Let's Count the Defense Agreements the US Is obligated to honor.
And then ask why there is both a blackout on details of Big Oil's Security within Iraq to Defend the Pumping & Transport of Oil AND How big a problem it will be to lose the 3 Million barrels of oil per year(?) with no support from Congress or the President in reducing the price of Gasoline & Diesel?
US is defending:
- Saudi Arabia
- Israel
- Jordan?
- Egypt
- Turkey
- NATO (Europe)
- Estonia/Poland
- Romania/Bulgaria
- Czech Republic
- Ukraine
- Greece/Croatia/Serbia
Big Oil always plans it own security, but could this be a "Bailout" for Non-US Oil Corporations as well as the Iraqis.
I don't understand the answers well enough to say what to do in Iraq.
I would only like to remind you to keep your eye on the ball. Liberty-minded people in this country come in all manner of race, creed and religious persuasion.
And I would remind you Uncle Remus that its not Christians who are butchering their way across Africa and the Middle East right now.
If you profess liberty as it is here (or once was) I suggest you go find a rooftop in Saudi Arabia or Syria or Chad or Sudan and shout it out at the top of your lungs.
///////
Someone (besides Uncle Remus) believes they could do that and escape arrest or even worse in the above mentioned countries?
I'm all ears...shout!
///////
Come on now, its not like you're really on that rooftop in a different country, this is ZH, you can explain it to me without losing your life ;-)
One need not to leave the US to be arrested for vocalizing liberty. That is the point. Mans inhumanity towards his fellow man, in particular in the name of one mythology or another, is as old as the species and those who commit them will have to answer for their sins on Judgement Day.
But it is our country, our home, our liberty that is in jeopardy. Abominations peddled as the new normal, the fabric of our society ripped apart by amoral charlatans, cheered by sycophants and worshiped by the self-loathing. This is not what the idea of America is - no that idea makes one a domestic terrorist.
Clearly I've touched a nerve here. Yes, mans inhumanity towards his fellow man, yes indeed.
And how does this relate to Christians again? But perhaps that was your point.
Whether its Al-Shabab in Kenya or ISIS in Iraq & Syria or Boko Haram in Nigeria, there is no getting around the fact these are not Christian organizations. And as has been pointed out numerous times, Marxists atheists have slaughtered (and continue to slaughter) tens of millions through policy & deed.
But their god is the state (and the attempt to set one up) which is really what we're talking about here.
nmewn manages another in a long line of face plants.
Who is the agressor in the world right now? Who is over there stiring things up? Finally, helping who connect the dots, Who is primarily a bunch of Christians??
While you're beating your chest about Christian good, Muslim bad, reflect on the fact that America and it's mainly Christian Zato vassal states, waged war against Islam for a long time now. Doing a lot of butchering. ISIS has a long way to go to catch up. Then again, it's the Christian USA that's involved in arming, training and unleashing ISIS.
The world's a little more complex than your duality.
Skip the labels and just say, "I've seen more persecution by those wanting to enforce their ideals on others than I've ever seen from critical thinking people who are able to entertain an idea without believing in it."...and you're point will be taken.
Athiesm has also been used in the same way as religion as an excuse for war. Many 20th century wars had nothing to do with religion at all (eg. Nazi's and social darwinism). From the foundational level, man's pride and greed are far more important factors for why wars occur. Bottom line - if someone says they follow God, doesn't necessarily mean God endorses what that man does.
An atheist is not going to kill someone because that person does not believe in God; the communists, for instance, killed theists because theists represented a threat to communism, not a threat to atheism.
The Great Leap ended in catastrophe, resulting in tens of millions of deaths.[3] Estimates of the death toll range from 18 million[4] to 45 million,[5] with estimates by demographic specialists ranging from 18 million to 32.5 million.[4]
But that's not religious persecution. It was a policy blunder, a disaster caused by gloss ignorance of senior leaders.
And for the sake of argument, given the atrocities committed religious fanatics over the past 3 millenniums (that include Christians, Catholics, Muslims etc), it wouldn't be a bad once-for-all solution to end perpetual conflicts by eradicating all religions from the world.
