NATO control in Iraq?

[Soldier]

Because your opinions are all too frequently petulant and immature. The point is that you are thirteen, which has a lot to do with the manner of your posts.

So shut up already.

[grphiw]

Do you honestly believe that throwing them away invalidates what he did to earn them?

Although yes, I agree that throwing away medals does not invalidate the fact he was a celebrated soldier (although some of them are questionable, especially all those Purple Hearts... not to mention the Silver Star), his action of throwing them away was meant at the time to show that he did not want America's honor. It's not that I found the fact he was willing to throw them away insulting, it's his choice. At the time he was very against the US war effort, and it was a perfectly valid way. I'm fine with that. What irritates me is the fact that he thinks he can retract the ealier statement. It represents he thinks America decorating him for honor are mere pawns in a game of success. They have meaning, and are not toys to be played with on a whim.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Well make me goddamit! This is a free ****ing country, and I dont have to take orders from some air force rapist who has a problem coping with the war and people talking about it. I will serve my country, I was born for dying!

[epeemike81]

I was born for dying!

I suppose it would be out of line to suggest he get on with it....

-m

[Tireur]

I dont have a choice about whether or not I enlist now, I cant. So I'm stuck with the civil air patrol. If I could enlist now, I would. But you know what, I CANT! When I turn 18, I'll enlist, in the marine corp, but until then, your the one thats gonna have to shut up! Why should I? I have every right to voice my opinion.

Civil Air Patrol and the Marine Corps can, on occasion, be a bad combination.

Think Lee Harvey Oswald..................

Of course there's that correlation/causation thing.

[Aeric]

And just because that ball o scum kerry is a puss and cant stand the thought, of, oh no, a war, is no durn reason to abort the operation in iraq.

If he's 13, then this opinion represents why we're about to hopefully enter sensibility until the 2008 election. (no offense)

And now for something completely different.

[Soldier]

Well make me goddamit! This is a free ****ing country, and I dont have to take orders from some air force rapist who has a problem coping with the war and people talking about it. I will serve my country, I was born for dying!

Now you are definitely crossing lines.

No, I cannot make you, nor do I intend to. It is a suggestion for your own good that you shut your mouth, because every time you open it, you piss people off. You also make yourself look ever more ignorant, immature, and petulant. I was not giving you orders, but a suggestion for your own good.

As for your most offensive statement in that last post: I hope I have made my position concerning rape or any type of sexual abuse, assault, et cetera, very clear.

I presume you refer to the scandal that broke in the news over a year ago, with sexual assault cases coming to light. While undoubtedly atrocious, look at the numbers: Perhaps a hundred people accused over the course of over twenty years. And each year, approximately 4,000 cadets. So go by simple numbers - what makes you think I am a rapist? Or is that simply the first ill-informed inflammatory name that came to mind for you to throw at me?

Due in part to the recent measures put in place here, and much more to the character of the average cadet, I believe this place to be one of the safest possible places for a girl - in the world. The campus is closed, fenced, and guarded; authorized personnel wear proximity badges, so that those who do not belong are easily picked out. Airmen and sergeants carrying M-16s and wearing full body armor patrol the halls day and night.

But most importantly, the vast majority of the cadet body is very similar to myself: Strong Christians with a fiercely protective nature, who would just as soon throw a rapist off the terazzo (a three story drop onto concrete). Our Commandant is the same - I would truly fear for the physical safety of anyone brought before him on a sexual assault conviction.

Apologies for the tangent; after the news coverage we have received, I grow rather defensive.

DFP, you are a small boy who boasts large words behind the safety of his computer screen. You fearlessly lambast those who have, regardless of the circumstances or their actions afterward, gone into combat to serve their country, while you have done nothing more than report in for your CAP detachment. You throw big words of enlisting in the Marines, but I fail to believe them. You have nothing of what it would take to make it, and give me no reason to believe you will ever have what it takes to join any service, let alone the Marine Corps.

Now - for your own good - I strongly suggest that you crawl back in your hole and SHUT UP.

[Inquartata]

Well, the UN enjoys good ratings outside USA far in excess to what it has in USA. Or put the other way: I do not think that there is any country (except Israel) where the UN have so many detractors as USA - not by a long shot.

