The reason I made this post is because I am disgusted with the garbage that brave soldiers like yourself have to hear from their own people.
My point is that not only must our troops hear venom such as that expressed here, but also that our enemies are emboldened and encouraged by it.
Bin Laden said that the public would undermine our troops and that is exactely what is happening. It saddens me to see this.
The bottom line though is that I am on your side. You fought against vicious, horrible people that have no desire to live in harmony with the rest of mankind. Don't let anybody tell you differently.
Are you thinking of moving here or just visiting? If you don't like warm weather New York is one wild place but to me it seems like a giant flea market. Seattle and Portland are supposed to be cool areas with decent weather. Then of course there is California which is pretty much a country to itself. My ultimate detination is looking like Florida which is much closer to you than the west coast. Fort Lauderdale has exploded in recent years and of course there is South Beach. If you are planning a trip here you will have a blast in South Beach. If you come durring spring break you will be blown away. Ever hear that Will Smith song "Welcom to Miami"?
Some of you might have seen a movie called "Black Hawk Down." It was a movie about a failed military operation in Mogadishu under President Clinton that resulted in a few casualties and some graphic immages of a pilot being dragged through the streets. Forseeing the pulic outcry, President Clinton pulled out as fast as he could, handing a victory to Al-Queda.
Bin Laden used this as an example to show that the American PUBLIC not the soldiers but the PUBLIC. Let me repeat that, not the soldiers but the PUBLIC have no tolerance for violent confrontation.
Given this fact, he argues that our military, despite all its strength will quickly be undermined by PUBLIC OPINION because this is what our politicians typically base their decissions on.
In the piece I posted, Bin Laden is using the Mogadishu example to show that America is in fact a "paper tiger" and encourage his fighters to wage jihad against us. He is ensuring them that when the going gets tough, the American PUBLIC will quickly lose their will and will force their policy makers to cut and run.
Unfortunatly, he is a smart man. I hope this clarifies things for those who misunderstood the crux of the argument.
But, I posted this piece so that people could have a chance to see and consider Bin Ladens theory for themselves. It isn't my theory, I didn't write it. So, there is no reason to become hostile with me or to start spewing insults. I have not called anybody here names, nor have I been hostile to anybody.
Insults reflect more poorly on the one doing the insulting than the one being insulted. Educated people understand that insults are typically a last resort for those who lack strong arguments.
If any of you would be willing to privide any information that might support your ideas I am more than willing to consider it. I am all ears. Does anyone hear have anything they would like to offer in support of their opinion or should I just expect further insults and more vitriolic rhetoric?
I could provide reams of information. I'm sure you wouldn't bother to research any of it.
I posted a website that collects a wide range of FIRST HAND SOURCE MATERIAL from Arab mdia. Do you know the difference between first source information and opinion? Click on those videos and you can see that they are actual clips made by the radicals themselves.
Please explain how a huge collection of first hand source material is one sided.
Try reading it again. Bin Laden said these things in order to encourage jihad fighters to terrorize us and our troops. This is the reason the insurgents are doing what they are doing - because Bin Laden is right and you are making his case for him. It is the American public with their hate Bush non-sense that are encouraging our enemies and proving Bin Laden right. Right now the Democratic Congress is trying to reward our enemie's efforts just Like Bin Laden promised. Their tecnique is working, praise be Allah!
Anybody who doesn't fully understand the threat of radical Islam has no business what so ever in discussing mid-East policy. That makes 90% of the world, but everyone just has to weigh in on it. Even if it emboldens our enemies.
A wise man speaks because he has something to say, a fool speaks because he must say something.
I don't read "Scare tactics," I read, watch and listen to the enemie's actual words. Try listening directly to them before you trying to convince yourself what their intentions are or are not.
Do you have any clue as to what we are up against? Do you understand radical Islam and jihad?
Entire generations of Muslim children are being brainwashed to make up an entire race of religeously fueled mass murdering jihad warriors hell bent on destroying us and our way of life.
There is a 40 foot tall TRex in the middle of the room and our entire country is blind to it. When did Americans become so intellectually unhinged?
But hay, in Islam we are allowed seven wives. And they have no choice! Maybe we are on the wrong side of this whole thing. I'm going shopping for a prayer rug tomorrow.
The question on the floor is wether or not Bin Laden is right when he says that the American people are basicaly cowards who will cut and run as soon as the going gets tough.
I know our men on the ground say "hell no, we are in it to win it!" But what about the American public. From what I read on this board it seems that Bin Laden is right.
I wonder if this is a source of encouragement for our enemies.
Oh man, it sucks not to be able to enjoy alcohol. I have a neighbor in your situation. He was out on the tikiboat drinking Vernors when everyone else was getting bombed. That suuuucks big time.
