Danny Z, contrary to media reports about it's cancellation, the Bahrain Grand Prix has simply been rescheduled this year.

Bill H, the radicals etc certainly would not represent the people. But let's remember that Gaddafi masterminded several terrorist attacks around the world, including the bombing of the Pan Am flight over Scotland. He's a terrorist, a thug, a bully, and they only have one language.
Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Jim and Tere:
He's a terrorist, a thug, a bully, and they only have one language.

That translates into "they only understand one language" But, that understanding comes at a mighty big price tag for us...

Money, The Military, Human Treasure, our resources & what little prestige we have are always sacrificed and we seem to have very little to show for it but contempt.

I've watched this unfold - and here is what my untrained eye has seen.

Back when the "Shit hit the fan" in Libya you saw the gov opposition forces drunk on bravado... walking down the streets and shooting in the air wasting ammunition. When they were interviewed you saw them telling our correspondents how they didn't want American help and how they didn't like us anyway.

How times have changed... Now they all want to know why we are allowing this to take place. You see the tone of the interview changing rapidly.

Sadly, depending upon the bend of the correspondents & their management, you saw the slant of the News Media Reporting molded around that flavor.

The truth is... We're damned if we do - Damned if we don't.

If the Arab nations wanted to force a No Fly Zone - they could. If the European Union wanted to force it - they could. Russia - China - Hell, I even think France could do it without any help.

We're getting spread mighty thin with our "Money, The Military, Human Treasure, our resources & what little prestige we have"

That "Well" is drying out... We probably should let the rain come and refill it before it completely dries out & collapses.

We might have the biggest bat... But the termites are destroying the core. Let's hope we don't need to swing it too hard right now, it just might break.

Amen to that Bill!
I wasn't going to do this, but now my 2 cents...
It's time for this country to start worrying about it's own. We are out policeing and rebuilding the world, but have yet to take care of that business right here in the good 'ol USA. I believe that if we stayed home and put the money, resources and human efforts in making this country a better place, things wouldn't be as messed up as they are today. And on top of that, if we were stronger on the home front then maybe the world would once again "fear the wrath" of the USA rather than just brush it off as it is no big deal.

The 'go it alone' thing has to stop. We no longer have the political or economic resources to try to rescue countries that have been fighting internally for centuries. Some might say that we just have to continue to carry the fight to where ever the terrorists are. Perhaps they are right.
But never downplay the 'oil' card. Talk about the mess we're in--the dependence on oil, particularly mideast oil, is behind much of our foreign policy and has been for decades. How many officials would be willing to send our soldiers and money to any of these countries if it were not for making sure we have a continuing supply of oil? Maybe I'm jaded, but I doubt that there would be very many. How many dictatorships both 'good' and bad, have we propped up over the years, just to protect our interests in their oil? How many lives has that policy cost us? How many trillions of dollars? And then we act supprised when the people of those countries get tired of being ------ on, and try to revolt. OK, I'll get off my soap box now.

The fact is that a nation which increases it's national debt by $100,000 every nano-second just can't afford to get rid of Gadaffi.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/#

with a daughter and son in law in the marines i am worrying about my own...and as a member of the patriot guard i am worried about my own..... the lives this could take or will take are known and unknown brothers and sisters .......i am worrying about my own... as a x marine i am worrying about my own .........

As an ex Army infantryman i am worried any time we get involved anywhere in the world.

I'm an optimist.

I believe there is something fundamentally different going on on the middle east that is worthy (this time) of our support. I believe technology is allowing the masses to both be educated in other culture's ways and offering a vehicle to collaborate and mobilize. The problem is that the entrenched dictatorial regimes are naturally going to resist. After all, they are God's chosen ion their self written story.

The big question, other than the human rights issues, are what will the world look like after these revolts are history? I'm very optimistic that these troubled regions will become self policing. A small hint of this has been in the stance of the Arab Nations League support of a globally sponsored strike on Gaddafi.

NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman in his book "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" wrote that no two countries that have a MacDonalds will ever fight each other. When I read this I thought Preposterous! By the end of the chapter I was convinced he was right. The concept is that it takes a middle class to support a MacDonalds and middle class societies don't fight as they have something to lose! Most Middle East and African countries have no middle class....yet. The ones that do, are more like us than you might imagine.

quote:

Originally posted by Moonbeam-Express:



NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman in his book "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" wrote that no two countries that have a MacDonalds will ever fight each other. When I read this I thought Preposterous! By the end of the chapter I was convinced he was right. The concept is that it takes a middle class to support a MacDonalds and middle class societies don't fight as they have something to lose!

The premise has merit, but interregnum Germany had a solid middle class.

Admittedly, they were shaken by the punitive terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the world wide depression, but they were, for the most part, solid, stolid, middle class folks. Some of their middle class values helped them either follow or accept Hitler. i.e., antipathy toward labor unions, fear of socialism, fear of communism, patriotism, nationalism, support of the military/industrial complex, love of parades, love of nifty uniforms, .........oh oh....thread drift.

However, two-class countries are certainly more prone to violence, both inwardly and outwardly directed.