rigorousintuition.ca

norton ash » Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:53 am wrote:My take? That depends on what your definition of 'is' is.

I saw what you did there.

Is you is?

Ffs...

Let contractors fight the Islamic State, Blackwater founder Erik Prince says

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/chec ... ince-says/

Meanwhile, at home (sweet home):

Judge rules he can't stop Detroit water shutoffs
Matt Helms, Detroit Free Press 1:33 p.m. EDT September 29, 2014

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... /16414363/

Privatise the fucking air while you're at it. Why should anyone breathe for free?

- No, none of this is OT. It's all part of the same war.

Watching how the media is unspooling the ISIS thang'; it's become a "See this is what happens when Obama caves into the no more war lefties and paleocons". And "eventually we're going to have to send in ground forces".
Many of the Fox news talking heads are against US ground forces, including Sam Shepard, Glenn Beck, Judge Napolataliano, etc. Saying "thats what ISIS wants". But the refrain seems to be that "despite two months of air bombings, ISIS keeps advancing".

Meanwhile, the US government is painted as weak, feckless, uninterested.

MacCruiskeen » Tue Oct 14, 2014 12:13 pm wrote:Ffs...

Let contractors fight the Islamic State, Blackwater founder Erik Prince says

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/chec ... ince-says/

Meanwhile, at home (sweet home):

Judge rules he can't stop Detroit water shutoffs
Matt Helms, Detroit Free Press 1:33 p.m. EDT September 29, 2014

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... /16414363/

Privatise the fucking air while you're at it. Why should anyone breathe for free?

- No, none of this is OT. It's all part of the same war.

Anyone a fan of the Metal Gear Solid series? All this feels eerily close to the feeling of that series. Especially MSG4, Raiden and the upcoming MGS5(and while were at it, Resident Evil 5 with
the ebola outbreak in Africa) Im actually surprised the specter of PMC forces being deployed in Syria and Iraq hasn't been floated. Both the Islamic State army and PMCs could be seen as "military 2.0". PMCs the brutal
corporate next phase of US ground forces and ISIS as the mutation of "jihadists".

From the article

Prince is currently courting private business in Africa for his new company. He also is preparing to drum up readers for the paperback version of his bestselling book, “Civilian Warriors: The Inside story of Blackwater and the Unsung Heroes of the War on Terror,” out later this month.

For whatever reason Africa seems to have a huge stake claimed into it by military and corporate minded agendas. As does China. In the future if there ever was a WW3 like scenario I can imagine China involved in Africa fighting Western coalition forces.

The thing is, is that the .gov and .mil were "serious" about this "rag tag" group they would and could have just destroyed their convoys easily at the outset. Yet they let it "fester". In 2003 the tone was removing Hussein and "WMD".

Don't you think (I've always thought) that they floated the WMD thing in order to not be found in order to create a false scenario? I always wondered why they wouldn't have faked it at least. By not "finding" WMDs it gave both credence to the both the pro-bombardment, occupation and US terror campaign upon a society and the anti-war people. It was getting your cake and eating it too. Double-bind.

Now of course, it's all about something, a force that must be explained to us in these shadowy terms with the much, much more robust CT "community" that exists now on both the right and left. Something tells me they have social engineers who know exactly which media triggers to apply to affect various cultures and as we can see, subcultures insofar as having westerners among ISIS.

Remember when you first were aghast of "homeland security", "PATRIOT", Total Information Awareness, WMDs, "evil doers", "improvised explosive device", "heroes", commercials/ads showing proud and brave amputees, mercenaries? Now it's all just fucking normal. I knew it would turn out like this. The next series in the same saga.

8bitagent » Tue Oct 14, 2014 1:49 am wrote:I actually dont think ISIS is overhype or propaganda, but a really nasty incubated hacker like program unleashed by the powers that be. And Im curious,
where do you all see this heading?

May 26, 1999
Book Discussion on Machiavelli on Modern Leadership
Mr. Ledeen talked about his book Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli’s Iron Rules Are As Timely and Important Today As Five Centuries Ago, published by St. Martin’s Press.
He explained that the book measures contemporary leaders and celebrities against the standards established by Machiavelli for leadership and survival.
After his prepared remarks he took questions from the audience.

Michael Ledeen in 2012 wrote:So:

We support regime change (hopefully non-violent regime change) in Iran. We do it because it’s the biggest threat, and because we don’t need to send troops or drop bombs to bring down the regime. Support the opposition and condemn the regime and its totalitarian doctrines.

