Duck Duck Goose is more than right. After ask someone about Argentina and if they know it exist they will answer: Tango, Gardel, Gauchos and Maradona.
…is two out of four okay?
When I see the term “cowboy” used referring to the U.S., it almost always is in the context of someone that would rather settle something with a gun than by talking about it. Reading the article about Dave Hughes, there is nothing about him being a gunslinger. I am just going to presume that the inner-city kids are not given guns to wear. There is a big difference between someone saying “Ah, Americans, Coke, Jazz, Cowboys, Michael Jackson” and saying “All Americans act like cowboys.”
It seems pretty obvious to me that FranticMad got it right - he meant to say that 64% of the world’s oil come from the Middle East. A 84-year-old man misspoke and you should cut him some slack.
Yes, the U.S. has committed atrocities. Comparing atrocities is like discussing whether you’d rather be hit by a train or a bus.
That makes sense ** chula **.
That’s classic sig material if I’ve ever seen it.
And you, Estilicon, are the definition of an idiot who conflates argument and insult. International politics is not like one big happy family, where people can fuck with you but it’s okay because “they’re blood.” Someone who actively opposes you may or may not be a “moral coward,” but they are certainly not acting like your ally! And claiming that recent French actions are somehow more “moral” is ridiculous, given the salient points presented here
Of course they have the right. And we have the right to react to that. What rubs me the wrong way is French moralizing to the U.S. (and I am WELL aware that American leaders have done plenty of moralizing themselves) not to be some “big bully,” etc. I wonder if the citizens of Haiti, Algeria, Mexico, or Vietnam think the French are the big democratic soft-shoe act they seem to think WE should be! The sheer hypocrisy of the French government is simply amazing.
And don’t forget the alleged attrocities in Afghanistan. From Ted Rall
Some exerpts.
“According to eyewitnesses, U.S. Special Forces supervised–some say orchestrated–the systematic murder of more than 3,000 captured Taliban soldiers in November 2001. That charge is the centerpiece of a documentary film, “Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death,” expected to be released in the United States within the next few weeks.”…
…8,000 more soldiers surrendered at Kunduz, the last Taliban redoubt in northern Afghanistan. Commanders loyal to General Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord who later became Hamid Karzai’s deputy defense minister, had painstakingly negotiated the surrender of the Taliban from Kunduz and Qala-i-Jhangi…
In the end, Dostum guaranteed the lives of all 8,000-plus POWs. “Both British and American military officers were present” at the surrender deal…
…Although the Americans have been portrayed as tagging along with the Northern Alliance, Afghan forces followed their orders. U.S. troops were in de facto command of joint U.S.-Afghan operations, including Dostum’s actions in the north…
Five thousand of the 8,000 prisoners made the trip to Sheberghan prison in the backs of open-air Soviet-era pick-up trucks. But Dostum’s soldiers, furious about the Qala-i-Jhangi uprising and a Taliban ambush during the siege of Kunduz, were out for vengeance. They stopped and commandeered private container trucks to transport the other 3,000 prisoners. “It was awful,” Irfan Azgar Ali, a survivor of the trip, told England’s Guardian newspaper. “They crammed us into sealed shipping containers. We had no water for 20 hours. We banged on the side of the container. There was no air and it was very hot. There were 300 of us in my container. By the time we arrived in Sheberghan, only ten of us were alive.”…
…One Afghan trucker, forced to drive one such container, says that the prisoners began to beg for air. Northern Alliance commanders “told us to stop the trucks, and we came down. After that, they shot into the containers [to make air holes]. Blood came pouring out. They were screaming inside.” Another driver in the convoy estimates that an average of 150 to 160 people died in each container…
…“Everything was under the control of the American commanders,” a Northern Alliance soldier tells Doran in the film. American troops searched the bodies for Al Qaeda identification cards. But, says another driver, “Some of [the prisoners] were alive. They were shot” while “maybe 30 or 40” American soldiers watched…
…But even General Dostum admits 200 such deaths. And the Northern Alliance soldier quoted above says U.S. troops masterminded the cover-up": “The Americans told the Sheberghan people to get rid of them [the bodies] before satellite pictures could be taken.”…
Fun stuff.
Plus we torture prisoners, kill american citizens without even show-trials, contemplate war that will kill hundreds of thousands of elderly, sick, and juvenile Iraqis, undermine democracy in South America, and support brutal dictatorships that in turn support Al-Queda. I could go on and on and on.
Fun stuff.
I’ve given it a bit more thought and decided I was completely wrong. No one should harm a hair on this old gentlemans head.
It’s a shame Mr. Mandella isn’t a citizen of the USA. If he were, he could run for President (as a far more viable candidate than the rest of the DNC rabble) and give Al Sharpton some real competition to boot. Can you spell ENTERTAINMENT?
Now, that would be a race!
Lizard, my little Lizard. Countries have interests. Allies usually share lots of interest but not all.
In this case France and Germany opposes your war against Irak, so does the rest of the world, a few bitches like Blair want to invade also but not the population of the countries they are suppose to represent (as in a democracy).
I didn’t open your link. I don’t need to. Of course Germany and France have an ulterior motive. Both of them are using this chance to improve their control of the E.U. But whatever the reasons of Chirach and Schroeder (I hope I got it right), the fact is by oposing the war they are following the wishes of the people of their country.
They are also fucking you. Welcome to world of Realpolitiks. If it is to tough for you then perhaps you should move to Switzerland (those swiss haven’t been screwing other countries at least in the last decades). Or you could elect next time a leader that is not going to invade another country because:
- He couldn’t get Osama.
- Oil.
- Boost his popularity.
- Show he is a tough boy.
- He can do it.
- He can’t do anything else to justify his paycheck.
- He hates Saddam (He tried to kill his Da).
- Irak is no North Korea.
- Irak is no Iran.
- Irak (population 16 million) is Eviiiillll.
Well, if you are claiming that you did not characterize the defeat of North Korea’s invasion of South Korea as “US vs Korea”, I suggest you contact the mods and see who is posting under your user name.
I characterized your post as “idiotic”. I stand by that.
Regards,
Shodan