.
Just for the record, I thought Party Elder Gore’s speech last night was pretty funny. Though I was quite put off by the vehemence of one delegate from Florida who asserted that Bush and his friends on the Supreme Court stole the election and invalidated their votes, after they had worked so hard to get out the vote (yes, I was watching PBS/MPT). I think the liberal’s haters, the ABBs et al, conveniently ignore the NYTimes/Washington Post-led media consortium that actually went in and recounted the ballots using their most liberal interpretation of a hanging chad, and STILL came up with W winning the election in Florida. Sad, the historical revisionism some people would prefer to live with. Puts me in mind of the Ministry of Truth.
I related it to the War on Terror because Bush’s campaign chairman Marc Racicot on Feb. 22 accused Kerry of “voting against the weapons systems that are winning the War on Terror”. Ya can’t have it both ways, Yup-io.
Mlah drools: “in short, he voted to kill every military appropriation for the development and deployment of every weapons systems since 1988 to include the battle armor for our troops.”
Um, no, he didn’t.
Most of this nonsense comes from his votes against three giant Pentagon cash-cow bills (1990, ’95, ’96) which happened to include funding for a few of the items you list, but which he can’t be said to have voted against specifically. Otherwise he voted FOR Pentagon authorization bills in 16 of his 19 years in the senate, you dingbat! So all in all, you should be praising him for being a *supporter* of the military. Same deal with the $87 billion bill recently (the body armor was 1/3 of 1% of the total) (why did W send them to war without enough armor in the first place?!).
Anyway, the only things he’s voted against specifically have tended to be “strategic” implements like Trident nukes and SDI, not conventional stuff– in times of ballooning deficits while the Soviet Union was disintegrating, don’t forget.
Please tell us where those figures on intel funding come from! All I can find are 2 things:
1) In 1994 he sponsored S. 1826 which would have cut $1 billion per year for the intel budgets ’94-98, which was defeated. Soon after, the Aspin Commission (bipartisan) convened to look into intel funding and later concluded: “Reductions to the existing and planned intelligence resources may be possible without damaging the nation’s security. Indeed, finding such reductions is critical . . . (I)t is clear a more rigorous analysis of the resources budgeted for intelligence is required.” Deficit-busting again.
2) In 1995 JFK proposed to cut $1.5 billion from intel over 5 years. This would have amounted to a grand total (estimated since we don’t absolutely know the total)… are you ready for this?… a whopping 1 (one) percent!!!! Incidentally, the very same day REPUBLICAN Senator Arlen Specter’s amendment to cut 1 billion intel $$ for fiscal year 1996 passed. Kerry co-sponsored a companion measure to the Specter amendment, along with Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama. The cut eventually became law as part of a House-Senate package endorsed by the Republican leadership.
Again, we all want to know what you’re basing your claims on, Mlah, c’mon, tell us now!
You want to know who I *would* vote for if I could f-in cheney? Me. I’m the only person who kicks enough ass to be president anymore. No more of this “did he vote yes, no, or maybe on proposition needless bullshit?” talk. I would simply take control of all of it and everything would be fixed. In fact, I believe that it is necesary in every political regime (especially in the most powerful ones) for a cycle of revolution. Our country was founded on honest, hard working men who wanted the best for their fellows. They rebelled against a government which had become too greedy and heartless to take care of the “New World” and so we created our own regime. Now our system is being bogged down in the accumulation of more than 200 years of bullshit. Thus a revolution would put in place an honest leader who thinks about the best for everyone, and not about his own sordid personal agenda. Hope that answers your question.
Ok, medium john. You tell us when in history did a revolution, besides the american one, ever put someone in power who not only knew what they were doing but had the people in mind when they made decisions. France, maybe? {buzzer}-France’s bloody revolution created so many gaps that along came an emporer and then everybody else with claims to the throne. Or maybe Russia?
Our revolution was a collective decision by the majority of the masses as represented by those who wrote the Bill of Rights (which if they hadn’t been for it, it would have been a short war) and who believed that tyranny by an empire across the atlantic was not a good way to go.
If you were to create a revolution, ten to one you would not have the backing of the majority and you would then fail.
Besides, you’re too young (from your comment) to believe you know everything there is to know. Live your life first, get an education, get a job, travel, have a family, and so on. Then come back in 20 years and tell us how much you know and we’ll see if you’re ready to lead.
Gotta get past this Slacker Generation.
Particularly since, by your own statement “…congratulate CJ on his prolific use of exclamation points”, you have failed to understand by any previous comments I’ve made that I AM A MOTHER/WOMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (enough exclamation points for you?) And obviously you didn’t get the idea of my emphasis to support the troops. I suppose that got lost on you also.
Now who is the dumbass?!!!!!!!
Oh, and Butthead (true to your name), our defensive/responsive capabilities obviously didn’t impress upon the terrorists because they did attack us. Given the fact that this country was so complacent prior to 9/11 and that the prior administration and those supporting it in Congress were so involved with how to find secret ways for Bubba to get his Rocks off without the “opposition” finding out so thereby covering for him (didn’t hear Kerry come out against Bubba’s actions) rather than concentrating on giving the impression of our might (Somalia incident didn’t help us), the terrorists had no reason to fear a complete retaliation as that which we did after 9/11.
Sometimes, one has to step back and take a long hard look at things and get the total picture. That’s something you both will learn after you graduate from elementary school.
Keep ’em coming mlah
By the sound of your comment, CJ, one would think that you actually took my last post seriously. Notice how I nominated *myself* for president of the united states? Not only (as you pointed out yourself) am I not old enough according to law, but who wants that crappy job anyway? I want to be a vampire hunter, because vampire hunters rule. Now, please don’t even get me started on your stereotypical comment on the “slacker generation;” I have friends that work harder than John Kerry for their money, and so do I. By the way, I apoligize if I were to somehow offend you by accidentally referring to you as a guy, and you misinterpreted my mockery of your exclamaiton points: I am very supportive of our troops, just not of people who use far too many exclamation points and type in REALLY ANNOYING CAPITAL FONT simply to act as if they were shouting. And, I never called anyone a dumbass, so your exclamation point-ridden question as to “who is the dumbass?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” makes no sense at all. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Well Medium John,
First, you did actually refer to Bush as a Dumbass, but I guess that was lost on you.
