COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Observanda: The Unavoidable War With Islam

Observanda: The Unavoidable War With Islam

Harrison said...

Haunting article, tiger. It seems that Hezbollah is set to launch another offensive in the summer - I've seen my fair share of editorials and blogs that have supported this theory. What isn't as obvious is whether there will be a war with Hezbollah, or one simply fought for the sole purpose of being pictured as "doing something", anything to avoid being labelled as incompetent.
Fri Mar 16, 12:56:00 PM

Tiger said...

Hmmmm, good question....

This idea, "Unavoidable War etc., presupposes that Israel and America's people care enough about their respective societies to engage in "necessary" action; actual war, for instance. After a brief moment of aggression after 9-11 we reverted back to our sullen, selfish concerns. Israel did a similar thing with their Lebanon excursion. So, IF we get to a point where we actually start fighting for our lives, the little political skirmishes will cease and the real thing will begin.

Francis, in the article, is saying of course that so far our PC efforts have done nothing but embolden the enemy (Islam). And, he is saying Islam, not radical extremism. He is one more witness explaining what we have to do but don't wish to do. A minority of Americans and Israelis understand the threat. Vast majorities are still asleep, including most of our leaders.

So, if and when we awaken, Hezbollah, all of Syria, Iran, and all the rest of the Arab world problem (not just in the ME) must be addressed in one way or another. Based on this predicate we will eventually have a global war with Islam - or, we'll capitulate and die!

64 comments:

  1. So the Mohammedan horde will be getting to Phoenix, when, exactly?

    Will they have to share the Emergency Rooms with the Mexican horde of infiltrators that is already here?

    Israel may be in mortal danger from the Mohammedans, but then Israel has always been in mortal danger from them. Nothing new there.

    Europes' immigration policies may cause them heartburn, but those are policies for the Europeans to decide upon. Just as it is up to the US to decide whom we let in, or not.

    There is an onging battle in the MidEast for political and economic control, but nothing new there, either. The ideology of the newest breed of tyrant not much worse than the last set of tyrants or the current breed, for that matter.

    As long as Prince Bandar is our friend, there is no War with Islam.
    And Prince Bandar, he is our bestest friend and front man in the Region.

    There may be a "Culture War" in the US, but it ain't no shootin' one.

    Who is the candidate that objects to the moniker, Religion of Peace?
    Which US political party rejects that position?

    Where is the ground swell of objection to thestatus que?

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  2. I just hope someone on our side is smart enough to be selling arms to those disenfranchised Shiia in the magic Kingdom.

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  3. Some more reports of criminal activity in Iraq, outside of Baghdad. The US has convinced some of the local Sheiks to oppose the crimil aQ elements in Anbar.
    While other Iraqi, out there in Anbar, remain criminals.
    The US believes that with the proper group therapy sessions those remaining Iraqi criminals will find inner peace enabling them to reconcile their differences with the rest of Iraqi society.

    BAGHDAD (Associated Press) -- Three suicide bombers driving trucks rigged with tanks of toxic chlorine gas struck targets in heavily Sunnni Anbar province including the office of a Sunni tribal leader opposed to al-Qaida. The attacks killed at least two people and sickened 350 Iraqi civilians and six U.S. troops, the military said Saturday.

    There is a mounting power struggle between insurgents and the growing number of Sunnis who oppose them in Anbar, a former Baath Party stronghold that stretches from Baghdad to the borders with Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The Anbar assaults came three days after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, traveled there to reach out to Sunni clan chiefs in a bid to undermine tribal support for the insurgency.
    ...
    Two hours later a dump truck exploded in Amiriyah, south of Fallujah, killing two policemen and leaving as many as 100 residents with symptoms of chlorine exposure ranging from minor skin and lung irritations to vomiting, the military said. Iraqi authorities said at least six people were killed and dozens wounded when the truck blew up in a line of cars waiting at a checkpoint.
    ...
    Another suicide bomber detonated a dump truck containing a 200-gallon chlorine tank rigged with explosives at 7:13 p.m. three miles south of Fallujah in the Albu Issa tribal region, the military said. U.S. forces found about 250 local civilians, including seven children, suffering from symptoms related to chlorine exposure, according to the statement. Police said the bomb was targeting the reception center of a tribal sheik who has denounced al-Qaida.


    So it seems that we need to find some security teams for our new Sheiks, or they're gonna be dead Sheiks.

