08 terrorist threat?

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all

It's also a matter of the United States believing it can shape the future of the Middle East (as misguided as that might be) and of having a base of operations in the region. It's still unclear whether the U.S. will get permanent bases in Iraq out of their venture into that country, but there is a strong line of thought that the intervention in Iraq was partly done to have such bases. A partial U.S. withdrawal would likely leave American bases in Iraq, ostensibly to continue to train Iraqi military and police. It is probable that whether the world likes it or not, the U.S. will retain an interest in Iraq unless turfed out by a new strongman or a regional war.

Chris

[marie]

Hi all

It's also a matter of the United States believing it can shape the future of the Middle East (as misguided as that might be) and of having a base of operations in the region. It's still unclear whether the U.S. will get permanent bases in Iraq out of their venture into that country, but there is a strong line of thought that the intervention in Iraq was partly done to have such bases. A partial U.S. withdrawal would likely leave American bases in Iraq, ostensibly to continue to train Iraqi military and police. It is probable that whether the world likes it or not, the U.S. will retain an interest in Iraq unless turfed out by a new strongman or a regional war.

Chris

Chris, Do u know Fort Bliss in El Paso, Tx?

[ChrisGeorge]

Chris, Do u know Fort Bliss in El Paso, Tx?

Hi Marie

I don't know Fort Bliss but I have been around or on a number of other U.S. Army bases in the United States.

Chris

[marie]

Hi Marie

I don't know Fort Bliss but I have been around or on a number of other U.S. Army bases in the United States.

Chris

My English is not good and it is difficult to explain the situation, if you do not know Fort Bliss.
When I visited for the first time Fort Bliss, El Paso, and thanks to a veteran familiar...
Aside the colony of City Juarez, hundreds of broken houses accumulated, without light, without water... to another side of the border, machines destroying new houses in Fort Bliss.
When I asked porqué, the response was: they need to spend the budget, in order that to the next year, they do not reduce it.
Till now we have been speaking about deads.
I now raise the money that the armies become exhausted. Money that is mine, yours and of all people, when I have not chosen to go to a war. Money that is stolen to other departments, education, health...

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Marie

What you describe is true. I have been to El Paso but not Fort Bliss, and I agree the contrast between the poverty of Juarez and the prosperity of the United States is shocking. I passed over the border just for the experience of doing so (I was on a cross-country bus trip some twenty years ago) and the young people holding out styrofoam cups on the Mexican side proved an eye-opener to me, as well as the shacks visible on that side of the river. The military-industrial complex is one of the biggest industries in the United States, and when the budget calls for demolition of new housing that is what will happen.

Chris

[Sloyne]

It is probable that whether the world likes it or not, the U.S. will retain an interest in Iraq unless turfed out by a new strongman or a regional war.

Initially, maybe, but I believe the Iraqi resistance will expel them regardless of a strongman or not. The Americans have become the most hated of the occupiers and even the most moderate Iraqi want them out. A look at BBC and Canadian TV news broadcasts shows the depth of feeling against the US occupiers by the "ordinary" Iraqis. US TV news broadcasts are highly sanitized and the average American are receiving a false picture. The US military are the most powerful on the planet, from 35,000 feet and a thousand miles at sea. Face to face with a highly motivated enemy on it's own turf, the GI is just another enemy soldier and not a superman.

[ChrisGeorge]

Initially, maybe, but I believe the Iraqi resistance will expel them regardless of a strongman or not. The Americans have become the most hated of the occupiers and even the most moderate Iraqi want them out. A look at BBC and Canadian TV news broadcasts shows the depth of feeling against the US occupiers by the "ordinary" Iraqis. US TV news broadcasts are highly sanitized and the average American are receiving a false picture. The US military are the most powerful on the planet, from 35,000 feet and a thousand miles at sea. Face to face with a highly motivated enemy on it's own turf, the GI is just another enemy soldier and not a superman.

Hi Sloyne

I agree that the average American is being misled as to the nature of the situation in Iraq. The American public has been fed the line by Bush and Co. that it is mainly a war against Al Queda and the people who attacked the World Trade Center. They are not being told that the U.S. is trapped in an unwinnable civil war. I also agree that there is a myth about the invincibility of the U.S. armed forces. In this situation, they can't win because they are fighting an undefined enemy in a hostile country.

Chris

[Sloyne]

I agree that the average American is being misled as to the nature of the situation in Iraq. The American public has been fed the line by Bush and Co. that it is mainly a war against Al Queda and the people who attacked the World Trade Center. They are not being told that the U.S. is trapped in an unwinnable civil war. I also agree that there is a myth about the invincibility of the U.S. armed forces. In this situation, they can't win because they are fighting an undefined enemy in a hostile country.

