mckenzievmd - 02 September 2007 07:49 PM

Hmm, brief, but perhaps not your most articulate or cogent response, psikeyhackr. Care to elaborate?

articulate == 1. Expressing yourself easily or characterized by clear expressive language.

cogent == 1. Powerfully persuasive.

It was articulate though it may not have been cogent.  It was just lacking in detail.  LOL

I bought The Fog of War a couple of years ago and have watched it a number of times since then.  What really cracked me up the first time I watched it was where McNamara talks about visiting Vietnam decades after the war and having an argument with one of the Vietnamese leaders.  He said they almost came to blows.  But it really comes down to Americans not understanding the Vietnamese.  I remember watching stuff about Vietnam almost every night thru high school.  And I was thinking then, “Why should the Vietnamese give a damn about the difference between White Americans and White Frenchmen?”

I remember thinking like a stupid little kid when in 8th grade, “Go in and wipe those suckers out and get it over with.”  Even in my freshman year I assumed it would be over before I graduated from high school.  But then in my sophomore year in college I watched the draft lottery with me as unwilling participant.  This nonsense went on longer than WWII and never made sense from the start.  At least Iraq is about oil but the start of this was even more ridiculous.  Saudis fly planes that knock down buildings they can’t possibly knock down so attack Iraq.  RIGHT!

9/11 just further emphasizes how much this country runs on pure unadulterated brainlessness.

psik

the cfi is a clear demonstration that that brainlessness is adulterated.

narwhol - 03 September 2007 03:38 PM

the cfi is a clear demonstration that that brainlessness is adulterated.

You mean CFI has infiltrated the government?

I had no idea. 

psik

Why do you think that being non-nationalistic is correlated with love of science? (Based on the sample of this forum)

Nationalism and religion are just different forms of group think.

A nation is a religion with geopolitical boundaries and a religion is a nation with dogmatic boundaries.  I guess this is why separation of church and state is inconceivable for some people and intuitively obvious for others.

What test did I flunk to get into this country?

psik

psikeyhackr - 03 September 2007 03:30 PM

Even in my freshman year I assumed it would be over before I graduated from high school.  But then in my sophomore year in college I watched the draft lottery with me as unwilling participant.  This nonsense went on longer than WWII and never made sense from the start.  At least Iraq is about oil…

The Pentagon Papers showed what it was about and you could even tell before they were leaked.

Why do you think the French colonized Vietnam in the first place?

During the Paris Peace Conference at the end of WW1 Ho Chi Minh was a cook at the conference and he wrote an impassioned letter to the participants. He said that while they were talking about liberating occupied people (from the losers, not the winners; but as it was clear before and after, the liberating was just a change of occupiers/colonizers/management) there was another country crying out for help: Vietnam. They were occupied by the French. He was ignored.

At the end of WW2 he wrote a somewhat similar letter to Truman. He was ignored. (during the course of WW2 Vietnam managed to win independence and they borrowed from the Declaration of Independence and the Rights of Man to proclaim their independence and ideals.)

The US heavily aided the French in their effort to recolonize Vietnam. It met stiff resistance, so the country was torn in two while the US and French tried to create a puppet government to rule all of Vietnam. The 1954 elections were shelved when it was clear that Ho would win. So the US took over operations.

But what were they being colonized for? Easy answer. What did they export? What were their resources? Who mostly used them and what role did those countries serve under the US umbrella of power and influence over the world?

in 1941, the Pentagon Papers informed us “Secretary of State Cordell Hull instructed Sumner Welles to see the Japanese Ambassador, and ‘Make clear the fact that the occupation of Indochina by Japan possibly means one further important step to seizing control of the South Sea area, including trade routes of supreme importance to the United States controlling such products as rubber, tin and other commodities. This was of vital concern to the United States. The Secretary said that if we did not bring out this point our people will not understand the significance of this movement into Indochina. The Secretary mentioned another point to be stressed: there is no theory on which Indochina could be flooded with armed forces, aircraft, et cetera, for the defense of Japan. The only alternative is that this venture into Indochina has a close relation to the South Sea area and its value for offense against that area.’”

Iraq is about oil but Vietnam was about “rubber, tin and other commodities” which “was of vital concern to the United States.”

The Pentagon Papers
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html

Why do you think the French colonized Vietnam in the first place?

Compensating for failing to colonize North America when they had the chance.  It’s one of those European things.

psik

psikeyhackr - 06 September 2007 12:05 AM

Why do you think the French colonized Vietnam in the first place?

Compensating for failing to colonize North America when they had the chance.  It’s one of those European things.

psik

do you know what Frances military equipment consists of?

white flags!

For psykeyhackr and truthaddict:  Gentlemen, your discussion is interesting, and I realize you were both trying to be funny with your anti-French comments, however, that’s a fascinating and negative consequence of Nationalism.  Remember, that the whole ‘France as Cowardly’ thing came about as a Republican putdown campaign because the French refused to be part of the Operation Iraq Liberation (OIL).

Occam

Why do you think that being non-nationalistic is correlated with love of science? (Based on the sample of this forum)

This forum isn’t representative of anything. I don’t know that this correlation exists, and unless you have other information, neither do you.

Occam - 06 September 2007 12:06 PM

however, that’s a fascinating and negative consequence of Nationalism.

that was my point. the joke, for me, was satire.

Isn’t satire supposed to be funny?

alon,

no.

sat·ire   [sat-ahyuhr] Pronunciation Key -
–noun 1. the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. 

says nothing about having to be funny. by the way…

Q: How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? 

A: Nobody knows, it’s never been tried.

———

Q: How many gears does a French tank have?
A: 4 reverse and 1 forward, in case the enemy attacks from the rear.

———

Q. What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up? 

A. The Army.

Not funny, TA. I actually find your “jokes” tasteless and offensive.

george,

theyre not my jokes. I could never write something so tasteless and offensive.

im glad you were offended by them. i would be worried if you werent. I already made it clear that my anti-french jokes was satire.

but, for you I promise not to post anymore [“jokes”].