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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ken White
All true. Winston had his faults but his comment: "You can always rely on the Americans to do the right thing -- after they have tried every conceivable alternative" is remarkably accurate. We too frequently do a lot of really dumb things in the process of sorting it out...
I just want to add that the Americans had the great fortune and luxury, only partly based on their considerable virtues, to have the time and the ressources to be able to do the right thing after all that blundering. ;)
Anyway it seems that there is a lot of US pressure on Wikileaks and their service providers. First Amazon and now PayPal have stop to work with them.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ken White
All true. Winston had his faults but his comment: "You can always rely on the Americans to do the right thing -- after they have tried every conceivable alternative" is remarkably accurate. We too frequently do a lot of really dumb things in the process of sorting it out...
Just a few days ago someone made here an interesting observation: It's the long wars that cause the Americans trouble, and that's apparently more relevant than the difference between regular and irregular opfor.
Let's call this the "Powell" view.
They appear to be mutually exclusive, the Churchill and Powell view - at least if applied to the same period.
I suspect that the Powell view is more correct. The Americans may be able to figure out the right thing after a poor start, but ever since the early sixties (and if you apply a neutral view: really since '50) they either
* succeeded quickly because the enemy was either no match in any category other than local knowledge or because the enemy blundered even more hardly
OR
* they blundered so hardly that the mess was beyond repair, and the Americans only figured out what they did wrong, not how to repair the mess.
The solution to the problem is of course simple: Restrict yourself to actual strategic defence of yourself and your formal allies.
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A Twofer:
Firn:
Quote:
I just want to add that the Americans had the great fortune and luxury, only partly based on their considerable virtues, to have the time and the ressources to be able to do the right thing after all that blundering.
Very true -- most of us know that and appreciate the good fortune.
Fuchs:
Quote:
they blundered so hardly that the mess was beyond repair, and the Americans only figured out what they did wrong, not how to repair the mess.
Also true and most of us are aware of that. We're also aware that while we may -- just may and not always -- figure out what we did wrong, our attention span and ego problems are often too great to let us learn from those debacles...:(
Fortunately, when we get hit on the head with a two by four, we do pay a little attention. Briefly...:D
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ken White
All true. Winston had his faults but his comment: "You can always rely on the Americans to do the right thing -- after they have tried every conceivable alternative" is remarkably accurate. We too frequently do a lot of really dumb things in the process of sorting it out... :rolleyes:Well, I for one agree. There have been aberrations but then, no matter where, there always are.:wry:
By the time Rooseveldt had exhausted all the possible wrong options Stalin had a big piece of the European pie. It appears that it was Roosevelt's bumbling that drove Winnie to drink.
Churchill said: ''There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them!''
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
JMA
By the time Rooseveldt had exhausted all the possible wrong options Stalin had a big piece of the European pie. It appears that it was Roosevelt's bumbling that drove Winnie to drink.
Churchill said: ''There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them!''
I suspect that Winne met the bottle long before Roosevelt entered the picture, and I have to wonder what realistic option Roosevelt had that would have kept Stalin out of Europe.
It wasn't the easiest of times to manage, and it's easy with hindsight to imagine things were simpler than they were.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dayuhan
I suspect that Winne met the bottle long before Roosevelt entered the picture, and I have to wonder what realistic option Roosevelt had that would have kept Stalin out of Europe.
It wasn't the easiest of times to manage, and it's easy with hindsight to imagine things were simpler than they were.
Italy and the Balkans.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
JMA
The "Great War" can only mean WW1 1914-18 and the "smelly rifle" could only be the SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield).
Thanks for explaining those facts to me. I might never have known them if it weren't for you. :rolleyes:
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Hey Slap,
Quote:
Originally Posted by
slapout9
I heard the Doobie Brothers broke up, is that true?;)
Actually, they'd just did a concert last night in San Diego :eek:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pete
Thanks for explaining those facts to me. I might never have known them if it weren't for you. :rolleyes:
Thought you were lonely and needed someone to chat with?
