Journalism vs Advocacy

[Plane]

Which you also know jack-shit about.  What you call "appeasement," the British call stalling for time, during which they tried desperately to catch up to Germany's rearmament.  Meantime we took on Hitler two years before you did, and you still didn't have the balls to declare war on Nazi Germany till after Hitler was forced to declare war on you.  Had it not been for Pearl Harbor, your "freedom-loving" nation of fence-sitters would have sat out the whole of WWII, leaving it to the REAL guardians of freedom, the U.S.S.R. and the British Empire, to liquidate the Nazis on their own.

Of corse Stalin was so smart that he assisted the German Army to circumvent the Versailles treaty and build planes and tanks on Russian territory.

Stalin did a good job guarding the freedom of the Finns .

And best of all he killed more than half of his officer corps , starting with the most competant.

In a Democracy you have to at least be tricky enough to fool most of the people for a while , the advantage of being a dictator is that you don't need to be smarter than your opposition at all , you just need to be more frightening.

Stalin demonstrates this principal , he was stupid as a bag of hammers , but the Soviets who produce just as many geniuses as anyu other nation were stuck with him.

[Plane]

<< history on what my great nation has done for freedom around the world . . . >>

Yeah, more bullshit.  Tell it to the Vietnamese.  Tell it to the Chileans, and the Salavadorans and the Guatemalans and the Indonesians and the Iraqis. 

What we are Gods?

We should never fail?We should never try?

Tell this to the French , Japanese , Poles , Norwegians ,Koreans, British , Italians , Iraqis , Kuwaitis , Granadians , Belgins , Checks , etc. etc. etc...

If we succeed terrific , where we fail we loose and so do the people we are trying to help.

Tell the Vietnamese that they are better off with two million dead to defend Communism , an idea that would last about two more decades before it ran out of steam. They fought harder than hardly anyone else in history , for a victory that is as it turns out , entirely pyrrhic.

[Michael Tee]

<<Tell the Vietnamese that they are better off with two million dead to defend Communism , an idea that would last about two more decades before it ran out of steam. >>

You obviously have no concept of what it's like to see your children or wife burned alive in napalm or white phosphorus in your own home, or to find their tortured and mutilated bodies after the agents of Operation Phoenix did what they did, but I'd really like YOU to tell one of the survivors, to his face, how much better off he is for the experience.  Maybe you'd learn something.   Although, somehow, in my heart of hearts, I sincerely doubt that you would.

<<They fought harder than hardly anyone else in history , for a victory that is as it turns out , entirely pyrrhic.>>

The God of Battles doesn't award victories with a non-Pyrrhic guarantee written in.  Life brings what it brings.  The most important thing to remember is that they won.  And against what odds.  When I think of all the events that I witnessed in my lifetime, that victory is one of the most inspiring and uplifting.

[Plane]

<<Tell the Vietnamese that they are better off with two million dead to defend Communism , an idea that would last about two more decades before it ran out of steam. >>

You obviously have no concept of what it's like to see your children or wife burned alive in napalm or white phosphorus in your own home, or to find their tortured and mutilated bodies after the agents of Operation Phoenix did what they did, but I'd really like YOU to tell one of the survivors, to his face, how much better off he is for the experience.  Maybe you'd learn something.   Although, somehow, in my heart of hearts, I sincerely doubt that you would.

<<They fought harder than hardly anyone else in history , for a victory that is as it turns out , entirely pyrrhic.>>

The God of Battles doesn't award victories with a non-Phyrric guarantee written in.  Life brings what it brings.  The most important thing to remember is that they won.  And against what odds.  When I think of all the events that I witnessed in my lifetime, that victory is one of the most inspiring and uplifting.

The inspirition and uplift that you felt, is a lousy trade for the least one of those who died for a dead prize.

Communism had to be resisted , in terms of the world wide struggle the battle of Vietnam was a lost battle that cost the winners too much and the battle of Afganistan was a loss that cost them even worse.

Soon after the fall of the evil empire we had a short period that Reagan predicted , the "peace dividend" the US reduced its military power by a third and the economy of all the world benefited as almost all nations sold us more stuff. If Communism had collapsed sooner the peace could have happened sooner.

I wish it couold have lasted longer before a nutzy Saudi decided that he could cobble up a threat worse than the Soviet Union.

[Michael Tee]

<<The inspirition and uplift that you felt, is a lousy trade for the least one of those who died for a dead prize.