The blueprint for this war was drawn up in Korea and has been followed, with only slight modification, everywhere the US has invaded since Korea. The US seems to be a prisoner of it's own propaganda when it comes to military action. An often used, but failed, tactic is that of pacification and the British experience in Malaya is often held up as a shining example of this tactic, forgetting of course that the British were fighting Chinese communist "insurgents" and not native Malayans. The majority of the native population in Malaya, Muslims, where as averse to communism, no matter what stripe, as were the British capitalists. This, and this fact alone, led to the success of the pacification policy.

US foreign policy has been, for the most part, a disaster ever since the Monroe Doctrine declaration. The only thing American foreign policy seems to accomplish is the fostering and festering of long term hatred of that country and, by extension, it's citizens. Who would blame Syrians, Lebanese, Sudanese, Saudis, etc hating Americans. It is the US that keeps despotic dictators, like the Saudi Royal family, in power and bombs them from 30,000 feet and sends cruise missiles from a thousand miles at sea. And when they do happen to dislodge a dictator, like the Iranians did the Shah in 1948, the US CIA returns him to the throne to continue his despotic rule. The same can be said for the countries of the Caribbean, Central and South America. The US kept despotic criminals in power for the sake of the investments of United Fruit, IT&T and ALCOA. They, the US, are doing the same in the Middle East for Israel, Exxon-Mobil, Texaco et al. Who was it who said; "What you shall sow, so shall you reap"?

[AK1]

I have a genuine belief that if the U.S. wasn't involved in this war, then everyone would be in a much better position today. They might have one of the biggest military forces in the world but they are poorly trained compared to other countries and their foreign policy is awful. They will only get involved in a conflict if it directly threatens America or will have some sort of benefit to them, as was the case in WW2.
I think that Europe and other countries should take control of the situation in the middle east with the U.S. taking a back seat, although I can't see this happening. They make situations worse with their trigger happy nature and fail to realise that shooting at everything doesn't solve problems, it creates them.
They have a very out dated military in terms of it's size. There is no need for huge military's in todays world as terrorism is the main threat to a country not invasion.They focus too much on quantity and not quality. Small agile forces and technology are the way forward.

[Sloyne]

There is no need for huge military's in todays world as terrorism is the main threat to a country not invasion.They focus too much on quantity and not quality. Small agile forces and technology are the way forward.

Staying out of other peoples business, not supporting despots and dictators, attending to the interests and needs of ones own average citizen and not just the powerful wealthy few with special interests would, in my opinion, go a long way in combating terrorism. Solve the root cause of terrorism and you won't have terrorism or, you won't have it on the scale we have today. Just look at the Northern Irish situation, who would have thought a decade ago that we would now have a coalition in Stormont and, uneasy though it is, peace in the province? The catholic grievances have been, to a certain extent, answered satisfactory.

It is more complex in the Middle East with the Israeli situation, and the Wests slavish compliance with Israeli and US dictats for the region, at the root problem but, IMHO, it can be done and should be done.

[snappel]

Staying out of other peoples business, not supporting despots and dictators, attending to the interests and needs of ones own average citizen and not just the powerful wealthy few with special interests would, in my opinion, go a long way in combating terrorism.

Yes, but you'd still have terrorism and jihad. Besides, would you trust countries that support suicide bombings to have nuclear weapons? Or are you suggesting that if we (UK and US) weren't so offensive then they wouldn't need them?

[Sloyne]

Yes, but you'd still have terrorism and jihad. Besides, would you trust countries that support suicide bombings to have nuclear weapons? Or are you suggesting that if we (UK and US) weren't so offensive then they wouldn't need them?

I am saying if you are a bully and bullying me, then yes, I will take measures to protect myself. And yes, the US want's to be the only nation with nuclear weapons. Israel, Pakistan, India, North Korea, China, Russia, United Kingdom and France have nuclear weapons, they, the US, are the only ones to date who have used these weapons in anger. That is a fact.

[marie]

I see that nobody thinks like I, nobody thinks that they also are victims...

military intelligence is a contradiction in terms
- Groucho Marx

[Bevy]

Breaking news

[kat2]

Dam NHS, I will never trust another doctor again
that one certainly looks dodgey ** I didnt even know he was dead.
kat
springing up all over the place now!
next it will be the dentists *ewwwwww*
lookout for the tooth fairy too *eeeeeeww*
dam paranoia..