Uncle Remus, do you have some personal experience with this? I, myself, do not but I do have a Persian friend who has experienced it and tells me regularly of religious and abuse against Iranian women all the time. One of her friends was beaten so badly she is in a wheel chair for marching for woman's rights. I have Chaldean friends in this country that have relayed many horrendous stories. I don't think many Americans can remotely relate what these people have experienced. We are fortunate to live in a country to have been founded on Christian values.
The foreign policy of this country is certainly not based on Christianity. These wars are to maintain power of the elites. That this Christian based country is conducting such wars means we are Christian in name only. This is a tragedy because, as Christians, we should have stopped this. I carry the blame as everyone else. However, wars in the ME are religious in nature and they don't hide this fact. We are exacerbating this by our actions. I'm not sure if this is purposeful or ignorance.
I do not wish to live under Sharia Law. I do not wish to wear a burka or be subject to beatings by my husband because Islam states this is within his rights. I would not do well under this type of subjugation and would probably be killed if it ever were to happen in the USA. Where does human rights figure into religious freedom? Islam's record of human abuse in the name of Allah is though out history. Christians are by no means perfect but as a woman I would prefer to live as one.
I think Mao is usually said to be the Worst with 50 Million or more Chinese Subjects killed due to either bad policy that resulting in starvation or out and out killing them as a solution to revolution or lack of resources.
A) I don't think you could stop your government from the Afghanistan or Iraqi war
B) We don't live in a DEMOCRACY, we don't vote on war, the funding on war, the use of torture, rendition, making people disappearance without a trace, use of land mines in third countries, use of defoliant or uranium in munitions
C) We don't get to vote on the War Data the US Government captures, loss to culture, loss of businesses/Economy, killed civilians/injury of civilians, number of refugees, rapes & disease that result
D) We have a Republic form of Government in a mixed economy with social programs such as unemployment, SNAP, WIC, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security for Retirement
We have to REVISION government when money clearly has taken over all three branches of government AND we spend $900 Billion dollars on MIC, Security, Influence around the world, AND have this marriage between Corporation & Government that seems to be a twist of Fascism.
USA:
- Fascism
- Socialism
- Democracy
- Right & Left Extremist Ideology
- Corporatocracy
- Oligarchy
- Patriarchy, hubris, Ego, Spin, No Responsibility Or Accounting for actions of organizations
- Diversion from 1970 Economics, budgeting, currency, Morality, Government Stewardship, and Even Accounting & Banking
- Politics is on Steroids, everything is steeped in Politics
The Kurds are "Sunni & Shia" too, though no one seems interested in forcing them into segregated religious ghettos. They also supported the occupation.
The Arabs didn't and got relentlessly carbombed and eventually cordoned off into smaller pieces for their 'safety'. They were also easier for the occupation to manage.
You can't have this cartoon without a backdoor opened and $US. flowing freely out of the average American taxpayer's pocket and dropped all over the enemies ....with a pipeline turning out cash that is filtered into the .01% and those dropping crumbs to the cronies that push the unemployed to be the Soldiers with Boots on the Ground dieing or crippled that all other Americans won't look at and will not support them....and have this a circle that goes Round and Round......
Face it ....it's really fucked up..................
aye, no cartoon pics of the Castle Embassy of Baghdad, proof the "US" was digging in for the long haul, though currently a possible surrendered fortress if the "ISIS" storyplot goes there.
for those who can't wait for the latest episode to play out, there's a map of intentions at the end of this article, seems plausible, for now. . .
thus I close with the immortal words of Winston Churchill..."never has so much...been spent on so few...with so little too show for it.
Class of 2014...ARISE!...PREPARE TO MEET YOUR MAGNIFICENT DESTINY!"
We should just burn it all down, I mean to show solidarity with those around the world we have oppressed and killed.