<<Communism had to be resisted , in terms of the world wide struggle the battle of Vietnam was a lost battle that cost the winners too much and the battle of Afganistan was a loss that cost them even worse.

<<Soon after the fall of the evil empire we had a short period that Reagan predicted , the "peace dividend" the US reduced its military power by a third and the economy of all the world benefited as almost all nations sold us more stuff. If Communism had collapsed sooner the peace could have happened sooner.

<<I wish it couold have lasted longer before a nutzy Saudi decided that he could cobble up a threat worse than the Soviet Union.>>

I think your problem is that you are able to put the blame for everything that goes wrong in the world on everyone but yourselves.  Since your country is the world bully and aggressor, it means that you engage in a wide-ranging game of blaming the victims of your aggression.  The "evil Empire" of course is the Soviet one, not the ring of U.S. bases circling the world, with puppet states supported by torture and terror as well.  The "nutzy Saudi" is the problem, the Israeli expansion and 40-year occupation of the West Bank doesn't even figure in.

You are a perfect example of what Jesus meant when he advised some schmuck to stop looking for motes in other people's eyes and deal with the "log" in his own.  But of course, you'd never admit to that.

[Plane]

You are a perfect example of what Jesus meant when he advised some schmuck to stop looking for motes in other people's eyes and deal with the "log" in his own.  But of course, you'd never admit to that.

No one who uses this parable shoud fail to have the humility to admit that it can apply to self.

[Plane]

I think your problem is that you are able to put the blame for everything that goes wrong in the world on everyone but yourselves. 

  This is certainly not worse than blameing all problems on the USA.

The Soviets lost their bid to rule the world , did their collapse benefit no one?


If the Free world had collaped instead , I don't think that an era of peace woould have resulted , not even a small short one. The consolidation of power in few hands is the hidden theme of Communism and this is accomplished with bloodshead.

But we win , and the violence level drops off , who would have thunkit?

[Michael Tee]

<<No one who uses this parable shoud fail to have the humility to admit that it can apply to self.>>

The parable is not meant to apply to everyone.  Some people go around pointing their fingers at everyone but themselves and others don't.

In your case you were blaming America's victims - - the VC were the cause of Viet Nam's suffering (although they hadn't invaded America, America had invaded them!) just as the Afghans are responsible for the suffering of Afghanistan (although, again , it was the U.S. that invaded Afghanistan and not the other way round,) the Cold War was the fault of the Soviets - - even though, with regard to Poland, they were only exercising their Yalta rights, agreed to by the Allied Powers at Yalta, and their occupation of most of the rest of Eastern Europe was merely theirs by right of conquest after those countries had invaded them first, the Middle East turmoil is all due to one "nutzy Saudi" and is not related in any way to your perpetual interference in the internal affairs of regional governments, enabling the Israelis to occupy the West Bank for 40 years, subsidizing the Egyptian and Jordanian torture states, overthrowing elected governments and invading Muslim lands. 

You are the perfect object of the parable - - pointing your finger everywhere and ignoring your own country's many, many, many faults.

[Plane]

<<No one who uses this parable shoud fail to have the humility to admit that it can apply to self.>>

The parable is not meant to apply to everyone.  Some people go around pointing their fingers at everyone but themselves and others don't.

Yes ... tell me about it.

[Michael Tee]

<<Yes ... tell me about it.>>

??  I just DID.

[Plane]

<<Yes ... tell me about it.>>

??  I just DID.

So did I but I was listening.

[Michael Tee]

<<So did I but I was listening.>>

Obviously not.  If you HAD been listening, you would have been forced to admit that the parable fit you to a T.    There is no way out for you.

[Plane]

<<So did I but I was listening.>>

Obviously not.  If you HAD been listening, you would have been forced to admit that the parable fit you to a T.    There is no way out for you.

You escape the weight of the parable in what way?

[Michael Tee]

<<You escape the weight of the parable in what way?>>

That's a no-brainer.

I put the blame for wars of unprovoked aggression, violently overthrowing democratically elected governments, sponsoring torture states and death squads around the world, torturing prisoners directly and/or by proxy and lying about why they go to war all squarely where it belongs:  on the U.S.A.

It's a "mote" that I don't happen to have in my own eyes.

I'll make this real easy for you:  the parable targets hypocrites who denounce others for doing exactly what they do themselves; it does NOT target good guys with clean hands who denounce real-life liars, rapists, torturers and murderers.

[BT]

When did Czechoslavakia invade the USSR?

How about Hungary?

Yugoslavia?

Albania?

Romania?