Climate Change Conspiracy (off-topic split)

"You might also check into what veteran combat troops in Afghanistan think about the way McChrystal's rules of engagement have endangered them and kept them from doing their jobs, before you beatify him. Believe me: they aren't nearly as thrilled with him as you are. While you're at it, ask the Marines what they think of the way he's tried to steamroll them into essentially becoming just another Army unit, under his direct command."
Absolute BS. The troops that I have talked to love McChystal and I am exposed to many, God bless them. I said "civilian coup". Yes, the constitution says that, in wartime, the guy in the WhiteHouse is commander-in-chief but the guy who did night patrols with his soldiers, the guy who kicked *** of many top Taliban, the guy who showed any marine with sense respect and honor, is the guy who shud have the politician licking his boots (I heard an active duty soldier today call into a conservative talk radio show and explain that he is not sworn to respect the commander-in-chief-thru-community organizing. I think there has to be a degree of outward respect for the office but the guy in it is doing everything he can to abase the office' respect). It is an insult to every warrior everywhere to have the guy who has never owned a BB gun, nay... even a staple gun, commanding ANYTHING. He's not qualified to have a pet, IMO, and people like you have him making life and death decisions, not only with our sacred soldier's lives but entire country's lives (Isreal is going to be backed into a corner and let some bombs fly - many innocents will die. *****-footing around, not giving McChrystal what he needs, allowing this scumbag Karzai to stay in power after he has given up his right thru corrupt practices and kissing up to Muslims, in general will cost many lives) but, thru Obama's smug indifference, his air of self-importance, his ignorance hense idealism, are making us much less safe at home.
Obama is actually less qualified than many black athletes. I compared him to the accused rapist Kobe Bryant - a good pretender. Notice that my civilian hero is Thomas Sowell - blacker than Obama and Kobe combined (Do fight thru the burn and read him. Read all of his works - you'll be brighter if you do). Calling you a racist was a joke, Troy. You have little humor.
This is tiresome - before I started getting on the internet (to which Obama wants the keys) I didn't realize that nobody will change their mind. We say much about ourselves and nothing to our opponent. Fine. Go ahead and beat me up because you were in the military and compare McChrystal to the punk MacArther in disrespecting the presidency - or whatever your next move. It won't make me a progressive.

 

Many of the troops in Afghanistan are sick and tired of McChrystal's COIN. They believe he's hamstringing their ability to fight and unnecessarily costing lives. If you kept up with what's going on over there, you'd already know that.

For you to summarily dismiss the simple truth as absolute ********, and take your 'facts' from the ditto heads who call into talk radio instead, shows appalling ignorance and blind political prejudice on your part.

 

Troy, I don't live alone in a desert packrat's den. I am exposed to many soldiers. You can't convince them that a hamstrung (by Obama) McChrystal is better for them than, for example, Bush. http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2...-speech-draws-lukewarm-response-from-marines/ I tried to find the actual videos of Bush, then Obama, speaking to marines but Obama's men apparently already have them removed.
I'm gonna leave the forum for climate change conversation for awhile.

 

Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice:

Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

 

....so much for free speech in the USA.....

 

News Analysis
General Faces Unease Among His Own Troops, Too
By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: June 22, 2010

"Riding shotgun in an armored vehicle as it passed through the heat and confusion of southern Afghanistan this month, an Army sergeant spoke into his headset, summarizing a sentiment often heard in the field this year.

"'I wish we had generals who remembered what it was like when they were down in a platoon,' he said to a reporter in the back. 'Either they never have been in real fighting, or they forgot what it’s like.'

"The sergeant was speaking of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and the circle of counterinsurgents who since last year have been running the Afghan war, and who have, as a matter of both policy and practice, made it much more difficult for troops to use airstrikes and artillery in the fight against the Taliban.

"...the new rules have also come with costs, including a perception now frequently heard among troops that the effort to limit risks to civilians has swung too far, and endangers the lives of Afghan and Western soldiers caught in firefights with insurgents who need not observe any rules at all.

"Young officers and enlisted soldiers and Marines, typically speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect their jobs, speak of “being handcuffed,” of not being trusted by their bosses and of being asked to battle a canny and vicious insurgency 'in a fair fight.'

"Some rules meant to enshrine counterinsurgency principles into daily practices, they say, do not merely transfer risks away from civilians. They transfer risks away from the Taliban.

"Before the rules were tightened, one Army major who had commanded an infantry company said, 'firefights in Afghanistan had a half-life.' By this he meant that skirmishes often were brief, lasting roughly a half-hour. The Taliban would ambush patrols and typically break contact and slip away as patrol leaders organized and escalated Western firepower in response.

"Now, with fire support often restricted, or even idled, Taliban fighters seem noticeably less worried about an American response, many soldiers and Marines say. Firefights often drag on, sometimes lasting hours, and costing lives. The United States’ material advantages are not robustly applied; troops are engaged in rifle-on-rifle fights on their enemy’s turf."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/23/world/asia/23troops.html

 

Mark, I doubt you're any more racist at heart than I am. But you're definitely more race-conscious; race seems to cross your mind a lot more often than it does mine.

You repeat the canard that Obama was elected because he was half-black, ignoring the fact that for every vote he won for his skin color, he probably lost at least one (and probably more) for the same reason.

