Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I think I feel like complaining about the whole concept of classical culture, and the hypocrisy it contains within itself. I have always found it incredibly ironic that most of Europe attacks America as lacking in culture (I've been accused of this many times myself). What they really mean is that we don't have the same culture; we don't have the Louvre or Crown Jewels. SO WHAT! We've got our own damned culture, and it's a lot more vibrant than one that holds as ideal a time long since past.

Of course, this wouldn't bite me so damn bad if the same European countries/citizens didn't then attack me/Americans as being culturally insensitive! They're the ones proclaiming their own culture as a yardstick for what is "good" and classical! Then, we ignore it, so we're slobs/bloody Yanks/choose your perjoritive.
Yet, we dare to attack some cultures as totally barbaric (Afghanistan under the Taliban), and condemn some cultural practices (female circumcison anybody?) as backwards and ignorant...and all of the sudden we're the arrogant ones?
I've just been innundated with insinuations and outright attacks (not here so much, but some), that frankly, it's worn me thin.
I'm sick of the blatant anti-Americanism exhibited by some forgien governments (most notably France and Germany at the moment--recall Chirac's comment that he simply wants to form a counter-US block of Euro countries?)
These people attack us not out of a difference of opinion per se, which I don't actually mind. They attack us and counter act us simply because we are the current hyper-power. They can feel free; it's futile to do so. It is also, however, incredibly annoying!
Incidentally, I'm hacked off when certain governments pretend to oppose us on principal when the reality is that they were selling weapons technology to Saddam (i.e. Russia), or they attempting to buy development rights to the oil fields, a la France.

I'm also hacked off at the incredible lack of intelligent discrimination present sometimes; lumping the Basque problem in Spain with the Al-Qaida problem betrays a lack of understanding of the complexites. There are two completly different situations; two different groups and two different countries that handle them each differently.
I've seen the USA attacked for not dealing as harshly with N. Korea as with Iraq (always under the guise of inconsitancy); NO KIDDING! We thought Iraq was developing nukes and wanted to stop it. We strongly suspected that Iraq had chemical and biological agents, which we can stop from harming our guys.
N. Korea has nukes, at least two warheads in fact, and 30,000 US troops within strike range. Does the fact that we take the militaristic capabilities of our opponets into consideration make us stupid,arrogant, or any such thing? Hell no, it makes us SMART. We can't afford to deal with N. Korea the same way; it's too dangerous. The military is more formidable, the leader less stable mentally, and the terrain type isn't our forte. In short, the enviroment there is not conductive to a comparitively easy US victory, like it is in Iraq.

Coming next week...my rant about the decline of the comic strips...
Paul
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Cornsnakes and kingsnakes and gophers oh my!

It must be nice to be able to voice an opinion!

You poor self-pitying soul!

scalawag

PS Why don't you take a look at the content of Paul's opinion and see if you can counter some of the many valid points he made. Maybe you could attempt to argue with facts?

Do you mean like everyone else involved in this discussion/debate? If so, then yes it is actually. I tend to very much enjoy my 1st Amendment (I know it actually doesn't apply to kingsnake, they're private and can censor what they want). It's something that doesn't exist in large parts of Europe--Germany still bans traffic in Nazi literature (i.e. Mien Kampf) (and perhaps communism ones too, I can't recall), and Britian bans records if they find them either profane or lacking in social value--some of my all time favorite songs aren't really available there *sigh*. I rather like almost absolute free expression.

Paul
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Cornsnakes and kingsnakes and gophers oh my!

Yeah... what they said!

Your lines regarding N. Korea are very honest and they are what I call a satisfactory statement. I agree completely with you.

But I don't agree with you regarding Iraq. I tell you something and you can cut this lines in stone:

The responsible persons in the U.S. KNEW PERFECTLY WELL that Iraq has had no weapons of mass destruction. The CIA knew it, Mr. President knew it and the intelligence agencies of France and Germany also knew it (thus they refused to join this so-called alliance of the willing).

The citizens in the U.S. were cheated by their government. 9/11 was exploited to gain the willingness of the people to accept the war even Iraq was not the least bit involved in terrorism against the U.S.

Saddam was a cruel dictator, also were his sons. But the same things like in Iraq happens in at least a dozen other countries all over the world.

The reason why this war happened are the economical and geopolitical interests of the U.S. in this region.

Mr. Kelly knew it and dared to leak it to the press. Now he is dead. You should trust the lines in the interview he gave to the BBC.
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Beware of Commies and Mutts!

