Originally posted by google
Actually, I did hear about it on the news, but it wasn’t thousands of schools. More like dozens.

well, over a hundred are planned to be BUILT, from the ground up, but around 2,000 are being rebuilt. Additions added, electricity, seweage, plumbing, furniture. THAT’s happenig in the thousands.

The news does report the biulding of new schools, but they don’t do much for the refurbishing, rebuilding of old ones,simply because it’s so widespread.

Much of the supplies come directly from Americans, buying bulk supples, and shiping them directly to Iraq. See it all over the place.

Originally posted by seahawk
Honestly I think. pulling troops from Afghanistan and Iraq is a wise move anyway. Those are not places europeans do belong.

I would rather concentrate on finding the terrorists already living in europe, instead of playing savior of the arab world.

I would have agreed with you several years ago. While we needed to keep a presence, to keep Saddam in check, that’s not needed anymore. Once power is handed over to the Iraqis, and once Iraq’s military is somewhat capable, why would we NEED to stay?

We’ll be in Iraq for a good 5+ years, at least to “be there”, while things are still shakey, and I guess one could say SYria, or Iran is a potential threat….but I don’t know if that’ll justify a stay of longer than 5,6 years.

Without Saddam, Saudi arabia, Kuwait, have no neighbors that really threaten them.

The only threat to the region would be terrorists, and Saudi Arabia sure as heck won’t let us special forces in to wipe them out.

Hopefully, the US will be able to soon bring home it’s forces that are stationed out there. We’re already on the way out of Saudi Arabia(ironically, the US in Saudi Arabia was Bin LAden’s original excuse to hate/attack the US). Now that we’re leaving-and not because of his pressure– terrorists will think of new demands.

If the US pulls all it’s forces from the middle East, the terrorists will STILL attack us, citing different reasons, among them, probably, is the “will of God”.

The incedents in Spain prove this. Spain is attacked, probably for no other reasons than it was more vulnerable, and the elections were soon. The People of spain respond, and remove the pro-US government, replacing them with a socialist, anti-war gov, in the hopes that, IF this government remoed troops from Iraq, Spain would be spared.

The New government announces it will remove it’s troops when their contract is up, unless the UN resolves it(knowing they probably won’t). Terrorists plant a NEW bomb, tryning to kill more innocent Spanish. That doesn’t make any sense! The government said they would LEAVE IRaq, how can this be??

The terrorists blow themselves up, when cornered, meaning they had MORE EXPLOSIVES. More explosives+terrorists+intent=MORE BOMBS!

So, by demonstrating the will to change policy, in order to AVOID future attacks against innocents, Spain’s new government is stuck. The terrorists wll continue to attack Spain, because the IRaq war is NOT the reason they’re attacking Spain. It’s the hate for western culture, and possibly, a bit of resentment from the 15th century, coupled with a madness driven by religious fanatacism.

NOTHING can be done to prevent them from WANTING to kill us. NOTHING we do will stop them from TRYING to carry out attacks. the ONLY thing we can do, is try to stop them through direct intervention.

They are going to attack the people of Spain weather Spain is attacking them or not. Spain might as well attack them.

Adding troops to Afghanistan is a very noble idea, but really, it hides the truth. Spain capitulated with terrorist demands by voting in a guy that wanted to pull out Spainish troops from Iraq–they can do all they want in Afghanistsn, but it won’t hide the fact that the reason the troops are being pulled out is because of a terrorist attack.

Besides, the “war” part is over. Spain was involved in that, that can’t be changed. However, now, the Iraqis need more help than ever, as the focus is shifted from fighting to peackeeping, rebuilding and restructuring. The US needed spain’s help in the fight, now, th eIraqi people need their help. They need all the help they can get–military, civilian, etc. to get the country rebuilt. Pulling out now does nothing but signify the fear of future terrorist attacks.

IT would be nice if the terrorists stopped attacking us once we’ve pulled out of the mideast. That’s what they initially wanted(alqueda, anyway). somehow, I don’t expect them to do so, once we’ve pulled out. Just like I knew they wouldn’t stop attacking Spain even after the elections.

Originally posted by Flood

Don’t knock the media – it is only doing what it is told to do.

Flood.

I wasn’t. I was simply explaining the facts. The media is reporting the news, that’s what it DOES, what it is supposed to do. I never knocked it–I was simply clarifying that the NEWS is not necessarily the whole story.

I fClinton was in office, yeah, I’d say we’d be pulling out of Iraq after the first ugly incedent. Just like in Somalia.

