31–40 of 72 posts
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It may sound crazy to you, but yes you do actually stand a greater chance of making peace with enemies and therefore reducing attacks from them if you stop shooting at them and bombing them and ask them kindly why they are flying planes into your buildings and then make a good faith effort to address those issues.
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Earlier quoted context omitted.
It may sound crazy to you, but yes you do actually stand a greater chance of making peace with enemies and therefore reducing attacks from them if you stop shooting at them and bombing them and ask them kindly why they are flying planes into your buildings and then make a good faith effort to address those issues.
What do you recommend when dealing with an enemy that isn't interested in your good-faith efforts?
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Well, the US has had 3k or so killed in the past 15 years. In response it killed hundreds of thousands and caused widespread devastation and misery in several foreign wars. These wars created multiple large transnational extremist anti-US movements that now have advanced military equipment, are skilled veterans of war, and are spreading their influence to neighboring countries. Not a great trade.
My country was not involved in attacking other countries. Imagine if a crazy guy in my country uses our nuclear capabilities as an answer? can I justify them?
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My country was not involved in attacking other countries. Imagine if a crazy guy in my country uses our nuclear capabilities as an answer? can I justify them?
No. But would you justify your government if it were to preemptively invade the crazy guy's homeland to stop him from potentially doing something bad?
Remember that Salman Rushdie didn't invade any country.
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What do you recommend when dealing with an enemy that isn't interested in your good-faith efforts?
Then you look at other options. But in this case a good faith effort could resolve the problem very quickly. The people attacking the US aren't really asking for that much. They just want the US to stop sponsoring violence and tyranny in their region.
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Meanwhile, in the course of this "Terrorist Generation" campaign, for Obama to claim, "you know, I'm really worried about terrorists, so I have to to read -- well, they claim they don't read it -- I have to get information about your email, where you are, who you're talking to, what you have on Facebook; I've gotta put that on my big database"... actually, we're moving into a world which was described, pretty accurately I think, by one of the founders of Google... I don't know if you followed the stories about Google Glass?
Well, Google has some new, ridiculous thing, they're marketing glasses which have a small computer on them. So you can be on the internet 24 hours a day, just what you want. It's a way of destroying people, but quite apart from that, this little device has a camera, and presumably, if it doesn't already it will soon have a recorder, which means that everything that's going on around you, goes up on the internet.
Some reporter asked Erich Schmidt, didn't he think this was an invasion of privacy, and his answer was exactly right, comes right out of the Obama administration, he said: "If you're doing anything that you don't want to be on the internet, you shouldn't be doing it." This is a dream that Orwell couldn't have concocted.
We're moving into it, and it's not the only case. If you read the technical journals, there's more stuff coming along. So, for example, right now there are corporations that are concerned about using computers with components made in China, because it's technically possible to build into the hardware devices which will record what the computer is doing and send it to those bad guys. well, the articles don't point out that if the Chinese can do it, we can do it better, and probably are, so it may end up in Obama's database the next time you hit the computer.
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I guess you can scoff about the notion that computer would (need to) have a "recorder", or point out that Glass doesn't record without the user's say so, but still.. considering his age and that it's not his field, that guy is paying more attention to things than many of those geeking out about them. And that Schmidt quote is a smug, idiotic statement; a threat, or should I say, a dare. If he wanted to make a difference and be remembered well, other choices would have been more appropriate for him. Oh well.
There is a practical way to reduce terrorism and make the US and the world safer that won't cost a dime and doesn't require compromises on civil liberties. Stop starting and getting involved in foreign wars, stop supporting the abusive policies of Israel, and stop supporting corrupt and abusive governments around the world. You don't hear much about that option on TV, but it's by far the simplest and best course for…
Really? You had to drag Israel into that? You're aware that the only "abuse" Arabs are actually angry about is the fact that Israel exists at all? I'm an Arab so let me tell you, any stupidity that is committed in the West Bank is overblown by Arabs to delegitimate Israel which is part of Arabs quest to get rid of Israel altogether. They consider the whole of Israel to be occupied territory, this is why whether Israel keeps on building in the West Bank or not is meaningless for peace. They would have to stop building everywhere in Israel, pack up and go somewhere else to end the conflict. This is why many in Israel see the West Bank settlement as a secondary issue when it comes to bringing real peace although they are aware that it's bad for their image...
Vietnam taught U.S. strategists that wars of attrition simply don't work. You'll never kill all of the enemy because every attack creates more enemies than it destroys. In this sense, drone attacks do exactly the opposite of what they're supposed to do. U.S. drones do more for General Atomics than they do for U.S. citizens! Every shot fired generates future business for weapons manufacturers.
The use of drones also sets an ugly precedent. If the U.S. can kill anyone they want, anywhere they want, so too can China or Russia or any other country. Sooner or later that's going to be U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. There will be moral outrage, but no moral high-ground to stand on and no recourse. Just terror.
There is a practical way to reduce terrorism and make the US and the world safer that won't cost a dime and doesn't require compromises on civil liberties. Stop starting and getting involved in foreign wars, stop supporting the abusive policies of Israel, and stop supporting corrupt and abusive governments around the world. You don't hear much about that option on TV, but it's by far the simplest and best course for…
> stop supporting the abusive policies of Israel Really? You had to drag Israel into that? You're aware that the only "abuse" Arabs are actually angry about is the fact that Israel exists at all? I'm an Arab so let me tell you, any stupidity that is committed in the West Bank is overblown by Arabs to delegitimate Israel which is part of Arabs quest to get rid of Israel altogether. They consider the whole of Israel to…
I grew up under a military dictatorship endorsed by the US and I can tell you there are still lots of people very resentful of that support. Reducing foreign intervention is the cheapest way to demotivate potential terrorists.
Unfortunately, doing so now would risk making them believe they won something.
There is a practical way to reduce terrorism and make the US and the world safer that won't cost a dime and doesn't require compromises on civil liberties. Stop starting and getting involved in foreign wars, stop supporting the abusive policies of Israel, and stop supporting corrupt and abusive governments around the world. You don't hear much about that option on TV, but it's by far the simplest and best course for…
> stop supporting the abusive policies of Israel Really? You had to drag Israel into that? You're aware that the only "abuse" Arabs are actually angry about is the fact that Israel exists at all? I'm an Arab so let me tell you, any stupidity that is committed in the West Bank is overblown by Arabs to delegitimate Israel which is part of Arabs quest to get rid of Israel altogether. They consider the whole of Israel to…
America can't just exit from this or other worldwide situation. Isolationism will only make things worse. Ya, we do make mistakes and we could do better, but just disappearing won't bring about any meaningful peace. We can argue all day if its worse for civilians to be killed by drones or the Taliban, but they are still dead.