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Nowhere is safe

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Re: Nowhere is safe

#201

Post by kelnos »

firefoxd wrote: post #9

I often see these angles, how we should have prepared better or attacked this instead of that, or the unexpected strategy from the adversary. What about not bombing? The best safety trick the US can use is not bombing others.

It's a lot more than "just" not bombing. We also need to stop meddling in other countries' affairs. 9/11 and the war on terror are a direct result of all of our "nation building" over the prior decades. If we'd left well enough alone, the twin towers would likely still be standing, and we might still be able to bring as many liquids as we want on planes, and see our loved ones off at the gate when they're taking a trip and we're staying behind.

Re: Nowhere is safe

#202

Post by defrost »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #198
krisoft wrote: post #83

> what if the Army could cut and cover 100 meters of precast tunnel segments in a day If you have the precast tunnel segments to do that why wouldn’t you just plop them down on the ground? What benefit does cutting and covering provide? Also how would you protect your construction crew and construction supply chain as they are slowly plodding along 100m a day? Once built, could this cut and cover tunnel be disabled b…

The suggestion from the author sounds like someone early in WWI suggesting the problem with the war effort was a lack of entrenchments to conduct infantry charges from

No, not at all.

It sounds more like somebody from WWI suggesting the entrenchments absolutely _needed_ to be staggered and zig-zagged so that artillery blast shock waves don't kill everbody.

Which was a solid observation.

Now the solid advice is to leave _nothing_ above ground and parked for very long - roll everything .. including radar .. in and out of bunkers to protect assests when wave upon wave of wooden cheap arse semi smart bombs come in on the back of Chinese / Russian / Indian / US satellite targeting.

Re: Nowhere is safe

#203

Post by kelnos »

ACCount37 wrote: post #44
firefoxd wrote: post #9

I often see these angles, how we should have prepared better or attacked this instead of that, or the unexpected strategy from the adversary. What about not bombing? The best safety trick the US can use is not bombing others.

[flagged]

> When the choice is "let Iran have nukes" or "bomb Iran", you bomb Iran every time.

Where's the proof that Iran has, or is even remotely close to having, nukes? I mean, actual proof, not the kind of "proof" that led us to invade Iraq in '03.

> I'm not at all mad at the US government for deciding to get rid of Iran's regime.

Ah, you're one of those people. You probably thought "Team America: World Police" was an instruction manual, and not satire, yeah?

Re: Nowhere is safe

#204

Post by kelnos »

stickfigure wrote: post #180
brandon272 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Difficult to reconcile the justification of current efforts of "Iran can't have nukes" with the unequivocal claims made less than a year ago that Iran's nuclear capabilities had been "obliterated". https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2025/06/irans-nuclear-fa... https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2025/06/sunday-shows-pre...

It's possible for both of these to be true: The leaders of the US are incompetent, and bombing Iran was the right decision. "Even a stopped clock..."

Pretty sure if the leaders are incompetent, it's not gonna be the right decision to bomb anyone. Seeing as that act requires competence as well.

As we're seeing, they're incompetent at waging war against Iran as well.

Re: Nowhere is safe

#205

Post by nradov »

kelnos wrote: post #197
nradov wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism offers a means of dealing with the problem. Workers are free to start their own companies. People can just do things and don't need permission. Henry Ford himself started from nothing.

Your "just" there is doing a lot of work. Don't trivialize the difficulty of starting a company. Most people who start companies and are successful either have some financial backing or reserves already, or they have very little in the way of other responsibilities (like a spouse, children, or elderly family members) to cause them to think twice about living on ramen for years. Yes, there are exceptions, as with ever…

If you try hard enough you can always find a plausible excuse for failure.

Re: Nowhere is safe

#206

Post by DeathArrow »

cladopa wrote: post #120
brianjlogan wrote: post #15

Hmm... Interestingly one does not look at the solutions to de-escalate conflict. Despite the proxy wars we've had a relatively peaceful world since WW1/WW2. Please humor me here, I'm not saying the world is horror free. The emphasis I would hope would also be for improved negotiation tactics, better resource sharing and goal alignment between groups of people. Why is it that we can dream up more conflict but not peac…

Are you American? Because if you are from the country that dominated the world since WWII it feels different than being from the rest of the world. Bretton Woods gave the Americans an "exorbitant privilege" that basically meant the US could live extracting wealth continuously from the rest of the world. Then later the petrodollar system was established. People needed oil, the US would protect the Arabs with its immen…

IMO, invasion of Iraq was to support Israel.

