The Bush Administration would like you to believe that talking to Iran, to Hamas, to Hezboallah or even to Al Qaeda is a form of weakness, a sign of defeat, that somehow by mere contact the effort is lost.

That is a fallacious lie. One keeps his friends close and his enemies closer. Enemy contact was maintain during the Cold War with Russia abating the Cuban Missile Crisis, during the Vietnam War with Kissinger trying to broker a peace deal with NVA and VC. Even now in Iraq the administration is talking to Sadr Army, The Bader Corps and the various Sheikh and tribals groups that form the fragile Awakening Council keeping peace in the Anbar province.

My belief is that the Bush Administration would like to keep it so because it makes escalation of hostilities so much easier. It's the stupidest fucking shit ever. Imagine if during the Cuban missile crisis, JFK just stopped talking to the Soviets. There would be no USSR, USA, Cuba or much of the world anymore.

What was that bit about Dana Perino and Cuban missile crisis?

Searching for a sift/tube...

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qG_ykXtilo

Russia is not and never was the threat they said it was.

So what, the Cuban missile crisis was all a charade? Soviet and American leaders got together beforehand and were like: "Hey, let's pretend to have a little standoff - you know, kind of get the crowd going a bit." I suppose all their missiles were filled with sawdust and cow parts. World history is pretty much WWE.

I'm curious, when did this start? Was it right after WWII that they had the meeting and worked out the script? Or was WWII part of it too? If so, I have to say that was a good move. Nobody wants to question the made-up history if half the people they know inexplicably died.

a means of taking control of media operations

This is such an insult to the billions of people in countries where the government actually does control media operations. Media here is controlled by money, and money is controlled by attention. This produces certain kinds of flaws in media coverage (like a tendency to support wars that involve hometown boys dying), but it doesn't make the media a government puppet.

Talking to people with views like yours, I quite often get told that I just can't handle the truth or something. I'd say it's just the opposite. To me, the real, scary, hard-to-accept truth is that there isn't a deeper level of reality or motivation to world events.

Despite how scary it seems, the world is shaped by people like Bush - people who got where they are by accidents of fate, and people who are not particularly more qualified than the average restaurant manager. These people don't plan to have a fake rivalry with Russia to subjugate the populace, they think "Oh yeah Russia, you can't mess with us - we'll build twice as many bombs".

They're motivated by fear and doubt and ego - just like the rest of us. Ascribing to them completely different, secret motives (as well as near absolute, behind-the-curtains power) means you'll never understand world history, and that you sacrifice what little influence you could have on your nation's future.

I've mentioned this before, but it seems like in the States now a lot of young people with good ideals are opting out of the political process entirely - because they kind of disbelieve in the whole system. As a consequence, you continue to get the same kind of leaders.

Come back to reality. You're needed!

Oh my GOD. How does that dumb bitch still even have a job?
"I asked him if it was the same thing as the Bay of Pigs"

WTF? Even someone that has NO historical knowledge can figure the answer to that with just a little common sense. Missile Crisis - Cuba probably has missiles pointed at us. BOP invasion - Someone probably invaded a Bay called Bay of pigs.

Amazingly incompetent. Reminds me of a bit I read on the origin of life,(from The Ancestor's Tale, i think) it was about the first replicators, which is thought to be a somewhat amazingly improbable event, but as they say, it only needs to happen once, and given a billion years the very improbable becomes inevitable. The same thing can be said of a nuclear war. All it takes is once. One misunderstanding, one incompetent idiot somewhere, once insane dictator, one apocalyptic religious idea.. once is enough. When you consider how close we came in the Cuba missile crisis, how many years do you think we have left on this planet? We've lived a mere 62 years in a world with nukes. do we get by another 500 years? 200? 50? 10?


Don’t you understand what I’m tryin’ to say
Can’t you feel the fears I’m feelin’ today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ away
There’ll be no one to save, with the world in a grave
[Take a look around ya boy, it's bound to scare ya boy]

And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
Ah, you don’t believe
We’re on the eve
of destruction.

Wow QM, that's a nice way of picking historical events to benefit your arguement isn't it? I mean why not throw in 9/11 there as well and call everyone of Islamic stripe evil or perhaps the Crusades? What are you trying to do exactly? Justify why there should be a continued war of misunderstanding lead against the Eastern civilizations of this world? Would it satiate your need if force directives are continuously used by those who claim to be superpowers?

A thorough and unbiased criticism of American military policy post world war 2 would reveal that the goverment ceaselessly exposes itself to risk of blow back due to military and economic intervention. The price to pay is the worldwide indignation and hatred felt by people who feel that there is no way out. And now those who think there is no other way clearly have taken arms, Reagen said himself that one mans terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Such is the black and white thinking the world degrades to with use of force to achieve objectives. What's even funnier is that to you that would seem like some pinko liberal bullshit, when in reality most of the world backed the US post 9/11 and intervention in Afghanistan, support waned only after a policy of military imperialism was carried out with regards to Iraq with power point slides to convince the world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

And mentioning the evils of communism in this day and age when America has actively economic ties with China seems highly hypocritical of your narrow world view. Had we been living in the McCarthy era you would probably support his communist witch hunts as well? Or maybe suggest full scale atomic warfare with USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis? I mean oh my god they are evil communists!!!

You way of thinking leads only to the destruction of the very ideals you claim to so fervently protect. Maybe it's time to reexamine your thinking. But of course that won't happen. Your commentary is hit and run at best. Totally stupid at worst.

I'm glad too,... that we're currently existing thanks to a few individuals who were able to communicate between the soviets and the US government during the Cuban Missile Crisis.