Yes, it is a gas. I recall with great fondness being lectured repeatedly about international law and about how the unilateralist, gun-slinging cowboys in the White House were destroying international law despite Saddam’s flagrant violations of a ceasefire treaty. And, these haughty and stern lectures came from none other than a German, himself. AND there was never any willingness to discuss Schroeder and his after-office work… and now? Really? Not one marcher in Berlin? Frankfurt? Cologne? They marched in the hundreds of thousands perhaps millions to “save Saddam” and now? Nada! Bah![/quote]
I don’t get it. What’s to march for? The German government is on the right side of history this time rather than actively participating on the wrong side by feeding key “bad intelligence” (see “Curveball”) to Pox Americana as part of its Operation Fool Me Once sales package.
Eh? The right side of history? Like they are the ones doing the appeasing this time as opposed to the invading? I guess that’s an improvement.
Bad intelligence? Like the take over of Crimea is bad intelligence? It didn’t really happen?
Do you think Clinton cooperating with Canada is similar? I always view those Socialists up north with a bit of suspicion. Trying to invade our homeland with Tim Hortons, Irving Gas and pollute our culture with Justin Bieber.
“Pox Americana”
The citizens of the world always say this until the wolf is at their door…then they whine that America is too unresponsive. Even pacifist Mr. Miller, the American in North Korea who tore up his US passport, is now begging for Washington to intervene. Obama is in Estonia handholding a country that is in NATO, but does not own a single war plane. Putin has barely entered the Ukraine and France is readying the white flag. America wastes 5000 GIs in Iraq, trains and fully equips the Iraqi army, and at the first opportunity, they turn and run. Everyone complains about the “bully” until they need muscle…then who do they run to to save their unprepared and unwilling backsides? A bunch of underpaid, over committed, incredibly effective (despite being ham-strung by rules of engagement that the enemy doesn’t follow) voluntary warriors. It is too easy to be a peacenik, when you know there is a backup plan if your life and/or country is in danger.
Well, as the German position or whatever positions by German private citizens are cited here maybe a quick summary from a German is in order:
a) The former Schroeder-Fischer SPD-Greens government had in the good old Bush days a course of approaching Russia and China and moving away from the “West” and basically this chapter of history is closed. Schroeder then became a 5$ whre and now works for Putin/Gasprom and gives him blwjobs when he comes home at night to brag about his new conquests. I am not exaggerating much here. Fischer grew fat again and has extremely pretty and much younger wifes/girlfriends and drinks a lot of red wine in Frankfurt.
b) The current conservative Merkel (CDU) government first opposed the stronger US positions towards Russia a bit to keep a door open for negotiations with Putin, but now is changing course towards tougher sanctions. Merkel was cited today in German press to warn about Putin playing the Ukraine game with the Baltic nations later.
c) Many mouthy educated Germans with middle or left wing background see the US as the source of all evil and in the beginning of the conflict blamed US/NATO for provoking Putin into the attack on Ukraine (attention, there is a grain of truth in it) and they are quite loud and often stir public opinion, i.e. via the newspapers. My German friends seemed rather pro-Russian to me in the beginning.
d) My impression is the pro-Russian statements get less loud as the conflict progresses and statements of fear regarding a NATO-Russia conflict caused by Putin as the bad guy seem to increase recently.
e) Yes, Germans will usually hold rallies if the US government invades a self-proclaimed one-floating-garbage-can-in-the-sea island nation state consisting of one drug lord sitting on it with a nuclear rocket launcher (to have a metaphoric image) it but will not protest if Russia or China invades any peaceful nation. Or they will protest and blame the US for it.
[quote=“Cardinal”]“Pox Americana”
The citizens of the world always say this until the wolf is at their door…then they whine that America is too unresponsive.[/quote]
I see your point. Those ungrateful recipients of Pox Americana’s largesse even throw shoes at the president’when he shows up so a grateful citizenry can thank him for bombing their country back into the Stone Age and causing the deaths of over a half million of their fellow citizens, leaving long term chaos in his wake that’s even now showing no signs of abating.
Yes, it is a gas. I recall with great fondness being lectured repeatedly about international law and about how the unilateralist, gun-slinging cowboys in the White House were destroying international law despite Saddam’s flagrant violations of a ceasefire treaty. And, these haughty and stern lectures came from none other than a German, himself. AND there was never any willingness to discuss Schroeder and his after-office work… and now? Really? Not one marcher in Berlin? Frankfurt? Cologne? They marched in the hundreds of thousands perhaps millions to “save Saddam” and now? Nada! Bah![/quote]
I don’t get it. What’s to march for? The German government is on the right side of history this time rather than actively participating on the wrong side by feeding key “bad intelligence” (see “Curveball”) to Pox Americana as part of its Operation Fool Me Once sales package.
