Two Million

[JTP]

Re: No one cares

I'm trying to bring away from your post
something of value
but
sorry
cain't find nuthin'

OK so people get killed
this is a fact of life
as long as it's those people
it's all good in the hood M'Kay?
Hey we spend almost a trillion bucks a year on defense
are we getting a good bang for our bucks?
Ya gotta know two million is a bogus number
but no one really cares anyway.

Well, Dammit I care!
Wouldn't be posting if I didn't- I'd be out in the yard fighting the fire ant war.
People get killed- it's a fact of war and always has been. It's also a fact of war that the more non-combatants you kill, the more you strengthen the enemy's resolve and popular support. Have you ever heard the tale of the Tar Baby? The more you punch and kick it, the more you get stuck. Have you ever heard of Vietnam? Have you ever heard of the Soviet War in Afghanistan? Three clear choices- kill them all (genocide), GTFO, or keep on bleeding yourself dry year after year. I'll take door number One or Two over door number Three, thankee very much.
Do we get anything like a good return on the trillions spent on defense? No, we don't. We get a bunch of multi-million dollar gee-whiz weapon systems that don't even work well on paper, much less in real combat.
As you said, we don't even get cheaper gasoline.

 

[Winky]

Nah I suppose in my 50 years I’ve
never heard of any of them thar thangs.

Good to know you care.
But I'd hope you'd know by this stage of the game
'caring' isn't going to change a thang.

Personally I don't Care one whit if they all die.

Keep on killin' them Ants, they are evil.

 

[MrBishop]

A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.

The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.

It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442.html

 

[Winky]

Oh my

And yer point?
At least now they have McDonalds and Starbucks, right?

 

[JTP]

You are right on two points- fire ants must die and caring doesn't change a thing.
I've sent letters and e-mails to all my "elected" representatives telling them what I think, but it's really out of their hands. Not that I trust any of them as far as I can spit. All they care about is getting re-elected so they can enjoy Socialized Health Insurance paid for by the taxpayer. Their Health Insurance, that is, not ours, GRRR!
My sister "cares" about Afghanistan- she wants to make all those evil Muslims start treating their women right. I asked when has she ever volunteered at a battered womens shelter in this country, and she's not talking to me now!

 

[MrBishop]

<--your sister *No offence

 

[JTP]

Re: Oh my

And yer point?
At least now they have McDonalds and Starbucks, right?

My God, no wonder they hate us!

 

[spike]

Re: The Mid-East is a poop hole

Common sense tells me they can't all be terroists or even supporters of terrorism. Common sense tells me there are terrorists all over the world, but I don't see us bombing Malaysia or Northern Ireland or Idaho.

Good point. Add the fact that Iraq wasn't even a terrorist hotspot in the first place and the invasion made us less safe and all those innocent people we killed makes even less sense.

Waste of lives. Waste of money.

 

[Winky]

Well then how about a Timmy Hortons
and a buncha Hooters?
That oughta make em happy?

 

[ResearchMonkey]

Re: The Mid-East is a poop hole

Good point. Add the fact that Iraq wasn't even a terrorist hotspot in the first place and the invasion made us less safe and all those innocent people we killed makes even less sense.
.

Yeah, someone who shells their own people with chemical weapons can't be all that bad.

 

[Winky]

Two Million isn't enough

and his Son's had their fun.

Let's not forget throwin' people into wood chippers
that was my personal fav

 

[spike]

Re: The Mid-East is a poop hole

Yeah, someone who shells their own people with chemical weapons can't be all that bad.

There's lots of bad people in the world. Now we shell the people instead. Not sure what your point is.

 

[Winky]

Two Million 3 who's counting

 

[JTP]

My Ron Paul fever has worn off, but he made a good point once.
If someone on your block was cooking meth and molesting children, would you approve of an artillery strike or a bombing raid on their house? Would you approve of the government arresting all their neighbors (including you) as accessories to the crime?

 

[ResearchMonkey]

I'd say let the parents on the block handle him as a hostile.

 

[JTP]

I'd say let the parents on the block handle him as a hostile.

So some well-placed spies and informants imbedded in terrorist organizations could handle them as well, couldn't they?
Trip them up, make them bite the hands that feed them and lose popular support in their own communities. Makes a helluva lot more sense than bombing a whole village or district. Helluva lot cheaper in lives and dollars, too, if it's done right.

 

[spike]

Seems reasonable.

 

[MrBishop]

So some well-placed spies and informants imbedded in terrorist organizations could handle them as well, couldn't they?
Trip them up, make them bite the hands that feed them and lose popular support in their own communities. Makes a helluva lot more sense than bombing a whole village or district. Helluva lot cheaper in lives and dollars, too, if it's done right.

Problem with the spies thing is the lack of spies that understand Farsi well enough, and can pass for Afghani/Iraqi. You'd have to find locals that are willing to work with you despite the dangers.

Goes back to an old argument of mine..knocking down the feet of a stool which supports terrorism.

 

[Gonz]

How many of those deaths were the direct result of American tools of war?

 

[JTP]

There are plenty of native Afghans, and Pakis too-both still living there and ex-pats in other countries, who would be willing to betray the Taliban, Al-Queda, or any other terrorist organization that rears it's ugly head. We could have spies-a-plenty if we just utilized the resource. Naw, instead we go the "bomb the hell out of them" route because it worked against the Nazis and Imperial Japan. Sure didn't work in Korea or Vietnam, but still we keep on bombing.