    To bad they cannot protect themselves. Last summer they wanted Guns and Ammo. We didn't deliver, then. To risky, to provocative, the Sheiks were not elected.

    Mr Abbas recieved three thousand M16s and a million rounds, that are now in a Hamas arms room.

    Why not at least as much for our new friends?

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  4. d'Rat

    Because our friends deserve reliable weapons? :P

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  6. Well mat, if the Magic Mutineers need a few bullet launchers, then will not the newly acquired friends in Anbar?

    I think, truly, that the last thing Mr Bush and US want is a destabilized Kingdom.

    But when those Kingdom Shia insurge, despite US desires, the blame falls to Abracadbra, regardless of the logistical chain.

    So, if I was an Israeli, I'd agree with you. It's just not what's best for my side.

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  7. d'Rat

    Well, Israeli or not, I think it would make for a good negotiating position. Madrasas vs M16s.

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  8. Rufus,

    With hopefully only 300 working bullets.

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  10. I think it's the next battle front, with the Saudi Royal Mohammedan Army finally deploying from their bases in Pakistan.

    For those that'd like to know:
    Saudi Arabia's Shiites account for 15 percent of the kingdom's population of 20 million.

    A population of 3 million.

    Concentrated in the oil-rich province of Al-Sharqiyah, Saudi Shiites form a good part of the kingdom's urban middle class. They are also strongly present in the liberal professions and the private business sector.

    ... Of the top 400 government positions, a only one is held by a Shiite undersecretary of state. Of the 120 members of the all-appointed Saudi parliament only two are Shiites.

    ... the official theological organs of the state, exclusively held by clerics from the Hanbali Sunni school of Islam, publicly castigate Shiites as non-Muslims.

    So the percentage the local Shia makeup in the east, around the oil fields and infrastructure, may be signifigantly high.

    At a ratio of 1:50 soldier to residents, which is historic for a successful constabulary, the Sauds would need 60,000 soldiers and paramilitary to begin to secure the Shia population.

    Then border security would begin to take a higher priority, stopping that insurgent logistic train, another 50,000.
    Plus rotations and whatever missions are currently undertaken by the Saudi Army.

    Wiki puts the entire KSA military force at 200,000. So they need to increase their boots on the ground capability by at least 50%, post haste.

    Pakistan has an active force of 520,000, with another 500,000 reservists.

    So we know who the King is gonna call. The Mohammedan Peacekeepers that were subjects of meetings, just last month. On the General Presidents' Sunni World Tour Express I.

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  13. Do the tribes of Anbar becoming anti aQ as Omar reports the same as them becoming proGovernment?

    Or just reconcilable.

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  14. OK, this does it for me. Bush has got to get the troops out of Thailand. American presence there is causing an escalation in violence.


    “Four women and two teenage girls are among nine Buddhists
    shot to death at close range by the Religion of Peace in Thailand.”

    Bush lied and Thais died!

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  15. Americans out of India! Bush’s surge on the subcontinent has caused Islam to respond. Indian Muslim group calls for beheading of writer Taslima Nasreen

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  16. Bush’s foreign policy screw-ups “everywhere” is the cause of Muslim violence. Capturing the frustration Muslims, would-be bomber, Muktar Said Ibrahim, gave testimony from the dock, indicating his plan was "To protest against the plight of Muslims everywhere, especially in Iraq."

    So, all the evil Bush has to do is get the United States out of “EVERYWHERE”. Can anything be simpler to understand and easier to execute?

    Yes, America, get out of EVERYWHERE!

    Terrorist Plot ‘Was Muslim Protest’

    To be clear, the Mirror is not saying the dead are “allegedly” dead. They are in fact quite dead and provably so.

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  17. Allen said: OK, this does it for me. Bush has got to get the troops out of Thailand. American presence there is causing an escalation in violence.

    Not to mention the presence of all those American bases in Western China...

    "An Islamist insurgency is raging in China. China, though, has generally suppressed any news of this insurgency. Official statistics put the death toll at 160 over the past 10 years in at least 260 seperate incidents, but the count is probably higher than that. Much higher."

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  18. Whipple Whips it Out
    The attendant, who had been sitting in a jump seat as the plane descended, confronted Whipple.
    She asked if he had relieved himself.
    Whipple replied he had.
    "I wasn't trying to hide anything,"
    he said.

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  19. There is a huge disadvantage to the Saudis in bringing in foreign troops to fight their battles; the Paks may not want to go home. Often in history, such armies have taken up permanent residence, eliminating the host hierarchies.

