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Reuters: The scariest thing about Islamic State? Its kinder, gentler side.

Unitedwestand13 said:
The Iraqi economy was stalled by the massive debts it owed as a result of fighting a 8 year war. Saddam's regime needed somthing to distract the people from that... Kuwait provided that distraction.
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Ok, you said it was to distract from a war, now you say it was to distract from economic woes. Whatever dude. Guess what, Hussein stopped Kuwait from slant drilling and torched 600 of their oil fields.
 
Montecresto said:
April Gillespie's response to Hussein is absolutely controversial, I'll heartily agree with you on that. I too have heard the money/debt argument which may well factor in, slant drilling was the stated reason though.
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Yes it was the stated reason and nay go back to the Korea time when the interests were put out for public consumption. S Korea missed out on that being an interest area, and we know what happened.

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-...udies/studies/fall_winter_2001/article06.html

In January 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson had publicly declared a defensive containment line against the Communist menace in Asia, based upon an island defense line. The Korean peninsula was outside that line.

Still, America viewed Korea as one of several developing democratic nations that could serve as counterbalances to Communist expansion. In March 1949, President Truman approved National Security Council Memorandum 8/2, which warned that the Soviets intended to dominate all of Korea, and that this would be a threat to US interests in the Far East.[1] That summer, the President sent a special message to Congress citing Korea as an area where the principles of democracy were being matched against those of Communism. He stated the United States “will not fail to provide the aid which is so essential to Korea at this critical time.”[2]
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JANFU said:
Yes it was the stated reason and nay go back to the Korea time when the interests were put out for public consumption. S Korea missed out on that being an interest area, and we know what happened.

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-...udies/studies/fall_winter_2001/article06.html
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The invasion didn't serve to relieve any money or debt problems though it did stop Kuwaiti slant drilling and caused severe damage to their oil fields. But we have moved far off topic I suppose. It's not an unrealistic concern that the Islamic State could win some hearts and minds themselves.
 
Summerwind said:
The scariest thing about Islamic State? Its kinder, gentler side.


I don't think people here in the states, where we haven't been touched by war on our soil since the mid-1860s, except for those wars we've brought on ourselves like the War on Drugs and Prohibition, what we might find we'd be willing to accept in lieu of the choas and destruction of war, civil or otherwise.

In a way, movies have it right, it's usually a fairly small constituency that wants freedom if otherwise things are calm, safe, ....
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Faced with the choice to give up either freedom or food, 99.9% of the time people will choose to eat.

We understood this about West Germany, post-WWII, and that is why we helped them.
 
Phys251 said:
Faced with the choice to give up either freedom or food, 99.9% of the time people will choose to eat.

We understood this about West Germany, post-WWII, and that is why we helped them.
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I think yes, your consideration is 100% accurate, but here we are talking about peace and calm and apparently reasonable social and quality of community services. As the article points out, it isn't just freedom or starve, or even freedom or die, it's that they are winning hearts and minds.
 
Glen Contrarian said:
Wait - don't you know that empathy is a far-left, socialist, communist emotion?
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Is that why liberal states are less charitable than conservative states?

"Red states are more generous than blue states. The eight states where residents gave the highest share of income to charity went for John McCain in 2008. The seven-lowest ranking states supported Barack Obama."

"In states like Utah and Mississippi, the typical household gives more than 7 percent of its income to charity, while the average household in Massachusetts and three other New England states gives less than 3 percent."
https://philanthropy.com/article/America-s-Generosity-Divide/156175

Liberals are good at giving OTHER people's money. When it comes to giving their own, they don't walk the walk.
 
truthatallcost said:
Is that why liberal states are less charitable than conservative states?

"Red states are more generous than blue states. The eight states where residents gave the highest share of income to charity went for John McCain in 2008. The seven-lowest ranking states supported Barack Obama."

"In states like Utah and Mississippi, the typical household gives more than 7 percent of its income to charity, while the average household in Massachusetts and three other New England states gives less than 3 percent."
https://philanthropy.com/article/America-s-Generosity-Divide/156175

Liberals are good at giving OTHER people's money. When it comes to giving their own, they don't walk the walk.
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Except when you realize that which is given to churches is also tax deductible as a charitable donation, and the south and right wing states are littered with mega churches that only enrich their "pastors," you have to take those percentages with a cup of salt.
 
