Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (204942)	10/2/2006 10:26:10 AM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

We have utterly failed to provide leadership in the middle east, broadly defined. We failed to finish what we started in Afghanistan. We failed to be honest about the motivation to invade Iraq. We failed to be honest about the likely consequences of invading Iraq. We failed to secure Iraq and we failed to restore conditions for a functioning civil society in Iraq. We also failed to be even-handed in dealing with issues relating to Israel. The string of failures that are indeed directly within our own areas of responsibility have been nothing short of catastrophic for us -- and have only benefitted and nurtured terrorists, chaos and filled rivers of blood. If you can't look this mess square in the eye, it is doubtful you will have he stomach or the courage to commit to a new and more promising approach.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (204942)	10/2/2006 4:03:06 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hawk, it turns out that the terrorist who placed the bombs on the Rainbow Warrior and killed a photographer, [military people are especially brave in circumstances involving civilians and especially Greenpeace pansies and benign Kiwis whose police don't even carry guns], was Gerard Royal, brother of Segolene Royal, the socialist woman pretender to the throne of France. radionz.co.nz He was in the French military system at the time and was given that job to do, which he is no doubt quite proud of, having saved the Force du Frappe from the horrors of Greenpeace tootling around in their boat, objecting to nuclear bomb testing, while sending a terrorist message to the anti-nuclear losers in New Zealand, right there in their harbour. Two for the price of one. Now, that terrorist family is heading for control of France [the Presidency]. I can't remember the USA ANZUS agreement being much value = NZ had to have nuclear warships in a civilian port [I believe New York has limited nuclear warships in port for safety reasons so maybe that's why they were undefended on 911]. Britain, the USA and France all thought it a jolly good show that New Zealand found out what would happen if they didn't toe the line and obey the masters of the universe. With friends and allies like that, China soon started to look like a reasonable associate for trade and immigration. The "allies" offered no support in prosecuting France, which got away with it [though their reputation is dinged - Americans are resentful of Frenchy perfidy]. So your nuclear umbrella is useless when the chips are down. Which wasn't news of course. Of course the average Kiwi didn't think that it was a nice payment for having always supported the cause of freedom with LOTS of soldiers in opposition to totalitarians on the other side of the world. There are monuments everywhere to NZ dead in WWI, WWII, even the Boer War [those types were the instigators of apartheid - being one step off Nazi], Vietnam. Anyway, it's ironic that now the foaming at the mouth USA, which has WAT/WOT coming out their ears is going on and on about terrorism while it was no worry back then. "Jolly good show for the IRA. Hi Gerry! Welcome to the White House. Well done old boy [Mitterand/Hernu/Admiral Lacoste and co] - certainly put one up those uppity Kiwis." Will the USA put Gerard Royal on the list of terrorists? Anyway, I hope that she wins so I can continue to feel angry at the Frog-men. It's annoying to have to let criminals get away with things. Which is, I think, a good part of why the USA is getting so much blowback in Iraq. Putting boots on necks of people's Dads who were merely sitting in their houses is not the way to win friends and influence people. Going nuts and killing random people is a way to gain enemies too. People will pay back. It's utu in Maori. Old as the stone age. Iraq is full to the gunwales with it, with everyone killing everyone it seems, including medical specialists, who are normally the most benign and inoffensive of people. <I can suggest that were the US to withdraw its nuclear umbrella, the likelihood of a nuclear exchange between two regional states sometime within the next 20 years, becomes extremely likely. > Just who is the nuclear umbrella protecting? And it doesn't make any difference to people anyway. India and Pakistan were getting their nukes lined up ready to fire a while ago. MAD as heck they were. But they drew back from the brink. You won't stop them going at it because the USA has even more. Will the USA nuke China's military if China attacks Taiwan? I doubt it. I think the old story is still true, the USA will protect a third party if it's in their interests [oil, geopolitical military base, doing down a major opponent] and won't if it's not [Darfur, Falkland Islands, Suez Canal, New Zealand] and will even enter into civil wars if it's in the USA interests. That's about what everyone does, including NZ. Segolene Royal [about 53 years old] was 4th of 8 children, and estranged from her military father, who she didn't see during his dying process in the early 1980s. She has a bunch of children herself. Mqurice

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (204942)	10/5/2006 12:52:19 AM
From: GPS Info	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The reality is that the mideast is, in many ways, some 400 years behind the Western world… That is a critical insight. I strongly believe that our (the world’s) mindset lags well behind the technological progress that allows us to destroy ourselves. We currently have enough nuclear weapons to incinerate the world a few times over. Individuals have access to simple raw materials to blow up buildings: Timothy McVeigh and AQ. The access to evermore damaging weapons becomes easier and easier. In searching for this quote by Samuel Johnson, I see that it’s being used on the web in the same context that I want to use it here: "The prospect of being hanged in a fortnight concentrates the mind wonderfully.” Living in a MAD world, propelled the politics of the superpowers to find a modus vivendi that allowed a soft ending to the cold war. The bonfire of the vanities that is the ME may force a much more rapid evolution in their political mindsets. One can only hope. Sadly, I’m too cynical to believe that this will happen before the loss of thousands of more lives, as well as a few hundred billion dollars thrown to the wind.