[grandpa]

Quote by: The Black Ghost I would expect that, he wasnt entirely the most popular person. However, he wasnt on the level of other dictators of this time, and actually did do some good things for Pakistan, despite having to rule with the military.

A glowing review if ever there was one.
Meanwhile, a study by the University of Illinois "reckons
that a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would result in 17 million
deaths in Pakistan, and 30 to 35 million in India. The global environmental
impact of such a conflict is the stuff of nightmares."
The scariest show on earth - Asia, World - The Independent

Quote by: The Black Ghost Well, nations have to get their weapons somewhere. You think that they are just throwing weapons around everywhere to whoever pays--this is not the case. Only around 24 countries receive any military weapons from US contractors. There is a very big pile of red tape and paperwork to get through before that though, and there are the obvious political barriers where they cannot sell to countries who probably would use weapons inappropriately--such as to attack civlians or such.

List these 24 countries, please, and preferably in the form
of published statistics. Then face the facts: http://fas.org/programs/ssp/asmp/pub...ort_July17.pdf

There is already more than 24 countries on this list, which is pretty much just a list of top recipients.

Quote by: The Black Ghost Well, while I support you there, I think that ridding the world of all weapons is a bit beyond our abilities. In the meantime, it would hurt our economy even further to shut down or stop these compaines.

Good. We should not have an economy based on war.

Quote by: The Black Ghost Once again, most. I know that there are many historical examples of massive corporate fraud and scheming, certainly we hear enough about that. Most businesses are run legitimately though.

Is this based on some sort of historical analysis, or just wishful thinking? I assume the latter. I mean, do we gotta assume monopolist companies caring solely for profit have our best interests at heart?

Quote by: The Black Ghost I doubt they knew Hitler's intentions either.

They did. Look at the link(s).

Quote by: The Black Ghost Russia is not stopping the US from making any moves. If we wanted to, we could attack Iran all the same, but I dont think thats going to happen. The reason an Iranian invasion is impossible is because we dont have the troops to do it, also because Iran is much stronger than Iraq was.

The point is, while Bush was picking on Iraq on WMD and human rights grounds, the US ally Russia was keen on supporting the very nuclear program that Bush expressed concerns about in Iran. I also suggested that such situations constantly illustrate the folly of power politics.

Quote by: The Black Ghost Which ones?

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, for examples. Our influence in Iran and Iraq is another part of the puzzle, and so is our relationship between the Taliban, which didn't start out quite as rocky as it was made out to look later.

Quote by: The Black Ghost How about: in order to gain freedom, there must be the willingness to accept that there will be sacrafices. We will do everything in our power to prevent them, but it might still happen.

It's not doing "everything you can to prevent them" when you're going out of your way significantly to add to them. Nor is the United States government particularly interested in Iraqi freedom. If it was it wouldn't have sacrificed a huge sum of them.

Quote by: The Black Ghost I consider the Iraqi people just as important as Americans. There is no difference to me--all people on this globe are people just the same. I dont even care about the political reasons that made the war neccessary, I care about the people there.

If you are suddenly now a peace and love guru, and care about people in general, you shouldn't justify the means by which so many are needlessly killed and pretend the US government isn't a major supplier of those means. You might even theorize that this war was not absolutely necessary, but happened due to people like yourself who are almost completely unwilling to characterize the United States in less than glowing terms.

Quote by: The Black Ghost Probably the same people who claimed there had been a million civilian casualties in Iraq without even bothering to get any facts (propaganda).... and in the end the totals were around 150,000. However, the initial made up facts got public sentiment... and that is how false information and myths are born.

"Probably the same people" does not equal "are the same people." Anyway, 150,000 is still quite a high number. To make a rough estimate, that's about 15 times the amount who died on September 11th. Most of these people would not have died had the United States not invaded, just like approximately 3,000 wouldn't have died if hi-jackers hadn't acted upon a day we're all familiar with. Interestingly, if you were to downplay the significance of those 3,000 deaths, some American might slap you around. However, if someone such as yourself -- who supposedly cares about Iraqis as much as Americans -- downplays a figure of 50,000 Iraqi deaths, you'll more than likely gain more than a single of approval. That right there is propaganda, and a false doctrine, at work.


As Mario Savio declared in the mid-60s,
"There’s a time when the operation of the
machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take
part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies
upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus,
and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who
run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will
be prevented from working at all!”
American Rhetoric: Mario Savio - Sproul Hall Sit-In Address