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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (201709)	9/7/2006 7:40:20 AM
From: foundation	Respond to of 281500

re: agree to count buddhism out ---------- ... buddhism -- lacking evangelical zeal -- is the only organized world religion that can justly lay claim to a history not strewn with death and destruction on a heavenly scale.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (201709)	9/7/2006 7:42:39 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

TJ, you are too pessimistic. The war against Saddam and Sons is won. The war against Osama in Afghanistan is won. As a bonus, the war against the Taleban was won too. If the USA simply called it enough for now and left town for a bit of R&R, it could count as a victory. That might or might not result in civil insurrection, civil war and chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan. At some stage in the future, if Islamic Jihad starts getting annoying again in those areas, it would be no particular problem to announce the arrival of a fleet of USA military vehicles. But even without taking a breather, it's far from a lost cause. The USA need only copy the good old British Empire [though the USA is not offering USA citizenship to colonies as the British did, which was a good way of getting agreement by the local yokels]. What the British did was hand control to a local enthusiast for power and provide some money, military support, and trade in the background, plus public hangings of miscreants who did things like suttee. There are no doubt swarms of Iraqis who are very glad of positive cash flow from the USA soldiers. The export of Iraqi oil helps. It's a very good training ground for the USA. They get to test technology and ideas in live action. They have demonstrated to Iran, Libya and China just how precisely cruise missiles and Predators can be. Those Spectres are daunting too. And a gang of USA soldiers running around with all their gear are disconcerting too. Especially as they can call up close air support and ground launched support at short notice. Just as Hezbollah claimed victory, [but didn't believe it themselves], I bet the opposition to the USA/Iraq government are not feeling all that tough - the attrition must be grindingly constant. Sure, they are fighting back, planting IEDs and making various attacks, including suicide bombings. Personally, I wouldn't be volunteering my life to enforce what the USA is trying to enforce in Iraq. And Osama seems bent out of shape by his family relationships and their relationship with the current bosses of Saudi Arabia and the oil and their relationship with King George II and the USA in general. So the whole mess got going for no good reasons. Going back to supporting Osama and co against Gorby in Afghanistan. Silly! But if the USA wants to battle it out in Iraq, I am happy for them to do so. Each Islamic Jihadist they get is one more that won't get me. And I'm not too worried about them getting angry as is commonly worried about. They are already code Red super alert off the scale foaming at the mouth angry, so what the heck. I thought it would have been better to gear up a NewUN rather than go in for non-existent or trivial WMDs in Saddam's zone. Mqurice

To: TobagoJack who wrote (201709)	9/7/2006 7:54:50 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

that being which of the main stream religions, in your view, is most responsible for fascism? Falun Gong?? Nah.. you're talking about Italian Fascism, not the Fascism that has developed in China. And we all know that the Octagenarians in Bejing hate the Falun Gong folks. So it has to be Catholicism.. But only because it failed to publicly denounce Mussolini's policies. Instead, they formed a mutually beneficial relationship. historylearningsite.co.uk war crimes tends to motivate folks to lose heart. Isn't that the intent of the terrorists? They don't seem to have any remorse about committing war crimes. recommendation: accumulate gold, since wars cost money, losing wars cost more, and financing requires printing by a whole lot of CBs That must explain why the US 10 year bond is almost 50 basis points below the Fed Funds rate.. No one wants those nasty US Treasuries because they are being inflated. If anything, there isn't enough US debt to handle the flows of capital trying to find a safe haven. But assuming your scenario is correct, then I would suggest inflation indexed bonds. They don't weigh nearly as much as physical gold. And they pay interest. And if the US ever defaults on them, then all the gold in the world won't do you any good.. You'll be trying to give it all away in exchange for weapons, food, ammo, and fuel.. Hawk