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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (698488)	2/11/2013 8:03:10 PM
From: joseffy	2 Recommendations Respond to of 1573921

Bilow-- Alinsky would be proud of that post.

To: Bilow who wrote (698488)	2/11/2013 8:18:45 PM
From: jlallen	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573921

LOL!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! LOL!!! You do know that Iraq sits on the second largest oil reserve in the world, right......what do you think would happen if Iraq dominated the ME?? I think you owe less an apology.

To: Bilow who wrote (698488)	2/11/2013 9:59:22 PM
From: i-node	3 Recommendations Respond to of 1573921

That post was so full of leftist propaganda I wouldn't know where to start.

To: Bilow who wrote (698488)	2/11/2013 11:45:14 PM
From: one_less	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1573921

LOL!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! LOL!!! -- Wait, we are both talking about Iraq aren't we? This is a place where people live in mud houses and they're going to be a world military power? Just like the North Koreans I suppose. I've no clue where that laughter is coming from unless it is just igorance. The North Koreans don't have the wealth of the world beneath their feet and the strategic alliances of the Middle East, they are poor and Isolated. Iraq had a modern infrastructure, a developing military structure, global alliances and the financial resources to become a super power ... at least before the first gulf war. In modern times a country with wealth can modernize and compete Globally within one generation. Iran modernized from huts and tent dwellers to modern cities under the Shah, who was an ally to the US so he didn't think he needed a superpower military. Saudi went from nomadic tribesmen to become a consumer of modern life in short order, they also did not attempt to compete with superpower military. China is rapidly reforming and is becoming competitive militarily. Iraq under Saddam definitely had plans and the resources to do just that. The way the US wins the hearts and minds of people all over the world is business. It ain't our lefty goofball theories on democracy and it ain't our military. It's stuff like Microsoft (gag) and Coca-cola. That's what destroyed the Soviet Union, US economic power, not military power. You have a good point about the Business influence weilded by the USA. However, you are ignoring a very real aspect of history, which is the Soviet Union was held in check world wide by the presence of an overwhelming force (The USA) that stood in it's expansionist path... until it suffered economic collapse. I don't think the sanctions were working and I thought that the US should simply normalize relations with Saddam's Iraq. If it were as simple as that I would agree with you. Saddam was a power crazed heinously brutal dictator, who would never be satisfied with a normal US relationship. We both differ from Bush. We both agree the sanctions were a failure. I believe they were more than a failure, they had become an evil strategy of targeting innocents. Collateral damage (non-targeted innocents getting caught in the line of fire) is a far different thing. I don't know how you can even think of equating the two. Neither of us think Iraq was an immediate threat to the USA. I said so at the time, even though I believed (and still do) Saddam had a weapons program that would be super powered in time. My reasons for targeting him and his regime have already been stated, if I thought simply normalizing relations as a long term solution was do-able, I would have preferred that course.