Second, since I am not savvy enough to figure how else to emphasize my point when commenting, then exclamation point and caps it is. I do believe that we do need to shout when trying to get people’s attention since it seems we have forgotten what we need to do for our troops instead of focusing on the bad things. This rally was actually started by the 15 year old son of a friend of mine last year. This is their second rally. Pretty smart kid.
Third, I am not offended that you referred to me as a guy, I just think it’s really funny. I’m actually thinking of changing my name to something like Mad Mama or the like.
Fourth, this is the “slacker” generation. If you ask anyone older than you that is what they would say. If you work hard, then you may be exempted from that title. We do give credit where credit is due. Oh, but when you do get older, working hard now will seem nothing but a pittance to then. So, as I said before, come back in twenty years and tell us what you know.
Fifth, there is something to be said for vampire hunters. Vampire Hunter D has the sex appeal (except for that thing in his hand), Blade has the Braun, but Van Helsing tops them all!!(just two points) Of course, when you go out hunting, don’t forget the background music: “Dracula’s Daughter”, “Immortal Kiss”, “Red Roses”, and others found only in your local goth section.
Make sure that you dress appropriately and don’t forget to call home when you’re going to be late!!! (no caps this time, that’s your mother’s job)
đ
What can I say? Congratulations, you’ve stumped a 17 year-old whose future profession has absolutely nothing to do with politics. I got served.
Now that is one of the most honorable things that I’ve ever heard from a seventeen year old. Thank you for the compliment…
Also, I’m not a slacker. Anyone who knows me will tell you so. I hate it when people say that kind of stuff. Not all of “my generation” are slackers.
In fact, I’m just going to stay away from all posts regarding politics, because I have no idea what I’m saying, and everyone seems bound and determined to jump down my throat. How about some different posts Dave?
Dave does do different posts, you have to keep watch. sometimes people do take what he says and turns them into something else but that’s well and good.
But I don’t think you should stay away from political sites because they can give you alot of sides to an issue and can be very educational.
Also, you will vote one day so you will want to know the truth about things that most people your age don’t get.
And don’t worry if you get something wrong, we will let you know.
Just by what I see, you have potential. You will get credit for not being a slacker because you said it and I’m putting faith in you telling me the truth.
Maybe we can get Sean Hannity to Hannitize you!
đ
CJ blathered: “the terrorists had no reason to fear a complete retaliation as that which we did after 9/11.”
So… 9-11 happened because we hadn’t been showing enough strength in the world so the terrorists became brazen, and because Congressional Democrats were too busy covering up Clinton’s dress-soiling? I just want to check to make sure I understood you correctly.
And all this time I’ve been under the impression that a part of Osama’s grudge against us was that we had troops in Saudi Arabia. {knocks himself on the head} Doh!
I would love to see you go on national television and state that opinion. You would be laughed out of even this White House.
Meanwhile, the Congress has been controlled by Republicans for how long? Since 1994, I believe.
And I’m just guessing here, but I have a feeling the hijackers didn’t particularly give a flying f*ck what happened after they completed their mission. It’s so sad that this even needs to be pointed out. They had an appointment with 17 virgins each in their twisted Heaven. You smell like ass, CJ.
f-n cheney, i believe it’s 72 virgins who await martyrs for islam in heaven, not the mentioned 17. i could be wrong, but i don’t think so. the initial goal of al qaedah was the expulsion od infidels from the arabian peninsula. but like hizballah, they have multiple goals.
the first goal of hizballah was the expulsion of israeli troops from lebanon. check. the second is the destruction of the state of israel.
alqaedah wanted infidel troops out of the arabian peninsula. second, they want the lofty goal of an islamic world. that may sound bogus, but that is the actual goal of islam. convert or die!
next, the hiojackers cared very much about what happened after the suicide flights into the wtc’s. after all, if their attacks were not holy, no virgins for you! and they weren’t exactly willing to die for the promise of virgins only, there are the above stated reasons as well.
if cj smells like ass, it’s because she’s been rubbing up against you.
john. comment all you like. on politics especially. personally, i think you could do as well as kerry. bush just gets a bum wrap in the media.
funny how they yell the sky is falling, because of dubya. but look up. the sky is still there. and the economy is improving. heard anything from iraq lately?
the french are still fags.
Actually f-in cheney, Osama did actually refer to America as a paper tiger (I would find the quote but since you wouldn’t believe me anyway, I’m not going to bother and be late for work)
So, therefore, besides what mlah said, they had no reason to fear us retaliating as we did. so far we have wiped out approx 60-75% of al-qeada. That, they did not think of and I’m sure they have not had the time to think of all those beautiful 72 virgins before we knocked ’em off (your number, mlah, is correct).
As to Saudi Arabia, think about it for a minute if you can get your brain’s synapses to fire…they want all westerners dead, all americans dead. that is their goal. I’m sure they have had plans to go after our people in Saudi Arabia but they also have brethren there and their big target was to topple the US. The hijackers were working on this for several years that started in the Clinton admin, so by the time Bush became Pres, there was no stopping them and they didn’t know Bush well enough to know how he’d react (don’t forget that Bush Senior did not go into Baghdad to support the uprisings by Shia and Kurds so they could gather nothing about his son from that).
It’s all pretty much common sense. Something that you could only aspire to but never get.
Again, no matter what we say nor give evidence of, it will never change your mind so I will go on to “blather” all I want and hope that one day when you get older and out of superman pjs you will understand the truth.
John, my husband had made me a goth cd all with vampire themes and he reminded me of the song “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. Ever heard of it? Classic. T’would be nice if that were are only enemy.
A goth cd? From your husband? That’s kinda… creepy. Sweet, but creepy.
Well, actually, we like goth music, and other kinds as well. You have to see my husband. He dresses all in dark clothing, but he dresses professionally since he is an assistant administrator for a local county program. However, people are quite scared to go into his office since he plays very “strange” music and his room is dark (he also have these little fangs that were they a little longer could be misconstrued as something else. I thnk it’s the artist part of him that comes out. That’s probably why he gets along so well with the teenagers he supervises on the weekends at a diagnostic facility. They’re scared to death of him, but respect him.
We are eclectic. He’s from the old school punk days like the Dead Kennedys and Rob Zombie but we like some of the newer stuff like System of a Down and Nine Inch Nails. Of course there is goth, celtic, & I like some of the old 80s music and classical. I particularly right now like Evenescense.
