gdp's Comments

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:56:04 +0000

On the motivation of terror http://cpost.uchicago.edu/blog/2010/10/08/robert-... There's an annoying 20 second commercial in the beginning, but it's really worth the watch

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:49:44 +0000

According to the Pulitzer prize wining book "The Looming Tower" by Lawrence Wright, bin Laden hated Hussein intensely, and vice versa. Bin Laden despised Hussein's secular Baath party, and Hussein found religious zealots impossible to work with and trust. Bin Laden offered to use his band of Arab Afghans to wage war against Saddam in the early 90's in defense of Saudi Arabia. And according to CIA director George Tenet "We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority, direction and control, complicity with al-Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America, period." There is a National Geographic documentary about the 143 day interrogation of Saddam by the FBI's George Piro, I highly recommend you watch that. "Hussein stated he was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq's weaknesses and vulnerabilities than the repercussions of the United States for his refusal to allow UN inspectors back into Iraq." He lied about having weapons to make his country look stronger in the eyes of Iran. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti...

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:30:26 +0000

I see what you mean about Islam. I'm no Muslim scholar, but the way I understand it, you can't have Islam AND democracy. Islam is a total way of life. So I'm not sure exactly what we think we're doing over there. I will concede you are probably right on that last paragraph. American's seem more dependent, and less willing to make the hard decisions, IMO. Not a good attitude to go to war with. You sound like a pretty reasonable dude, I don't know how much more time I can spend on this website. With most of these people it's like trying to argue for racial equality at a Nazi Party rally. There is no effort to see any side of the story but their own. Best of luck

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:21:18 +0000

Whoooooooooooooa tiger. How are you going to say many "paulistas" don't see the Holocaust as a problem? That is ridiculous unfounded mud-slinging. Is it possible that Hitler arose from the draconian sanctions placed on Germany after U.S. intervention in WWI? Also, Hitler displayed aggression towards Poland and the Sudetanland early on, as well as publicly stating his intentions with the Jewish population. There was plenty of reason to intervene, as we did. That's a far cry from invading a third-world country(Iraq) for its WMD's (which didn't exist) and the Al Qaeda connection(which also didn't exist). Why don't we intervene in the genocides going on in East Africa? Or the famines in North Korea? Or the 78 million people who died in China as a result of Mao's Great Leap? Or the 12 million killed by Stalin? The U.S. government doesn't intervene based on compassion. Just ask Gaddhafi. Syria is still murdering by the thousands, yet where are we?

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:12:07 +0000

Really? You ask me a question, I do my best to offer you a sincere response, and you respond with a crappy reference to a 30 year old sit-com/ democratic president who was out of office before I was born? Real classy buddy. You didn't respond to a single point I made, you just baited me into a response so you could toss out your sassy little come-back you've probably been high-fiving yourself for all day. Dumb.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:04:56 +0000

1.)C'mon lady, really?? Name the states? How about you spend 3.5 seconds on Google like I did and look them up yourself. OR maybe it's because I got high and went on a week long marijuana fueled animal sex tour of 16 different states?? Who knows?! 2.)Thanks. 3.) Do you really think that? You literally think people have 'pot' in quotation marks parties and read your posts? I don't think not having read Eileen's 95 Treatises on the Evils of 'Pot' disqualifies me from this conversation. This suggests to me you've been discredited by too many people before myself, and have lost the desire to continue to repeat your easily refuted arguments. You seem to enjoy calling me crazy and insane without offering any logical or reason-based arguments to back up your point. This isn't about whether 'Pot' is right or wrong. It is about the rights of individual Americans to choose to do whatever they want to do, provided it brings no harm or infringement of rights to others.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:05:21 +0000

1.) It's legal in 16 states. The point is, just because something that you view to be morally reprehensible is legal, doesn't mean it will become an epidemic. Give people some credit. 2.) Just because I support liberty doesn't mean I smoke weed. If you advocate gay rights, does that make you gay? If you defend the second amendment, do you have to own a gun? 3.)"I have been through this over and over and over again with you 'pot' heads" First off, all 'pot heads' aren't the same person. They don't all sit around and read your inane rantings in the same room together. I've never had this conversation with you before in my life. And no I will not read through your comments, life is far too short for me to dig up your exclamation mark-riddled old postings about Pot with a capital P! The fact that you lump a substantial percentage of Americans into the category of 'pot' heads tells me you have no desire to see people as individuals and really understand the issue.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:57:29 +0000

I'll do my best. I guess the answer would be by planes, trains, and automobiles. "As soon as the ships could get there" he'd say. I know it sounds ugly, but all we're doing over there is saving face. It's been ten years, the longest war in American history. They just recently assassinated their ex-president, have no desire for peace or democracy, and certain elements are being sponsored by Nuclear Pakistan, our supposed ally. We killed bin Laden. We've killed countless other members of Al Qaeda, and accomplished our original objective of dismantling the terrorist training network. This is as peaceful as Afghanistan is ever going to get. They've been at it for centuries, and in an uninterupted series of wars for decades, including the one in 1979 when we were the Taliban's ally. There is no evidence that this place is going to improve and turn into France or Germany in one month, one year, or one hundred years. Only the Afghan people can determine if they want to be subject to murderous Taliban, or if they want a government that fits their needs better. The more troops we have in the middle east, the more Americans are in danger. That's why Reagan pulled the Marines out of Lebanon.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:58:48 +0000