Eh? The right side of history? Like they are the ones doing the appeasing this time as opposed to the invading? I guess that’s an improvement.
Bad intelligence? Like the take over of Crimea is bad intelligence? It didn’t really happen?
Do you think Clinton cooperating with Canada is similar? I always view those Socialists up north with a bit of suspicion. Trying to invade our homeland with Tim Hortons, Irving Gas and pollute our culture with Justin Bieber.[/quote]
Sorry. That rejoinder is so out of whack you’d have to pay me to take the time to respond to it.
Yes, it is a gas. I recall with great fondness being lectured repeatedly about international law and about how the unilateralist, gun-slinging cowboys in the White House were destroying international law despite Saddam’s flagrant violations of a ceasefire treaty. And, these haughty and stern lectures came from none other than a German, himself. AND there was never any willingness to discuss Schroeder and his after-office work… and now? Really? Not one marcher in Berlin? Frankfurt? Cologne? They marched in the hundreds of thousands perhaps millions to “save Saddam” and now? Nada! Bah![/quote]
I don’t get it. What’s to march for? The German government is on the right side of history this time rather than actively participating on the wrong side by feeding key “bad intelligence” (see “Curveball”) to Pox Americana as part of its Operation Fool Me Once sales package.
Eh? The right side of history? Like they are the ones doing the appeasing this time as opposed to the invading? I guess that’s an improvement.
Bad intelligence? Like the take over of Crimea is bad intelligence? It didn’t really happen?
Do you think Clinton cooperating with Canada is similar? I always view those Socialists up north with a bit of suspicion. Trying to invade our homeland with Tim Hortons, Irving Gas and pollute our culture with Justin Bieber.[/quote]
Sorry. That rejoinder is so out of whack you’d have to pay me to take the time to respond to it.[/quote]
Yet respond you did. Incomprehensible posits like, “wrong side of history”, and, “bad intelligence”, only deserves such a response.
Yes, it is a gas. I recall with great fondness being lectured repeatedly about international law and about how the unilateralist, gun-slinging cowboys in the White House were destroying international law despite Saddam’s flagrant violations of a ceasefire treaty. And, these haughty and stern lectures came from none other than a German, himself. AND there was never any willingness to discuss Schroeder and his after-office work… and now? Really? Not one marcher in Berlin? Frankfurt? Cologne? They marched in the hundreds of thousands perhaps millions to “save Saddam” and now? Nada! Bah![/quote]
I don’t get it. What’s to march for? The German government is on the right side of history this time rather than actively participating on the wrong side by feeding key “bad intelligence” (see “Curveball”) to Pox Americana as part of its Operation Fool Me Once sales package.
Eh? The right side of history? Like they are the ones doing the appeasing this time as opposed to the invading? I guess that’s an improvement.
Bad intelligence? Like the take over of Crimea is bad intelligence? It didn’t really happen?
Do you think Clinton cooperating with Canada is similar? I always view those Socialists up north with a bit of suspicion. Trying to invade our homeland with Tim Hortons, Irving Gas and pollute our culture with Justin Bieber.[/quote]
Sorry. That rejoinder is so out of whack you’d have to pay me to take the time to respond to it.[/quote]
Yet respond you did. Incomprehensible posits like, “wrong side of history”, and, “bad intelligence”, only deserves such a response.[/quote]
Challenge. Human Rights Watch says 135,000 deaths. Most of these were caused by Sunni and Shia militias NOT U.S. troops… The oft-recyled but still-just-as-wrong claims… still making the rounds… but hey… pony up… let’s see whatcha got.
Yes, it is a gas. I recall with great fondness being lectured repeatedly about international law and about how the unilateralist, gun-slinging cowboys in the White House were destroying international law despite Saddam’s flagrant violations of a ceasefire treaty. And, these haughty and stern lectures came from none other than a German, himself. AND there was never any willingness to discuss Schroeder and his after-office work… and now? Really? Not one marcher in Berlin? Frankfurt? Cologne? They marched in the hundreds of thousands perhaps millions to “save Saddam” and now? Nada! Bah![/quote]
I don’t get it. What’s to march for? The German government is on the right side of history this time rather than actively participating on the wrong side by feeding key “bad intelligence” (see “Curveball”) to Pox Americana as part of its Operation Fool Me Once sales package.