Yeah, I guess he is a little creepy but that’s why I love him.
đ
uh… k.
Just showing that I’m not too far away from proceeding generations.
COMMON SENSE, CJ?!?! Neither common, nor sensical. Here is the OBL interview w/ the ‘paper tiger’ comment: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/interview.html
The specific line is about Somalia: “As I said, our boys were shocked by the low morale of the American soldier and they realized that the American soldier was just a paper tiger. He was unable to endure the strikes that were dealt to his army, so he fled, and America had to stop all its bragging and all that noise it was making in the press after the Gulf War…”
I’m not up on what happened there, so don’t know what ‘low morale’ he spoke of. But elsewhere in this interview, he shows no sign of caring what consequences may come his way.
When told there may be a price on his head, he says the Koran tells that all human fates are pre-ordained: “If the whole world gets together to kill us before it is our time to go, they will not succeed.”
His plan is to “fight until the Americans are driven out of all the Islamic countries.”
“Our battle against the Americans is far greater than our battle was against the Russians… The legend about the invincibility of the superpowers vanished [against the Russians].”
Again and again, he says his beefs with the US are about our troops on the Arabian peninsula, Arab gov’ts’ complicity with the US, and, most of all, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
“If the present injustice continues with the wave of national consciousness, it will inevitably move the battle to American soil, just as Ramzi Yousef [’96 WTC bomber] and others have.”
To maintain as you do that OBL’s attack was conditonal on US weakness isn’t really justified. To further advance this arguement in the context of Kerry’s few Nay’s against a few pieces of hardware strains credulity far beyond the breaking point. CJ, by any chance is Ann Coulter you co-pilot? Or are you your own, original kind of bitter, partisan kook? By all means, point me out some halfway-respectable commentator who agrees with you– my mind is plenty open (a distinguishing characteristic of all the Liberals I know).
And to suggest that “they didn’t know Bush well enough to know how he’d react” is the funniest thing I’ve heard in years, if also the saddest. Any major terrorist attack is going to be avenged, you turd, by anyone. Are you crazy? You think they didn’t recognize Dick Cheney, Sec’y of Defense during Bush Sr.’s term?! Or that both Bushes had extensive Saudi contacts (don’t forget that Prince Bandar was called “Bandar Bush”, part of the family). The Carlyle group dealt with Osama’s brother; plus Bush Sr. was head of the freaking CIA! Besides which, OBL has obviously taken every care in the world not to get caught, successfully so far; I sense he had some inkling that we were gonna send all our roughriders out on his sorry ass, he didn’t really hang around, did he? Duh. Well, thanks for shooting your credibility wad, no one else here is gonna take you seriously anymore.
CJ, your husband sounds really cool. Do you have differences of political opinion? I can’t believe an old fan of the Dead Kennedys would vote Republican– Reagan was always a bigger target for them than the PC Jerry Brown of “California Uber Alles”.
Mlah,
The sky may not be falling, but it is dirtier (along with the earth & the waterways) under Bush. He doesn’t just “get a bum rap in the media”, they’ve actually been pretty easy on him. The stock market is under 10,000 and the NASDAQ is under 2000. And the record deficits keep piling up.
“the french are still fags.” They’re very principled and human-scale. But their rock music really, really does suck.
Mlah asked: “heard anything from iraq lately?”
Yeah, why?
Guerrillas detonated a truck bomb outside a police recruiting station in the eastern city of Baqubah, killing 70 and wounding 55.
In Suwariyah, multinational forces and Iraqi police battled guerrillas, killing 35 of them. The guerrillas killed 7 Iraqi policemen.
Guerrillas used roadside bombs to kill two US troops, and two others died in small arms fights in al-Anbar province. Their deaths raised the toll to 906 since the war began, according to AP.
Guerrillas killed two Pakistani hostages, saying that the Pakistani government was considering sending troops to Iraq (to guard the UN HQ, to be headed by a Pakistani diplomat).
There were also shootings and clashes in the western city of Ramadi and the northern city of Kirkuk. Central Baghdad descended into chaos after a rocket hit a busy street, killing two people and wounding four, including three children.
Guerrillas kidnapped three sons of the governor of al-Anbar Province, Abdul Karim Burghis al-Rawi, in Ramadi. The provincial governors have largely been chosen in a complicated process over which the Americans and British had a great deal of influence, and many guerrillas consider them puppets.
On Wednesday Iraq weapons inspector David Kay said that U.S. officials should give up the “delusional hope” that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction so they can move forward with reform . . . “I think it’s most important that the president of the United States recognizes that in fact the weapons are not there,” Kay told reporters after speaking at The Government Security Expo and Conference.
On Tuesday, guerrillas successfully launched four or five mortars at the Green Zone in Baghdad, wounding 14 US troops.
Guerrillas sprayed the automobile of Dr. Qassem Obaidi with gunfire, killing him late Monday. He was the assistant director of the Mahmoudiya Hospital about 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Sunni Iraqis are turning toward Salafi Islam. Salafis are sort of militantly Protestant Sunnis who reject the canons of medieval scholarship and strive to go back to the practice of the Prophet and his companions in early Islam. In recent decades Salafis have become a key recruitment pool for radical groups with a violent bent. The Sunni middle classes in Iraq had been relatively secular until recently, but the American conquest has caused many of them to turn to religion, some to radical religion.
The Foreign Policy Centre in the UK is issuing a report that blames the Iraq War for the inability of the US and the UK to respond in a timely way to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
In Mosul guerrillas detonated a carbomb outside the gate of the airport, wounding 3 US soldiers and two Iraqi security men, and killing three bystanders along with the bomber.
A guerrilla assassinated Musab al-Awadi, an Interior Ministry deputy minister in charge of tribal affairs, who had been attempting to smooth relations with Sunni tribal chieftains in the strife-torn Sunni heartland.
Guerrillas fired on a bus in Basra that was carrying workers for a Western company to the airport, killing two women and wounding three others.
Shall I go on?
So, Gus. The performance of the stock market is the responsibility of the President? Nothing whatsoever to do with the Fed’s money management policies (Greenspan’s been talking about interest rate hikes, which are ALWAYS hard on the market) or the recession that started in 1999 (and followed on the global lag caused by the Asian finacial flu in 1997-1998)? With what sort of financial/economic expertise do you make such a judgement?