I don't mean this to be rude, but your attitude towards pot..sorry, "P"ot, tells me you're either 80 years old, or oblivious to how kids actually view this stuff. Bestiality is legal in many areas, is that a GREEN LIGHT for the kids to go ahead and snuggle up with sheep? Just because something doesn't have a Federal Prison sentence attached to it, doesn't mean people are going to go wild and start doing it all the time. Maybe kids should get their morals from their parents, and not the government. And is a multi-billion dollar drug war justified to keep little Billy or his dad from smoking a joint? Obviously drugs are harmful in many ways and should be kept away from children, but this is ridiculous. And these are Harrison/Rasmussen national polls, not straw polls. Completely different.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:45:52 +0000

I ain't stupid, yer stupid. haha lol! But seriously though, that wasn't rhetorical. I'm asking you an actual question. Name me a single problem that has befallen the United States in the last 100 years that has happened as a result of "isolationism"?

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:42:25 +0000

Actions speak louder than words. If we start calling it the "Roman Democracy" does that make it true? 900+ military bases in 135 countries and the world's largest military budget. A consistent policy of toppling dictators who never threatened us, despite the fact we were giving aid to those same guys a few years before. I don't think the people in Baghdad who got their houses blown up and watch troops marching in front of their door everyday for the last 8 years would put "conquers" in quotes.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:38:04 +0000

Who cares what you call it? It's 900+ bases in 135 countries and a "defense" budget larger than the rest of the world combined. I don't care what you want to call it, it's crazy is what it is.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:35:56 +0000

I agree with your statement completely. It is a matter of will. But as you said there was no lack of will in WW2, but I don't think it's because we were tougher. I think it is because the American people aren't convinced these countries are an existential threat to us, or that a large-scale long-term military operation was/is the best solution to the threat. Maybe I am cynical, but these people have been killing each other for any reason they can think of for hundreds of years, and I just don't believe it's possible to ram Democracy down their throats with an M-4, and believe that any amount of friendship or bombs can pound peace into them. Only they can choose how they want to live. Where does this all end? Whack-a-Mole isn't a foreign policy. Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia... Now Pakistan? Or Syria? We need to fundamentally rethink our motivation for going into war. It is not a decision to be made lightly. Like you said about a lack of commitment, if we aren't willing to go all-out, don't go at all. Thanks for the reply, we don't agree on everything, but I appreciate you taking the time to answer me without screaming.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:06:15 +0000

Ron Paul has spoken about this extensively. I recommend you check out his website, google him, or search him on YouTube to see one of the many interviews/debates in which he has addressed your issues.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:02:52 +0000

Which problems in the world have been caused by us isolating ourselves? Because I can name about 10,000 problems that have been created by our unnecessary intervention.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:00:19 +0000

What's your fetish with pot anyways? The fact you capitalize it makes it even weirder. Ron Paul opposes drug use btw, he just happens to think he doesn't have the right to tell a grown adult what they can or can't do in their own home if it causes no harm to anyone. Paul supporters aren't attacking the messenger or the message out of allegiance to Paul, but out of a moral obligation to voice opposition to malicious and misinformed policies and ideas that are ruining this country. And as for your "getting out the vote" comment, Out of the three candidates you mentioned, Paul is the only one who has been shown consistently in polls to beat Obama in a head-to-head match up. With the exception of Mitt, no other candidate can say that.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:47:55 +0000

Define "win". We beat Hitler in less than 4 years, yet 8 years later can't seem to get the upper hand on the Iraqi's we supposedly are 'liberating'? There's something wrong with the mission. There were no WMD's. There was no Al Qaeda (until after we invaded). We had to retaliate against Afghanistan, but a multi-trillion dollar 10 year full-scale military occupation doesn't sound like an appropriate strategy given the enemy.

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:39:45 +0000

"Walks in through the front door"?? You don't need a $700+ Billion military budget and 900+ Military bases in 135 countries when you're invited. Just ask Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, or any of the other countries we're currently dropping bombs on. If we are "giving power back to the citizens" why have they been shooting at us for the last 10 years? It's not an extremist minority that hates us over there. It's the majority. How much love are you gonna have for the people who just dropped a laser-guided missile on your neighbors house?

Big Government : Ron Paul Supporters and the American 'Empire'

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:30:14 +0000

Let me get this straight...Our current foreign policy doesn't qualify as an empire because we aren't making money at it? This article is absolutely terrifying. I'd also like to point out that the three 'empires' you gave as examples all collapsed due to spreading themselves too thin and not being able to finance their operations. One of them, the English, had a profitable empire including some colonies in the New World, until the locals refused to accept their presence and engaged them in a costly and futile war. We aren't spreading freedom. We're killing and being killed. I'd also like to point out the fact that Iraq never attacked us, and never had any association with any member of Al Qaeda. 10 years in Afghanistan. 8 in Iraq. Where is this going? If it isn't an empire (and therefore not making us money) why is a country $15 Trillion in debt over there fighting multiple unnecessary/unconstitutional wars with no end in sight? We're not stopping terrorism. We're just shortening their commute.