We should start with our own homes. I mean, after all, we only have what we have because we have oppressed the world. Its impossible to think we deserve anything we have. I mean really, we should just burn our homes to the ground if we are really pissed, if we really think we are wrong, evil and murderers. We should take any step possible to avoid looking hypocritical. We should live in the street and eat dirt, and maybe consider self immolation, just for good measure.
on the off-chance that your post is a "reply" to mine above,
I'll just say if you want to identify yourself with all that the named land mass "america" lends its history to, that's your choice.
personally, I don't call myself as being owned by any fictitious states, as I see them as imaginary narratives implanted in folks heads so as to inspire some kind of "loyalty" which inevitably includes funding an ever-expanding military. . . a military which pokes its uni-formed nose and hardware into other people's lands around the world, looking for a fight, and whatever resources it can "liberate".
We may not want to be associated with this land mass but I would suggest that if we live on it, we will likely suffer the same consequences of pretty much everyone else that does. I can understand the contempt one might have with the actions our leaders have undertaken in our name, but when their evil is attributed to "Americans" by "Americans", one can't but wonder how they see themselves. We are judged by whom we associate and sometimes we don't have the choices we hope for. I am surely not pleased with much of anything here, but I do not hate or disparage America. It is still my home. And I see little else in the world that can be judged morally superior. This game has been going on before recorded time, before America, before even Europe.
and yes, I agree this "game" predates us all, no need to support it, nor claim that history as your own. there are choices made daily, and at any time, we can withdraw our energy, put it to better use around us, in community and with those we care for, about.
First the locals were fighting eachother, but the presense of American puppeteers gave them a reason to unite and drive invaders/occupiers off the land. ISIS is a battle-hardened force, well trained, well supplied and familiar with the region that came directly out of failed attempt at regime change in Syria. They know who the real enemy is - the US. They don't kill indiscriminately - the cleanse Iraq of Western influence.
So yes, the cartoon has it exactly backwards. If we didn't go into Iraq, they'd be fighting eachother for anohter 100 years. Now they've got real targets to pursue. Instead of beating the puppet, they're going straight for the hand.
Iraq never had a civil war before, and there'd never been a Sunni/Shia 'civil war' anywhere. The Baath party was mainly Shia and Iraqis were heavily intermarried.
It began in 2004 when the occupation reacted to the guerrilla war by trying to terrorize the Arab population into accepting their presence. To protect them from AQI of course. The Kurdish provinces were left alone. It gave the American media a much more palatable narrative for the ongoing violence in an election year, and AQI was also useful to try to infer that Iraq had something to do with 9/11.
Ten years gone and "sectarianism" is still used as the excuse for the violence, rather than the obscenely hopeless colonial policies.
The ME was fucked over in a never ending cycle by Arabs and Persians before anyone from the west got involved.
And maths, astronomy and medicine were developed long before the arabs got involved, and the latter mostly presided over smart people (eg Jews) in territory they conquered.
Thanks to our Psychopathic Politicians, Corporations with an insatiable appetite for "more" and a Military foaming at the mouth while infecting its hideous form of Democracy and Freedom onto sovereign countries, Americans are an endangered species traveling in most, if not all, foreign countries now.
Billions spent, over 5,000 US troops dead, and they're killing each other for some religious fanatical ideal with no possibility of a stable government forming any time in the future. I never thought these incompetents could top Benghazi Hillary's incredible irresponsibility before the whole group of them are leave office. This is so incomprehensibly stupid it is just hard to imagine how these people could even remotely be considered viable candidates for public office. I don't see how this complete incompetence is not grounds and proof of how unfit for duty all our esteemed fudgepacker in chief is.
Let me ask you sir...if i were to come and set your house ablaze, and left it to you to put it out. And you could not, and all was lost. All blame would fall to you.... and none to me. Correct?
The ISIL forces and ISIL aspirations for a new radical state comprises of the northern parts of Syria and Iraq are just another creation of the bloody Oligarchs through their agencies, Ciaiyee, M-l6... an adaptation for the Qatari gas pipeline to Europe (via Kuwait then Turkey) after being failed to topple down Assad. That's the essence behind all the farces!