Deficits are ALWAYS bad and are to be avoided in every instance? Because if that’s the case, we should never have gone into WWII, because we would have been mortgaging our childrens’ future (wail, gnash teeth). Old Ronny was evil because he had record deficits, and W is just as bad because he reintroduuced deficits after our faithful hero Bubba forced the budget back into a semblance of control (never mind the Congress actually creates the budget). Wars are expensinve, young sir Gus, and budget deficits are used to finance them (meaning the debt is left to a perceived prosperous and peaceful future AFTER we win the war). We are in a war right now, whether you, or the French, want to admit it. It’s called the Global War on Terrorism.
You can use that revisionist rhetoric about the old Soviet Union being a decrepit monstrosity on its last economic legs all you want, but the conventional wisdom of the day argues against your propaganda. Reagan (and Lady Maggie) forced the Soviets to try to play economic keep-up with the west, using such expensive technological weapons as SDI as one of the key components of his socio-economic attack. The Soviets tried with all their might to keep up, but in the end, it caused their economy to collapse and disintegrated their Evil Empire. History lesson is done.
The French are certainly very principled. They proved that in 1940. Vichy decided it was more pragmatic to jump in bed with Nazi Germany than resist to the last man. Principles. They were pretty enthusiastic about rounding up all the Jews they could find in their territory, and sending them off to the KLs. And they, being “neutrals,” were certainly acting very principled in turning over to the Japanese the Ami stragglers who had escaped to Indochina from Correigedor. Principles lead them to particpate in the so-called Oil for Food program, thereby enriching their senior politicians and capitalist leaders by jumping into bed with Saddam’s brutal regime. Principles. Is this the same sort of principles we can expect from a President JfK?
Your education on bin Laden is severely lacking. I recommend you read Youssef Bodansky’s book on the matter. I can tell a reporter anything I want to make myself look good. So can you. So can Osama.
His organization attacked America at will, and with every attack, the American response encouraged them. They kill 16 of our troops in Somalia (where political considerations forced the commanders to not have the necessary support in place) and we cut and ran. They blew up our embassies in Africa and we sent cruise missiles into a factory in Sudan. They blow up our warship — as with an embassy an expression of soverign U.S. might and prestige — and we cry foul. And launch a bunch of cruise missiles at a tent encampment in the desert. Wouldn’t you be encouraged by all that, Gussy?
Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands? Israel, under enourmous pressure from Bubba, agreed to capitulate to 97% of Yasser’s demands. Yasser turned them down cold and launched a new terror campaign, calling it the Second Intifada. Sure and you’ll be telling me that so-called “freedom fighters” of Palestine should legitimately be walking into pizzarias and killing children to make their point.
Yousef’s attack was in 1993, pal. And what about the Iraqi connection to OK City bombing? Why, when an Egyptian pilot puts his heavy people mover into a steep dive and crashes it into the Atlantic, do we cover it up? The attacks on America by Osama and his ilk were happening all through the 1990s, and WE DID NOTHING SUBSTANTIVE to avenge them.
By the way, you do realize that most of the 19 9/11 hijackers weren’t aware that theirs was a 1-way trip to paradise? The planners couldn’t tell them that because they wouldn’t have participated. Even on the promise of 72 vestal virgins. Quit showing your own posterior, pal.
“The Foreign Policy Centre in the UK is issuing a report that blames the Iraq War for the inability of the US and the UK to respond in a timely way to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.” Actually, that’s been going on since about 1998. Black slavery and genocide isn’t worth prime time mention unless the Americans are involved (even were it done over 150 years ago). Oh wait, now that the US is getting dumped on for the Iraq thing, we can dust the story off and use it to make further attacks on the stinking Amis. (Kane at Baltimore Sun has done some good pieces on this topic for your further edification, Gus)
Bad news follows bad news follows bad news about Iraq. One would think that nothing positive has come out of that country since last spring. How suprising that the vanquished (but not subjugated, because that ain’t our style) Sunnis, who as minority held absolute and brutal power for the past 30 years, have turned to religion to sooth their bruised egos? Perhaps might be worth researching as a common theme amongst vanquished (but not subjegated) peoples.
WMDs have not been found therefore they never existed. Schroedinger’s cat!
f-in cheney,
Nope. My husband is as much as, if not more, of a Republican than I am. He’s probably more conservative too; however, he is an artist and a professional and a brilliant man (subscribes to Scientific American and our library is full of medical & history books), not to mention that the man could have been a doctor or something more but somehow chose social services. He is definitely a better speaker/writer than I am.
See, he doesn’t believe in bothering to comment on blogs because he doesn’t think that the comments of the left are worth responding to, but it would be interesting to see the debates.
Oh, btw, he is currently reading the 9/11 commission report that he bought. Some interesting things there.
Knowing what common sense is would mean that you’d actually have to have some. Something that you, Gus, do not have. You can call me turd all you want, although that’s very disrespectful towards your elders, but as I have so very much said in the past, you will never agree with anything I said because you are not open-minded!
That’s what I thought liberalism was when I believed in that long ago but that all changed when society started changing. Liberals are closed to anything that is beyond their realm of understanding and philosophy. The far right can be the same way, but we’re not talking about them.
I can tell you to take a serious step back and look at things, look at the whole, through different eyes; however, that would take years of conditioning and even then it may not work. And, frankly, I have had too much in my life and I am too tired of reading the crap that you and others like you spew without real substance. The basic thing you should just come down to admitting to is that you absolutely despise Bush and anything that he or the rest of stand for.
Fini.
I don’t really mean to be insensitive or anything, but we’ve only lost 906 soldiers the entire time we’ve been in Iraq? How many did we send? I seem to remember a time when wars cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of lives. In terms of simple numbers, we’re doing really well.
You’re absolutely correct John. And for those we lost, we mourn. For those who are still there, we support and honor.
So, Medium John, does that mean that you’re raring to enlist when you turn 18?