However, the few thousand people causing trouble looks far worse than it is.

New media is a buisness, and a filthy bunch of scavengers they all are.

News is whatever happens. BIG news is whatever happens that’s a significant change from “normal”. so, when things are going good, rarely do you hear the news report it.

“breaking news! Today, tens of thaousands of people flew on aircraft, with NO terrorist attacks!”
you’ll never see that.

sombody gets drunk, and takes a run to the cockpit, it’s all over the news.

Similarly, if things in Iraq are generally going as planned, with the majority of people having a positive outlook, and buisness starting to improve, you are NOT going to see this reported.

The moment some whacko gets himself killed by throwing himself in fromnt of a tank, or some people get upset and shoot at troops–all over the news.

US troops track down, locate and subsecuently kill people conspiring to attack them, the police and iraqi citizens EVERY DAY. And because of that–that it’s a regular occurance–it’s not published, because, frankly, it’s nothing new.

Thousands of schools have been bult by/with help from US troops. These thousands of schools house tens of thousands of Iraqi children. Do we see news reports every day saying that these kids are now back in school? No. Because it’s not news.

Just because it’s not in the news doesn’t mean it’s not happening. And just because it’s in the news doesn’t mean it’s the norm.

If it WERE the norm, it wouldn’t be news, and we wouldn’t care.

You’ll see more of this–it’s inevitable. There are religious fundamentalists in Iraq, and they’re going to do everything they are told, no matter the cost. We all know it’s going to happen.

Control of Iraq is not something that’s going to happen immediatly, it’s something that going to take years. Ideally, we’ll NEVER have “control” over Iraq. We’ll have SOME, but we intend Iraq to have self control before we leave. It’s not possible to actually control Iraq to such a degree unless we intended to actually KEEP it, which we don’t.

I’m not surprised. People riled up by religious fervor tend to have so much illogical faith i whatever they’re believing in, they don’t consider the consequences of their actions.

Seriously, why would someone throw themselves in front of a 70 ton vehicle? Unless they had a shaped charge strapped to their back, I see no logic in this.

Some of these people are so fanatical in their devotion to this cleric, they’ll do anything he says–and he’s been saying plenty of inciteful stuff. Manipulating the facts, and downright lies. He blamed US soldiers on an attack in fellujia, where police were killed. Funny thing, even the sunni in fellujia showed thebodies of the attackers, and said that they were foreigners, not Iraqi or Americans. The SUNNI’s even called him on it–and they hate us even more than the radical shiite’s!

Some people have stated that THIS is the future of IRaq. Well, I seriously doubt that we’re going to let someone like THIs take a postion of power after paying with the lives of 600 soldiers.

IF it comes down to it, and this guy won’t be honest in what he says(even if he’s critical), he’s going to be killed.

I HATE religious fanatics…****es me off…
I have some relatives that are in a “religious” group that put their religion before any and all things–including their family. It’s sick, but they’re not killing people.

Knowing people that are otherwise perefectly intelligent, logical upstanding citizens, yet they think they’re going to be a God when they die, makes it easier to understand why/how there are people willing to go to such extremes to get a point across.

religion is good, in general, but when used as a crutch, or a tool, to accomplish one’s goal or agenda, it’s the most vile instrument of death feilded by man. God seems top be the #1 cause of war these days.

Originally posted by Flood
How come this has arrived here?

It is a verbal flame and moan forum thread if ever there was one.
Isn’t a raptor a classification for a variety of dinosaur?

Flood.

only because of it’s use in jurassic park…the whole world does what hollywood does…that TICKS me off as a biologist!! Hehe.

Velociraptor was shortened in the book to raptor, cause it sounds cool, like what people would call a velociraptor, if they were around today.

The F-22 is NOT named after velociraptor!

It is using the proper english use of the word raptor, as a classification of birds of prey. Hawks, Eagles, falcons, they’re all raptors. It follows the rcent Air force trend of naaming it’s fighters after birds of prey.

from the latin word for “theif” or “plunderer”– while not a good translation for the F-22, it describes birds of prey to a tee.

Originally posted by GoldenDragon
France will become an even bigger whipping boy in the US if it attempts to engage China.

http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200404/73b1bfe5-f047-4642-a010-42deea3e6739.htm

Now I think THIS has the potential to become a bigger mess than anything DIRECTLY between the US and China.

If things stay stagnant, Taiwan being Taiwan, and China WANTING Taiwan, things will EVENTUALLY cool down. If China decides to TAKE Taiwan, then it’s a problem. I don’t see China trying to do so, unless Taiwan does something stupid.

