Paul M Foster wrote:
> Religion != language.
I meant "language" in my statement, not religion.
> If people want to speak Farsi or French, fine. But I want my road
> signs, my schools, and my ballots in English.
Which is very Anglo-American of you.
> I musta missed that article in the paper.
Yeah, you did. Any and all French and Chinese military hardware is
for sale. They are also involved with harboring many factions.
> I musta missed that article, too.
Yeah. You wouldn't believe the technology exchange from the Chinese
to both Iran and Afganistan. And thanx to the Clinton
administration and Loral, the Chinese have some pretty good stuff
now.
> _International_ terrorism.
Yes, _international_ terrorism.
> C'mon. His family and friends can't be _that_ unaware.
Again, they might "turn his name in," but most don't ever see them
again. If they don't see him, they cannot physically turn him in.
> Great. So Arabs generally rebuke those of their number who join
> terrorist cells.
Yes!
> Do they bother to also turn them in to the authorities?
Yes! If they know about their whereabouts!
> Wow. We harbor terrorists? You'll do us all a big favor by turning them
> in to the authorities. Of give me their names. I'll turn 'em in.
Yes! The problem is, we don't know where they are. Again, you're
continuing to miss my point.
> Better how?
By not targetting civilians in many of their actions.
> Well, I can't argue that.
Damn straight!
> The Israelis did capture or were given a plot of formerly Arab land.
How could they "capture" it when they didn't even exist???
> My view: Arabs, it's been decades; get over it.
I'm talking about the Palestinians.
> Or be prepared to wipe Israeli off the face of the earth.
They already tried that and failed. They gave up in the mid-70s.
The only thing that happens anymore is select political actions,
trying to get others to rally against them. E.g., the Iraqi attacks
in 1991. I personally couldn't believe the Israelis didn't
retaliate. That was a first!
> If you really hate them and want them gone, remove them.
> You've got plenty enough firepower in the whole of the Arab
> countries to commit genocide on the Israelis.
Er, maybe you need a _history_lesson_???
> And yet, they haven't done it.
They have tried over and over. On one day, the Israeli Air Force
shot down 400 Arab aircraft in a major slaughter. There have been
air engagements where the Israelis have shot down 40-to-0. The Arab
states just cannot get any air superiority at all, and that's why
they lose.
Again, they "gave up" in the mid-70s. Plus the Israelis have
nukes. That's the ultimate defense. You may think that Arabs are
all about the holy jihad and about dying trying to kill Jews, but
it's nothing of the sort. Their great majority of their leaders are
genuinely concerned about their people.
> This is part of the reason that I'm pretty sure that Israel really
> has little to do with this.
I never said they did for some things. But if you want to know why
the Palestinians hate them, now you know! And they are used by the
Arabs in this political battle as well.
> Israel's just a convenient foe.
That commits acts we rebuke others on.
> If not for Israel, they would find something else to fight over.
There is more fighting between Arab states than anything with
Israel. But the problems Israel creates for themselves, whether 50
years ago, or today, still occurs in many cases.
> Duh. That's where Israel's holy stuff is too. Where else would you put
> them? Canada?
Anywhere but there dude! Heck, they screwed up the creation of
various European states after WWII, it would have probably been
better to create a Jewish one where there was already a heavy Jewish
populous in Europe.
Instead, the British decided to have the Crusades all over again and
plunked them in Palestine, uprooting the native population.
> Think again. Illiteracy in this country is far far more than 4%.
Well, that was from the 1995 data.
> Okay okay okay okay. All Arabs are not terrorists. All Arab countries do
> not support terrorism. And, being pessimistic, let's say that only 0.1%
> of the population in Arab countries are actually terrorists.
I'd say more like 0.001%. 0.1% might "sympathized" with certain
factions.
> And let's say that the people who know of and ignore or protect these
> people and activities comprise another 0.9%. So let's say that 1% of
> the population of Arab countries is either involved in terrorism or
> condones/allows it. What is your point? Yes, I blame these people. No,
> I don't blame all Arabs. Again, what is your point? Should we all hold
> hands and sing Kumbaya?
Were you or were you not the person why said "precentages don't
matter" given the circumstances???
As far as playing the pacifist role, I agree 100% with our countries
current policy. The problem is that ignorant fucks like yourself
just fail to realize the whole facts and realities of the
situation. This, in turn, hurts our foreign policy. I mean, do you
really blame foreigners for thinking what they do about America???
God if I watched the US media and was an Arab, I'd draw all kinds of
conclusions. It still amazes me that they are still so peace loving
despite our arrogance.
> _THERE'S_ the root of the problem, right there. You can't do anything
> about other people, so you simply have to let them do whatever they
> like, unhindered.
> This is utter, complete and total nonsense. Dangerous nonsense. It's the
> reason why this country is in the moral and ethical decline it's been in
> for the last 50-100 years.
So what do you do? Talk about "family values"???
I'm not condoning we put more financial criminals, let alone ethical
ones, in the White House, but you can't regulate this sort of
stuff. But what you can do is stop taxing people to death and
giving handsouts so we can get back to only one parent working.
> Let me say this again ... cut ...
In the case of the Taliban, I agree. But don't start socking it to
the Arab populous because of the Taliban.
> As a society, we have lost the ability to enforce our rules on the
> people around us. We worry about people's "self-esteem" while evil
> people break, bend and shatter the rules that make a decent society.
Tell me about it. At the same time, we are so "tough on crime" we
are putting people in jail that shouldn't be.
> As a result, we've given over the power to enforce our rules to the
> government, which is at the mercy of whatever whim the reigning
> political party invents.
Now I'm really failing to realize the point you are trying to make.
> Don't believe me? Check history. It's littered with the corpses of
> countless empires, civilizations and societies which are no longer with
> us because the ethical heart of those entities died as their populations
> looked on, unwilling to stop the destruction from the inside.
And the problem is that the majority of our populous now votes for
personal gain. We are in a detrimental cycle. Revolution is on the
horizon. I can only hope it is bloodless. So far, the American
taxpayer hasn't given me an inclination to think otherwise.
-- TheBS
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org chat:thebs413 Engineer AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc. http://www.linux-wlan.org President SmithConcepts, Inc. http://www.SmithConcepts.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ Those living in the US who consider the American flag to be a sym- bol of oppression obviously fail to understand what the word means
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