CJerk, I have no problem admitting that I hate Bush, was that ever in question? Anyhow, you offer no evidence or logical argument for all your claims to be the sole purveyor of “common sense”. You keep saying things like “Oh, you wouldn’t get it anyway”, which totally weasels out of defending your bullcrap ideas. Bring ’em on! Your chain of argument: Kerry’s defense votes –> Al-Queda perceives us to be weak –> 9/11. I see no reason to believe they wouldn’t have tried it in any case, just because of the strength of their convictions about their 3 main beefs (Israel-Palestinians, troops on ‘holy’ soil, Arab regimes collaborating with US). Besides which, as 1/100th of the Senate, Kerry only had so much leverage to sic our forces after A-Q’s earlier attacks. Can you point to some specific vote where he said we shouldn’t go after them? I don’t think even your hubby could help you out of this spiderhole.
It’s not just Kerry and his voting record here, which is completely open as a forum for debate despite your fervent convictions to the contrary, Gus. We are also concerned about the entire Dimo concept of national power and sovereignty, where we don’t exert power in the world unless France asks us to do something (ala Yugoslavia). When Biden is labeled the ‘hawk’ of the party (and Lieberman is shunned by the party’s core constituency), it’s pretty entertaining (scary, really).
The speechifying at the pep rally kept refering to Woodrow Wilson (the great man who lead us to victory in WWI — never mind Pancho Villa — and bequeathed us the League of Nations), FDR (the great man who lead us to victory in WWII, while instituting socialist programs approved of by ‘Uncle Joe’ Stalin) and JFK (who lead us to victory in the Bay of Pigs. no, not that. in the Cuban Missile Crisis; notice the capital F here, for that’s the REAL JFK, the philandering brother of the Drunken One). Unfortunately, the Dims have completely abandoned the tough, patriotic stance of these liberals of yore in favor of the McGovernite concept of politics and the Hanoi Jane-ite (Micheal Moore-ite?) concept of hatred of this country’s position as the world’s hyperpower (to quote the French). Yet they dare claim the mantle of these political forebears in the name of JfK (note the small case f, to make differentiation easier for everyone).
JfK did not lead the party in the 1990s, when the US provided such anemic response to terrorist activities aimed against us. Yet the Party Elder (and probably future First Husband) who was then President has all but said JfK will bring his policies back to the American people. Hooray. Weak responses in the face of terrorist aggression.
Really now, why would you want as president the man that Kim Chong-il’s government is hyping in their state-run propaganda? JfK’s political speeches are actually played on DPRK state radio and television! Hizbollah are playing up a JfK presidency. So JfK is truly the man the terrorists and thugs want in the Oval Office. Wow. Gus, you’re in some stellar company there, pal.
I never claimed to be the purveyor of common sense. But, again, what you don’t understand is that I’m not going to try to change you or your mind, you are what you are. I don’t think that I’ve even had to. Yup, Mlah, and the rest have said it for me and, yes, I do believe that my husband could run rings around you but since he has no time or desire to baby feed you the correct path then I will not try to get him to. I am not as eloquent as he is (And yes, I am quite cynical but it was the Libs that left me that way) and maybe I haven’t given you the “evidence” of my stance that you so desire, but I really don’t think that I have to. It’s been said over and over by everyone who posts on this site and others. You are just unwilling to get past your hatred for Bush to even look at anything that might oppose your viewpoint. If Bush said the glass was half full, you’d say it was half empty. It’s as simple as that.
I’ve been very polite to you except when you personally attack me. You have the most amazing names to call me, so original and apparently the only way you can vent. So,I’m not sure what sad event happenned in your life that made you so disrespectful to others and so closed to concepts outside your own, but you can rest assured that this will be the last response to you. I will not enable you anymore.
Oh, no, don’t abandon me, CJ! I have an open mind towards Bush. 5% of me still thinks that the war in Iraq was a decent idea, that his policies aren’t as evil as some say. It’s when I do take a big step back and get the wide view that I get scared that he’s a quasi-Fascist– turning progress backwards with religious santimony, corporate tea-bagging, foreign policy full of blow-back possibilities and bankrupting federal, state and local governments, that’s all.
But you’re MUCH more open-minded about Kerry, eh? If you can’t back up your own proclamations (yes, including that YOU are so full of common sense, read above), at least get better people to back you up, cuz Yup and Mlah haven’t touched your doo-doo.
Now for you, Yup.
“So, Gus. The performance of the stock market is the responsibility of the President?” I never said that. I was merely countering Mlah’s claim re: “funny how they yell the sky is falling, because of dubya. but look up. the sky is still there. and the economy is improving”. I know not the mechanisms that move “the economy” (whatever that means), whether Clinton or Bush is prez. Signs of recovery have been mixed, was my point in bringing up the tottering stock market.
“Wars are expensinve, young sir Gus, and budget deficits are used to finance them (meaning the debt is left to a perceived prosperous and peaceful future AFTER we win the war).”
The war in Iraq has NOTHING to do with terrorism. It was a speculative and optional sham of a war. It was a rush job under no imminent threat from a sad, contained state. The burden could have been shared if we could get much of anyone aboard with us. What was the freaking rush? I myself might have signed on if it had been sold as a Human Rights Crusade, really I would have, but that was not the case. And after we colonize (I mean pacify) Iraq, how do you think we will be more peaceful and prosperous because of it? They weren’t hurting us to begin with. Oh, maybe some oil, that’s true…
“You can use that revisionist rhetoric about the old Soviet Union being a decrepit monstrosity on its last economic legs all you want, but the conventional wisdom of the day argues against your propaganda.” The subject was Kerry’s votes in 1990, ’95 & ’96, not Reagan and Thatcher. Was that still the “conventional wisdom of the day” then? SDI is a boondoggle.
I dunno about France and the Oil-for-Food thing, maybe you’re right. I guess I was talking about the French character generally, esp. post-WWII. They’ve been castigating themselves about Vichy almost as much as the Germans have about Nazism. Get over it, they have. If you want to get all historical, they saved our ass against England in the Revolution.
“Your education on bin Laden is severely lacking.” Hey, CJ mentioned his quote about the US as a “paper lion”, so I found the context in question, which doesn’t do much to back up her point. Can you offer something from Youssef Bodansky’s book that’s more convincing?
“cruise missiles at a tent encampment in the desert. Wouldn’t you be encouraged by all that, Gussy?”
Hell, yeah, cruise missiles are always a good sign that someone appreciates my work and is encouraging me to do more of it! So we weren’t successful at assassinating him, buy why would he be encouraged to know there’s a price on his head? You’re a counterintuitive freaking maniac to suggest that.
“Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands?”
Why, yes, since 1967 in fact. Not that my or your opinion matters when the only question was OBL’s self-stated reasons for hating us vs. CJ’s BS.
“Yousef’s attack was in 1993, pal.” I stand corrected.
“And what about the Iraqi connection to OK City bombing? Why, when an Egyptian pilot puts his heavy people mover into a steep dive and crashes it into the Atlantic, do we cover it up?”
Does anybody know what he’s talking about and what it has to do with the price of beans?
“The planners couldn’t tell them that because they wouldn’t have participated. ” Oh? Did they tell you that? I fear we’ll never know for sure.
Yup sed: “It’s not just Kerry and his voting record here… We are also concerned about the entire Dimo concept of national power and sovereignty…”
Oh, pardon me, I though these were the comments for the post titled “JKF on Defense”!
If Kerry is merely Clinton in Navy drag, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. But we don’t know what he’ll do until he does it, so keep an open mind. You’ll have your chance to bitch for real come November.
“So JfK is truly the man the terrorists and thugs want in the Oval Office.” I was not aware of this, nor do I know what it implies. Does it mean that Kerry will coddle them, that I am friends with them? No, it does not. That he’ll open rational dialogue with all parties? Perhaps. You’re a real class act, is Douche Limbaugh your co-pilot?
f-in cheney, you’re pretty funny. yes i get a good chuckle whenever i read your misguided diatribes.
yes, it means that kerry will coddle/be soft on/or merely sick lawyers on terrorists, when we laugh at him for the fact that the terrorists prefer him as pesident to bush. they have already told you who is actually better as pres. you just aren’t listening to them. but oh, that would require a little independent thought. sorry, my bad.
nobody knows what kerry will do til he does it. not even kerry. another HUGE strike against him.
1967, isreal occupied egyptian and jordanian land. check your history books. after the ’48 war od independance, when the brits skeddadled (evidence of why we should not in iraq) israel seized control of what you think of as israel. jordan annexed the west bank, including east jerusalem, and egypt seized gaza.
france and oil for food? well, you got half of france’s reasons for opposing the war, the other was the 60B$ a year in oil contracts they lost. fuckheads. and dubya gets the no blood for oil asshats. talk to the french about that. and kerry is french in my opinion.
bush is a quasi fascist. step a little further back, preferably out of the bs that the democrats have you snowed under and take a good look at what the party of fear is doing. they aren’t quasi fascists. they are fascists.
i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. 2 biggest threats to humanity in the 20th century.
1. german workers national SOCIALIST party
2. union of soviet SOCIALIST republics
and the democrats keep in telling you how great those social programs are! smell the shit my friend. you’re in so deep you can’t even tell anymore. cj was right, the dimocrats closed your mind, and hold the key. no DO what they say! or they’ll let the mean ole republicans make you work for a living/healthcare/prosperity/property.
sociopolitical lesson. as i understand the neocon world view, iraq, against which we had a casus belli (their sustained violations of the terms of the 1991 cease fire, as well as their support of terrorist organizations including al qaeda, against which we were already at war — and unless you are willfully blind, you cannot deny this was happening; there was even a 707 sitting in one of them as a training tool), would prove an easy military victory. [and it was, by the way. the peace after organized state military resistance dissapeared is where we have stumbled.] we would be able to set up a democratically influenced government (as opposed to a secular or religious dictatorship), and iraq would resume the prosperity it had decades ago. this would also serve as a warning to iran and syria (and other backwards dictatorships which support terrorism) to change or face the ramifications. [and that has also worked, viz libya.] so there have been stumbles as well as successes here. go back to my earlier post about developing weapons and tactics based on the lessons learned from previous wars.
humanitarianism was one of the reasons provided for going to war with iraq. remember that whole genocide thing against kurds and shiites?
WMD? Schroedinger’s cat!
can’t follow my rant? too complicated for you? point was that we ignored terrorist attacks against us, or made trifling responses, throughout the whole 8 years of the dimo presidency in the 1990s (except for Desert Fox, which was to distract us from a chubby intern). and JfK has not enunciated how he would deal with them. he’s given us broad platitudes. all sheep’s gut and no haggis.
blearg.
“i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. 2 biggest threats to humanity in the 20th century.
1. german workers national SOCIALIST party
2. union of soviet SOCIALIST republics”
You’ve said it before, and you are confused again! For the last time, get it right (or left, if you can figure out the diffference) by reading a bit.
National Socialism
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0859882.html
“Nazi ideology drew on the racist doctrines of the comte de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain, on the nationalism of Heinrich von Treitschke, and on the hero-cult of Friedrich Nietzsche, often transforming the ideas of these thinkers. Nazi dogma, partly articulated by Hitler in Mein Kampf, was elaborated by the fanatical Alfred Rosenberg. Vague and mystical, it was not a system of well-defined principles but rather a glorification of prejudice and myth with elements of nihilism. Its mainstays were the doctrines of racial inequality and of adherence to the leader, or FÂhrer; its constant theme was nationalist expansion.”
“The Nazis accused Jews of obstructing the conquering path of the ‘master race.’ MARXISM, international finance, and Freemasonry were all said to be Jewish devices created to dominate the world.”
Who was fighting the Nazis before the US? The Soviet Union! Of course USSR turned into a nasty dictatorship later, but they *were* our allies, and really I’m just pointing out the false link being made between Hitler and Socialism.
Here’s how Mussolini himself (formerly a Socialist) defined Fascism:
“Fascism [is] the complete opposite of.Marxian Socialism.”
See a fuller explanation of the differences here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#Fascism_vs._socialism
“A key feature of fascism is that it uses its mass movement to attack the organizations of the working class – parties of the left and trades unions.”
“Marxists and trade unionists were the first targets, and the first victims of Adolf Hitler once he came to power.”
“As well, Mussolini imprisoned Antonio Gramsci from 1926 until 1934 after Gramsci, a leader of the Italian Communist Party and leading Marxist intellectual, tried to create a common front among the left and workers to resist and overthrow fascism.”
