Christmas was nice, although i barely got to see Hayley as she got dicked on her work rota so had to work most of christmas... Still nice to see the family and eat some good food. I just can't escape the feeling that Christmas should be so much more.... All this build up from Sept to December and time spent avoiding it then Christmas day and boxing
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Its the same with Halloween and Bonfire night I alkways think there could be so much more to them...
As for Saddam thats fine if they want to go ahead and execute him etc etc etc but why is China criticised for having mobile death buses for executing prisoners between jails.... Its just talk different cultures different people, morals, theology IF it was 150,000 Iraqi national Guard troops looking after iraq, but as its not (and don't get me wrong I kinda support the war in Iraq) I think the iraqi government should be looking after the safety of coalition forces not just its desire for revenge as at the end of the day ther coalition is there doing most of the police and militaries work... I think that Sunni's in the country are gonna be mightily pissed by this and there is gonna be more insurgency and more attacks on forces due to what looks like a US back government and a US orchestrated trial..... thats what it appears like to them and they are gonna wanna see some blood.
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I was always for the Iraq war, the arguement that if you remove one dictator another takes their place is moot. In decades/centuries gone by certainly, but the world is a global community now and nations aren't as worried about pussy footing around each other, citing "defending human rights" as their justification for wading into another country, kicking arse, fucking it all up and then buggering off. Hell, sounds better than having some despot in control allow his military to rape children, murder civilians for fun and raising a family of sadist fucks hell-bent on destroying anything they don't deem worthy of fitting into their rather narrow world view.
To each their own - but I'm all for war and conflict - it's the one way the human race has of evolving socially, mentally and theologically.
S'all good !
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However the war in iraq, justified even if for the wrong reasons.... I cannot see that it is totally for oil... the expenditure and toll on human life and unpopularity at home is too costly as there has been little return so far, with investors like Halliburton and KBR being massive american companies suffering attacks and all sorts for very little return other than government money in the Iraq reconstruction package... If it wasn't for this there would be no point being there and, as oil isn't flowing, its the government and tax payer in the US who is losing out... So the war in iraq just cannot be simply explained by oil. As for Bush settling an old score, in my opinion he may be president but i do not think he is totalitarian with power in the white house... there are lots of advisers and generals etc etc that do a lot of thinking for him.... he just gives the final word. Another thing is the whole conspiracy that 9/11 was set up by the US government so it can launch an attack in the middle east to obtain oil.... oil again.... why do peopl shit over the memory of the people who suffered on those planes and in those towers by drawing up some conspiracy theory that makes out like those fundamentalist wankers are not at fault here and that its the government..... as if there aren't loads of countries that hate the US for its foreign policy during the 80's and 90's who wanna see US blood. its like the invasion of Afghanistan and the ousting of the Taliban... wheres the economic return.........? there is none however terrorist trainign camps which DO exist as the Brits know from the 7/7 bombings are no longer in operation and pakistan has upped its efforts to monitor whats going on in its northern borders with A'stan particularly over the Hindu Kush mountain region.... its needs to do more though if Helmand is gonna return to stability soon. Anyway back to Iraq, where is the return!?!?! In 10, 20, 30 years when it stabilises!?!?!?! There is no conspiracy, its just the US thought that this would be a strategic move and has become more claggy than expected.... Osama Bin Laden does exist, 9/11 did happen (no controlled explosions, no fly by wire jet planes full of people WHY THE FUCK WOULD THE GOVERNMENT FLY A PLANE INTO THE PENTAGON just to prove a fucking point.....) and as much as conspiracy theorists hate to admit it there is a threat from the middle east with fundamentalists wanting to blow chunks out of us our army and our allies just as there has been for about 16 years now.... I think that instances like somalia 93 BHD all that have given a glimpse at how nasty things can be and all the material coming from iraq jhas blown the door open on just how violent and dirty the middle east is not just towards the west but internally itself. this goes for africa too (Ethiopia sponsered by the US to sort out Islamic Courts in Somalia?!?!! HAHA!).
I do however think that a change of policy may give the US an advantage in Iraq and be able to look towards sorting out the problems of NK, Iran and countering Chinas push to be THE world super power as I think I would rather stick with the US for that.
