IntenseDebate - Mark

8 years ago @ Antiwar.com Original A... - After Me, the Jihad · 1 reply · +3 points

Gaddafi did more than predict that. He prepared the way for it. It was his strategy.

Gaddafi piled up arms in astounding amounts. He had ten times and more than his army could use. At the same time he shrank his army, distrusting it. He trusted the deterrent effect of an armed populace.

That was not madness, that was his strategy. He believed in people's war. His whole political concept was decentralized power, except of course for his own power. He was the exception in his own mind to his own concepts.

People's war in Libya had to look like this. It isn't China or Vietnam. He had heaps of weapons everywhere, meant for people to be able to get. It was legal and encouraged for near everyone to have an AK in the house.

Gaddafi did not just predict this, he made sure it would happen if he was attacked. And it did. It didn't work out for him personally, but then deterrents are not meant to, if they fail to deter.

8 years ago @ Antiwar.com Original A... - Caught With Our Pants ... · 0 replies · +19 points

This provocation deserves a reminder that the Tonkin Gulf incident leading to authorization of the Vietnam War was itself a provocation. Those two destroyers were deliberately trolling for trouble, part of an operation to land spies in the North. It wasn't by chance that the Norths torpedo boats came out.

8 years ago @ News From Antiwar.com - China Dismisses US Cri... · 0 replies · +1 points

The US and China desire different end states. Of course their policies won't be the same. Of course China will not act to produce the US-desired end state instead of their own.

China wants a moderated version of what is there now. The US wants regime change (again).

China is also more patient in such things. A longer term view is built into their system, vs short term US election cycle thinking. China would be happy to ease NK into a South Africa situation.

The US is looking at Libya, and that horrifies even South Korea and Japan.

8 years ago @ Antiwar.com Original A... - Palestine After Abbas:... · 0 replies · +3 points

I fully understand the author's disgust with the PA and Abbas.

However, he does not mention that disbanding the PA would lose a few gains that were made, at the UN and with the EU. They may not be much, nowhere what they ought to be, but they are all that has been won with all of this time.

Can they be saved after the PA? Are they worth saving? That needs to be discussed in connection with suggestions to disband the PA. Actually, I agree it ought to be disbanded and the whole problem dumped on Israel, but that needs to be subject to detailed analysis.

8 years ago @ Antiwar.com Original A... - New Hillary Emails Rev... · 0 replies · +6 points

Everything Hillary touches turns out this way. From health care in the 90's to Ukraine and Syria now, her brown thumb poisons all it touches.

8 years ago @ Antiwar.com Original A... - Will Mideast Allies Dr... · 0 replies · +11 points

The Saudis and their AIPAC helpers (Dennis Ross yesterday in the NYT) are trying to force the US to choose between them and our nuclear deal with Iran.

We should choose. Choose the nuclear deal.

8 years ago @ News From Antiwar.com - Saudis Execute Cleric,... · 0 replies · +9 points

This might also mention that Dennis Ross was in the NYT yesterday defending the Saudis. He is all AIPAC, all the time, so that is a powerful voice, not just little allies. Anything to bash Iran.

8 years ago @ Antiwar.com Original A... - The Saudis Go Full ISIS · 0 replies · +1 points

Governments discovered a couple of centuries ago that with popular media available, blatant lies just don't sell. For Napoleon, the phrase became "to lie like a Bulletin."

Contrawise, governments have found great power in NOT doing that. The BBC during WW2 was a source of great advantage to the British because it could be believed.

Americans are not all stupid. A lot of our finest know perfectly well what this is. Many of them are in our military too, and this undercuts morale.

The crowd inside the DC Beltway may believe their own nonsense, but they are not fooling anybody else who thinks.

This is a long term danger to the US. It tends to have a high price that grows over time.

8 years ago @ Antiwar.com Original A... - The War Against the Co... · 1 reply · +13 points

The wonder is that so far there has not been more of an insurgency inside the US. Also a wonder is why it is Western ranchers leading, instead of the minorities so freely killed by police. Still, once it starts, it will spread.

Justin draws a comparison to Iraq. It is odd that the comparison has not been closer, and it could become a lot closer. Our government is no more concerned about ordinary Americans and development of our country than the puppet we set up in Iraq was concerned about ordinary Iraqis and development of their country.

8 years ago @ News From Antiwar.com - Saudis Face Diplomatic... · 0 replies · +5 points

This is aimed at sabotage of the US dealings with Iran. Therefore, Israel approves. The US is facing both united to undermine its policies.

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