Okay so I changed my mind about the war

I usually stay far away from these kinds of debates but here is an image I saw tonight that made me think...

Except of course that it hasn't.

War didn't end slavery.

War has not ended fascism.

Last time I looked communism was going pretty strong in China.

Wtf is Nazism?

Pure communism has never been practiced on a national scale. What they have in china is more like socio-fascism.

There is nothing wrong with the idea of communism. It has never been given a fair trial.

Dr. Leo Alexander, who studied the Nuremberg trials after World War Two, stated that Fascism and Nazism can be detected in a nation who, "thinks in terms of destruction as the solution of all problems is today the best way to tell a Nazi from a non-Nazi.".

What do you think ended slavery then(in the US)? People just got tired of it?

I think that list was a little short on what the benifits of war have been... what about freedom itself?

Remind me again what Saddam Hussein had to do with 9/11?

Nothing, right?

Move along, everybody - it's just another ugly victim of propaganda. Nothing to see here...

-s*

No.. of course not. I blame it on Saddam.

Actually, no. He didn't give him the benefit of the doubt nor did he think Saddam would straighten up. He was very confident that the regime was destabilized enough to allow the Shia (south) and kurd (north) uprising to remove him from power.

Stormin' Norman made a tactical error in the cease fire agreement that allowed Iraq to use military helicopters. This was supposed to be to allow for travel since all the roads and bridges were taken out, but Saddam immediately supressed the Shia uprising ... killing close to 10K Shia in the processes. Same in the north with the Kurds. As soon as we realized what was going on we started the no-fly zones. but by then, it was too late. Saddam had regained his hold over the state.

Bush 41 really thought Saddam was done-for and so we didn't need to do anything else.

Yeah, I understand, I saw the cod wars on "The Goodies".

Now, that's just frightening.

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A "classic", elementary definition of communism:

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

What has this to do with the former Soviet Union, China, etc...?

Little or nothing, if you examine their history.

Of course, if (libertarian) communism isn't "sustained" by individual freedom, etc., it cannot exist - and vice versa...

P.S.: The "usual" definition of "communism" (especially in the US) is sooooo evidently wrong - but, as always, good enough to incute fear in "the people" and accustom them to their daily dose of panem et circenses, almost in a (neo-) Roman/imperial way.

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When i'm not busy planting flowers and making sure nobody says anything mean about anybody, i do find a few seconds a day to think.

And i think the world of our armed forces, they are by and large fine people doing a somewhat thankless job.

That said, i think they are being grossly misused right now. Saddam is a Bad Man, and should be gotten rid of, but bombs are not the way to do it. Since we have so demonstrably achieved air superiority in Iraq for the past 10 years, why not use that ability to land a C-130 in a town, dump off a crate of food, and leave a note that says something to the effect of "America loves you. Saddam does not." ? Why not back off the sanctions and let western economic development raise their standard of living, and curtail Saddam's ability to control the flow of information? We're saying that we care now, mind you, but i can't blame the Iraqi people for thinking we're talking out of both sides of our mouth given the whole 'shock and awe' festivities. War is a lazy solution here, in my opinion. Saddam could have been ousted with clever acts of kindness, a little patience, and oh yeah, inspections. This is a war of choice, not of neccessity, and unfortunately it now becomes clear that it will have a cost in american and british lives as well. this whole thing may end relatively well, and may free the iraqi people, but at the cost of many lives immediately which needn't have been squandered, to say nothing of the enmity of future bin Ladens that are being spawned right now.

Regardless of whether or not the military operation succeeds, this war has already cost too much.

Wha? Dood, I don�t get it.

Slavery? Dood, WTF is that? Wasn�t that where someone tried to tell some brothas what to do and they said �Hey man, lay off,� and so whitey said, �yo, that�s cool.�

Nazis? Dood, WTF are you talkin� about man? What war? WTF man, I mean, it was like, there was this really uncool Hitler guy, and he like, I dunno, he like tried to act all tough and take over half the world an� stuff and like, these peace protestors got together and had like this really big rally and so like this Hitler dood got really bummed out and said like, �hey you cats are really harshin� my gig� and so he went downstairs to like this big rec-room deal, like where he had one of those old time stereos with the big mushroom for a speaker and I think he didn�t even have a TV nor nothin� and he like, took a dirt nap man.

Then there were those Japanese cats, man, they were really being uncool, like flyin� around an� crashin� planes on people �n stuff, but like, the peace protestors said, �doods, cut it out man!� and so those cats said, �hey, ya know what? Anyway, we�d like rather draw these really cool cartoons with robots n� stuff than do this �take over the world� deal.� And so that was cool.

Communism? Dood, what�s wrong with that? Ya mean like, where everybody has everything they want and they all just sit around and nobody harshes their gigs nor nothin�? Dood, I mean like, sure, I heard that like some doods might�a got, like, killed or somethin� once, but ya know, it�s all good.

I think that is why it is so popular with students- it sounds so fair and wonderful. But it doesn't work in real life, except maybe on a very small scale, such as villages, because it doesn't have enough checks and balances and is painfully easy to pervert. Witness China and the Soviet Union, where the ones in power had lots of goodies and the others didn't and had no chance for it.

Pure democracy doesn't work well either. Human nature doesn't permit it.

"Human nature": another oxymoron...

bullshyt!

Logistics doesn't permit it.