Anyway, thats my 2 cents on the world and my distaste towards conspiracy theorists over 9/11, reflects much of what Penn and Teller said about it in Bullshit - they know the score and tell it like it is!
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Least with P&T you get some damn groovy magick too. : )
The whole Conspiracy thing ... meh. Any Government worth their shit who has the resource wouldn't let these things just "leak" into the puvlib domain. Civvies wouldn't just "piece together" facts and come up with this toss. I'm with you on this - most conspiracies are bollocks.
As for China .... personally I'd like to see how they'd fare as the numero-uno SP. Either the world would go to Hell in a hand basket or it'd be quite stable for a change. Who knows, could go either way, they're so covert it's not like even political analysts can always accurately predict what they've done, let alone what they're going to do. Gotta love that media exclusion and privacy thing they've got going on.
As for murder for murder ? Why leave people alive - they only end up dead in time anyway - why leave them around to possibly harm more people or get released and do something else.
Meh - that's a whole hodge-podge of weirdness right there. I'm all for it personally, but I do see your point. Still, maybe its best left for despotic leaders who knowingly and merrily slaughter hundreds of thousands of their own people for no real good reason beyond grudges, theological differences and regional power struggles.
War - Solved nothing .... 'cept slavery, Nazisim, Facism and Communism ....
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China are wank. Human rights doesn't exist. Its easy to sit and say that might be nice see where it goes but I never had my family taken away from me or a gun pointed to my head, neither was I forced to believe in something i didn't agree with so i it is unfair to make an absolute judgement on that, all I know is I prefer America's ideals more than i do combo communi capitalist China.
As for the death penalty it simply doesn't work, it never has done and never will. Crime never disappeared when it was in force, like it hasn't disappeared in any other country. Thats also why despotic dictators should not exist... Its contradictory to say the death penalty is fine but Saddam was wrong because he killed 100's of thousands of people then bring theology and culture into why the death penalty is OK, Saddam murdered for his reasons according to his personal theology but thats wrong but "Hey, we are gonna start hanging our criminals", the people in Iraq died because they were criminals to Saddam Hussein. This does not make it right.
War is very useful in some instances, I like that America has the balls to do something about problems even if sometimes it doesn't make what can conceived to be the right choices to sort those problems out.
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Thing is, it's inherent in human nature to rail against whatever you get told - "Don't kill anyone!" - say that to a big enough group of people and someone, somewhere along the line, will.
It's all part of that joyous individuality and free-will schtick. Humanity should have a hive-mind - we'd be as scarey as hell then. One common mind and agenda without the bitching and species in fighting. Still, we are what we are and the rest of it; arguements, debates, theology, politics, law, science - it's all just bollocks that humans have imposed on our world to try and make sense of it. It's all flawed as we are all flawed and ultimately none of it will stand the test of time. Give it a few hundred years or a couple of Millenia and no-one will give 2 shits about the political parties of our current era. The wars we fight now will be about as important as a Saturday night brawl between Big Dave and Kung-fu Ken !
Anyway - who cares - everyone wants to live in the world of Supermonkey Ball anyway !
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Maybe I "have" ... lol
>D
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Dude you moved in then!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
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Aye, mostly. Just finishing off bits and bobs and general unpackingness to do now. Still need to get myself some book cases etc, until then I can live outa boxes.
Looks MINT dude.
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Saddam was a bastard, I think he deserved to be hanged. I'd be happy for him to have been hanged if I'd not anticipated a whole loada shit kicking off from his supporters though. I think that is going to happen... I haven't seen a lot of the news recently so I don't know how things are since his execution. I think it's a backwards step. I've kinda lost the motives of the invasion of Iraq and the capture and overthrowing of Saddam, but I'd like to think there was a theme of peace and freedom for the Iraqi people, erm and anti-terror. I wouldn't be surprised if this inspires more terror attacks.. I don't think his sentence was thought through really... maybe he deserved to die, but I think it's just going to cause more trouble. I'm inclined to think it was done for show, and it's not on when lives are at steak and amongst his supporters he's going to be seen as a martyr.