You compared Obama to black celebrities you consider poor role models, instead of other Presidents or politicians; you emphasized that Sowell is a black man you respect, etc.

I suspect one of the things you like about Sowell is his willingness to single out and scold other blacks for their behavior and beliefs, both individually and en masse. Whether it's justified or not, he gets away with that largely because he's 'one of them.'

But tell me: would you be nearly as supportive of a white talking head who targets fellow whites specifically by race?

 

Trashy white? yes. They sometimes call em "trailor trash" but that is a generalization. The ones that breed with their cousins and have pizza rolls at the reception dinner. Nothing about being poor - it's all about a lack of self-respect and ambition. You know the ones - driving a car worth more than their rental house, doing drugs instead of feeding the baby. I'll single em out...White Trash. People we are spending money to educate and have them breed, tho they will never take any more responsibility than to be someone's menial laborer. Trash comes in all colors.
Obama got votes by appealing to the worst aspects of his race - they are the ones who wud fall for it. HONEST educated blacks, for the most part, want nothing to do with him. Some wanted to give him a chance and will not in 2012. Does it make me a racist to point out that there are many who voted for him simply because they thot he was going to pay their credit card bills and stick it to "the man". Funny thing is, with the responsibility of the presidency, Obama is sometimes forced to be "the man". He hates it - except when he can punish his opposition. It's ironic to see the war escalate, Guantanimo still open, votes and discussions closed to the public, etc.. In short, all of the things he campaigned on. Don't pick me apart for errors here - I'm in a hurry.

 

So you think Obama won the presidency because black voters (except the honest educated ones) thought he was going to pay their credit cards off, and stick it to the man. Hmmm....so I take it relatively few black voters are both honest and educated, if there were enough of the others to swing a national election.

Apparently you don't think much of Colin Powell's honesty, either. And I guess you also believe a West Point education isn't what it used to be?

 

Commissioned officers have never had the freedom to badmouth their commander-in-chief--and keep their jobs.

Would you expect the president of a corporation to keep a department head on the payroll, if he publicly dumped on his fellow company executives and the company's policies?

 

Well, let's see. What we have here is a woman who gives men massages in their hotel rooms for a living. One of them back in 2006 supposedly got horny on her. That was so unexpected, and shocked and horrified her so much, that after having a lawyer report it to police she repeatedly refused to even be interviewed by detectives, much less report it as a crime.

Two years later, she showed up and read a 67-page statement to the police about what she claims happened. Now, two years after that, she's trying to sell the story to the National Inquirer for a million dollars. I'm sure she's doing so strictly as a public service, to warn other masseuses who might wind up in the same situation....

Yep--that's proof positive that the scientific research and theories behind AGW are all a complete fraud....

 

A little something from Fox News, Mark, concerning that stuff you labeled "absolute ********":

A military source close to Gen. David Petraeus told Fox News that one of the first things the general will do when he takes over in Afghanistan is to modify the rules of engagement to make it easier for U.S. troops to engage in combat with the enemy, though a Petraeus spokesman pushed back on the claim.

Troops on the ground and some military commanders have said the strict rules -- aimed at preventing civilian casualties -- have effectively forced the troops to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/25/petraeus-modify-afghanistan-rules-engagement-source-says/

edit: more of that "absolute ********," this time from the Associated Press:

Petraeus to face soldier complaints over war rules
By ROBERT H. REID (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan — Crouched in a field of opium poppies, a young Marine lieutenant pleaded over the radio for an airstrike on a compound where he believed a sniper was firing at his troops. Request denied. Civilians might be inside and the Marines couldn't see a muzzle flash to be absolutely sure the gunman was there.

The lieutenant's frustration, witnessed by an Associated Press journalist in February in Marjah in southern Afghanistan, points to a Catch-22 dilemma facing the NATO force: how to protect troops against an enemy that lives — and fights — among the population without killing civilians and turning the people against the U.S.-led mission.

Those complaints from the ranks are among the issues facing Gen. David Petraeus — along with relations with a weak Afghan government and jittery allies; slow and uncertain progress on the battlefield; and frayed ties to the civilian side of the mission.

But among the most sensitive and important to the troops he commands and to supporters of the military at home will be whether to continue the rules laid down by his predecessor, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, that stress saving civilian lives but sometimes leave U.S. forces at greater risk.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g_YB0jagAxQqRqNCfV6gN-s9UkFAD9GIGEA03

 

Pull the troops out and nuke the plantation.

 

no way
havn't you ever heard of the theory of Nuclear Winter
screws up the ecosystem to be lighting those things off
or is that another one you guys dont subscribe to

 

And let us remember that Afghanistan is pure karma. I remember "western" world arming, supporting and cheering for Taliban when Russians were there.

Now the same Taliban is belting the **** out of usanians like there is no tomorrow.

Just like nazis and fascist in the WWII, usanians are forgetting one important thing: you cannot win against the people. Muslims are multiplying like rats, they have religion on their side, and there are so many of them already that the only way to win the war is to blow up the whole country, as hoytedoy suggested. His is reckles suggestion because he, like too many usanians before him, is forgetting that the nuclear falout would haunt him too for decades to come.

And, just by the way, that is also known as genocide...

In the meantime the opium trade is making talibans richer than ever.

Thanks usa, what would we do without you "brave" marines and legendary "democratic capitalism"...?

Live much better and in peace, that's what.