Eh? The right side of history? Like they are the ones doing the appeasing this time as opposed to the invading? I guess that’s an improvement.
Bad intelligence? Like the take over of Crimea is bad intelligence? It didn’t really happen?
Do you think Clinton cooperating with Canada is similar? I always view those Socialists up north with a bit of suspicion. Trying to invade our homeland with Tim Hortons, Irving Gas and pollute our culture with Justin Bieber.[/quote]
Sorry. That rejoinder is so out of whack you’d have to pay me to take the time to respond to it.[/quote]
Yet respond you did. Incomprehensible posits like, “wrong side of history”, and, “bad intelligence”, only deserves such a response.[/quote]
Russians don’t hate Ukrainians. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. The general population assumes that we are the same people and are quite oblivious to their hatred towards us.
My nan on my mother’s side fled from Russia to Ukraine about 82 years ago when the newly established order threatened anyone who had any property with violence and labour camps. Her family had a house and a couple of cows, so they were proclaimed the enemy of the state and the family fled. My nan was 4 when she ended up in Ukraine and spent the next 40+ years of her life there, moving towns about every two years in the later years. My mum and here sister were born and raised in Ukraine but being Russian often made them outsiders. They were called Mosckali (a derogatory term for Muscovite) , despite never having set foot in Russia, let alone Moscow. To people in certain parts of Ukraine, all Russians are posh Muscovites. And to lots of Russians Ukrainians are country bumpkins.
This is just my family’s experience and my observations, so don’t take my word for it.
[quote=“Winston Smith”][quote=“Cardinal”]“Pox Americana”
The citizens of the world always say this until the wolf is at their door…then they whine that America is too unresponsive.[/quote]
I see your point. Those ungrateful recipients of Pox Americana’s largesse even throw shoes at the president’when he shows up so a grateful citizenry can thank him for bombing their country back into the Stone Age and causing the deaths of over a half million of their fellow citizens, leaving long term chaos in his wake that’s even now showing no signs of abating.[/quote]
So when Putin, or some other megalomaniac, invades your country’s border and parks a tank on your family’s front lawn, who ya gonna call Winston?
France? Canada? The United Nations? Maybe you will be willing to standby while they pass yet another Resolution! No, you will call 1-800-unclesam because you know there is not another nation with the ability to fight the fight; and leave after the battle letting you keep you land. Just as there are no atheists in a foxhole; there are no pacifist-Yankee-haters when scumbags are about to rape and pillage your family.
The problem is not America (although America has problems), the problem is that in most of these conflicts (Iraq and Ukraine are perfect examples), the difference between the idiots in power and the idiots that want to be in power is nearly imperceptible. Unfortunately, America usually intervenes because the aforementioned left-leaning entities can’t agree on a plan of action until after the ethnic cleansing. The Parlement francais will still be trying to mediate the conflict when the Russian tanks roll into Madrid. And Putin knows it.
[quote=“Cardinal”][quote=“Winston Smith”][quote=“Cardinal”]“Pox Americana”
The citizens of the world always say this until the wolf is at their door…then they whine that America is too unresponsive.[/quote]
I see your point. Those ungrateful recipients of Pox Americana’s largesse even throw shoes at the president’when he shows up so a grateful citizenry can thank him for bombing their country back into the Stone Age and causing the deaths of over a half million of their fellow citizens, leaving long term chaos in his wake that’s even now showing no signs of abating.[/quote]
So when Putin, or some other megalomaniac, invades your country’s border and parks a tank on your family’s front lawn, who ya gonna call Winston?
France? Canada? The United Nations? Maybe you will be willing to standby while they pass yet another Resolution! No, you will call 1-800-unclesam because you know there is not another nation with the ability to fight the fight; and leave after the battle letting you keep you land. Just as there are no atheists in a foxhole; there are no pacifist-Yankee-haters when scumbags are about to rape and pillage your family.
The problem is not America (although America has problems), the problem is that in most of these conflicts (Iraq and Ukraine are perfect examples), the difference between the idiots in power and the idiots that want to be in power is nearly imperceptible. Unfortunately, America usually intervenes because the aforementioned left-leaning entities can’t agree on a plan of action until after the ethnic cleansing. The Parlement francais will still be trying to mediate the conflict when the Russian tanks roll into Madrid. And Putin knows it.[/quote]
If the U.S. bitch slapped Russia for illegally invading Kuwait - I mean Ukraine - that would be a good thing. Unfortunately Pox Americana never picks on anybody its own size.
