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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (106022)	1/2/2010 9:47:10 PM
From: Hawkmoon	4 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Mish, I can respect your opinion on so many things, but you are SO VERY WRONG on this issue and it saddens me that so many people like yourself can't fully grasp what's going on. The reality is that we're seeing a CIVIL WAR between the forces of moderation and progress and religious fanaticism/militancy. And the secular forces, due to their own corruption and lack of legal/political accountability, are losing the battle to the fundamentalists/Jihadists. Message 26213821 siliconinvestor.com I really feel you need to dedicate some time to researching the history of Islamic Militancy before you make any more of these kinds of posts. This is far too serious a challenge to be "pooh-poohed". Then maybe you'll understand that we're not talking about merely an economic struggle over resources, or philosophy. This is religious fanaticism and it's filling a gap left by the failure of economic and social progress in the Muslim world. MEMRI is a GREAT site for viewing the Jihadist proclamations of these militants in their own language (with translation): memri.org And Palestinian Watch is good to watch because Hamas represents many of the fundamental values of the Muslim Brotherhood (which is the basis of the Islamist Militant movement): palwatch.org palwatch.org It's all there for you to see. They don't hide their agenda, nor their belief that this is not just a "defensive war" but a global Jihad of religious conquest and that they feel entirely justified in killing non-Muslims. Watch this British Mullah and you'll soon see the kind of crap that these militant Muslims are spewing as religious belief: youtube.com And when you see how they are brainwashing the children that fall under their control, it's evident this is not going to go away anytime soon, nor does it truly have anything to do with our presence in the region. This is an internal issue within Islam, but it has external consequences for the entire world. And btw, I strongly support moderate forces within Islam and the Muslim world. We still have a majority of Muslims who are peaceful and moderate, but they need our support. I'm not anti-muslim. I'm opposed to religious militancy in all forms. No Supreme Being worthy of worship would want us to force others by force to believe a certain way. That said, I can agree to some extent that we have troops in far too many countries and we've subsidized the security of too many of our allies in the process. But we've also helped to insure regional stability and that's had a global economic benefit. Hawk

To: mishedlo who wrote (106022)	1/3/2010 12:50:42 AM
From: Skeeter Bug	1 Recommendation Respond to of 116555

hi mish, imagine how many of those private contractor public dollars make it back into the private campaigns and personal pockets of our mercenary government critters... and then there is congressional investment in war... projectcensored.org

To: mishedlo who wrote (106022)	1/3/2010 1:25:23 AM
From: roguedolphin	2 Recommendations Respond to of 116555

Great post..... ...War is a RACKET. ratical.com And the racketeers won't let go... ...until????

To: mishedlo who wrote (106022)	1/3/2010 2:16:12 AM
From: marcher	1 Recommendation Respond to of 116555

"...KBR must have 4 civilians for every military member. There are a few American contractors...Philippine nationals are everywhere. I'm sure they get paid peanuts so the KBR shareholders get their return..." BP suggests that KBR, an American company, takes U.S. taxpayer money and hires foreign workers. Such a deal! -ng- "...In March 2008, the Boston Globe reported that KBR had avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in the tax haven of the Cayman Islands. More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies, Service Employers International Inc., and Overseas Administrative Services, which exist on the island only in computer files in an office..." en.wikipedia.org

To: mishedlo who wrote (106022)	1/3/2010 1:14:32 PM
From: skinowski	5 Recommendations Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 116555

Mish, I participate in an email circular where your posts get a lot of attention, from time to time. This last one, not unexpectedly, brought up some disagreements. I would like to post here (with author's permission) some comments critical of your views. I think some of the insights are most interesting. Some of the language may be rather direct, but I'm sure it was written with constructive intentions - otherwise, I wouldn't bring it here. ................. ................. I disagree, and I'm not an Islamophobe. I've worked closely with the Pakistani military in Pakistan. I have also spent a good amount of time in Kosovo, helping Kosovar Albanians (Muslims) against Serbian Christians. And I've read a good bit of their book. Nor am I a war-monger. I support military action under some circumstances, but I've put my hindquarters where my mouth is. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Shedlock's perspective is completely nonsensical. I'd use a more pungent descriptor, but that would be impolite. What Shedlock is advocating is no more than a projection of his own policy preferences. Same for Michael Scheuer (and Pat Buchanan). Is it really logical to believe that Muslim extremists hate us because we have troops in Germany and Japan? Please. By and large, the reason the extremists are willing to waste their lives to take ours is that the US is an easy symbol for everything that enrages them. We are, in a very real sense, the epitome of the West. If it weren't us, they'd have to find someone else to hate. The real reasons behind their hatred are internal. But, as every teenager can tell you, it's easier to blame someone else than it is to deal with your own problems. Islam pitches itself as the successor to the two earlier Middle Eastern revealed religions. But for the past five hundred years or so it has failed to deliver the goods--political, social and (most importantly) material benefits in the here-and-now. The story of Islam since at least the Reconquista has been one of stagnation, internal decay, collapse, and withdrawal. Meanwhile, the formerly backward Western countries of the Dal al-Harb are leaving them in the dust in every metric. The governments in the Middle East, with one exception, are all oppressive and intolerant (as are the governments of most, but not all, of the Muslim countries). The model for authoritarian governments is to allow a certain degree of economic freedom in exchange for quiet on the political front. But the governments in the Middle East can't afford to buy off their people any longer. The contrast between the promises of Islam and the present political and material reality creates a lot of cognitive dissonance, particularly in certain affluent and educated types. The same sort of folks who have always provided the leadership for revolutions and insurgencies. Extremist Muslims (Salafists and Takfiris as the most virulent examples) tell themselves that, if only they could follow Muhammad's guidance more closely, things would be different. But it's tough to live by the letter of a law set down in the Seventh Century when you're surrounded by a modern world full of unveiled women, Scotch whisky, and iPods. Maybe the most self-disciplined can manage it, barely, but most people simply aren't going to forego basic pleasures now in the hope that they might get a better reward later. Faced with the fact that they can't persuade their compatriots to toe the line, and that they can't kill enough of them to force them to do so, the extremists need an external target. If only they could destroy the source of the temptation, then things would be different... That's why they hate us. Shedlock's prescription is far more likely to encourage extremist behavior than to discourage it. Put slightly differently, if there's any lesson to be learned from the world, it's that prey behavior encourages predation.