Not to be alarmist or anything, but doesn’t this ensuing series of developments arising from the Russian invasion of Georgia bear an awfully striking resemblance to what used to be known as “escalation”? In practical, nuts & bolts terms, the……

It’s the first step to replacing it with something decent.
alphie on August 14, 2008 at 12:15 AM

Define “something decent.”

Send_Me on August 14, 2008 at 12:26 AM

Perhaps a true republic instead of the half-baked morass of a ‘democratic’ oligopoly we have now?

I know that Congress would have to declare war before little Bush could send our troops into the Russian buzz saw…
alphie on August 13, 2008 at 10:57 PM

The Russian buzz saw would be broken by the steel of the USMC, U.S. Army and the USAF. Nuff said.

Hey folks: let’s have an agreement.

In all threads he appears in, DO NOT FEED THE TROLL!!

You all know who I am talking about.

Hard to do, I know, but let’s give it a shot.

pseudonominus on August 14, 2008 at 11:03 AM

ooh, ooh, I just had an epiphany:
any chance the troll is AP trying to get post counts up?
hehehe

I really give a F***** for other counties.

foxone on August 13, 2008 at 10:36 PM

I don’t but I’m just smart enough (barely) to realize that what happens to them eventually impacts us.

Aww, gee, Dad…yeah, I guess you’re right…I’ll try…really…

(shuffling out of the romm, head hanging…shoulders drooped…)

[it is just that the one of whom we must not speak is such an inviting target....]

Hard to do, I know, but let’s give it a shot.

Why don’t you do yourself a favour and shut your fucking mouth. You’re so out of your element, I’m embarrassed for you. You’ve proved yourself ignorant on every topic you’ve attempted to tackle.

This goes for the rest of you pansy ass, Liberal douchebags throwing around the word ‘Chickenhawke’ too. I sincerely hope your ass gets drafted in the next major conflict with these warmongering, communist fascists.

Good day.

VERY demoralizing article

MB4 on August 14, 2008 at 3:38 AM

Yipes. Sometimes the truth does hurt.

Yeah, I suppose your team looks pretty formidable…if you think 50+ years of mowing down helpless civs and invading tiny countries is the measuring stick for such things.

SuperCool on August 14, 2008 at 2:34 AM

Ya, they really look formidable.

…send our troops into the Russian buzz saw…

alphie on August 13, 2008 at 10:57 PM

LOLZ!

Oh…that right there is simply precious.

Russian “buzz saw”…lessee what Ivan’s track record has been since “<The Great Eastern European Land Grab Patriotic War”:

Murdered or consigned to death millions of POWs and civillians from Eastern Europe and Germany while consolidating power over their lands.

Attempting to starve and freeze German civillians to death in Berlin with a blockade.

Murder of Hungarian civs in ’58.

Murder of Czech civs in ’68.

Served as the Politburo’s apparatus of mass murder for 40 odd years.

Failed invasion of Afghanistan.

Grueling war in Chechneya with no end in sight.

Invasion of Georgia whilst most of their combat troops were out of the country.

Yeah, I suppose your team looks pretty formidable…if you think 50+ years of mowing down helpless civs and invading tiny countries is the measuring stick for such things.

It’s the first step to replacing it with something decent.

alphie on August 14, 2008 at 12:15 AM

Do you want full blown communism or communism light? In what part of Russia do you live?

I know what you describe coldwarrior – had a three-star general as a neighbor, for many years. I was his best bud, one of few women he liked and respected, this from his wife, precisely because I respected his rank and asked him often to tell stories from years past. I visited him in the hospital to his dying days. He was a grump but I knew how to reach his dark soul. To this day I miss him terribly. He was the armed guard I never had to pay for. Not even rats moved without his inquiry as of who they were, and what their purpose for being there was.

However, the story of Powell is different and we’ll discuss more in other threads, related directly to him. I know there was on on HA today, but the Georgia topi had me more fascinated, and is way more important now.

Glad you linked, though. Small great progress :)

Good night all, warriors, and peacenicks, alike. Don’t let the bugs bite, and sleep well, so long as we still can.

If your goal is to bring peace to the world, it helps to start with a quarter of the world’s population is why, send.

That, and unlike America, they can pay for whatever missions that are decided upon.

alphie on August 14, 2008 at 12:59 AM

…oh yeah, your first language is Russian. Silly me.

I think Powell is going thru what a number of senior retired military friends of mine have gone thru, and a lot of my Dad’s friends/military colleagues did as well. [No intent to besmirch ANY retired military officer here. Just a few observations I have made over the years.]

For many, after retirement comes a period of energy and such, followed by a loss of direction, the realization that the military career is over, no one to command, nobody wearing name tags and distinctive rank insignia, not being part of a recognizable structure. (All these cvivilians running around with nobody in charge is a common “complaint.”)

As a group, of those I have witnessed over the years, they tend, after a few years of meeting and entering civilian life, to gravitate toward anyone of energy, who offers a shoulder, if you will, commisseration, or flattery, playing on their outstanding military career, and they can (and many do) fall into a new line of thinking. My Dad went thru it. So did a number of his military friends. [So did General Grant.]

That transition to civilian life after 20-30 years in uniform is a tough row to hoe.

Powell was doing quite well with his Children’s Health Fund and his Smile train and both brought him in contact with a lot of folks with whom he’d never have had reason to associate. This is when he started turning more toward the activism crowd. Here he got recognition that went beyond his military service, this was something he made, with his own hands…and the recognition was only part of it. That new circle of friends was a nother part of it.

The only personal after military observation I ever had of Powell was at a foreign car parts/mechanic place in Northern Virginia. He liked to rebuild old Volvo’s. Anyway, I have no imperical data on Powell’s post-military to civilian trransition, but he cannot be immune to the transititon phenomena that many many in the military once retired go through.

I have to believe his involvement in the Children’s health Fund and Smile Train, pretty awesome causes, and something Powell relished, are at the root of his apparent “endorsement” of Obama, something as of this afternoon, he apparently has denied.

That, and unlike America, they can pay for whatever missions that are decided upon.

Though, it will be much better to include China than to oppose it.
alphie on August 14, 2008 at 12:41 AM

How and why? With what leverage? To what end? What should we be willing to compromise? Is this based upon fear or principle?