[quote=“bob_honest”]Well, as the German position or whatever positions by German private citizens are cited here maybe a quick summary from a German is in order:
a) The former Schroeder-Fischer SPD-Greens government had in the good old Bush days a course of approaching Russia and China and moving away from the “West” and basically this chapter of history is closed. Schroeder then became a 5$ whre and now works for Putin/Gasprom and gives him blwjobs when he comes home at night to brag about his new conquests. I am not exaggerating much here. Fischer grew fat again and has extremely pretty and much younger wifes/girlfriends and drinks a lot of red wine in Frankfurt.
b) The current conservative Merkel (CDU) government first opposed the stronger US positions towards Russia a bit to keep a door open for negotiations with Putin, but now is changing course towards tougher sanctions. Merkel was cited today in German press to warn about Putin playing the Ukraine game with the Baltic nations later.
c) Many mouthy educated Germans with middle or left wing background see the US as the source of all evil and in the beginning of the conflict blamed US/NATO for provoking Putin into the attack on Ukraine (attention, there is a grain of truth in it) and they are quite loud and often stir public opinion, i.e. via the newspapers. My German friends seemed rather pro-Russian to me in the beginning.
d) My impression is the pro-Russian statements get less loud as the conflict progresses and statements of fear regarding a NATO-Russia conflict caused by Putin as the bad guy seem to increase recently.
e) Yes, Germans will usually hold rallies if the US government invades a self-proclaimed one-floating-garbage-can-in-the-sea island nation state consisting of one drug lord sitting on it with a nuclear rocket launcher (to have a metaphoric image) it but will not protest if Russia or China invades any peaceful nation. Or they will protest and blame the US for it. [/quote]
I have the fortune/mis-fortune of having to spend a lot of time in Germany the past two years. Dealing with small and middle sized privately owned Schwabisch companies is not much fun.
What really puts my head in is the idea the it is c: the idea that the US’s and Nato are somehow to blame. I heard that a lot.
We’re getting 1 NT for every non sequitur we catch and release in the wild.[/quote]
So in other words, you get less than 0.5? [/quote]
That will be another 1NT please.[/quote]
Non-sequitur: as a part of your job function you do understand what that is, right? If so, then you should realize that a post clarifying the currency conversion of your self-stated per-post income does not meet the definition, and you are merely trolling, and therefore ineligible for the 1NT. If not, then you are still trolling, but with a weaker gasp of your intended job function than originally anticipated; ie, someone needs to talk to your boss.
Preempting another attempt to claim 1NT, please again refer to the definition of non-sequitur. Your understanding, or lack thereof, of non-sequitur is clearly germane to the topic at hand. I’d venture, given your command of English, and ability to construct a logical argument, you clearly are worth every penny.
Challenge. Human Rights Watch says 135,000 deaths. Most of these were caused by Sunni and Shia militias NOT U.S. troops… The oft-recyled but still-just-as-wrong claims… still making the rounds… but hey… pony up… let’s see whatcha got.[/quote]
Maybe we can start the challenge with you producing said “Human Rights Watch” report. Then we can proceed to debate the relative merits of using a brute force, 19th century ‘count the corpses’ method for determing casualty rates versus a late 20th century statistical analysis methodology. Much like trying to determine the outcome of an election by trying to call up every voter beforehand versus statistical sampling. That sort of thing.
We’re getting 1 NT for every non sequitur we catch and release in the wild.[/quote]
So in other words, you get less than 0.5? [/quote]
That will be another 1NT please.[/quote]
Non-sequitur: as a part of your job function you do understand what that is, right? If so, then you should realize that a post clarifying the currency conversion of your self-stated per-post income does not meet the definition, and you are merely trolling, and therefore ineligible for the 1NT. If not, then you are still trolling, but with a weaker gasp of your intended job function than originally anticipated; ie, someone needs to talk to your boss.
Preempting another attempt to claim 1NT, please again refer to the definition of non-sequitur. Your understanding, or lack thereof, of non-sequitur is clearly germane to the topic at hand. I’d venture, given your command of English, and ability to construct a logical argument, you clearly are worth every penny.[/quote]
My idea of a non sequitur is a cheese eating surrender monkey publicly defending the honor of Pox Americana.
