h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Communism is rule by the people, not by a small group who come out of nowhere and decide that they know best. That's the way the USA is ruled, and we all know that Joe McCarthy was an American.

Clinton's little "wag the dog adventure" was only a cruise missile strike, he really was afraid of ground warfare. Look at the mess he made of Somalia.
Blickey we went to Afghanistan over Bin Laden because that was were he was living. Iraq, it was enevitable, unless we were simply going to play ring around the sanctions with him until he finally died of natural causes. If the previous 12 years had no effect I doubt he woul have changed much.
I do however, agree that something should be down about Saudi. I think that you have it backwards. The Saudi's don't put up with us because they need us, we put up with them because we need them. Between the strategic need for bases in a somewhat friendly country to the massive amount of money th Sauds spend in the US we were willing to take a lot of crap.
Della, I have not yet actually ever been able to getting around to reading Rand's work but I am hoping to make it to a bookstore after I get home.
Maths- communism is really good on paper, but it ends there. Look to the practical examples.

Glad to see you've recovered Flip. I've seen your service record.
Your a modest soldier!

"communism is really good on paper, but it ends there. Look to the practical examples."

What practical examples. There haven't actually been any. Only totalitarianism parading as communism.

How to confuse an American: Put him in the oval office and tell him to piss in the corner.

Flip

Reading your record I see you dropped out of a combined physical sciences scholarship at MIT.

Given that you have some knowledge of specialized ordnance..WMDs..could you enlighten us, without breaching your security ticket, as to what you personally have witnessed as regarding the aforesaid ordnance.


Empty...is there a call to be vulgar?

Please!

My dear Oetzi, you are either insanely clever or cleverly insane, either way it is much better than the whacked out ranting crazy of someone else on these pages. You actually had me going for a minute about the service record with the recovery line. "Twas but a flesh wound" my friend

"What practical examples. There haven't actually been any. Only totalitarianism parading as communism."

That is a practical example. The human race is incapable of actually being unselfish. Greed and self-interest comes far too naturally to us to participate in communism. Or socialism. It works on a small scale, but once you transfer it to large populations, it collapses. Psychologically, we are built to care about what happens to those around us. Not on such a large scale as whole countries.

I Agree!

I'm with you Abbi!

Sat: Its impossible to examine communism as it is stated in action because there has never been a single instance where a communist nation has not been deliberately destabilised from within by adherents to the previous regime and/or has not been beseiged by other nations. Sometimes this includes other nations that are also communist.

Communism cant really work if it is stretched by devoting resources to unproductive military stockpiles and personnel.



Flip: You went to Afghanistan to install a puppet government and as a dishonest justification for then taking to the War on Terror to just about anywhere Bush sends you guys.

How about pushing for better rights for women and democracy in Saudi, your Government wont do that as long as it makes financial sense to keep the royals their sweet. The Royal family who run the place wont turf you out or upset you by openly supporting its neighbours because it knows it needs your muscle to maintain the favourable statusquo.

I didnt have it backwards, I only stated one side of the argument. The US and Saudi governments are quite happy scratching each others backs.

As long as its "mutually" beneficial, but look what happened when they didnt need Noriega anymore.

Who's Noriega Blick...I'm lost there..excuse me.

Women have better rights in Afganistan now blicky...so are you saying we should invade Saudi Arabia?!?

dave

Try this OO: http://www.wakeupmag.co.uk/articles/ciadrugscenamer.htm

OK thats a bit over the top maybe. How about.

1983 - Former intelligence chief and one-time US Central Intelligence Agency informant Manuel Noriega becomes head of the National Guard, builds up the size of the force, which he renames the Panama Defence Forces, and greatly increases its power over Panama's political and economic life.

2000: No parole for Noriega
1988 - US charges Noriega with drug smuggling; Noriega declares state of emergency in the wake of a failed coup.

1989 - Opposition wins parliamentary elections, but Noriega declares results invalid. Noriega declares "state of war" in the face of increased threats by Washington. US invades Panama, ousts Noriega and replaces him with Guillermo Endara.

1991 - Parliament approves constitutional reforms, including abolition of standing army; privatisation begins.

1992 - US court finds Noriega guilty of drug offences and sentences him to 40 years imprisonment, to be served in a US prison.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/685974.stm

Does that remind you of another leader who Bush senior while in the CIA helped into power then had to have his wrists smacked by the Republicans for being a naughty boy?

Blicky I agree with you about Saudi Arabia, "something" needs to be done. Their human rights record is atrocious. You list Noriega as a sometime informant in 1983, how does that make the US responsible for what he did in 1989? Is it possible that instead of arresting him when he became "inconvienant" it was done when he turned from informant to criminal?

Thanks for the link..I had no knowledge of that.

Blicky

"The US has a constitution based on religious codes. It persecutes minorities and passes all its religiously biased laws through its government"

And I thought there was seperation of church and state. We're the ones with the state church and Christian religious services in schools required by law. On this issue at least I'd have said the US was doing OK (although give Bush time).

You want to read Rand? Get the stakes, the garlic and the crucifix ready.

I'd like to think, Saturnine, that socialism might be viable - with the right population, of the right size. (Four million, say?)

[BC]

Maths Guru

"Communism is rule by the people, not by a small group who came out of nowhere and decide that they know best".

Except to a Marxist-Leninist Communist it is rule by a small group of people who come out of nowhere and decide that they know best. Thats why they're called vanguard parties.

Now socialism is a different matter. Good luck with that Della. We used to have a socialist party in the UK but some guy called Tony borrowed it and hasn't given it back.