On the war on terror, would you employ the same strateriges as the U.S.? Or would you handle it differently?
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I would still have the war in afghanistan infact I would have more troops there so severe the violence and make sure that the border with Pakistan is monitored as the tribal areas and refugee camps are places for ex taliban and the insurgency to duck and dive....
I think that the invasion of Iraq heralds a lot of merits that so far are unexploited.... its sticky but 3000 soldier deaths is not that much in an occupation of a country of millions. Generally when there is a firefight, the US wins, just because one soldier dies does not mean it is a defeat which is what western media has come to impose as an ideal, for instance in hostage crises in Russia, if they get half of the hostages out alive then its a successful mission.... Anyway, Iraq, the US should not have been there so long, a quick invasion, install a government - get Iran to back this and start fazing out troops to a super base in Kuwait or Bulgaria - this will allow you to recieve oil from Iraq, the US retains the title of liberator and not occupier (it means that US military can still operate within the country on a smaller more lucrative scale and could still have been on the tail of Saddam and his sons, Al-Sadr and the more recent Al Zarqawi), ity could enjoy less volutile relations nwith Iran as the US has missed so many opportunities with Iran, I would have sealed this one very quickly and get Iran's Army to bring up the New Iraqi Defense Force (Iran really will not want a civil war in Iraq, it would not be good for any of Iraqs neighbours so getting them involved would be very good to stabilising and restoring the country without being at the expense of the US) - It would be difficult for the Iraqis to get on with the Iranians but it is no different from the trust that many people feel for the Coalition.... Withdrawing US troops is key and having the US military on two feet as no country in the world wants to take it on..... Besides if the US was not so stuborn towards Iran it could have prevented this nuclear argument to begin with- Russia wouldn't be supplying the reactors cores, if I was the US I would broker a deal to be the supplier of nuclear material, that way i can monitor what goes into the country and have a far keener eye on the matter... now who knows whats going on.... BUT I don't believe that the war on terror is going to be won with just the military... maybe a couple of countries yes i.e Afghanistan, Iraq, potentially North korea but China Russia Japan and South korea need to sort NK out really as they will be the most affected by what cracks off in that region. Upping Diplomatic relations with countries in the middle east and economic relations should have been paramount for the US - arms sales, medicines, Food all these things are good ally building blocks and a good way tgo bring up the economy. This way countries will do more to out terrorism to comply with US foreign policy... the US being aggressive and erratic means that it has a lot of ground to recover and has made more enemies out of this... One way of recouping would be to attempt to sort out the problems between Israel and Pallestine, the US needs to be more incorporating of Pallestine to win the hearts and minds of Muslims in the Middle East... that is a key, take away the motives of the insurgents and terrorists. I worry that while the US is running at maximum capacity Russia and China are capitalising on this and growing as world leaders in an attempt to outgrow the US... they both have a long long long long long way to go due to their internal issues but it is possible in the long run that one or the other will amount to the world leader and I really would not like to have to answer to either of them...
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Hope that makes sense, obviously not everything is as easy as the above but that would be the strategy I would attempt to achieve, more diplomacy and less military action so its ready on standby for if it really needs to kick off. I think the US's conservatism is big barrier, if it expanded its horizon a little more then it could do a lot i.e Afghanistani Opium.... That was the countries main economy and many farmers depended on it to survive and afford food.... If I was the US I would have bought the vast quantities of Opium from the farmers in afghanistan and put in for medical use and have the farmers keep growing the crop to continue Afghani commerce. This way the Opium does not find its way to western streets and is used by health agencies and the Afghani farmers get a good deal. Now they are being arrested for growing opium and their crop destroyed they are losing their supporting the taliban again and thuis facing off against the US........ this I believe is an example of a very simple solution to a problem that would have saved lives and money even though it means paying out for the opium, less money will be put into other measures.....
Thats my 2 cents anyway.... I do however feel that it is good that 9/11 had opened peoples eyes to what threats there are in the world, but there is little difference now to the threat of an attack in the late 80's apart from back then we had Chuck Norris and Arnold Schwarznegger to save the world on their own lol.
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