The Terrorist U.S.A.

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oilgun:

--- Quote from: milomorris on June 05, 2013, 12:10:04 am ---1. Iran is a tangent in this discussion. I still don't know what it is you were trying to say with regard to that graphic, and you posted it without any explanation. Depending on one's perspective, a viewer could easily come away with the message that Iran has been lucky that it has not needed to deploy bombings to defend itself against their enemies, while the US has had to deal with aggression from a wide variety of nations. Or that Iran has lost most (or all) of its armed conflicts, while the US has won most of theirs. Or that Iran's enemies were easily neutralized without bombing, while the enemies of the US required tougher military action. There are many ways to look at the graphic.

2. Drones are a superior fighting technology. They enable the US to neutralize enemies without putting the fine men and women of our armed forces in harm's way. Drones are also great tools that we use for dangerous surveillance, and intelligence-gathering operations.

3. You have offered your own, personal, standard of what constitutes terrorism, and I have offered a rebuttal. Now you accuse the US of committing war crimes with the drones. There are standards for war crimes which are based on law. Can you map any specific drone strikes to breaches of those laws? Or is that just another one of your gut feelings, or opinions?

--- End quote ---

I thought that grarphic spoke for itself. Iran, which is being demonized, has no history of invading other states, while the USA, the self-appointed world police, has a history of illegally invading and attacking a slew of other countries. Yet somehow, Iran is the evil monster?

oilgun:

--- Quote from: milomorris on June 05, 2013, 12:10:04 am ---1. Iran is a tangent in this discussion. I still don't know what it is you were trying to say with regard to that graphic, and you posted it without any explanation. Depending on one's perspective, a viewer could easily come away with the message that Iran has been lucky that it has not needed to deploy bombings to defend itself against their enemies, while the US has had to deal with aggression from a wide variety of nations. Or that Iran has lost most (or all) of its armed conflicts, while the US has won most of theirs. Or that Iran's enemies were easily neutralized without bombing, while the enemies of the US required tougher military action. There are many ways to look at the graphic.

2. Drones are a superior fighting technology. They enable the US to neutralize enemies without putting the fine men and women of our armed forces in harm's way. Drones are also great tools that we use for dangerous surveillance, and intelligence-gathering operations.

3. You have offered your own, personal, standard of what constitutes terrorism, and I have offered a rebuttal. Now you accuse the US of committing war crimes with the drones. There are standards for war crimes which are based on law. Can you map any specific drone strikes to breaches of those laws? Or is that just another one of your gut feelings, or opinions?

--- End quote ---

Drones are superior technology if the goal is to encourage more 9/11 type of attacks on the USA. Drones are certainly doing a good job at endangering American lives everywhere. Unfortunately you can probably look forward to more Boston style attacks thanks to your "superior technology".

oilgun:

--- Quote from: milomorris on June 05, 2013, 12:10:04 am ---1. Iran is a tangent in this discussion. I still don't know what it is you were trying to say with regard to that graphic, and you posted it without any explanation. Depending on one's perspective, a viewer could easily come away with the message that Iran has been lucky that it has not needed to deploy bombings to defend itself against their enemies, while the US has had to deal with aggression from a wide variety of nations. Or that Iran has lost most (or all) of its armed conflicts, while the US has won most of theirs. Or that Iran's enemies were easily neutralized without bombing, while the enemies of the US required tougher military action. There are many ways to look at the graphic.

2. Drones are a superior fighting technology. They enable the US to neutralize enemies without putting the fine men and women of our armed forces in harm's way. Drones are also great tools that we use for dangerous surveillance, and intelligence-gathering operations.

3. You have offered your own, personal, standard of what constitutes terrorism, and I have offered a rebuttal. Now you accuse the US of committing war crimes with the drones. There are standards for war crimes which are based on law. Can you map any specific drone strikes to breaches of those laws? Or is that just another one of your gut feelings, or opinions?

--- End quote ---

Oh and btw, it's not my "own, personal, standard of what constitutes terrorism", I just agree with one of the definitions in the Encyclopedia Britannica. You make it sound like my view is on the fringe. It may well be on the fringe in "America" but most of you are blinded by fear and paranoia. People on the outside can clearly see the war-mongering country the US has become. Your military-industrial complex is just itching for another war. You invested so much in it that you have to keep them busy, that's why the "War on Terror" was designed to never end. Don't get me wrong, I love Americans, even (some of) the religious ones, and NYC is probably my favourite city in the world and I even love Buffalo, I had a wonderful time there, its gay scene is probably the friendliest. Anyway, it's your administration(s) I can't stand.

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: oilgun on June 05, 2013, 09:54:01 pm ---It may well be on the fringe in "America" but most of you are blinded by fear and paranoia.
--- End quote ---

The "most of you" is based on your own personal assumptions, I take it?

--- Quote --- People on the outside can clearly see the war-mongering country the US has become. Your military-industrial complex is just itching for another war. You invested so much in it that you have to keep them busy, that's why the "War on Terror" was designed to never end. Don't get me wrong, I love Americans, even (some of) the religious ones, and NYC is probably my favourite city in the world and I even love Buffalo, I had a wonderful time there, its gay scene is probably the friendliest. Anyway, it's your administration(s) I can't stand.
--- End quote ---

Nice to get the compliments, but they're at odds with your sweeping generalization above. My views are, admittedly, not exactly politically centrist. But I basically agree with you and I'm hardly a member of some fringey subversive minority. I'm a middle-class, middle-aged, mother of two who lives in a mid-sized Midwestern city and writes for a mainstream media organization.

As for us having "invested so much we have to keep them busy," I'm sure that's not what's going through the heads of anybody outside the departments themselves, or at least the government. I like to believe that many of us, if we were fully informed, would rather have the money back to divert to more constructive projects, or even to keep for ourselves.

Americans aren't constantly paranoid or rabidly hawkish, they're just underinformed. Too many of us (not the majority, let's hope, but who knows what percentage) would be clicking over to People or TMZ at this point to see what those krazy Kardashians are up to. And some of us are brainwashed by right-wingers to think their biggest tax problem is lazy poor people living on the dole, rather than rich people and the military, um, living on the dole.

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