Putin's Visit To Saudi Arabia - Hey, what's Going On Here?

1) Of course we lied our way into Iraq - What cave have you been living in for the last 20 years.
2) Indeed we supported Saddam - what does this have to do with killing hundreds of thousands of Iraq's, thousands of US Soldiers, and spending Trillions of dollars on a war based on lies ?

 

However, you may also be "patriotic" toward your own country, while recognizing globalization as the best means forward for peace and prosperity.

 

Not this **** again. Waterboarding is not torture. I'd waterboard ever damn one of them and put them on a strict diet of bacon sandwiches. **** those savages.

 

Nope. Globalization is destroying America

Wanna talk about what happened to the middle class? Globalization happened to it.

 

You are making up definitions on the fly ..

 

Waterboarding meets the definition of Torture - but, as I said - this was a relatively mild form of torture in comparison to other stuff that we engaged in. You know -- . the electric shock to the testicles kind.

 

Exactly.

Of the 13 enhanced interrogation techniques that have been declared to be politically incorrect, anyone who made it through Marine Corps boot camp before the military started to be used for social engineering very likely experienced 12 of the enhanced interrogation techniques.

Now if they went through Navy SERE training before the 1980's they experienced all 13 of the enhanced interrogation techniques because being waterboarded was part of Navy SERE training back in the day.

Waterboarding is considered to be torture because the person being waterboarded thinks he is being drowned when he isn't. It really ****s with your brain housing group.

 

Hurting the feelings of a snowflake meets a liberal's view of the definition of torture. I don't give a damn. If anyone wants to coddle terrorists they need to move to the M.E. and renounce their citizenship.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2340

 

Waterbording is a slap on the wrist for anyone involved in 9-11

 

How about electrical wires to the nutsack .. would that qualify as torture in your books ? - we did that too

 

How about the electrical wire to the nutsack .. are you all good with that as well ?

Somewhat agree - but then we need to get rid of most of Congress - they not only coddle terrorists - they arm and support them.

 

That's what shithole countries do.

Don't believe everything John Kerry lied about.

Mexican LE favorites are electrical shocks of the testicles and squirting Pepsi Cola up ones nose.

Never seen Congress getting all bent out of shape when Mexican cops torture American citizens.

Before WW ll America's reaction would have been a punitive action using U.S. Marines.

 

1) no idea what Kerry said
2) We engaged in that kind of torture via "extraordinary rendition" - on people who were innocent of terrorism.

 

In 1971 while being a useful idiot of the Kremlin, John Kerry stood before Congress and accused myself and 2.5 million other Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen that we personally "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam."

 

I would agree with you regarding some aspects of the way we practiced globalization. One of the largest problems is the lack of enforceable international standards, which allows for "regulation arbitrage" (moving money across borders to places more financially advantageous). Of course, enforceable international standards means giving up some portion of "national sovereignty," so there is a trade-off. One of the major reasons for the 2007-2009 recession was the deregulation we went through in order for our financial institutions to become more globally competitive.

 

Hmmm or everyone adopts our standard..

 

They largely did...in the post WW II era, when we led the way in creating international organizations. Whether or not we still have sufficient leverage (influence and power) to force our standards on the rest of the world is, today, doubtful. And, of course, retreating behind our own borders is not exactly the way to win friends and influence people.

 

That is getting off topic - somewhat. We did some nasty stuff in Vietnam - did some politicians embellish a bit for political gain ? Probably

We did engaged in torture by proxy after 911 - we rounded up people who had some conversation with someone who's Brother's sister knew something about a terrorist .. (now I am embellishing of course - intentionally so) - it was not far off that.

It is a fact though - that some of these people rounded up - were innocent of any significant links to terrorist groups- (and who gets to define what that is - when we don't even have a coherent definition for "terrorist" - but I digress) - but ended up being sent to folks like "Assad" - for "questioning".

That is Brutal ..

 

We did a lot of things out of convenience at the end of ww2 because we were an exhausted nation. Many of those were huge errors that lead to a lot of devastation. People largely foregave us, except in the middle east..
We need to build a reputation in the world by doing good.. we've done more good than anyone else already but we have things to atone for as well.

America should be a force for good, at home and in the world.