    Would the United States prefer to control the battle space in the ME, or share or surrender that role to the Paks?

    Would the Saudis prefer to have the United States or Pakistan controlling the battle space and guaranteeing Saudi security?

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  20. To true, allen.

    'tween a rock and a hard place, the Sauds could find themselves in.

    They have created a society of hiring things done, it's ingrained, to pay and not sacrifice themselves.

    The US won't do it, I do not think, even if asked. We're already leaving the south of Iraq and the border region. The Coalition is not securing that frontier, today.

    As the Shia stabilize in the South, will the Shia Revolution expand across the border, I'd think so.

    The Sauds, they'll try to hire it done, if it needs doing. Or they'll burn, and that's not acceptable to anyone.

    I would not bet against the Iranians having deep cover Commandos living in amongst the Sauds, today.

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  21. British forces were also too thin on the ground to have a serious effect.
    The ratio of British troops to Iraqi civilians in Basra was approximately 1:370, in sharp contrast to the 1:50 ratio of British peacekeepers to civilians in Kosovo or 1:65 in the Belfast area of Northern Ireland, and in even sharper contrast to the 1:40 proportion of security personnel to populace in Saddam’s Basra.

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  22. DR,

    You are so correct; the Saudis either have or are putting themselves between the proverbial Devil and the deep blue sea. In failing to rein in the Sunni and adequately support the formation of a unity government in Iraq, they are isolated.

    This is pure conjecture, but a Shi'a dominated government in Iraq, supported by the United States, may take a dim view of Iran attempting to manipulate the Shi'a of Saudi Arabia. Despite their common confession of faith, the temptation to control the oil wealth may be stronger than sectarian loyalty.

    Tigerhawk has up a thread reporting a poll by the Times (London), which is astounding. Iraqis prefer the present to the past. Among other things, they also believe the surge will succeed in bringing stability through the disarming of militias. If the Iraqi Shi'a are reasonably well disposed to an American presence at some non-overly intrusive level, then, their kin in the Shi'a dominated regions of Saudi Arabia might find themselves equally well disposed, particularly if freedom from Sunni tyranny is a possibility.

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  23. That goes back to the stability and peace spread across the Region in democratic revolution. Purple fingers and orange scarfs.

    The south of Iraq is now almost as autonomous as Kurdistan, according to that Near East report. There is not much Federal control of the oil fields or infrastructure. The Feds may be getting a cut, but signifgent sums are being siphoned off to fund militias, local graft and corruption.

    The Iranians now have a huge influence, it will remain, even if the Mullahs are popped, it's a cultural interchange and the Persians are Persians, said the 300.

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  25. rufus,

    There can never be enough videos!

    What, the Miranda warning from the Barrett M82A1 is the loss of an arm?

    The new "416" has been especially developed to travel at hypersonic speed, thereby, literally blasting through the obstacles of wind sheer and temper variations over the distance, while accurately providing the same
    punch as a 50 over a longer range.

    When I saw one cold fired last week at the range of 2500 yds, I sprouted a hard on. Sweet! Sweet! Sweet!

    Keep those videos coming, without panicked censorship coming from up the line.

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  26. DR,

    Realistically, the south will never be Boston Common. The sooner we dispense with such fantasizes the better. But a strong central government with American reserve muscle can bring it to a level of civilization tolerable to the Iraqis themselves. Somethings will not be changeable; we are operating in the realm of the Forty Thieves, you know.

    Among the Iraqi Shi'a on the whole there are no signs pointing to the radicalism of the Iranian Imams and Mullahs. But full integration will take time and patience.

    It is way too early in this newest campaign to make any predictions other than the most crude. One thing does begin to evidence itself at this early date: Petraeous is a serious military officer, and, unlike his predecessors he senses a momentum shift and has the courage and conviction to ride with it. The only American impediment to his work will continue to be the turf rivalries that have plagued the other plans used. If he is the man claimed, he may have the strength and ambition to cut through the bureaucracies to get what he wants and needs. But there should be no misunderstanding, he fights an uphill battle with the various levels of incompetence that have hampered US efforts to date.

    To my way of thinking, Petraeous cannot change the administration's tendencies to stumble badly. He can, however, make the most of his mission, which will buy time for the follow-up work he must surely have in mind. Time passes quickly, and by the next election either different leadership or circumstances in country may work to his benefit. Essentially, General Petraeous most effectively and efficiently buy time.