This looks like SA going for all the marbles. Turkey is telling it's nationals to leave Basra. Basra is extreme southern Iraq??
ISIS is now or soon will be coming in from Kuait and or SA directly??
I think the Sunni Caliphate idea is about to get crushed under the counter attack. Syrian army is winning on their home turf. Syrian AF is already opperating in Iraq. IRG are already engaged in Iraq.
Cooperation between these states is growing. The Shia Cresent, from Iran to Lebanon integrates, becoming more powerful at the expense of some neighbors.
And now you know what a few of us have proclaimed for years: Given the primitive and cruel nature of so many of these people, and the pot - stirring by Saudi/Wahabist clergy, places like Iraq demand a tough autocrat like Saddam Hussein.
" Given the primitive and cruel nature of so many of these people,"
Your remark seems to infer that "these people" are somehow more barbaric than you, your freinds and neighbors, or I. If that is, in fact, what you are suggesting..........you are quite mistaken.
The cartoon sugguests that the US military has left or is leaving Iraq. Quite the opposite.
The US has not left Iraq and is not going to leave any time soon. It's easier to launch strikes against Iran and others in the M.E. with all those military bases in Iraq.
Besides, who's going to let go of free oil without a fight?
Forgot to show what it was like before we insatlled our puppet gov.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War#mediaviewer/File:OIF_fatalities_by...
US investment in Iraq.
4,487 Americans died in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Bankers won.
Halliburton too!!
PNAC. Criminals at large.
Of course they did.
Hard not to win when you can change the rules to suit yourself, at any time in the game.
How many Iraqi people died as a result of the sanctions
and in the aftermath of Operation Iraqi Freedom?
"We Think the Price Is Worth It"
http://youtu.be/RM0uvgHKZe8
You do know SH got where he got with help from the C I of A.
They forgot to change the slogan to CIA go home!
also, half the guys in #2 are CIA assets.
First f*%?!ers!
Damn, robbed!
No, you're still the first moron to publish...
"Gentlemen. You can't fight in here. This is the war room." - Dr Strangelove
Hindsight is 20/20.
Never should have gone there.
I think what was lacking was foresight, or at least an attempt at it.
Only reason to look back is to learn from your fuck up.
What difference, at this point, does it make? /sarc
We needed to spend the dollars.
Took me awhile to interpret this one
Was on the verge of requesting cartoon number 2
Same as it ever was, when the Romans packed up and left the English to the Scots.
"If you like your blue arse, you can keep your blue arse"
"I don't want you to break your windows for your country. I want to make the other son of a bitch break his windows for his country."
In defense of Barak:
Let's Count the Defense Agreements the US Is obligated to honor.
And then ask why there is both a blackout on details of Big Oil's Security within Iraq to Defend the Pumping & Transport of Oil AND How big a problem it will be to lose the 3 Million barrels of oil per year(?) with no support from Congress or the President in reducing the price of Gasoline & Diesel?
US is defending:
- Saudi Arabia
- Israel
- Jordan?
- Egypt
- Turkey
- NATO (Europe)
- Estonia/Poland
- Romania/Bulgaria
- Czech Republic
- Ukraine
- Greece/Croatia/Serbia
Big Oil always plans it own security, but could this be a "Bailout" for Non-US Oil Corporations as well as the Iraqis.
I don't understand the answers well enough to say what to do in Iraq.
Unfortunately (and it pains me to no end to say it) even an idiot squirrel (Biden) finds a nut every now & then.
It will be Kurds, Sunni and Shia within different borders...it will be split up. Then Turkey & Iran can unleash hell on the Kurds later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwmZ4_j872I
Don't worry.
The market will tell you how much they miss the oil...
I made a funny.
Sunni, Shia & Kurds...its like dropping a rat, a cat and a dog in a cardboard box.
And it's the Christians that toss in the M-80 at the subtle hint of that which one cannot be named.
Christians just trying to live their lives aren't doing so hot in Iraq (or eleswhere) where they are in the minority these days.