Actually, nearly every government involved, including the French and German ones, concluded that he had WMD's, but probably chemical and biological. The French and German opposition was based mainly on financial reasoning--like I said, the contracts the French held to devlop and repair his oilfields, in exchange for some of hte money from them. It would have been incredibly lucrative for the government.
The theory that he had (has?) WMDs was based on the fact that he had used them on his own people, even post Persian Gulf One. He knew that such things were outlawed by the treaties he signed, and it made no sense whatsoever to assume that he would have kept thier demolition secerate. If anything, it would have been logical of him to destroy some of the more obsolete ones (i.e. anthrax, since he had VX anyway), and publicize it as much as possible. To assume he destroyed the stockpiles he was using on his own people and yet didn't let us know would be to assume he was totally irrational, which I don't think he is (of course, my knowledge of him is very piecemeal and comes from media).

Even if he'd simply run out, why wouldn't he have let us in and look? It would have made the most sense from his position.
As for weather or not there are any WMD's there now, don't know. I assume that they could well have been destroyed, or smuggled across to Syria. Of course, he could also have actually just run out--and really screwed the pooch big time by not letting us see it. I don't really know. But the fact is, there was much more reason for this belife than some hyped up claims of him looking for uranium. Why GW pushed on that so hard I don't know--it most likely was a mistake that'll wind up costing him politically. I highly doubt he would have knowingly passed on forged intelligence--the American media is too good at snooping for him to do that.

Paul
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Cornsnakes and kingsnakes and gophers oh my!

And when those "dozen other countries" start teaching terrorism and sending their students over here to fly planes into buildings, they'll be dealt with accordingly. Man you must read alot of fiction. That's some imagination you've got there.

it has been Saddam Hussein who sent the terrorists and it has been in the Iraq where they have been trained and it has been Iraqies who crashed into the twin towers.

Man, you should start reading newspapers or watching other programs than Mikey Mouse in the television before telling such a load of hogwash.
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Beware of Commies and Mutts!

Uh, it's Mickey Mouse you idiot, not Mikey. I do read the newspapers. I just don't read the toilet paper that you read. Why don't you do your homework. Maybe you could start by investigating the trail of money from Saddam to various terrorist networks. Or perhaps you could visit a few terrorist training camps in Iraq. Oops, never mind. They didn't like our company, so they moved. Take a powder Rumple. You're in dreamland.

One more thing Stokie. Last I heard, Usama was runnin' a bit low on fundage. Ya' think Pappy Saddam will help out. Of course he will.

Stoeckl - beware of yourself. You are your own worst enemy.

scalawag

You say... "Saddam was a cruel dictator, also were his sons. but"...

BUT NOTHING! They got what they deserved...period!!!

There you go again Stoeckl with your crazy witchcraft/voodoo type conspiracy theories. Mr. Kelly is now dead because of President Bush! Thanks for giving us the "heads up" about how Bush perpetrated the horror on 9/11, just so that the US citizens would support him in his quest to invade Iraq for it's oil! Thank you Stoeckl, you are a genius and you have shown so much concern for the citizens of the US.

I'm curious to know why you haven't cried out about the injustice of Bush's campaign into Afghanistan to take out UBL, if you truly believe that Bush was behind 9/11, not UBL. I'm curious to know why you have nothing to report regarding the US stealing Iraqi oil, after all, we've had the opportunity since the early 1990's. I'm curious to know how Iraq is of "economic interest" to the US, when all we've done is dump $hitloads of money into the effort to remove Saddam and facilitate a new government there (It's not like dumping our tax dollars into a certificate of deposit jackass).

Where, smart a$$, is your proof that Bush had Mr. Kelly killed? Where is your proof that 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq? Where is your proof that Bush was responsible for the fall of the Twin Towers? Where is your proof for any, and all, of the ridiculous claims you've made on this forum?

I'll answer that question for you Socialist boy. You have no proof to offer because you deal in PROPAGANDA. You've been conditioned by your own culture to substitute allegations of government corruption for fact. In Germany, the blithering idiots, that are it's citizens, buy and sell propaganda today, just as they did when Hitler was around. Stoeckl has cavalierly thrown extremelt far-fetched allegations at us without showing the least bit of interest in proving his claims with facts. He has demonstrated an inability to form even the simplest argument, because he's conditioned to follow whatever propaganda his own government has filtered down to it's uninformed citizens.

In the US we deal with the cold hard facts Stoeckl. Maybe in another 30 years or so, Germany will enter the modern age where it's citizens will have the freedom to access unbiased information. Maybe propaganda will be replaced by truth, and your comrades will learn to evaluate issues, like the war in Iraq, in a civilized manner. Until then, go to hell Stoeckl!

scalawag

Don't sugar-coat it, say what you mean!