"Not in my name, Tony, you great war leader you
Terror is still terror, whosoever gets to frame the rules
History's not written by the vanquished or the damned
Now we are Genghis Khan, Lucretia Borghia, Son of Sam
In 1961 they took this child into their home
I wonder what became of them
In the cauldron that was Lebanon
If I could find them now, could I make amends?
How does the story end?"

-- Roger Waters, "Leaving Beirut" (2006)

It's an offensive against Jewish people around the world that anti-Zionist somehow came to equal anti-Semitic. You can be against a political policies of a nation without being against the citizens who people her.

As a side note, it never ceases to amaze me that a literal century later, we're still paying for the sins of World War 1.

(I mention WW1 specifically because of the Balfour Declaration, which laid the seeds for the founding of modern-day Israel. It was signed during the Great War in order to influence Jews to rally to the Allies against the Central Powers, and other geopolitical reasons around the Suez Canal.)

Heh I can understand why you think so. No I was talking Truman. Granted he wasn't as completely unaware as Trump was when he was elected. But he'd only served in the senate for two years before he was pushed in as VP. Note that the VP selection process was really different even though it was only ~70 years ago.

Once he got selected he became president that same year. Instead of working along Roosevelt's post-war plan and he refused to be a part of the grand alliance (meetings between the leaders of the big 3 powers that came out of that war).

Instead he started threatening the USSR with nuclear war if they worked toward developing nuclear weapons or expanded their territory... the so called Truman Doctrine.

He also played a fairly big roll in starting the whole middle eastern mess we're still dealing with to this day. Though that obviously goes back to the political failures after the Great War.

Guy was a dumb-ass who by reports of those around him didn't know WTF he was doing half the time.

Yes...you did...and still do.
Yes, you did say we're in dire straits."A constant slide toward globalism all the while a less better way of life.
Constant strife, sliding towards a ever more debasement humanity and of values clearly promoted in Hollywood, and media. Who is really pushing this agenda".
Yes, you did admit he's unqualified...."This current state of being is a long time in coming not a POTUS Trump fault.. One can argue Trump is not qualified but this was laid at his feet when he took office" if you don't mean that as an admission, you need to study American phrases, perhaps that means something different in Russian.

Most Americans believe in diversity as a positive trait. Most Americans believe in individual freedom and liberty. Most Americans believe corporate personhood is a horrendous idea that destroyed our political system. If most of America didn't enjoy what Hollywood produces, why are they still buying it?
Granted, adult programs exist. As a parent, it's your responsibility to monitor what your kids watch, not mine. I don't have to go without adult programming because you suck as a parent. Ratings and child locks make it easy as hell for you, but still you whine. (What's your cure? Regulating entertainment to allow pg-13 at most?)
Hyper violence is as American as Apple pie, has been since the great war (ww1) if not our inception.

Is he the only one, far from it. Is he the worst offender, lying about everything, incapable of honesty on any topic, with multiple admitted felons committing treasonous crimes as part of his administration? Clearly. Is he even trying to be honest and give Americans real information, or is he outright boldly lying about tripling the deficit for personal gain. Hint...it's the latter.

Edit: Politicians and police are allowed to lie? Talk about debasement of humanity and values....geez. Only allowed to lie by people like you, not me. Liars are liars, not to be trusted again, not to be handed more power, and are undeserving of respect or acceptance. There's a big difference between lying and mistakes. People who unintentionally make misstatements, then correct them may not be liars. Trump is a proud, intentional, pathological liar, and not even a good one, so intelligent people stopped listening to him long ago, it's just a waste of time. Sadly, that includes our recent allies, who are turning their backs on us in droves. Even you cannot be so delusional or dishonest as to make a case that this is good for America or the globe, or something any rational parent would teach their children is proper behavior....but you are. I hope your kids learn the lesson you're teaching, that it's fine to lie if it helps you get what you want, and the next 7+ years are full of bold lies, unfulfilled promises, and excuses for why your kids are now teenage junkie parents with disdain for civility.

*promote amazing historic footage. almost all in that video either very old or no longer with us. They fought in or participated in the great wars. This was an age of innocence, before man committed so many crimes in the act of war. amazing. inspirational.

If masturbation is the Great War then my bedroom was Hiroshima when I was in high school.

I know that porn addiction is a real thing and can be a serious problem. But this video is just awful. The comparison they try to make is hilarious. Who is the "enemy"? What is the battlefield? What is the "Great War"? What strategies are they speaking of?

And another thing, I don't hear the words porn or addiction once in this video. Or anything specific in that matter. They don't even say what they want to say, without using horrible comparisons that make no sense. They want to convince someone to talk about his problems, but they don't have the guts to name the problem itself. And that doesn't give the impression that they are actually capable at all to talk about this topic.

What I like is the subtle metaphor for the "Great War".

The Great War of October 23, 2077.

>> ^ChairmanDrew:

>> ^FlowersInHisHair:
At least WW2 shooters give you a conflict you can justify being a part of.

Ah yes... A great war it was...
Well, you know what I mean!

You'll find no argument from me about whether our government has been rattling the hornets nest over there for some time. However, I don't place the blame for Muslim outrage on America, or the KGB, I place the blame on Islam. The reason they are so stirred up is because their religion teaches them to hate Jews, Christians, and anyone else who isn't a Muslim. In their eyes we are all the devil and need to be destroyed, or subjugated.