 

I agree...but I don't think we can do that by retreating behind our own borders and criticizing and betraying our allies.

 

We do that by standing up for what is right.
If criticism of our allies needs to take place is doing good. Germany for example needs to step up and start paying for it's own defense. That's fair and just criticism.

The only allies we have betrayed to my knowledge are the Kurds. Unless you want to go back as far as when we betrayed south Vietnam.

At any rate, its all water under the bridge at this point.
We need to do good first for Americans then for the world.

 

(Continued) ... I wanted to comment further on the sending of people to Assad.

If you wanted to send someone to be questioned by someone who has a proper definition of "terrorist" especially with respect to Islamist extremism - and the radical Saudi inspired Sunni Salafi extremist ideology - Assad is your guy.

Assad ruled over a country that was full of these extremists - representing a sizable % of the population. A Muslim Nation - a large percentage who are Sunni .. and a fair percentage of those who are Salafist extremists.

A nation that also has Christians and other religious sects .. The hard line Salafists hate these.. and want the country rid of them - during the protest movement (which was moderate in the beginning but then taken over by the Hard line Salafists) the Salafists were telling the Christians to either join the protest movement or "Leave the Country".

Christians Under Attack From Anti-Government Protesters in Syria

https://www.christianpost.com/news/...om-anti-government-protestors-in-syria-50104/

So .. Apacherat - What should Assad do with these Islamist extremists that are actively (and have been for decades) trying to undermine his Gov't - and who want Syria to become a Totalitarian Strict Sharia Islamist State Nightmare.

Yup - there are stories of Assad not treating these folks to well - and some of them are true - but, It wasn't like Assad was rounding up Christians and freedom loving people and torturing them.

Assad was rounding up the people (Islamist Extremists) who rounded up Christians and tortured them - and he didn't treat them very nicely.

This I can tell you ... Assad knows what an Islamist Extremist is better than almost anyone - so if you want someone to interrogate a suspected Extremist .. Assad is at the top of the list.

It is unfortunate that we sided with the Islamist extremists - in their goal to turn "Secular" Syria into a Saudi inspired - strict sharia totalitarian Islamic State nightmare.

There are many people (real Patriots in my books) - from the hallowed halls of power in Congress to average Joe - who share this sentiment.

 

NATO members agreed to reach the 2% of GDP for defense target by 2020, during the Obama administration at a NATO Summit meeting in Wales. The allocation of revenue, by any nation, is a matter of priorities and national interests. As an example, Germany was the leading EU power in the bail-out of Greece, which kept them from going into bankruptcy. Greece exceeds the 2% target, but made it only because of the EU bail-out. What got Greece into trouble? Double bookkeeping that let them hide the extent of their debt, in their reports to the EU, which was largely taught to them by Goldman Sachs consultants.
After WW II, we essentially took over the defense of the "free world." That allowed the war-torn countries to rebuild their economies without having to reinvest in their own defense costs, plus it allowed our own military-industrial complex to continue in the post-war era. As a result, we spend more on defense than the next ten countries, who spend the most on defense, combined.

 

You know before WW ll America was a nationalistic country, basically the vast majority of Americans were American-nationalist.

Also America was always isolationist and the United States never had an alliance treaty with any other country.
Look how the First World War became a world war. Every country had an alliance with some other country which sucked them into a war.

Before 1941 nobody would **** with an American citizen abroad knowing the response would be a U.S.Navy warship appearing off shore and a boat load if U.S.Marines coming ashore and conducting a punitive action response by breaking some things and breaking some bones.

Being an American citizen and having an American passport was the best insurance policy anyone could have when traveling abroad.

Back in 1904 Eden Pedecaris and her children were kidnapped by some Berbers in Morocco and President Theodore Roosevelt's response was to send a fleet of U.S.Navy warships to the Mediterranean and send in the Marines.

The kicker of the story would be that after Pedecaris were rescued it was found out that Eden Pedecaris wasn't an American citizen but a British subject.

But the rest of the world got the message.

 

Yup, but with corruption in DC. I trust the Pentagon and the military industrial complex more than i trust congress. Or the white White House, but that's another story altogether.

We need to stop spending on the defense of Europe, they and big kids now and can take care of themselves but they won't because we enable them not to.