Have you stopped beating your wife?

[Michael Tee]

BT raised a great have you stopped? question with is "Is violent radical Islam worth stopping in its tracks?" 

I'll bet somewhere in the Middle East, an Islamic BT is asking his wavering friends if violent American militarism is worth stopping in its tracks.

I like the question, I like the technique.

Is violent gangsta rappin worth stopping in its tracks?  It's "violent" that makes the whole thing work of course, and it's gotta have a minimal level of credibility.  "Violent" gangsta rap is unconvincing.  It isn't violent enough.  "Violent" radical Islam needs some associations to cement the relationship; car-bombing is good.  What's good about car-bombing is that it's basically anarchic, anyone can do it without government approval or financing, whereas it takes a whole government to fund an airstrike or a naval bombardment.  If a government is behind the carnage, it's subliminally OK, daddy has approved it, whereas the car-bomber, shit, now that's one scary dude, the out-of-control id in action, the free agent.

[Lanya]

Is violent nuclear bombing worth stopping in its tracks, in the Cold War era?

I think the answer to this was yes, but.

Yes, but let's do it with spies, diplomacy, the Voice of America, movies, movie stars.  We didn't push it on them, we simply were America.     We made the enemy  want to come here by the thousands, and so...
the Berlin Wall fell, and the USSR dissolved.   We didn't fight all those countries.  We had blue jeans, Elvis, and Marilyn Monroe, freedom, a land of plenty, and a good life.  We had more language training, more science and math instruction, etc. 

Now?  "Go shopping." 

[BT]

Is violent nuclear bombing worth stopping in its tracks, in the Cold War era?

You act like the cold war was peaceful.

Have you forgotten Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, The Berlin Blockade, Czech Spring, the Hungaraian Revolt, Angola and countless other flare ups?

[Lanya]

No, I hadn't forgotten those (well, I didn't forget ALL of them, Angola I did forget).

Think of all the countries that were Communist-dominated at that time. 

How many did we go to war with?   

That was my point.   

[Plane]

No, I hadn't forgotten those (well, I didn't forget ALL of them, Angola I did forget).

Think of all the countries that were Communist-dominated at that time. 

How many did we go to war with?   

That was my point.   

Nearly half .