“However, the fact that fascist states, on the one hand, and the USSR and the Soviet bloc, on the other, were police states does not mean that their commonality is a product of socialism. While all one-party states can be said to be police states, there is no correlation between socialism and police states, as many one-party capitalist states– such as the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang or Afghanistan under the Taliban– as well as monarchist police states such as Iran under the Shah– have also been police states. Conversely, there have been multi-party socialist states that have not been police states.”
“The Russian Revolution also inspired attempted revolutionary movements in Italy with a wave of factory occupations. Most historians view fascism as a response to these developments, as a movement that both tried to appeal to the working class and divert them from Marxism and also appealed to capitalists as a bulwark against Bolshevism. Italian fascism – founded and led by Benito Mussolini – took power with the blessing of Italy’s king after years of leftist-led unrest led many conservatives to fear that a communist revolution was inevitable.
“Throughout Europe numerous aristocrats and conservative intellectuals as well as capitalists and industrialists lent their support to fascist movements in their countries which arose in emulation of Italian fascism.”
“These movements were bitterly opposed to each other and fought frequently, the most notable example of this conflict being the Spanish Civil War. The Civil War became a proxy war between the fascist countries and their international supporters – who backed Franco – and the worldwide Communist movement allied uneasily with anarchists and Trotskyists – who backed the Popular Front – and were aided chiefly by the Soviet Union.”
“The term “fascist” or “Nazi” is often ascribed to individuals or groups who are perceived to behave in an authoritarian manner; by silencing opposition, judging personal behavior, or otherwise attempting to concentrate power. More particularly, “Fascist” is sometimes used by people of the Left to characterize some group or persons of the far-right or neo-far-right, or the far left activists as a description of any political or cultural influences perceived as “non-progressive,” or merely not sufficiently progressive.”
“Seeking to find some principle to replace the Marxist doctrine of class struggle, Rerum Novarum urged social solidarity between the upper and lower classes, and endorsed nationalism as a way of preserving traditional morality, customs, and folkways. In doing so, Rerum Novarum proposed a kind of corporatism, the organization of political societies along industrial lines that resembled mediaeval guilds. A one-person, one-vote democracy was rejected in favor of representation by interest groups. This idea was to counteract the ‘subversive nature’ of the doctrine of Karl Marx.”
“When Henri De Man’s Italian translation of ‘Au-dela du marxisme’ emerged, Mussolini was excited and wrote the author that his criticism destroyed any ‘scientific’ element left in Marxism. Mussolini was appreciative of the idea that a corporative organization and a new relationship between labor and capital would eliminate ‘the clash of economic interests’ and thereby neutralise ‘the germ of class warfare.'”
“Fascist Italy did not nationalize any industries or capitalist entities. Rather it established a corporatist structure influenced by the model for class relations put forward by the Catholic Church. Indeed, there is a lot of literature on the influence of Catholicism on fascism and the links between the clergy and fascist parties in Europe before and during World War II.”
One of its tenets is Corporatism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism
“Corporatism is also used in reference to tendencies in politics for legislators and administrations to be influenced or dominated by the interests of corporations rather than citizens. In this view, government decisions are seen as being influenced strongly by which sorts of policies will lead to greater profits for favored companies.”
“Corporatism is often used today to describe a condition of corporation-imbued globalism. Points enumerated by users of the term in this sense include the prevalence of very large, multinational corporations that freely move operations around the world in response to corporate, rather than public, needs; the push by the corporate world to introduce legislation and treaties which would restrict the abilities of individual nations to restrict corporate activity; and similar measures to allow corporations to sue nations over “restrictive” policies, such as a nation’s environmental regulations that would restrict corporate activities.”
“Free Market theorists like Milton Friedman would describe corporatism as socialism for the wealthy. It has the outward form of capitalism in that it preserves private ownership and private management, but as with socialism, government guarantees the flow of material goods, which under true capitalism it does not.”
“iraq… their support of terrorist organizations including al qaeda”
Stop right there. What was the extent of this “support” of AQ? I understood there to have been one or two isolated, exploratory meetings that were not followed up on. You and Cheney can blow it out your ass w/ the 9/11 links.
Another couple ideas to refute CJ’s dumbass theory about AQ not anticipating serious reprisal:
– A couple days before 9/11, AQ assassinated the leader of the Northern Alliance, Ahmad Shah Masoud (guerrilla fighter against the Soviets, later defense minister) by posing as reporters, if you recall. Thus diminishing their military reach, as if in anticipation of our working with the NA.
– There’s even the theory that OBL *meant* 9/11 to provoke us to attack Muslim countries. They thought perhaps they could draw us into Afghanistan and then whup our asses like they had the Soviets’. Or at least makes the Islamic world hate our guts.
This may explain why ALL the hijackers used their own names, not aliases, on all their travel, etc. documents- deliberate provocation. It didn’t take any time to figure out who did it, Sept. 12 at the latest, right? Counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke was astounded that these men had even been let on the planes under those names, many of which were well known to US intelligence. He’d have chosen all Saudis in order to alienate the US from the ruling family, thus softening it up for an Islamist takeover. Who knows? Makes at least as much sense.
no it doesn’t make as much sense. the taliban assassinated massoud to solidify their rule. aq had nothing to do with it.
there were theories that aq did 9-11 to provoke us to attack afghanistan? they were wrong. the taliban were shocked that we were talking about war with them for aq’s actions.
make the islamic world hate our guts? they already did. oooooh, that’s right, now they ‘really’ hate our guts. as long as israel exists, they will hate our guts. as long as we are prosperous, they will hate our guts. as long as we are not muslim, they will hate our guts.
i have been remiss. i have not countered your theory that i don’t support CJ’s postings here. completely innacuarate statement. i support CJ’s postings, and Med John’s. even yours, gus. however, yours are often so full of malarky that I feel compelled to respond. when i don’t feel so compelled, then i don’t respond.
nice detective work with an encyclopedia. at least we know you can read and do a google search. its your whole ability to place information into a meaningful and rational context which i hold in doubt.
big problem with your premise that “Of course USSR turned into a nasty dictatorship later, but they *were* our allies…” the union of soviet socialist republics was already a nasty dictatorship, supposedly a dictatorship of the masses but in reality controlled to an exquisite degree by a bunch of murderous thugs. read your history. just don’t rely on the good comrades at the NYTimes for anything resembling the truth on that topic.