But, we're kinda used to it ;-)
Actually, no. I don't think you personally have the first clue about religious persecution my friend.
Personally, no. I don't believe in turning the other cheek and none of "my kind" are pacifists.
Is there something you want to get off your chest?
I would only like to remind you to keep your eye on the ball. Liberty-minded people in this country come in all manner of race, creed and religious persuasion.
And I would remind you Uncle Remus that its not Christians who are butchering their way across Africa and the Middle East right now.
If you profess liberty as it is here (or once was) I suggest you go find a rooftop in Saudi Arabia or Syria or Chad or Sudan and shout it out at the top of your lungs.
///////
Someone (besides Uncle Remus) believes they could do that and escape arrest or even worse in the above mentioned countries?
I'm all ears...shout!
///////
Come on now, its not like you're really on that rooftop in a different country, this is ZH, you can explain it to me without losing your life ;-)
One need not to leave the US to be arrested for vocalizing liberty. That is the point. Mans inhumanity towards his fellow man, in particular in the name of one mythology or another, is as old as the species and those who commit them will have to answer for their sins on Judgement Day.
But it is our country, our home, our liberty that is in jeopardy. Abominations peddled as the new normal, the fabric of our society ripped apart by amoral charlatans, cheered by sycophants and worshiped by the self-loathing. This is not what the idea of America is - no that idea makes one a domestic terrorist.
Clearly I've touched a nerve here. Yes, mans inhumanity towards his fellow man, yes indeed.
And how does this relate to Christians again? But perhaps that was your point.
Whether its Al-Shabab in Kenya or ISIS in Iraq & Syria or Boko Haram in Nigeria, there is no getting around the fact these are not Christian organizations. And as has been pointed out numerous times, Marxists atheists have slaughtered (and continue to slaughter) tens of millions through policy & deed.
But their god is the state (and the attempt to set one up) which is really what we're talking about here.
nmewn manages another in a long line of face plants.
Who is the agressor in the world right now? Who is over there stiring things up? Finally, helping who connect the dots, Who is primarily a bunch of Christians??
While you're beating your chest about Christian good, Muslim bad, reflect on the fact that America and it's mainly Christian Zato vassal states, waged war against Islam for a long time now. Doing a lot of butchering. ISIS has a long way to go to catch up. Then again, it's the Christian USA that's involved in arming, training and unleashing ISIS.
The world's a little more complex than your duality.
You might want to remove the 2X4 from your own eye before you comment on the need to remove the splinter from mine.
Quote
And I would remind you Uncle Remus that its not Christians who are butchering their way across Africa and the Middle East right now.
No, they don't limit themselves that much.
Look at history and get back to me.
Are we talking about people who claim to be Christians or actual Christians?
I think we're talking about people who see a cross on every nations flag, even when its not there.
Are we talking about people who claim to be Muslims or actual Muslims?
I've seen more religious persecution by atheists than I ever saw from Christians.
To the red, down voters, Stalin and Mao, for examples were aetheists.
Skip the labels and just say, "I've seen more persecution by those wanting to enforce their ideals on others than I've ever seen from critical thinking people who are able to entertain an idea without believing in it."...and you're point will be taken.
You're joking, of course.
I'm sure you realise that religion has caused, or been used as an excuse for, more and bloodier wars over the course of history than ANYTHING else.
By the way, just a question, where'd you see this religious persecution by atheists?
Athiesm has also been used in the same way as religion as an excuse for war. Many 20th century wars had nothing to do with religion at all (eg. Nazi's and social darwinism). From the foundational level, man's pride and greed are far more important factors for why wars occur. Bottom line - if someone says they follow God, doesn't necessarily mean God endorses what that man does.
Your analogy is bogus.
An atheist is not going to kill someone because that person does not believe in God; the communists, for instance, killed theists because theists represented a threat to communism, not a threat to atheism.
