Bad day for terrorists...

[Robert]

Originally Posted by ChrisCantSkate

you are forgetting that by protecting them we are protecting our interests. and is it the responsibility for our contry to protect our assests, wether its people, capitol, or whathaveyou. if a war breaks out in the mid east and wse're not there, its gonna escalade to unthinkable proportions, and since the only reason that stockpile of arms exsists is because we had an arms race with the USSR way back durring the cold war, we made them go bankrupt and they sold their war toys to the mid east, now we have to look out for A) those countries which we have an interest in wether its for oil, land, people, etc. and B) the threat of catostrophic events to take place there, which will effect our people in the long run C) balance the power that us and the USSR are responsible for creating. you dont let your dog crap in the park and walk away from it, you clean up his shit.

now thats just what we should do being a country in the world. being the only superpower, strongest and arguably the richest country in the world, for the betterment of mankind and world development we NEED.. let me stress that NEED to make sure things cant just run out of control and sit inside our borders and say "fuck them"

Thank you for laying it out for Steve.

[GT40FIED]

Well I'm not saying we shouldn't ever help our "friends", but we really need to start looking at the risk/reward. If we commit to it all or nothing there's no way we'll be able to maintain any kind of significant military force. We might think that Israel is the only thing keeping that part of the world from exploding like a potato in a microwave, but really...who listens to them? They've had the same capabilities for years, but the can't even handle a small group of people like the Palenstinians. Let's face it, they're hugely outnumbered in that part of the world by people who aren't their biggest fans. Those people aren't listening to them anyway. Israel may be our friend, but I don't see risking our own safety for theirs as being a viable plan.

As for where to go from here...I guess there are a lot of options. I mean...we're there and there's not much to be done about that now. I'd say first of all we need some people in powerful places who can recognize when what we've done is (hopefully) starting to work so we can leave as soon as possible. No more landing on aircraft carriers shouting "mission accomlpished" when we're far from done and far from accomplished. We need to develop a REAL intelligence community so shit like this doesn't happen again. We have nearly unlimited resources and the best we could do was say "oops, we messed up". That's just plain unacceptable for the only superpower left. And really, that gives carte blanche to any other country who wants to ruin someone's shit. If all you've gotta do is deliver a half assed apology, why not? Perhaps most importantly we need to work on our image across the world. The reason we're knee deep in people hating us is largely because of the way we're perceived across the world. Whether they're right or wrong, we need to start understanding that people who aren't like us REALLY aren't like us. Some people won't ever stop hating us no matter what...not much we can do about that. But the last thing we should be doing is validating their reasons for hating us.

[Robert]

Originally Posted by GT40FIED

Let's face it, they're hugely outnumbered in that part of the world by people who aren't their biggest fans. Those people aren't listening to them anyway. Israel may be our friend, but I don't see risking our own safety for theirs as being a viable plan.

Shall i remind you about the 6 day war?

[GT40FIED]

Shall I remind you that I was using that in the context of their influence in that part of the world?

[Robert]

Originally Posted by GT40FIED

Shall I remind you that I was using that in the context of their influence in that part of the world?

Probably since it wasn't stated a such.

[GT40FIED]

Well...not outright. I suppose I meant to imply it. But I'm too lazy to go fix it now...but you get the idea.