I'm going to make an interesting hypothesis here

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Combwork

Was it? For all it's faults Iraq was a secular country that as long as politics and protest didn't go beyond a certain point, allowed the population to pretty much do is it liked; women wearing fashionable clothes and driving cars etc.

Compare that to now; far from being a barrier between Iran and the rest of the world it looks like it's becoming part of it, at least as far as religion goes. We went in there all guns blazing, destroyed the infrastructure, disbanded the police and the entire military, then expected some kind of cloned Western democracy to grow from the ruins. What the hell were we playing at?

Well, the Middle East is the ultimate tar baby. I can see a certain amount of logic applied to what the Bush Administration has attempted to do over there, war is simply diplomacy by other means. Perhaps too ambitious, perhaps not ambitious enough. Germany and Japan didn't show up at the table with their hats in their hands until they got their asses kicked up between their shoulder blades. Been our buddies every since.

Hell, the Muslims and the Christians have only been slugging it out for about a thousand years. Then the powers that be gave Palestine to the Jews. Talk about adding a wild card to a hot game!!!

Shoulda give the Jews Mexico. They would've cleaned the place up and made it prosperous, and in short order. I like 'em, they're tough nuts.

Back to the Middle East. We need 'em, they got the oil. Now we can talk to them, shoot 'em up, don't too much matter what is done, we're still gonna be a loggerheads with 'em for another thousand years. Until we all convert to Islam, or they come into the 21st century. And even if the West were to eliminate the need for their oil, they're still going to be players. Just a lot poorer players.

I have no idea as to what will work in the Middle East. Everything that can, and has been tried is no more than adding another turd to your shit stew. Besides, if there were only two humans left on the planet, they'd find a way to be at one another's throats about something. It's our nature.

BTW, it's cool for this time of year, and fixin't to get colder and start raining. Least in Missouri.

Chas

[Twodogs]

It's clouding up purty good here right now. Man, we sure do need it.

[stereocuuple]

look up h.a.r.p. high alt. reasearch project they are monkeying around with the jet stream

[Charles]

Originally Posted by stereocuuple

look up h.a.r.p. high alt. reasearch project they are monkeying around with the jet stream

Another Redleg, huh? Well, welcome aboard from the resident Bushwhacker. Figger if we get too crossways with each other...we can always meet in Lawrence.

Just kidding, pleasure to meet you, Sir,

Chas

[Sandy G]

Sometimes I think they mess around w/stuff that they really ought not to be foolin' with...And some day, it's gonna come back & bite 'em in the Arse but good...HAARP is one thing, that CERN thingamabob is another...

[Twodogs]

Originally Posted by stereocuuple

look up h.a.r.p. high alt. reasearch project they are monkeying around with the jet stream

Hey, when did you all get here?

[stereocuuple]

Last night

erin

[Twodogs]

Originally Posted by stereocuuple

Last night

erin

I'm jaymanaa over there.

[Kamakiri]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Oh, yeah. Ever read the book, "Warday" by Whitley Strieber & James Kunetka ? It will CHILL YOUR SHITE...It's about a "limited" nuke exchange, the most damage came really from something called EMP damage, which basically "Shazbats" virtually all electronic circuits...Plus the stuff that's used to fix all of 'em, & the stuff that's used to fix THAT, & so on. The book was set in 1993, overnite we went from '93 to about 1950. Most planes & cars wouldn't work, because of electronic ignitions, & all the embedded computers, & of course, all the computers & electronic controls in modern jets.

I'm contemplating getting a points distributor for the van, just in case. Of course, in the event of such a catastrophe, the government would "commandeer" the damn thing anyways.

[merrylander]

Actually Lord Balfour created Palestine, they are really arabs. When the League of Nations wanted to create a homeland for the Jewish people they specified a larger area, what is now Israel, the Golan Heights and Jordan. Balfour gave everything east of the Jordan river to the Hashemite kings, gave the Golan Heights to Syria yet even at that the arabs refused settlement for the Jewish people. They desecrated their burial grounds and generally behaved like bandits so I am not sure what they are bitching about now.