Comments on: Who Thought This Was A Good Idea?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:59:14 +0000

Ann, welcome. I think that Dennis Kucinich might have gotten away with the comparison back then, but the Hedgemony was right in avoiding any comparisons to Southeast Asia.

This is an old wound that the neocons just won’t let heal. They keep looking for a way to change or re-write what happened.

Don’t get involved in a land war in Asia is pretty good advice, even if it comes from a fantasy movie.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:34:58 +0000

I have Firefox dump cookies when I shutdown. A couple of sites I use won’t work without them, including my ISP. [I appreciate the thought, thanks.]

This is definitely a #7 crowd.

By: Ann

Ann — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:58:15 +0000

The analogy to Vietnam was appropriate on Feb. 5 2003 when Colin Powell made his speech at the U.N. Now, it’s looking more like Napoleon’s march home from Moscow.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 06:01:13 +0000

not opera's fault. i've got all the don't remember me, don't set cookies, etc, turned on. sometimes i remember to c&p, other times i just tyep blithely away. various cats help with the typing too. nb: i'm using firefox no less, just for you. i'm inclined to agree about both the casualties and the displacements, but i think much of the general public, the press, congress, and the white house are only going to pay attention to actual deaths. if they bother to pay attention at all. But of course, being brain injured, we don’t have to think about them the same way we’d think if they came home in a coffin… yep.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 05:40:40 +0000

badtux: apologies. that numero siete, it's contagious.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:15:12 +0000

From my understanding of the reports on the advances, the number of dead would at least double without the new techniques.

Irony and misspelling, Steve.

When is Opera going to include form filling, Hipparchia?

Riverbend as been totally silent for a long time, but she may be in transit somewhere, one of the millions of refugees.

It’s a sad thing, Badtux, but few Americans are aware of the Iranian coup you write about. If they had experienced Spain under Franco, Greece under the colonels, and Iran under the Shah as some of us have, they wouldn’t be so eager to give up their rights. The US has allied with a lot of thorough going bastards over the years that make Castro look like little miss sunshine.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 02:21:21 +0000

Badtux: not to put words in her mouth, but I believe “hipparchia” is the ancient Grecian [sic] term for “irony” …

You are of course right about the disabilities that would have been deaths in the Vietnam era, and the overwhelming number of refugees this sort of war is certain to create. (Has anyone heard anything of/from Riverbend?)

By: Badtux

Badtux — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 01:56:56 +0000

Hipparchia, we’ve also displaced 3 million Iraqis as refugees (or roughly 10% of the population) and probably internally displaced an equally large number. And while thanks to modern medicine we do not have 90,000 dead Americans, we most likely will have 90,000 Americans with significant brain injuries or other significant disabilities coming out of this war who would have died if medical science were still stuck in the Vietnam era. But of course, being brain injured, we don’t have to think about them the same way we’d think if they came home in a coffin…

However you do the comparison, the numbers may be comprised differently, but it’s a mess either way.

– Badtux the History Penguin

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:22:56 +0000

patience, dude. stay the course.

we killed something like 3-4% of the population of vietnam, and about 0.03% of our own population, with that war. to date, we’ve only killed 1-2% of the iraqi population, depending on whose numbers you believe, and we’re nowhere near the ~90,000 dead americans it would take to = 0.03% of our current population.