Only those who identify themselves as liberals seem to be interested in preserving the best parts of the American system of government.

I’m about to write my last post on Gaza. With the targeting of the UN warehouse it is obvious that ethnic cleansing is the clear intent of the IDF. No other theory fits all the facts.

Q. How can you tell a Politician is lying?
A. Their lips are moving.

Is so very true today. These people don’t even have a real ideology. It’s just a smoke screen to con the mostly moronic ‘conservatives’ into believing the care about them and want what they want. LOL All they want, is power and control. They couldn’t care less about anyone who isn’t *one of them* no matter what the sycophants believe or think. Look how many people kissed Bush’s hairy ass and only got painfully screwed for their trouble. And most won’t even admit it! They can *NEVER* be wrong! It’s impossible! They’d all have a stroke just thinking about it.

Do yourselves a favor… Just round them up and send them to some deserted island, or just shoot them. You won’t miss them, and your lives will improve dramatically. 😉 LOL

If your founding fathers were alive today, there wouldn’t even be a discussion about whether or not to deal with them, only about the methods. *shrug* But what do I know. 😉

Anyway, as far as Gaza… so, it continues:

Israeli Strike Hits U.N. Complex in Gaza Strip

So… let’s see. That’s… five (or six?) Israeli strikes on *KNOWN* UN facilities and people. But they are all accidents. Just one of those things, right? Funny though… Even the Germans in WW2 were a lot more accurate than the modern Israeli Army and Air Force seem to be. A curious dichotomy, isn’t it? 🙂

BTW, I use the word ‘dichotomy’ in the sense (possibly grammatically incorrectly *shrug*) that the current Israel actions and excuses contradicts common sense, knowledge and belief: “the dichotomy of the one and the many” (Louis Auchincloss). In other words, since they could only be so inaccurate on purpose, they must, therefore, be hitting UN and civilian targets purposely.

Nice company the U.S. of A. keeps. Americans must be so proud. 🙂

No matter how often we encounter problems that are based on events that occurred centuries ago, Americans think that people will just forget about old injuries and move on with life. That isn’t the way most of the rest of the world works.

I think part of it is the fact that the US was settled by people who made the decision to cut themselves off from their roots and start fresh, so their children weren’t indoctrinated in the “tribal myths”, but that isn’t the pattern in most of the world.

Too many of today’s problems are caused by bad history, re-written events that were not actually as important as people now believe, and didn’t happen as people assume. Colossal screw-ups become heroic moments as lies are spun to cover stupidity. Fairy tales become hallowed history. It is amazing to watch.

Too much of what is done is based on belief rather than knowledge, and the results always tend to be disastrous.

To be fair, I think that the *problem* the USA has is that it’s a very young Nation. 🙂 The USA became big and strong too fast. If you look at the actions of the past century, it’s easy to make the comparison to a young spoiled brat. 🙂 You forefathers knew that would be a problem one day. One only has to read the US constitution to know they were worried about a spoiled tantrum destroying the Nation. The only real problem the USA (on her own turf) has had to deal with was ‘the great depression’ and most people seem to believe that wasn’t so bad, so they can cope with anything and do anything! No problems. 🙂 Compared to the Arabian nations, the USA is but a baby. When a nation has had to deal with adversity for millennia, then they know how to overcome and survive. 🙂

But, ignorance and misunderstanding can be a serious problem. Misunderstanding the Kurd’s for example. Every Kurd born anywhere KNOWS they are a Kurd and what that means. Their duty to the Kurd Nation is absolute. In the USA, you have about 13,000 Kurds (from memory). That’s 13,00 potential little bombs ticking towards the day when the Kurd’s explode. 🙂 The USA won’t have to worry about terrorists getting into the USA, they will already be there.

I understand about you not wanting to give offense to certain religious types. 🙂 But you are more… considerate to them than I am. LOL 😉 I haven’t yet forgiven what *Religion* did to me. 🙂

To some extent I think certain areas were intentionally mixed with the hope that internal strife would make them easier to rule. The Soviets did that a lot.

I really hate it when the US tries to be clever. We are no good at it, and it always comes back to bite us.