Democide seems to be the set that includes Atheists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide
Mao is supposed to have killed like 50 Million people for the revolution or because they ran out of resources due to policy.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/maos-great-le...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genocides_by_death_toll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward
The Great Leap ended in catastrophe, resulting in tens of millions of deaths.[3] Estimates of the death toll range from 18 million[4] to 45 million,[5] with estimates by demographic specialists ranging from 18 million to 32.5 million.[4]
But that's not religious persecution. It was a policy blunder, a disaster caused by gloss ignorance of senior leaders.
And for the sake of argument, given the atrocities committed religious fanatics over the past 3 millenniums (that include Christians, Catholics, Muslims etc), it wouldn't be a bad once-for-all solution to end perpetual conflicts by eradicating all religions from the world.
Uncle Remus, do you have some personal experience with this? I, myself, do not but I do have a Persian friend who has experienced it and tells me regularly of religious and abuse against Iranian women all the time. One of her friends was beaten so badly she is in a wheel chair for marching for woman's rights. I have Chaldean friends in this country that have relayed many horrendous stories. I don't think many Americans can remotely relate what these people have experienced. We are fortunate to live in a country to have been founded on Christian values.
The foreign policy of this country is certainly not based on Christianity. These wars are to maintain power of the elites. That this Christian based country is conducting such wars means we are Christian in name only. This is a tragedy because, as Christians, we should have stopped this. I carry the blame as everyone else. However, wars in the ME are religious in nature and they don't hide this fact. We are exacerbating this by our actions. I'm not sure if this is purposeful or ignorance.
I do not wish to live under Sharia Law. I do not wish to wear a burka or be subject to beatings by my husband because Islam states this is within his rights. I would not do well under this type of subjugation and would probably be killed if it ever were to happen in the USA. Where does human rights figure into religious freedom? Islam's record of human abuse in the name of Allah is though out history. Christians are by no means perfect but as a woman I would prefer to live as one.
Miffed;-)
Democide is talked about on the Internet.
Quite a large Topic, Death By Government.
I think Mao is usually said to be the Worst with 50 Million or more Chinese Subjects killed due to either bad policy that resulting in starvation or out and out killing them as a solution to revolution or lack of resources.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide
---------------
A) I don't think you could stop your government from the Afghanistan or Iraqi war
B) We don't live in a DEMOCRACY, we don't vote on war, the funding on war, the use of torture, rendition, making people disappearance without a trace, use of land mines in third countries, use of defoliant or uranium in munitions
C) We don't get to vote on the War Data the US Government captures, loss to culture, loss of businesses/Economy, killed civilians/injury of civilians, number of refugees, rapes & disease that result
D) We have a Republic form of Government in a mixed economy with social programs such as unemployment, SNAP, WIC, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security for Retirement
We have to REVISION government when money clearly has taken over all three branches of government AND we spend $900 Billion dollars on MIC, Security, Influence around the world, AND have this marriage between Corporation & Government that seems to be a twist of Fascism.
USA:
- Fascism
- Socialism
- Democracy
- Right & Left Extremist Ideology
- Corporatocracy
- Oligarchy
- Patriarchy, hubris, Ego, Spin, No Responsibility Or Accounting for actions of organizations
- Diversion from 1970 Economics, budgeting, currency, Morality, Government Stewardship, and Even Accounting & Banking
- Politics is on Steroids, everything is steeped in Politics
The Kurds are "Sunni & Shia" too, though no one seems interested in forcing them into segregated religious ghettos. They also supported the occupation.
The Arabs didn't and got relentlessly carbombed and eventually cordoned off into smaller pieces for their 'safety'. They were also easier for the occupation to manage.
You can't have this cartoon without a backdoor opened and $US. flowing freely out of the average American taxpayer's pocket and dropped all over the enemies ....with a pipeline turning out cash that is filtered into the .01% and those dropping crumbs to the cronies that push the unemployed to be the Soldiers with Boots on the Ground dieing or crippled that all other Americans won't look at and will not support them....and have this a circle that goes Round and Round......
Face it ....it's really fucked up..................
