patrick.net

JH says

Terrorism killed 3k people on 9/11. Then it killed many more than that when we
walked young Americans to their deaths in the hellscapes of Afghanistan and
Iraq. Terrorism won a battle on 9/11, but it won a bigger battle when we
sacrificed our own people AFTER 9/11. We seem headed that direction with ISIS,
unfortunately.

We lost 3,000 CIVLIANS in about 90 minutes on 9/11.

We lost about 5,000 volunteer soldiers over the next 13 years fighting Islamists.

Our troops beat the ever living shit out of the women-beater cavemen Jihadis in Iraq and had things largely pacified until we foolishly pulled every last troop out of the country giving up all the hard fought gains by our volunteer soldiers.

thunderlips11 says

I don't think it's an accident that Russia turned around when Putin became
Acting Deputy Prime Minister in 1999 (when Yeltsin became ill) and President in
2000.

Petro-economies aren't hard to "turn around", especially when you have a captive market like Russia has with Europe.

What else does Russia have to offer the world?

Thunder says:
"In both situations, but especially in Russia, it was the communists who took the literacy rate, electrification, sanitation, urban expansion, steel production, railroad and rolling stock, from nothing to very high. State Capitalism/Communism is bad at delivering the consumer goods like 20 different kinds of fabric softener or frost-free refrigerators though. Great at bridges, highways, dams, nuke plants, coal mines, etc.

You'll notice that Capitalist China isn't exactly much of a Beacon of Democracy. And still about 1/3 of employed Chinese work at SOEs.

I don't think it's an accident that Russia turned around when Putin became Acting Deputy Prime Minister in 1999 (when Yeltsin became ill) and President in 2000."

Strategy says:
Impressive, but not as impressive as what capitalist West accomplished. Our standard of living is unmatched. Our freedoms are unmatched. Our inventions are unmatched. There isn't a communist country that even came close.
China is no democracy, but it's use of capitalism has raised the standard of living of a billion people in a single generation.
Russia could have achieved more without Putin. Sure he is liked, but so are all other dictators. Saddam Hussein had a 99% approval rating. The few who opposed him were mysteriously found floating in a river. So sad they could not swim.

socal2 says

Petro-economies aren't hard to "turn around", especially when you have a captive market like Russia has with Europe.

What else does Russia have to offer the world?

Sixth Largest Economy on the Planet. Large and Growing Middle Class. More academic graduates than any country in Europe - 54% of Russians have an Associate's Degree equivalent or better.

Strategist says

Impressive, but not as impressive as what capitalist West accomplished. Our standard of living is unmatched. Our freedoms are unmatched. Our inventions are unmatched. There isn't a communist country that even came close.

China is no democracy, but it's use of capitalism has raised the standard of living of a billion people in a single generation.

Russia could have achieved more without Putin. Sure he is liked, but so are all other dictators. Saddam Hussein had a 99% approval rating. The few who opposed him were mysteriously found floating in a river. So sad they could not swim.

We've been at it a helluva lot longer.

The assertion about Russia without Putin is not backed by history; indeed Shock Capitalism turned Russia into a basket case. Gallup conducted the polls, not Baghdad Bob or Jen Psaki or the Russian Ministry of Information.

Russia and China were backward agricultural countries. China before Mao was run by the Shanghai Mafia (Chiang's wife was the Chinese Connie Corleone).

Single Hoe Bitch likes to project....

Call it Crazy says

sbh says

You're a cubicle slut wearing a training bra fetching coffee for a moron

Oh, and Russia's GDP per Head? More than double China's.

Russia = ~$24k
China = ~$10k

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?order=wbapi_data_value_2013+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value-last&sort=desc

Higher than Poland's too, even though the Russians didn't get low-interest loans and lots of military and economic aid from the EU and US.

thunderlips11 says

Putin is the one who reversed the downward slide of Russia, put the Oligarchs in their place, and raised the standard of living.

Corrected version:
Oil is the one who reversed the downward slide of Russia, , and raised the standard of living in some parts of Russia.

We should just declare war on ISIS/ISIL and just kill all of them. I figure it would take about a month once we get everything in place, if we do it right.

That's good in theory.
In practice, they would just merge in with the general population and be virtually undetectable. They'd have to give up their heavy hardware but they would morph to suicide car bombings/roadside bombings, like every other terror group over there.

So a strategy that might work longterm is to
1- exit the scene and wait for them to feel safe and expose themselves
2- recruit indigents to identify targets
3- use cruise missiles/smartbombs to take out the targets
4- rinse and repeat endlessly

zzyzzx says

We should just declare war on ISIS/ISIL and just kill all of them. I figure it would take about a month once we get everything in place, if we do it right.

USA bomb factories are happy, stocks go up
No boots on the ground, USA mothers are happy
terror groups in state of perpetual hiding, cannot form government or heavy equipment militia without exposing themselves to bombing.

SoftShell says

In practice, they would just merge in with the general population and be virtually undetectable.

Exactly the problem. We don't have the stomach for the collateral damage. If we did, a nuke would be a good option.

ISIS is even making Al Qaeda jealous these days. Jihad in India...really?

Call it Crazy says

JH says

SoftShell says

In practice, they would just merge in with the general population and be virtually undetectable.

Exactly the problem. We don't have the stomach for the collateral damage. If we did, a nuke would be a good option.

Since when?? This administration regularly drones "so called terrorists" all the time that are surrounded by women and children.

...and people get pissy and post about it on patnet!!

Nuke option is like cancer treatment.
you kill 99% of the good cells to get at 1% of the cancer cells.
in the end the cancer loses, but so does the body.

better to play and beat them at their own game. less collateral damage.
spy networks and smartbombs.
we have them, they don't.

JH says

SoftShell says

In practice, they would just merge in with the general population and be virtually undetectable.

Exactly the problem. We don't have the stomach for the collateral damage. If we did, a nuke would be a good option.

SoftShell says

better to play and beat them at their own game.

Sure but we suck at this game! Think Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq...

SoftShell says

In practice, they would just merge in with the general population and be virtually undetectable. They'd have to give up their heavy hardware but they would morph to suicide car bombings/roadside bombings, like every other terror group over there.

Not if you plan includes killing everyone in the area controlled by ISIS/ISIL.

zzyzzx says

thunderlips11 says

Putin is the one who reversed the downward slide of Russia, put the Oligarchs in their place, and raised the standard of living.

Corrected version:

Oil is the one who reversed the downward slide of Russia, , and raised the standard of living in some parts of Russia.

Saudi Arabia has a better standard of living than Russia, but they are the most useless people on the planet. The Saudis don't have the ability to even make pencils. Finding oil does not make you any more talented.

zzyzzx says

We should just declare war on ISIS/ISIL and just kill all of them. I figure it would take about a month once we get everything in place, if we do it right.

May I remind you of the gentleman in the White House.

Strategist says

Finding oil does not make you any more talented

Case in point: Johnny manziel

Call it Crazy says

Strategist says

zzyzzx says

We should just declare war on ISIS/ISIL and just kill all of them. I figure it would take about a month once we get everything in place, if we do it right.

May I remind you of the gentleman MUSLUM in the White House.

There, fixed it for you!

Thanks. I'm so embarrassed.

What's a muslum?

Call it Crazy says

JH says

What's a muslum?

It's me typing too fast. :)

Boy, rough crowd with the grammar Nazis....

Well, at least I didn't restate your quote with the misspelled word struckthrough......only because five minutes ago I didn't know the code to strikethrough.

mmmmmhmmmmmm