the alliance was one of convenience, because Hitler was the aggressor in the first part (his blitzkreig being much more visible and substantial than the insideous encroachments of world communism). oddly enough, the soviets began as allies to germany, and between them they carved up poland (the impetus for the french and british declarations of war against germany, mind). the soviets ensured their control over their newly occupied spoils in poland by murdering anybody who could conceivably raise a hand against them within the next generation (see Katyn Forest in one of your online dictionaries). when hitler turned on the soviets (aiming for their oil fields in the black sea region), the decision was made to support “uncle joe” and his menagerie in order to support the “western front” and thereby strain german armed presence in france (where we planned to invade). the soviets imprisoned their british and american allies, who because of the perfidies of war were forced to crash land in soviet- controlled territories, or whose pow camps were “liberated” by the soviet army, many of whom disappeared into the gulag system in siberia.
your willful ignorance of matters terrorism astounds me, as that is one of your principle ‘weapons’ used in attacking the president and his policies. saddam had terrorist training camps inside iraq, and provided safe haven to the bad guys. you choose to ignore that fact at my peril.
you have somehow decided that if saddam wasn’t personally bankrolling bin laden then his other support to terrorists is immaterial. oh, and that ‘isolated’ meeting in praha doesn’t pique your interest one iota?
the 9/11 hijackers used their real names because it was convenient to do so; forged documents may have been spotted and endangered the mission. it was (and remains) well known that the US government is very lax on immigration enforcement, and that (as we saw during the 9/11 commission hearings — unless you happened to be watching conventional news coverage, in which case the issue was buried) the law enforcement community was barred by policy from talking to the intelligence community and vice versa. when INS (now BICE) agents are barred from enforcement of immigration laws because the administration doesn’t want to look bad, and discouraged from actually inspecting the documentation of our visitors, then what the hell do you expect to happen? dunno how many cops (federal or local) you hang out with, gus, but this is what my friends tell me.
and it doesn’t help when local jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with the feds on this issue, either. examples include the free commune of montgomery county (md) and berkely (ca). their police have been informed they will be prosecuted under local ordinance (meaning they get fired, fined, and possibly taken to jail) if they comply with federal requests to inform the fbi when they run across an illegal immigrant.
cripes, just look at the 14 so-called syrian ‘musicians’ that were let go to play their gig, after they did some really suspicious things on the detroit-lax flight a couple of weeks ago. 13 of them were on EXPIRED visas! bice wasn’t even called in!
go figure.
Mlah sez: “no it doesn’t make as much sense. the taliban assassinated massoud to solidify their rule. aq had nothing to do with it.”
I find conflicting clues.
http://cla.calpoly.edu/es/news/Maliha.htm
“assassinated by the Taliban just two days before the attack on the World Trade Center.”
http://pdmin.coe-dmha.org/apdr/archives/APDR_072604.htm
“assassinated by al-Qaeda/Taliban assassins”
http://users.tns.net/~mroashan/politics/countrycorner/CCorner2/DR102701.htm
“cowardly assassinated by two Moroccan Arabs apparently deputed to do the job by Taleban and Osama’s group.”
http://www.massoudhero.com/English/biography.html
“Two foreign suicide assassins, who had camouflaged themselves as journalists murdered Ahmad Shah Masood on the 18.06.1380 (09.09.2001).”http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/DI12Ag02.htmlhttp://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/DI12Ag02.htmlhttp://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/DI12Ag02.html
http://jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=401&issue_id=3029&article_id=2368312
“Masoud was assassinated by an al-Qaeda affiliate on September 9, 2001.”
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040727-021225-8560r.htm
“assassinated by al-Qaida days before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks”
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/DI12Ag02.html
This link tells the whole very complicated and detailed but interesting story.
“Al-Qaeda may have hit Masoud to finish off the last and only hurdle for the Taliban to control all of Afghanistan – the Northern Alliance controlled between 5 percent and 10 percent of the country at the time. Masoud was a nemesis for Osama bin Laden, whose regional masterplan included the integration of Afghanistan’s northern neighbors in a radical Islamic axis.
“Masoud’s killing, too, may have been bin Laden’s personal gift to Taliban leader Mullah Omar for the shelter that the Taliban provided al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The assassination, further, may have been the key event that sent the signal for the September 11 operation in the US.”
“The plot to kill Masoud was carried out by a Brussels-based Tunisian terrorist cell. Masoud was assassinated by two killers in their 30s posing as journalists and carrying fake Moroccan passports.
“Already in 1999 European intelligence had begun to notice increased al-Qaeda recruiting activity among Tunisians living in Europe. A key recruit was Abdul Sattar Dahmane, a Tunisian resident of Belgium. He had been trained in one of al-Qaeda’s Afghan military camps, where he lived in a house nearby with his Moroccan wife, Malika. In the spring of 2001 Dahmane was selected for a crucial mission. As he had studied journalism in Tunisia and Belgium, he would pose as a television interviewer, alongside another Tunisian posing as a cameraman – Rachid Bourawi, an illegal immigrant to Belgium. According to European intelligence, Dahmane was an operative in Brussels and London for the Tunisian Fighting Group, an organization with ties to al-Qaeda. The established European theory for the Masoud hit is that the Tunisian Fighting Group agreed to kill Masoud in exchange for its fighters training in al-Qaeda’s Afghan military camps.”
So, I give up my theory. But you’re not quite right, either, about AQ not having anything to do with it.
actually i am right. citing a bunch of groups that reported/ are reporting it wrong does not make me wrong.
And your source was…?
I can admit you’re right if you give me a good reason to do so. Will you please? I beg of you! Just this once, indulge my curiosity, everyone’s curiosity, by spending 10 minutes establishing your credibility with one good, sourced defense of your claims. If you can’t do that, or don’t think “you have to prove anything to anybody”, we’ll know what to make of your other claims…
hey gus, catch a clue: Mlah met a Jordanian royal a while back (read his post on that topic). give you any insight into his sources??
There seems to have been a lot of overlap between AQ and Taleban in Afghanistan. I would need a public, preferably US gov’t source that goes into as least as much detail as that Asia Times article (“Brussels-based Tunisian terrorist cell…. fake Moroccan passports… The established European theory for the Masoud hit is that the Tunisian Fighting Group agreed to kill Masoud in exchange for its fighters training in al-Qaeda’s Afghan military camps.”)
Does this form work like a guestbook?