But you got to do what you got to do. Stay strong bro.
In 1996, before the Clinton Administration had completed its first term, Bin Laden was taunting that president about America's withdrawal from Somalia. "When tens of your soldiers were killed in minor battles and one American pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu, you left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you," he wrote in his Declaration of War Against the Americans for Occupying the Land of Two Holy Places. Warming to his subject, Bin Laden added that "Clinton appeared in front of the whole world promising revenge, but these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal…The extent of your impotence and weakness became very clear."
In that document, Bin Laden states plainly his legions of Islamist jihadists: "They have no intention," he said to America, "except to enter paradise by killing you." He added a foreshadowing of the fates that would find Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg and others more than seven years later: "There is nothing between us to be explained; there is only killing and neck-smiting." Within very few years Osama and his fellow killers would "enjoy" the additional thrill of posting their neck-smitings on the Internet.
Bin Laden went on to warn confidently of America's weak will for conflict. "Your problem," he said, "will be how to convince your troops to fight, while our problem will be how to restrain our youths to wait for their turn in fighting…" He summed up his manifesto with a concise expression of the nihilism that animates him: "Death is truth," he said. It is a credo made much more chilling by its rapid spread around the globe and its currency among various regimes.
American and Free World "Too Weak"
In the authoritarian and tyrannical world view of radical Islamist terrorist ideology, America and the free world are too weak, too comfortable and too much in love with living to overcome the jihadist's maniacal commitment to a hard life and violent death in the name of Allah. It is likely that Bin Laden and his fellow terrorists were surprised by the post-9/11 American response to their operations, but that they still expect our resolve to wane and dissipate, and its allies to withdraw in the fashion of Spain, in the process of open public debate that characterizes free democratic nations.
No conflict quite like this one has been waged before, and no foe quite like global Islamist terrorists, with their shadowy, multi-regional networks of fanatics, has been engaged before. The Committee on the Present Danger is dedicated to advocating policies and actions that will ensure that Bin Laden's expectation will not come to pass; and to public debate and discussion about the war against terrorism that is honest, informed and directed toward success. If that is the case, then the American people, their political leadership and all others who love freedom around the world will defeat this creed of oppression and death, just as they have defeated others before it.
My favorite new testament story takes place in the Temple when people were giving money. A poor woman walks up to the pot and gives a single sheckle. The more wealthy men ridicule her because their donation was so much larger. Upon hearing this, Jesus stood up and rebuked them explaining that she has given all of her wealth while they only parted with a small portion. Her gift was in fact much greater than theirs.
It's easy to give when you are wealthy. To truely understand what it means to have to fight for what you have is entierly different.
Do you think that common experiences help us undertand each other better?
I think that one of the most important lesson would be humility. I don't think a person can learn humility from their parents. I think this is something we experience in life. There are so many of us who will go from high school, where they drove a bran new expensive car, to college and on to executive positions without ever knowing what it's like to have to scrub a pot in order to get by.
Take a pair of twins out for dinner, one like I mentioned and one who scrubbed pots 8 hours a day for a year. Which one do you think would be more likely to look down his nose at the waitstaff?
Thank you for that little anti-Semetic diatribe. Don't you have some Jews or Zio-cons as you call them to go gas? Perhaps you'd like to start a thread on Holocaust denial while you are at it.
You are in violation of several CS policies by posting hate speech here.
I have always been a student of human behavior and it seems to me that Americans in general are far too prosperous for their own good. This isn't true for everyone, but I think it is for a large number of us.
I see a problem with excessive prosperity because I think that a strong character and a proper understanding on the world can only be had when one experiences a certain level of adversity. The Bible speaks of this with the phrase, "forged by the flames or affliction."
Anyway, I've noticed that the more prosperity people are born into and the less adversity they have had to endure to become prosperous, the less compassion one has and the less clearly one tends to see the world.
So, I propose that as a condition of one's high school graduation, one should serve at least 1 year, maybe 2 in the military in a non-combat, service role. I think that scrubbing toilets for a while or helping the homeless would make each of us a better person, would teach us compassion for the less fortunate and would give us a view of life that would otherwise be lacking.
Somehow, I just feel that people would learn to better appreciate things and life in general once they have had to chop their own wood to stay warm.
I think it all has to do with the individules. People age and mature differently both physically and mentaly. And they say 40 is the new 30. I know it is in my case. I would have no problem dating a girl in her 20s just as long as she didn't expect me to go out dancing every night.
TikiGuy Forum Posts (324)
I am done here
Well, it's been fun but I've been spending way too much time in here for my own good. Time to get back to the real world.It's been nice chatting. Be good to each other, piece.