Well, there are bad guys and then there's Putin-level guys. If you really can't tell the difference or aren't sure whose government you'd prefer to live under...
Part 2. - Went to the article in the link you provided. Very interesting and sad, like most everything I have read over the years about our foreign policies....the Dulles brothers, etc. So, yes, not that we haven't had bad people in positions of power get our country to do bad things, but if you have to pick a side, and we do in the real world, I'll still take our side, however ashamed of it I am at times.
That's fair. Unfortunately, I'm not so sure that the college kids Dave Pell was referring to are into nuance. And I also suspect that authoritarian leaders love it when the West spends its time discussing nuance because it plays into their hands. That's not to say you don't have a legitimate point. Of course, you do, but I'm not sure it helps to have that point when the bombs drop.
So let me know when those bombs will be dropping, since it appears you’ve adopted the patronizing stance that young people are naive.
In the mean time, I will continue to advocate for an alternative view — that dropping bombs something the west (particularly imperialist ’Murica) excels at, with the expected results. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL30488579/
Re: Israel - Iran. You ask why would Iran attack now when Israel’s allies are/were working to haul in Israel’s offensive in Gaza? For the same reason Hamas attacked Israel. Israel’s (over)-reaction unites the Palestinian/Iranian citizens behind the terrorists/Iranians involved in the attacks. It reminds their citizenry how much Israel has been and continues to be a disruptive force in their lives. Can you say a continuing thorn in their sides? If Israel’s allies were to be successful in reining in Israel, it would lessen the conflict and hatred which the leaders of those countries depend on to keep the battle going.
As much as I support Israel, even with BiBi in charge, there is one fact that keeps getting overlooked: The Israeli attack, which Iran responded to, sent missiles into the Iranian embassy in Syria. For more than a century, attacking an embassy has been regarded as an an act of war. It is no surprise that the Iranians responded with force. Syria also has reason to declare war on Israel; a missile attack on their soil is also an act of war.
A week or so ago, Ecuador sent armed troops into the Mexican embassy to extract a former Ecuadorian government official who had asked for asylum there. That was also an act of war.
I despise the Iranian government, but in this case, they were provoked.
With regard to old people, what constitutes good health? I submit that the ability to get around as much as you genuinely want to (not much), do pretty much what you feel like, and experience only mild pain comes to constitute good health, and I submit that there is a lot of it going around.
Your unquestioning support for Israel, no matter what, is unpleasant.
Israel is a tiny state, strategically unimportant, morally bankrupt, an apartheid state which treats its Palestinian citizens much as the Jim Crow South treated Blacks. Object, boy, and you get this: Smack!
Israel created the mess in Gaza, and it insisted the God of Hosts shakes with indignation at the spectacle of the bullied fighting back with vicious tactics learned from those holding the Torah close.
That Iran, an ancient civilization, is run by malevolent theocrats and corrupt grabbers, doesn't make Israel good, as it is run in much the same way.
It is not our fight, and to think of Israel as an ally is naive; We give, they take, and we jump ahead to open the door for them. Pfui.
Nice, if wrong, lecture. This is a patently false description of my coverage of this topic. I've spent more words criticizing Bibi than on any other related topic. The rest of this isn't worth responding to.
Your disdain for Netanyahu has been clear, but you have been unable to see Palestinians as real people. I wonder, do you know, personally, any Palestinians?
"Heads up for those on a college campus: the western democracies are the good guys"
Are they? I mean, is it a bit reductionist to say "good guys vs bad guys" — Kissinger, Cheney, etc.!?
Well, there are bad guys and then there's Putin-level guys. If you really can't tell the difference or aren't sure whose government you'd prefer to live under...
I just prefer a more nuanced view of... humanity. As for which government to live under, I made my choice. Too bad not everyone has that luxury.
https://theintercept.com/2023/11/30/henry-kissinger-israel-egypt-soviet-union/
Part 2. - Went to the article in the link you provided. Very interesting and sad, like most everything I have read over the years about our foreign policies....the Dulles brothers, etc. So, yes, not that we haven't had bad people in positions of power get our country to do bad things, but if you have to pick a side, and we do in the real world, I'll still take our side, however ashamed of it I am at times.
That's fair. Unfortunately, I'm not so sure that the college kids Dave Pell was referring to are into nuance. And I also suspect that authoritarian leaders love it when the West spends its time discussing nuance because it plays into their hands. That's not to say you don't have a legitimate point. Of course, you do, but I'm not sure it helps to have that point when the bombs drop.
So let me know when those bombs will be dropping, since it appears you’ve adopted the patronizing stance that young people are naive.
In the mean time, I will continue to advocate for an alternative view — that dropping bombs something the west (particularly imperialist ’Murica) excels at, with the expected results. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL30488579/
Re: Israel - Iran. You ask why would Iran attack now when Israel’s allies are/were working to haul in Israel’s offensive in Gaza? For the same reason Hamas attacked Israel. Israel’s (over)-reaction unites the Palestinian/Iranian citizens behind the terrorists/Iranians involved in the attacks. It reminds their citizenry how much Israel has been and continues to be a disruptive force in their lives. Can you say a continuing thorn in their sides? If Israel’s allies were to be successful in reining in Israel, it would lessen the conflict and hatred which the leaders of those countries depend on to keep the battle going.
As much as I support Israel, even with BiBi in charge, there is one fact that keeps getting overlooked: The Israeli attack, which Iran responded to, sent missiles into the Iranian embassy in Syria. For more than a century, attacking an embassy has been regarded as an an act of war. It is no surprise that the Iranians responded with force. Syria also has reason to declare war on Israel; a missile attack on their soil is also an act of war.
A week or so ago, Ecuador sent armed troops into the Mexican embassy to extract a former Ecuadorian government official who had asked for asylum there. That was also an act of war.
I despise the Iranian government, but in this case, they were provoked.
With regard to old people, what constitutes good health? I submit that the ability to get around as much as you genuinely want to (not much), do pretty much what you feel like, and experience only mild pain comes to constitute good health, and I submit that there is a lot of it going around.
Your unquestioning support for Israel, no matter what, is unpleasant.
Israel is a tiny state, strategically unimportant, morally bankrupt, an apartheid state which treats its Palestinian citizens much as the Jim Crow South treated Blacks. Object, boy, and you get this: Smack!
Israel created the mess in Gaza, and it insisted the God of Hosts shakes with indignation at the spectacle of the bullied fighting back with vicious tactics learned from those holding the Torah close.
That Iran, an ancient civilization, is run by malevolent theocrats and corrupt grabbers, doesn't make Israel good, as it is run in much the same way.
It is not our fight, and to think of Israel as an ally is naive; We give, they take, and we jump ahead to open the door for them. Pfui.
Nice, if wrong, lecture. This is a patently false description of my coverage of this topic. I've spent more words criticizing Bibi than on any other related topic. The rest of this isn't worth responding to.
Well, gee. Take your football and go home.
Your disdain for Netanyahu has been clear, but you have been unable to see Palestinians as real people. I wonder, do you know, personally, any Palestinians?
It is not a hush money case. It is an election interference case. Don’t trivialize it.