As you say, it’s really sad when the only people with a real concept of morality are spooks, while the heads of religious groups run around proclaiming that G-d is on the side of whatever brutal group of thugs that they support. G-d should sue for defamation.

[I do that so as not to give offense to certain religious people. For some reason it really pisses them off that I know about that. Apparently I offend them by not offending them, or something.]

One thing that the hypocrites don’t get (and which is a good thing IMHO) is that people like you and I can smell their BS and know they are lying as soon as they open their mouths, and yet they are so smug and secure in the knowledge that we don’t have a clue. Of course, our respective training and experience helps also. 😀

Lt. Col. Thomas Edward Lawrence understood. 🙂 Part of me wishes he were alive and well today, and another part is glad he isn’t here to see what’s happening. But I do find myself wondering… What would he do?

Everyone knows that the only real concern the US has in the Middle East is oil. Without oil we would ignore them, like we ignore most of the world outside our borders, including Canada and Mexico. Americans tend to be among the least curious people in the world. Unfortunately this level of ignorance to leads to an abysmal foreign policy, as very few people care enough to even participate in decision making, and they usually have private reasons that have nothing to with the national interests of the US.

Most of our problems are caused by stumbling into situations without understanding the underlying problems or the history behind them. We have an amazing ability to make matters worse by saying the wrong thing, at the wrong time, or choosing sides by who they say they hate. It doesn’t seem to occur to those in charge to investigate whether the hate is real, or the possible reasons for it.

I have total faith in the ability of the US to do something stupid that will enrage new groups, but I would really like to see an end to the use of my paltry tax dollars to blow up children. It just doesn’t sit well, not matter what the concocted reason is supposed to be. Some things are just wrong.

What Lawrence wrote about Turkey almost 90 years ago is true of the US occupation in Iraq today. He was a brilliant man, and all the goodwill he had created in the Mid East for Western nations has been well and truly squandered and destroyed. It will take another man like Lawrence to repair the damage done. Good luck finding such a man today.

Lawrence also wrote: “Rebellion must have an unassailable base …”

“In the minds of men converted to its creed. It must have a sophisticated alien enemy, in the form of a disciplined army of occupation too small to fulfill the doctrine of acreage: too few to adjust number to space, in order to dominate the whole area effectively from fortified posts.

It must have a friendly population, not actively friendly, but sympathetic to the point of not betraying rebel movements to the enemy. Rebellions can be made by 2 per cent active in a striking force, and 98 per cent passively sympathetic … Granted mobility, security … time, and doctrine … victory will rest with the insurgents, for the algebraical factors are in the end decisive, and against them perfections of means and spirit struggle quite in vain.”

Too bad the US military today is as ignorant and uneducated as much of the population. 🙂 Iraq would never have happened, or would have at least been done properly. 🙂

Lawrence will be proved right once again, as he always has been when it comes to the Mid East. People might do well to read his real works about Arabia. and I don’t mean Hollywood fiction either! LOL

Of course, as we know Bryan, as with everything lately… “At’s about the oil stupid!” 😉 LOL Well, to be more precise… It’s about controlling the oil supplies and therefore, most of the World. It’s a tad short-sighted, not to mention amusing, that the USA thinks the rest of the World will allow that, even via proxies. 🙂

“Stupid is as stupid does!” 😀

Palestine is the core problem. A resolution of that problem eliminates the number one recruiting tool of Islamic terrorists. Of course, that assumes we won’t be invading any more Muslim countries based on lies, and leave those that have been invaded.

I’m not a fan of Arabs particularly. They were really annoying when I was stationed in Germany, constantly trying to blow-up my housing. And they cost me a lot of money with their attack on the ’72 Olympics. Instead of watching the events that I had already paid to see, I was called up for a joint powers conference on the situation.

I don’t like Hamas or Hezbollah or a lot of other groups and people around the world, but in the case of too many of them, the actions of Western nations have encouraged their creation. Al Qaeda was created at the insistence of the US to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, and then we didn’t do the necessary follow up to ensure stability. You reap what you sow, and we created out own worst enemy.

I really don’t see how peace in the Middle East will increase the threat to Western countries. If there is no great cause to push, the money and recruits will dry up.