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  27. rufus,

    That operations interest on flooding the air waves with our message may be the singular best news out of Iraq in a long time. It means that we are steeling their message and strangling them.

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  28. bobalharb,

    This creates a whole new set of issues for the custody battle brewing in the Anna Nicole Smith paternity case. The Anti-Idiotarian- Rottweiler is reporting that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claims to be the father. Howard K. Stern might want to avoid being in a room alone with KSM – especially a tool shed or kitchen.

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  29. C-4 Turns Revolutionary
    (and forgets to mention you know, Joo)
    ---
    I see the need to narrow wealth gaps, a new determination by mankind to eliminate unaceptable concentrations of power - even if that means confiscation of Ruling Elite's wealth hoards and concluding there is necessity to kill a good deal of them. As periodically has happened in various eras and was vindicated by history as unavoidable - small cancerous groups only lose power when they are eliminated from it - and killing them is the surest way.
    ---
    Jeez, I thot catch and release might do the trick.
    C-4 would know.
    C-4 takes on the Elites

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  30. BLONDE FAITH

    Plame and her husband are a politically motivated PR partnership. She's negotiating a book deal for her life story, titled 'Fair Game,' for which Simon & Schuster has reportedly paid her a $1 million advance. She appeared with Wilson on the cover of Vanity Fair just months after being 'outed.'

    Just why was Plame, who listed her CIA cover company as her employer when she gave to Al Gore's campaign, riding a desk in Langley, Va.?
    The Washington Times' Bill Gertz has reported that U.S. officials said her identity was first disclosed to Russia by a Moscow spy in the mid-1990s.
    She returned to the U.S. in 1994 because the CIA suspected her cover was blown by turncoat Aldrich Ames.

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  31. Indeed, doug, C4 and habu are both standing ready to kill other Americans, for a better tomorrow.

    C4 thinks the rich elites will make the best targets, while habu readies his shooting skills to stop the anarchist Greens of Seattle from roaming the land, large and in charge.

    I find it funny, while just a few months ago Bar patrons were disdained, by some at the Club, for being drunk and uncouth. Meanwhile, there at the Belmont they harbour the homicidal fantasies of misfits.

    Different fascists have different targets, but voting rights and blind justice are always on their lists.
    Never satisfied with election results, they both seem to believe US people are just sheeple, to dumb to be enlighten by fact or arguement. The sheeple have opinions shaped by Dan Rather's mind control beam, eminating from the CBS "eye" on the TV screen.

    Pass me a beer, will ya?

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  32. Doug (from article): Plame's 'cover' as a CIA employee was so secret she was listed in her husband's 'Who's Who in America' entry.

    This is a sloppy article, Doug . . . Robert Novak published her maiden name, "Plame," which he claims he retrieved easily from the entry for Joseph Wilson in Who's Who in America. This has nothing to do with her CIA cover.

    The "Aldrich Ames Probably Blew Her Cover Anyway" defense doesn't fly either. But what kind of questions were coming from the GOP side of the aisle in her hearing? They managed to get her admit to being a DEMOCRAT.

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  33. It's all Bull anyhoo, Ms T:
    Armitage admitted it was him.
    ...admittedly way too late.

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  34. Which tyrants are they aiming at, raymond.
    Mr Bush is he the tyrant, or just selected elitist Senators?

    The Greens are tyrants, in charge of the harvest that the tree of liberty provides? Or are they marginalized participants in current events?

    How about those Elitists, what makes them tyranical and deserving to fertilize the tree of liberty.
    That their opinions differ from yours?
    That they operate in the poitical enviorment to greater effect than you and yours?

    What fear drives the parade?

    Because, in practice, Timmy McVeigh thought he was fertilizing the tree of liberty, killin' kids in a Federal day care center.

    Viva la Reveloution!!

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  35. Justice Stephen Breyer understandably steered away from a direct answer when I put the question to him after a talk at the French-American Foundation this month. Instead, he pointed me toward Tocqueville's 19th-century masterpiece, "Democracy in America," and its emphasis on "clamor," on "people arguing about politics" as a civic virtue.

    However unusual it makes him, Breyer added, when he hears "these huge arguments about the Patriot Act, I cheer. . . . We have a process and it's called that clamor." Issues bubble up, "people shout -- I would rather they were polite, but . . . shouting is better than nothing."


    Better than shooting, decidedly so.

    Move the Baghdad or Beirut if gun barrel politics appeals to you. Plenty of tyrants, both big and small, in either locale

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  37. Oh, I finally get it, raymond, and you're oh so right.