If you like go to the Anglo Boer War website and search around there to see what you can find on old granddad.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
JMA
In a shockingly flippant comment to a Canadian television news anchor Evan Solomon of the
CBC News Network on live TV, Tom Flanagan, a senior advisor and strategist to the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper today called for the assassination of Wikileaks director Julian Assange . It is believed to be the first ever televised "fatwa" since the edict by the Iranian leadership of the late Ayatollah Khomeini against British writer Salman Rushdie in February 1989. Amazingly, although news anchor Solomon afforded Flanagan the opportunity to retract his statement, Flanagan balked at doing so and instead reiterated that U.S. President should put out a "contract" on Assange or use "a drone" and that he would not be unhappy if Assange "disappeared." Flanagan who is a trusted member of PM Harper's inner circle of Tory strategists joins Sarah Palin in calling for the death of the Wikileaks director as retribution for the website's release of confidential diplomatic and intelligence "chatter" this week.
Have the Canadians arrested this clown yet?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Stan
Hey Slap,
Actually, they'd just did a concert last night in
San Diego :eek:
Hey Stan, see there is a Sanata Claus:)
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Spying on the UN...
It remains of interest that the cable from the Clinton woman instructing US diplomats at the UN to spy on UN staff and other diplomats has attracted to so little attention?
I am led to believe that this action breaks both US law and international law.
Clearly Clinton who signed this cable has to go, but the question now is whether Obama authorised this action.
Little wonder the State Department is so angry about the leaks...
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Hey! Hey! Don't look at that!
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why spy on the UN. Spy on something usefull...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
M-A Lagrange
why spy on the UN. Spy on something usefull...
Be nice. Thanks to the UN, villages all over the world found new homes for their idiots. :rolleyes:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ken White
Firn:Fortunately, when we get hit on the head with a two by four, we do pay a little attention. Briefly...:D
Unfortunately, the three takeaways from your observation are:
- It takes a hit with a two by four.
- Little attention.
- Briefly. Very briefly.
:(
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Sadly true...
In my observation at any rate.
Only good news is that when eventually focused, we generally do rather well. :wry:
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
JMA
Have the Canadians arrested this clown yet?
Complaint filed over call to assassinate WikiLeaks founder
Quote:
Davidson alleged that statement qualifies as a breach of s. 464 of the Criminal Code, which says counselling an offence, regardless of whether it is committed, can be punished by a sentence similar to what's attached to the actual offence.
Now the Canadian legal system will be tested. Will they pass... or will Robin be true to Batman? ;)
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This just gets better and better -
Assange Accuser Worked with US-Funded, CIA-Tied Anti-Castro Group
December 5, 2010 by legitgov
Quote:
Ah, then came the dawn. Assange Accuser Worked with US-Funded, CIA-Tied Anti-Castro Group By Kirk James Murphy, M.D. 04 Dec 2010 [As reported by Israel Shamir and Paul Bennett in Counterpunch in September], Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden has a significant history of work with anti-Castro groups, at least one of which is US funded and openly supported by a former CIA agent convicted in the mass murder of seventy three Cubans on an airliner he [Luis Posada Carilles] was involved in blowing up... Who is Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden? She’s a gender equity officer at Uppsula University -- who chose to associate with a US funded group openly supported by a convicted terrorist and mass murderer. She just happens to have her work published by a very well funded group connected with Union Liberal Cubana -- whose leader, Carlos Alberto Montaner, in turn just happened to pop up on right wing Colombian TV a few hours after the right-wing coup in Honduras.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/s...m_medium=email
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Quote:
A long list of key facilities around the world that the US describes as vital to its national security has been released by Wikileaks. In February 2009 the State Department asked all US missions abroad to list all installations whose loss could critically affect US national security. The list includes pipelines, communication and transport hubs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11923766
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
AdamG
So this disgusting person fits the definition of being a CIA "sleeper" then? ;)