Re: Nowhere is safe

#207

Post by aidenn0 »

AndriyKunitsyn wrote: post #36
jay_kyburz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think handguns in the US has shown that it doesn't work.

Why not? The friendliest people in the US are exactly in the open carry states. NYC on the other hand has the biggest number of jerks per capita I ever seen. (No offence to all nice people from NYC, which there are still plenty.)

My personal experience is that LA has NYC beat on a per-capita basis (and possibly an absolute numbers basis; it has roughly half the population, so it would only need to be double per-capita to "win").

Re: Nowhere is safe

#208

Post by harrall »

brianjlogan wrote: post #15

Hmm... Interestingly one does not look at the solutions to de-escalate conflict. Despite the proxy wars we've had a relatively peaceful world since WW1/WW2. Please humor me here, I'm not saying the world is horror free. The emphasis I would hope would also be for improved negotiation tactics, better resource sharing and goal alignment between groups of people. Why is it that we can dream up more conflict but not peac…

I do not think mural understanding works. It just allows you to merely accept someone, but it doesn’t mean that you want to work with them.

What America pushed after the WW2 was the “American world order” which was primarily “if we can trade, let’s forget about war and make money.” America would sit in the middle, protect shipping routes, provide a stable currency to ease trade, and encourage trade pacts.

Surprisingly, unlike beliefs, religion, language, or almost anything else, wanting to make money is… somewhat universal. It breaks down barriers. Countries wanted to work together and make money from trade. It exploited human materialistic tendencies.

But we are reaching the limits of it.

Re: Nowhere is safe

#209

Post by majormajor »

cladopa wrote: post #120
brianjlogan wrote: post #15

Hmm... Interestingly one does not look at the solutions to de-escalate conflict. Despite the proxy wars we've had a relatively peaceful world since WW1/WW2. Please humor me here, I'm not saying the world is horror free. The emphasis I would hope would also be for improved negotiation tactics, better resource sharing and goal alignment between groups of people. Why is it that we can dream up more conflict but not peac…

Are you American? Because if you are from the country that dominated the world since WWII it feels different than being from the rest of the world. Bretton Woods gave the Americans an "exorbitant privilege" that basically meant the US could live extracting wealth continuously from the rest of the world. Then later the petrodollar system was established. People needed oil, the US would protect the Arabs with its immen…

How does the "petrodollar" exactly prop up the US dollar? The price of a barrel of oil has oscillated quite a bit in dollar terms, so it's not like there's anything like a fixed or artificially-maintained 'exchange rate' there. There's, what, a 10x swing between highest and lowest USD price of oil in the last 10 years alone? The dollar has fluctuated vs other currencies too. I've never fully followed how trading for a dollar just to sell that dollar immediately for oil would only help the USD. It all gets turned into oil quickly, so wouldn't that mostly balance out in how demand for oil then relatively-weakens the dollar against the value of toil itself? The "medium of exchange" need has some effect, but I don't see it by itself driving "store of value." If there was a better store of value for the people selling the oil, what prevents them from swapping out those dollars essentially immediately? And then switch to taking payment in those other things as well?

And "just printing dollars" has well-documented inflationary effects inside the US too.

Re: Nowhere is safe

#210

Post by DeathArrow »

kakacik wrote: post #178
cicko wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the problem is that people in poor countries are finally not starving but not that the person with a chainsaw owns hundreds of billions of dollars?

The problem in my view is, once dirt poor countries that work for nothing in horrible sweatshops to make cheap trinkets skill finally up and entire region moves from horribly poor to just poorish, the not en-vogue parts of the rich world will suffer some decline if they dont adapt and refocus on whats needed now and in near future. Sounds like it matches those 2 regions although I am not that familiar with Toledo sto…

>nothing to do with socialism

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." - Karl Marx

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