What's going on in the middle east right now, specifically in Iran, cannot be understood unless it is seen through the lens of their particular eschatology (beliefs about the end times). What the Iranians believe is that the coming of their Messiah, called the Mahdi, or the 12th Imam, is imminent. They believe what ushers in the Mahdis return is a series of great wars at the end of time. They also believe that Iran will be the spark to that flame. This is what Irans top general said recently:

"With having the treasure of the Holy Defense, Valayat (Guardianship of the Jurist) and martyrs, we are ready for a big war Of course this confrontation has always continued; however, since we are in the era of The Coming, this war will be a significant war

The Islamic republic is going to create a new environment on the world stage, and without a doubt victory awaits those who continue the path of martyrs. … we can defeat the enemy at its home and our nation is ready for jihad. Martyrdom has taught us to avoid wrong paths and return to the right path. Martyrdom is the right path, it’s the path to God"

http://glblgeopolitics.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/iran-official-big-war-means-mahdis-coming/

So what you have here, essentially, is a doomsday cult looking to acquire a nuclear weapon so that they can start a global war to usher in the coming of their Messiah. They believe that their Messiah will subjugate every nation under Islam and bring about worldwide sharia law.

So, everyone who thinks that the middle east is a problem we can straighten out with diplomacy, or instituting democratic reforms, is extremely foolish. It's the same with these sanctions; Iran is not going to break or change their mind. Their top general stated it in very clear terms; that they believe martyrdom is the only true path to God. It is reported that their leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, ascends to the sky (in the spirit) once a year to meet with the Mahdi, and that the Mahdi ordered him to continue the nuclear program because it would be what facilitates his coming.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/01/iran-preparing-now-for-armageddon/

If you look at Ahmadinejad's speech to the UN last week, it was all about the soon coming of the Mahdi:

http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/exclusive-ahmadinejad-gives-most-detailed-explanation-of-twelfth-imam-to-date-says-mahdi-will-soon-re
ign-over-whole-world/

This is why our policies in the Mideast fail again and again. Everything we try to do there ends up creating the exact opposite effect. Even when they themselves overthrow repressive governments, they end up electing even more repressive governments. It's not a problem we can solve. This is the way things are headed, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Their Messiah is most likely our Antichrist and regardless of how it all comes about, the end result was predicted over 2000 years ago;

There will be a one world government, one world economy and one world religion, with the Antichrist at the head. There will be some kind of global calamity in the near future, such as an economic crisis, or perhaps a war, involving Israel, and that is when the Antichrist will enter the world stage. He will come preaching peace and safety, and will head off the calamity by establishing a 7 year peace treaty between Israel and the rest of the world. At around the 3.5 year mark the Antichrist will take off his mask and declare himself to be God, and cause the entire world to worship him. Anyone who doesn't know Jesus Christ at this time will follow the antichrist. Anyone who takes the mark of the beast will be eternally condemned. If you're curious about what the mark of the beast is, it will probably be something like this:



The purpose of the mark is to control who can buy and sell. Anyone without the mark will be unable to participate in the economic system.

Don't count on believing later, or that you won't be deceived into taking the mark, because it will be under threat of death. Today is the day of salvation, so do not harden your heart because He is calling to you. The fact is that He loves you and is knocking on your door:

Revelation 3:20

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

>> ^Stormsinger:

The problem with that claim is that the animosity goes back well before Pacepa's time. We overthrew the elected government of Iran in 1953, because they were threatening oil company profits. By 1967, the KGB was doing very little except throwing gasoline on a fire we'd already started and built up to four alarm status. It's not reasonable to try and put the blame on the KGB...it clearly belongs on our own government agencies, which have proven over and over again to be extremely shortsighted and unwilling to accept any ethical boundaries.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'john green, crash course, wwi, cynicism' to 'john green, crash course, wwi, first world war, great war, 1914, 1918, cynicism' - edited by calvados

As a partial answer to myself, I found this showing that indeed, Iraq did, at least to this point, cost more than the Stan. I guess that does make since as there was an actual army that needed killing there and an entire urban warfare scene that got out of control. In my reading, though, it does talk about logistics being a MAJOR problem in the Stan. For every dollar you want to spend there, you have to spend even more dollars to get that money on the ground...more so than Iraq which is just a drive up the road from Kuwait. Which means that out of that 400 billion spent on the Stan, much less of that money was spent on actually fighting than in Iraq, the Stan is a very ineffective war in comparison. Like Napoleon invading Russia, or the Soviet Union in.... Afghanistan (sigh), this is a great war to spend lots of money doing very little. On a positive note, I guess, this is the last spinning war plate. Well, that is until we decide to hurl missiles at some other person we don't like, in the name of freedom of course.

on a quite interesting tangent, this question reminded me of one of my favorite movie quotes. it's from Three Days of the Condor. a brief exchange between John Houseman and Cliff Robertson, who just died a few days ago btw.

[Wabash talks about his entry into the US intelligence field]
Wabash: I go even further back than that. Ten years after The Great War, as we used to call it. Before we knew enough to number them.
Higgins: You miss that kind of action, sir?
Wabash: No. I miss that kind of clarity.