Summerwind said:
Except when you realize that which is given to churches is also tax deductible as a charitable donation, and the south and right wing states are littered with mega churches that only enrich their "pastors," you have to take those percentages with a cup of salt.
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That's bs. I've lived in very liberal areas and in very conservative ones. I worked in Berkeley for 2 years, its full off self-centered, rude people. I also lived in Tennessee, where I couldn't believe how nice and hospitable the people were. They'd give you the shirt off their back.
Most groups that feed and house the poor are Christian based. Where's the Salvation Army of the left? Who do you think runs food banks for the poor? It's usually Christian groups. I've never seen atheists go down to skid row to feed the homeless.
 
truthatallcost said:
That's bs. I've lived in very liberal areas and in very conservative ones. I worked in Berkeley for 2 years, its full off self-centered, rude people. I also lived in Tennessee, where I couldn't believe how nice and hospitable the people were. They'd give you the shirt off their back.
Most groups that feed and house the poor are Christian based. Where's the Salvation Army of the left? Who do you think runs food banks for the poor? It's usually Christian groups. I've never seen atheists go down to skid row to feed the homeless.
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You're right liberals probably wouldn't worry about being to hospitable to your ilk, and of course your ilk would be. DUH! Atheists aren't organized such that you'd ever see a group like a church group going to skid row, but plenty help out at food banks, homeless shelters, and the like. We just give as individuals so we aren't as obvious, but we're there.
 
truthatallcost said:
That's bs. I've lived in very liberal areas and in very conservative ones. I worked in Berkeley for 2 years, its full off self-centered, rude people. I also lived in Tennessee, where I couldn't believe how nice and hospitable the people were. They'd give you the shirt off their back.
Most groups that feed and house the poor are Christian based. Where's the Salvation Army of the left? Who do you think runs food banks for the poor? It's usually Christian groups. I've never seen atheists go down to skid row to feed the homeless.
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Atheists Help the Homeless (#10)
 
Summerwind said:
You're right liberals probably wouldn't worry about being to hospitable to your ilk, and of course your ilk would be. DUH! Atheists aren't organized such that you'd ever see a group like a church group going to skid row, but plenty help out at food banks, homeless shelters, and the like. We just give as individuals so we aren't as obvious, but we're there.
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Riiiight.
 
truthatallcost said:
If you click through the link to the "Austin Atheists" donate page, it shows a defunct page with ads for dating sexy Asian ladies.. Lmao.
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Another nicety provided you by the atheists. ;)
 
Summerwind said:
The scariest thing about Islamic State? Its kinder, gentler side.


I don't think people here in the states, where we haven't been touched by war on our soil since the mid-1860s, except for those wars we've brought on ourselves like the War on Drugs and Prohibition, what we might find we'd be willing to accept in lieu of the choas and destruction of war, civil or otherwise.

In a way, movies have it right, it's usually a fairly small constituency that wants freedom if otherwise things are calm, safe, ....
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Well, I would say that the only reason that we do not experience war on our soil, since say - the '50s, is because we are for all intents and purposes, we are - an island! with thousands of miles of ocean on both sides that say we're very difficult to get to. That is really why we won our revolution 'ya know. This country has maliciously meddled with the affairs of other countries for so long that we should look very much like any middle eastern country; better yet, imagine fitting the whole of the US into the Middle East, that;s what our entire country should look like these days, and in a way - it does.

The lighter side of Islam... Clowns scare children. So, what is the real intent of the clown? To make money...
 
Montecresto said:
It's undeniable by any objective measure that the instability and death that has occurred and is presently occurring in the Middle East dwarfs anything while Hussein, Mubarak, Gaddafi and Assad were in operational control, save perhaps during US instigated and supported hostilities between Iraq and Iran.
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That is incorrect, if you take the UN numbers and studies of mortality from after the war in Iraq.
 
joG said:
That is incorrect, if you take the UN numbers and studies of mortality from after the war in Iraq.
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No, we're not going with your selective date, but the entire history of US/Western interference and military adventurism in the region.
 
Montecresto said:
No, we're not going with your selective date, but the entire history of US/Western interference and military adventurism in the region.
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We didn't start the fire.
 
Montecresto said:
Irrelevant to anything I've said.
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The thing is that it is not at all irrelevant. The problems are all rather interrelated and are becoming more so.
 
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