Bush has tried to not definativly restate”If China attacks, the US will fight for Taiwan.” because the ABSOLUTE LAST THING the Us needs, is Taiwan playing the little guy with the big friend.

in school, there was always this little guy with an attitude. His friend was the biggest guy in school. He knew he could say WHATEVER he wanted, because his friend would back him up. So, he picked fights with people BIGGER than him, knowing his friend would fight them.

If Taiwan decides that now, with the backing of the US, they can go ahead and declare independance–total, independance–from China, we have a problem.

Taiwan doing what is possibly the only thing that would get China to militarily intervene–kinda like what happened in the 1860’s over here…. And WE would be stuck. If Taiwan does such a thing because of OUR backing them, I’m kinda thinking that we should let them go, and not get in trouble because of our little friend’s BIG mouth.

Originally posted by glitter
Really ?

I don’t speak of local officals who asked to make come back all american soldiers buried in france.

Local officials? You have any idea how many “LOCAL OffICIALS” there are in this country? You see a news report of some off-hand remark and you think that it;’s relavant?
…………..
How naïve.
And don’t you think that lies such like
“France helped Saddam hussein to escape”
“France gave weapons during GW2”
and so on haven’t push people to think in a particular way ?

We have people in this country that believe they’re going to be a GOD when they die. there’s people that think Elvis is still alive. there’s people that were SO messed up as a child they worship HITLER! And you’re surprised some idiots think of saying something like that?!?!
………………..
Funny, you see a few examples of people saying something totally unfounded, and you take that as evidence of the government’s crusade against France. And you think I AM naive?

We see video of people burning the American flag, mutilating our people, and openly wishing to kill all americans, as it is the duty “of all muslims”. We seem to have the common sense to not ascribe this behavior to all muslims.
………………………………..

but you seem to don’t know the own strategy of your country.
Sad.

You see me, as well as other Americans, as ignorant, and unable to “see the truth”, that you, the “enlightened” people, see so clearly. That comes across as quite the elitist statement.

When Americans see Germany elect their leader based on his strong views against our Country’s stance, we take offense.
When Americans see the graves of their relatives defaced, by the people they died trying to save from Nazi occupation, we take offense.

All of these “crusades” undertaken, such as the “boycott’ of french products, were started at the grassroots level. People spoke out, people listened. Buisnesses took part, their customers followed.
Of course, you feel we americans are unabl;e to actually see that we ARE being manipulated, by george bush himself, and are but puppets at the hands of our government.

What is Sad, is that you are spouting all this stuff, as if you are immune to the “brainwashing” that you assume I am recieving at the hands of our government, when you, in effect, are clearly spouting views that have been instilled onto you by others, or, by the careful mainpulation of your media/government.

Or, you could be simply a US college professor/graduate student…hehe
…………………………………….
Sound more plausible that they were frnch people than russian.

Well, have you seen the pictures of what actually happened?
The writing was IN French.

And could you tell me, if Mr bush had wanted to do that, waht mecanism could have prevent him ??

HAd wanted to manipulate the media? How? by having the media only broadcast what he wanted? By forcing the media to portray France and Germany as our enemies?

Couldn’t happen. The Media, for the most part, slants left, and usually portrays the president in a negative light. right wing media, mostly radio, is much more conservative than Bush, and is against Bush in all but a few issues, Tax Cuts and national security. Those two issues trump all others, so they support him, as far as his reelection, but bush’s BIGGEST critics are those who support him. They criticize his every move, because they wish him to change certain things. The left, simply makes fun of EVERYTHING he does, because they want to see him fail.

Bush could put out ads, or have some of his supporters in media(murdoch) plant propaganda. However, there would be to great a backlash for both parties. Murdoch’s foxnews has it’s share of bush supporters. they also criticize him.
The News media runs Bush’s election ads, but they run ALL election ads.
The Democrats have even started a liberal left wing radio station to try to compete with the right wing radio. The Sad truth is that it needed THE DEMOCRATS help to get going, while conservative radio is succeding on its own, as a private, highly profitable venture by individual radio hosts, local and nationwide.

It seems that much of the world overestimates the president’s power and influence on the people of the US.

Ask yourself, “Do I think I’m SMARTER than Americans?”
“Do I think I have a better understanding of the world than Americans?”
“Am I more COMPASSIONATE than Americans”
“Is the US government brainwashing its people, while MY government does nothing of the sort?”
“Am I morally superior to americans, because I chose peace over war?”