Typical neocon spin ... picturing U.S. occupiers as just good-natured, disinterested visitors, who promptly leave when asked.
Sort of like the Peace Corps, but with uniforms.
This is the standard schlock served up in the MSM, so that Americans can feel good about themselves after getting their fool asses whipped ... again.
aye, no cartoon pics of the Castle Embassy of Baghdad, proof the "US" was digging in for the long haul, though currently a possible surrendered fortress if the "ISIS" storyplot goes there.
for those who can't wait for the latest episode to play out, there's a map of intentions at the end of this article, seems plausible, for now. . .
thus I close with the immortal words of Winston Churchill..."never has so much...been spent on so few...with so little too show for it.
Class of 2014...ARISE!...PREPARE TO MEET YOUR MAGNIFICENT DESTINY!"
America truly sucks.
We should just burn it all down, I mean to show solidarity with those around the world we have oppressed and killed.
We should start with our own homes. I mean, after all, we only have what we have because we have oppressed the world. Its impossible to think we deserve anything we have. I mean really, we should just burn our homes to the ground if we are really pissed, if we really think we are wrong, evil and murderers. We should take any step possible to avoid looking hypocritical. We should live in the street and eat dirt, and maybe consider self immolation, just for good measure.
I mean after all, we are evil, are we not?
Would you prefer the pink slime hot dogs or the Kosher? I'll bring both.
on the off-chance that your post is a "reply" to mine above,
I'll just say if you want to identify yourself with all that the named land mass "america" lends its history to, that's your choice.
personally, I don't call myself as being owned by any fictitious states, as I see them as imaginary narratives implanted in folks heads so as to inspire some kind of "loyalty" which inevitably includes funding an ever-expanding military. . . a military which pokes its uni-formed nose and hardware into other people's lands around the world, looking for a fight, and whatever resources it can "liberate".
not in my name.
We may not want to be associated with this land mass but I would suggest that if we live on it, we will likely suffer the same consequences of pretty much everyone else that does. I can understand the contempt one might have with the actions our leaders have undertaken in our name, but when their evil is attributed to "Americans" by "Americans", one can't but wonder how they see themselves. We are judged by whom we associate and sometimes we don't have the choices we hope for. I am surely not pleased with much of anything here, but I do not hate or disparage America. It is still my home. And I see little else in the world that can be judged morally superior. This game has been going on before recorded time, before America, before even Europe.
I left you a couple of replies on previous thread, not sure you came back to it, but they would still serve as an answer here.
and yes, I agree this "game" predates us all, no need to support it, nor claim that history as your own. there are choices made daily, and at any time, we can withdraw our energy, put it to better use around us, in community and with those we care for, about.
So, you take no benefits from the "state" you live under?
Quite admirable ;-)
Most people, those who work for a living, pay way more to the state than they ever get back.
Is that a benefit??
you didn't build that state.
I think the cartoon is has it backwards.
First the locals were fighting eachother, but the presense of American puppeteers gave them a reason to unite and drive invaders/occupiers off the land. ISIS is a battle-hardened force, well trained, well supplied and familiar with the region that came directly out of failed attempt at regime change in Syria. They know who the real enemy is - the US. They don't kill indiscriminately - the cleanse Iraq of Western influence.
So yes, the cartoon has it exactly backwards. If we didn't go into Iraq, they'd be fighting eachother for anohter 100 years. Now they've got real targets to pursue. Instead of beating the puppet, they're going straight for the hand.
Iraq never had a civil war before, and there'd never been a Sunni/Shia 'civil war' anywhere. The Baath party was mainly Shia and Iraqis were heavily intermarried.
It began in 2004 when the occupation reacted to the guerrilla war by trying to terrorize the Arab population into accepting their presence. To protect them from AQI of course. The Kurdish provinces were left alone. It gave the American media a much more palatable narrative for the ongoing violence in an election year, and AQI was also useful to try to infer that Iraq had something to do with 9/11.
Ten years gone and "sectarianism" is still used as the excuse for the violence, rather than the obscenely hopeless colonial policies.
