War links

[erudito]

The siege of Cadiz as central in the defeat of Napoleon.

Newsreel of the Japanese surrender on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. (The Allied signatories in order are Macarthur as Allied Supreme Commander, the US, China, UK, USSR, Australia, Canada, France, Netherlands, New Zealand.)

Looking at the nuclear alertness issue. A shortage of Helium3 is

Comments

[findalexh]

Why is it that we can't see the threat Hitler presented, or that Islam presents? With Islam we have in excess of 1000 years of Muslims trying to conquer the world by force, why is this even being debated?

[tcpip]

Because Islam isn't a threat any more than Christianity or Germans.

[findalexh]

I'm sorry but that's just wrong and it's exactly the attitude I can't understand

[tcpip]

If you want a whole raft of quotes from the Koran and Hadith I'll supply them.

Contextual studies show that the Koran and the Bible advocate violence against others in roughly equal portions. There is variation between the number of passages (the Bible "wins") or the number of passages on a per page basis (the Koran "wins").

But frankly, I simply don't care for that argument.

I am interested on what people do. Note the creed that they claim justifies their actions.

If a Christian can be peaceful, then all Christians can be peaceful. If a Muslim can be peaceful, all Muslims can be peaceful. For it is not Christianity or Islam that is violent, but the people who act in its name.

Africa Wars

[tcpip]

Good article. A little scratching on more successful part (e.g., Botswana) may reveal a solution.

WRT to Zimbabwe, I like to say that the country was very well managed under Mugabe's first wife.

Re: Africa Wars

[erudito]

A little scratching on more successful part (e.g., Botswana) may reveal a solution.
Have a dominant tribe surrounded by lots of little tribes that it does not feel threatened? Have Sir Seretse Khama as your founding President?

WRT to Zimbabwe, I like to say that the country was very well managed under Mugabe's first wife.
Nice wit, but a thin thread to run a country on.

Re: Africa Wars

[tcpip]

Botswana has a very different approach to the "resource curse"

http://www.theiu.org/films/silver-bullet-i-the-human-right.html

Re: Africa Wars

[erudito]

The film actually isn't very informative. I gather, from a quick look around, that Botswana has some form of resource rental tax which is ploughed into useful infrastructure.

I am not sure, however, that my points are independent of that. (I.e. there may be a virtuous circle between good politics and good policy.)