The specific steps are well known, because they are the ingredients of Reagan’s successful strategy against Soviet Communism. They include a relentless diplomatic campaign against the regime and in favor of freedom for the Iranian (and Syrian) people, building a strike fund (best in conjunction with international trade unions) to support Iranian workers, providing the opposition with effective communications technologies and methods for defeating regime censorship of, and spying on, the Internet, overpowering Iranian jamming of our satellite broadcasts (and making a better VOA and Farda).

We also support regime change in Syria. It’s too late for non-violent change, so we need to support a guerrilla war against Assad. This requires us to organize, train, and arm the opposition. There are lots of problems, because we’ve dithered, we’ve subcontracted the project to the Turks (who’ve no reason to think Obama seriously wants the Assad regime out), and we’re frantically trying to make a deal with Khamenei instead of working for his downfall. It’s a big challenge. But we’re the world’s lone superpower. Stop whining and get on with it.

When the United States moves, the world changes. As we’ve seen, when the United States doesn’t move, the world also changes. For the worse. If we engage, and win, we will have a voice in the Muslim future. If we lose, jihadi ranks will swell and we will face dhimmitude. So we have to win, which requires us to engage.

.

The US is a fucking pariah state.

minime » Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:02 pm wrote:The US is a fucking pariah state.

This would seem to constitute an almost total abuse of the word "Pariah," at least in the limited and unpopular sense that words have definitions and meanings. Allegedly, "Pariah State" has both.

Perhaps "Pariah King" might get slightly closer to the facts of the matter, but it's really better to abandon that altogether. The United States is not an outcast, the United States is a global Empire.

The United States is not shunned because they are not shunnable at this juncture in spacetime.

Wombaticus Rex » Tue Oct 14, 2014 4:31 pm wrote:

minime » Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:02 pm wrote:The US is a fucking pariah state.

This would seem to constitute an almost total abuse of the word "Pariah," at least in the limited and unpopular sense that words have definitions and meanings. Allegedly, "Pariah State" has both.

Perhaps "Pariah King" might get slightly closer to the facts of the matter, but it's really better to abandon that altogether. The United States is not an outcast, the United States is a global Empire.

The United States is not shunned because they are not shunnable at this juncture in spacetime.

That's what I was thinking. But you wouldn't have said [that] to Mac. Guaranteed.

Wombaticus Rex » Tue Oct 14, 2014 1:31 pm wrote:

minime » Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:02 pm wrote:The US is a fucking pariah state.

This would seem to constitute an almost total abuse of the word "Pariah," at least in the limited and unpopular sense that words have definitions and meanings. Allegedly, "Pariah State" has both.

Perhaps "Pariah King" might get slightly closer to the facts of the matter, but it's really better to abandon that altogether. The United States is not an outcast, the United States is a global Empire.

The United States is not shunned because they are not shunnable at this juncture in spacetime.

I'd imagine that if you were on your own you could be shunned for being a person from America, at least in certain villages and such. As Mac says, shit is FUBAR.

Is there really any other country on Earth that its own inhabitants question the morality of its government more than the US? More people who hate their own military or at least the "military mentality". My dad considers himself a patriotic guy and I went on a trip with him recently and at the airport when he saw some guy in his stupid fucking military gear he would sardonically say, "there's another hero".

It's wearing pretty damned thin.

Not to pile on, but I wonder why this even has to be said.

What, what I said? I don't sense any "piling on" to anyone in this thread.

82_28 » Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:54 pm wrote:What, what I said? I don't sense any "piling on" to anyone in this thread.

No, 82. Not what you said, what I said.

I wonder why it would be need to be said, why it would need to be heard. Is it not self-evident?

Good luck.

82_28 » Tue Oct 14, 2014 6:59 pm wrote:
Is there really any other country on Earth that its own inhabitants question the morality of its government more than the US?

Not that I disagree with your overall sentiments, but the above rhetorical question is in danger of being interpreted as insular.

One can argue that citizens in other nations have demonstrated considerably more widespread opposition to their respective govt policies than in the U.S.

Indeed, the general Outsider's view is that many Americans are simply complacent, apathetic, or ill-informed of the extent of wrongdoing perpetrated by the U.S. govt.
That may be slowly changing, of course, but I don't think U.S. citizens can currently be compared to their counterparts in other regions (South America, Europe, Africa, etc)