The Middle East was fucked over first in the '30s by British/American Petroleum.
The Middle East was fucked over second time by the Balfour Declaration.
The Middle East has been in the process of being fucked over for the third time since 9/11
Do just a small amount of reseach. It may take a few minutes before you see a pattern.
Just remember, if anyone asks what the A'rabs ever gave us, just say Math, Astronomy and Medicine.
The ME was fucked over in a never ending cycle by Arabs and Persians before anyone from the west got involved.
And maths, astronomy and medicine were developed long before the arabs got involved, and the latter mostly presided over smart people (eg Jews) in territory they conquered.
Obama is the enemy of the US, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Russia, Ukraine, China and their people. (condensed list)
Humanity.
FIFY
Thanks to our Psychopathic Politicians, Corporations with an insatiable appetite for "more" and a Military foaming at the mouth while infecting its hideous form of Democracy and Freedom onto sovereign countries, Americans are an endangered species traveling in most, if not all, foreign countries now.
Or in one video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-evIyrrjTTY
the title of this cartoon should be called 'power vaccum' and would be complete with a ghost silloutte of saddam houssein.
Billions spent, over 5,000 US troops dead, and they're killing each other for some religious fanatical ideal with no possibility of a stable government forming any time in the future. I never thought these incompetents could top Benghazi Hillary's incredible irresponsibility before the whole group of them are leave office. This is so incomprehensibly stupid it is just hard to imagine how these people could even remotely be considered viable candidates for public office. I don't see how this complete incompetence is not grounds and proof of how unfit for duty all our esteemed fudgepacker in chief is.
"... they're killing each other for some religious fanatical ideal ... "
You're the same kind of person who thinks that Catholics and Protestants are killing each other in Northern Ireland.
(Hint: Neither are religious wars.)
Let me ask you sir...if i were to come and set your house ablaze, and left it to you to put it out. And you could not, and all was lost. All blame would fall to you.... and none to me. Correct?
I wonder if Jihadi Joe is gonna try to sell oil for Euros?
Oh boy, here we go again.
Destroying a nation's government and leaving a power vacuum sometimes leads to civil war? Shocker.
Remind me who the good guys are again? I get soo confused..
There aren't any.
The ISIL forces and ISIL aspirations for a new radical state comprises of the northern parts of Syria and Iraq are just another creation of the bloody Oligarchs through their agencies, Ciaiyee, M-l6... an adaptation for the Qatari gas pipeline to Europe (via Kuwait then Turkey) after being failed to topple down Assad. That's the essence behind all the farces!
I agree. So how will it play out?
This looks like SA going for all the marbles. Turkey is telling it's nationals to leave Basra. Basra is extreme southern Iraq??
ISIS is now or soon will be coming in from Kuait and or SA directly??
I think the Sunni Caliphate idea is about to get crushed under the counter attack. Syrian army is winning on their home turf. Syrian AF is already opperating in Iraq. IRG are already engaged in Iraq.
Cooperation between these states is growing. The Shia Cresent, from Iran to Lebanon integrates, becoming more powerful at the expense of some neighbors.
And now you know what a few of us have proclaimed for years: Given the primitive and cruel nature of so many of these people, and the pot - stirring by Saudi/Wahabist clergy, places like Iraq demand a tough autocrat like Saddam Hussein.
" Given the primitive and cruel nature of so many of these people,"
Your remark seems to infer that "these people" are somehow more barbaric than you, your freinds and neighbors, or I. If that is, in fact, what you are suggesting..........you are quite mistaken.
The only thing that brings people together is a common enemy.
The only thing that will bring about world peace is an alien invasion.
Do you think an advanced alien civilization would allow mankind to pollute the galaxy?
The cartoon sugguests that the US military has left or is leaving Iraq. Quite the opposite.
The US has not left Iraq and is not going to leave any time soon. It's easier to launch strikes against Iran and others in the M.E. with all those military bases in Iraq.
Besides, who's going to let go of free oil without a fight?