    I get so easily confused, the misfits so often wrap themselves in the Flag, the banner of patriotism, that I fell into the trap of disinformation and propaganda.

    But I've had an epiphany, while sitting here.
    The clouds of misinformation parted and the light of truth brightens the day.

    habu and C4, they are the tyrants, the wanna-be neo-tyrants anyway, and the rest of US, those that peacefully assemble and petition, we're the Patriots.

    Fire away, amigo.

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  39. It's always a question of perspective. From my perspective, human society is like a colony of bacteria, going thru set familiar phases.

    The Donald thinks he sees things clearly. But I think he needs to reset his white balance setting and lose the rose colored lenses. What's typical with authority, is the fakery. And what's typical with the rejection of authority, is also the fakery. It's like an extended mad house. But some think that as long as the dialogue goes on that there's a chance of rationality. I don't agree.

    I would argue that "the criminal" and "the mad" are the real heroes. Why not, in a corrupt world? Why not, in a pointless and vicious society? In a reasonable society there are no criminals. One criminal act turns a reasonable society into an unreasonable one. And back again. And back again. And back again. So what to do about it? It's obvious that our contract with society is not total.

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  40. Insightful analysis of the would-be presidential candidates the modern way BY YOU TUBE

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  41. No, raymond, Mr Jefferson was quite the Revolutionary, both in thought and deed.

    He revolted against the Divine Right of Kings, the tyrany of heredity.

    But what tyrany confronts US today, that cannot be self-correcting within the Republic's Constitutional framework?

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  42. But what tyrany confronts US today, that cannot be self-correcting within the Republic's Constitutional framework?

    The tyranny of organized corruption.

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  43. Which tyrany does the Republic suffer:
    1 Imperial Presidents
    2 an Overreaching Congress
    3 Imperial Judges
    4 Lap dog Congress
    5 Police State Powers
    6 Anarchy in the Streets
    7 Uncontrolled borders

    that we cannot handle within the Law.

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  44. Even that one, mat.
    Or what?

    Who choses the target list?

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  45. d'Rat

    I'm surprised at you. You know the answer as well as I do.

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  46. The tyranny of organized corruption of information.

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  47. The Trusts of the 1900's were organized corruption, in their day, old rough ridin' Teddy busted those Trusts.

    All within the rules of the Game.

    But did Mr Rockerfeller and his elitist friends deserve a bullet in the head?

    If they really did, they should have been tried and hung, like Saddam.

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  48. You can't address the problem, if there is no problem.

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  49. A trillion dollars spent on a war to maintain the status quo. With the main argument of the Left being that the Right incompetently bungled the job. That's what's wrong.

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  50. The US political debate is always internalized, foreign strawmen come and go. The US marches on.

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  51. I find it funny, while just a few months ago Bar patrons were disdained, by some at the Club, for being drunk and uncouth. Meanwhile, there at the Belmont they harbour the homicidal fantasies of misfits.

    DR, how many at BC advocate shooting Greens or whoever? Have only read a very few comments over there along those over-the-line lines.

    Meanwhile, the bar has become a great place to hear debate that at times goes down smooth and at others gets thick with smoke, but it's kinda nice the floor isn't so sticky, anymore :)

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  52. ..foreign strawmen come and go. The US marches on.

    That's pure Hubris. And I sincerely hope you don't actually believe this.

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  53. Just a few, mentioned by moniker.
    Ms nahncee used to advocate grand nuclear strikes, against Islamic cities, but that is a bit different, I think, then advocating for the coming need death squads in the US.

    Just because we do not talk about Mr Sistani and the rightous Mohammedadian self cleansing methods needed for salvation, post-coital with a favorite ewe, does not mean we do not care.

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  54. Listen to the debate, mat, listen to the debate.

    There does seem a bit more than a little dose of hubris, on both sides of the debate in US politics. Seems to me.

    Not much concern for the "little guy"
    Neither at home or abroad now-a-days.

    They're almost human, you know.

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  55. Being human doesn't factor in. It never did, it never will.

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  56. It does, with US, it's all important.
    Promote the rights of man, as defined by US, given by God.

    That was Mr Jefferson's Revolution.

    It's gone better than most.

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  57. "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

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  58. The point being: Lincoln wasn't just a yammering yenta.

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  59. How about a Nattering Nabob?

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  60. Coconut moguls need not apply!

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