Which begs the question: Why? As always, I have a ready, if not unpredictable, answer , to wit, it needs only a cursory read of such things as the NIEO programme of the 1970s, or some of the stuff that's come out of UNCTAD over the years, or have a look at who would have been the biggest winners and losers under the Kyoto Protocols, etc, and to note how many nice sinecures it has created for the bureaucrats and diplomats of so many countries, to see why the UN is so admired by countries which are NOT the current world hegemonic power. It is because the UN seeks to level the world playing field in almost every realm of international affairs, not only by raising up those nations at the bottom but by dragging down those at the top. ( If there is ever to be a Handicapper-General, a la Vonnegut, it's fairly sure that he will sit at the UN. ) And it is because it repeatedly tries to set itself up as arbiter of the interests of The World Community versus the US...

IMHO, of course.

[Inquartata]

I suppose it would be out of line to suggest he get on with it....

-m

Ouch, LOL...

But on second thought, Mike, egad, what a....a Republican, indeed almost Rumsfeldian sort of remark! ( There may be hope for you yet! )

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Soldier, I realize that calling you a rapist was an immature and uncalled for statement, and I was furious when I said that. But telling me to shut up and questioning my patriotism is a way to make me furious, so I wish that you wouldnt do that, because I wont. And who are you to say that I dont have what it takes to enlist, you dont even know me.

[Soldier]

I'm not questioning your patriotism, for I know nothing of it. I question only what I know of you, because you have showed it to me through your posts.

I am questioning your honor, and I am questioning whether you have anything to back up the boastful words of a 13-year-old. I also don't happen to care if I make you mad.

[laughingduelist]

Soldier, I realize that calling you a rapist was an immature and uncalled for statement, and I was furious when I said that. But telling me to shut up and questioning my patriotism is a way to make me furious, so I wish that you wouldnt do that, because I wont. And who are you to say that I dont have what it takes to enlist, you dont even know me.

The reason you don't have what it takes to enlist is because serving in any branch of the military takes an attribute that you clearly lack: discipline. Furthermore, you seem to be under the mistaken impression that "having a chip on your shoulder" somehow makes you cool and tough. It doesn't. It merely sets you up to be beaten up or killed by someone who is more than an obnoxious blowhard. But you will likely ignore this advice and with any luck be forcibly removed from the gene pool, so by all means, continue your present behaviour.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Which begs the question: Why? As always, I have a ready, if not unpredictable, answer , to wit, it needs only a cursory read of such things as the NIEO programme of the 1970s, or some of the stuff that's come out of UNCTAD over the years, or look at who would have been the biggest winners and losers under the Kyoto Protocols, etc, and to note how many nice sinecures it has created for the bureaucrats and diplomats of so many countries, to see why the UN is so admired by countries which are NOT the current world hegemonic power.

Whew!

Inq, that is quite mouthful - 95 words in a sentence! Running out of full stops?

Firstly: In Swedish media, UN-related things are often referred to my the acronym that is derived from the Swedish translation of the full name of that thing. Therefore, many UN-related things have different acronyms in Swedish and in English, and I can not place NIEO nor UNCTAD. Care to explain?

Secondly: Do you really believe that citizens from non-USA,non-Israel countries care for the well-being of our fat cats?

Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[Inquartata]

Hi!



Whew!

Inq, that is quite mouthful - 95 words in a sentence! Running out of full stops?

Heh, sorry about that.

When I was in the 9th grade I took a ( brrr! ) journalism class. The teacher gave all the students a writing test, which supposedly determined for which sort of paper or magazine we'd be best suited to write. He took one look at the result of mine and told me, rather sadly I thought, that I'd probably be limited to writing for technical journals. My vocabulary and diction were just too high already, and the average periodical was according to him geared toward a 7th-grade comprehension level...

Luckily I grew out of any vestige of interest in journalism whatsoever.

Firstly: In Swedish media, UN-related things are often referred to my the acronym that is derived from the Swedish translation of the full name of that thing. Therefore, many UN-related things have different acronyms in Swedish and in English, and I can not place NIEO nor UNCTAD. Care to explain?

Sorry again.

NIEO=New International Economic Order, a plan which amounted to the world's undeveloped ( later underdeveloped, less-developed and finally developing ) countries reach parity with the world's developed countries through a long listof demands. ( Give us this, give us that, forgive our debts, pay us artificially inflated prices for our exports, transfer your technology to us, gimme, gimme, gimme. )

UNCTAD=United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UN agency responsible for many quixotic programs which attempted to accomplish the abovementioned plan, either entire or piecemeal, over the decades.

Secondly: Do you really believe that citizens from non-USA,non-Israel countries care for the well-being of our fat cats?

I believe that the media and opinion leaders ( which includes political leaders, bureaucrats, and many others ) influence public opinion. And the opinion leaders and media by and large believe the UN and its goals to be Good Things. That's in this country, too, though largely confined to the left here.

In which regard, the left in most countries has a lot more influence than ours does, no? Hence...