lord of flies

No. Isn't it funny how libertarians are all about how people should "take responsibility" so long as they're poor and "responsibility" means "staying poor"? Whereas when a major corporations dumps billions of barrels of oil on the coast, debilitating the ecology on which so many's livelihood relies, we shouldn't do anything about it and just leave them be. Just a curious little thing I thought was worth noting.

Neither did these activists. Maybe some Israeli Commandos? Just a thought. Truly pathetic.

"Ignore it" is not a form of risk management. BP purposefully, knowingly avoided putting together any plan for purely marginal benefits. They had no plan, and they continue to show off their incredible incompetence as the oil spill grows out of control. Seize BP.

So because my father owns a gun and keeps it in his house, he "want violence"? Nice to know. I assume that, being the pacifistic sort yourself, you don't own any firearms?

It still doesn't make you some sort of secret double agent operative on behalf of the pan-Muslim conspiracy to overthrow the liberal western democracy/apartheid state of Israel.

Look out everybody! This ship full of people bringing food to a blockaded country isn't a collection of activists who feel solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people and act on it. This ship is a secret Muslim special intelligence operation to make Israel look bad.

Because they're not Israel. This is what I've been banging on about for ten pages. Israel is important, it stands for something bigger. It's Fort Laramie, a dirty, battered outpost of Western democracy. Those who would see a shadow of Iranian-style dictatorship descend over the entire region want it destroyed. They are using multiple tactics, including this old favourite from the KGB playbook of using 'progressive elements.' Am I suggesting that this flotilla is on a hotline to Tehran? Hell, no. Am I suggesting that the European liberal left is being subtly manipulated, that it's acidic self-hate is being hi-jacked? Hell yes. Ah ha ha ha ha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! *wipes tears from eyes* No.

Nope, I'm not. PS: I actually have done volunteer work, but I don't feel the need to wave my do-gooder e-****.

It actually is pretty funny, since unlike the Israeli government, the Somali pirates haven't ever killed anyone! Also, lmao at the fact that so many people in this thread are for a country boarding foreign nations' boats in international waters and shooting up the people on board. Just... **** you. Seriously, the "burglar breaks into your house and shoots you in self defense" argument is exactly correct, shut up and stop defending this brutal apartheid regime.

I've been to every continent except India and China. There's a definition of continent, and Russia is most certainly is not one.

Yeah, no. I don't feel the need to brag to a bunch of brain dead counter revolutionaries. Russia isn't a continent. Why don't you cut down your maniacal and ridiculous bragging until you can figure out what continents actually exist? Why don't you write me a three-page essay (12 points Times New Roman double spaced) on why an ad hominem is an irrelevant attack in a discussion of literally anything except your opponent's character? How do you not know these things?

Nice baiting, but it won't work. Unlike you, I don't do good things for cred mining. Well, actually, that is like you, except that you don't actually do good things at all! Funny that.

Hmm, yes, let's steal the victories of the struggles of black South Africans and replace it with the struggle of white people to use sanctions. Wonderful.

Yeah, right. That's why apartheid ended.

Sanctions have never worked at regime change, only at strangling the infants of an entire people. They will not this time either, Krezack.

Actually, this is completely rational behavior on the part of the North Korean government. They can't ever risk establishing even lukewarm relations with their southern neighbor, since that would remove the underlying principles the regime is based upon. This sort of behavior also demonstrates to their people (even though it is not actually true) that the North Korean military is unmatched, since this sort of provocation can happen without serious retaliation.

Okay, let's get back on this: Military force is not the answer to North Korea. Military force is probably the exact opposite of the answer to North Korea. This is only partly because of the massive, massive, massive, massive, massive casualties a Second Korean War would cause. B.R. Myers gave a great talk about the exact functioning of the North Korean state and its propaganda. To put it simply, North Korea can't not lash out at the United States: that is the center of its legitimacy. It can't stop being militaristic: that is the center of its legitimacy. The whole justification of North Korea is that it is not a United States puppet.

FACT: At the outbreak of the war, the Soviet Union maintained a neutral stance and wanted the two countries to make peace.FACT: At the outbreak of the war, the United States supported the Iraqi invasion of Iran. FACT: The United States started a program to help with the replacement of Soviet parts in order to help reduce the reliance of once-Soviet reliant countries, including Iraq, on the Soviet Union. FACT: The United States, while it did not give huge amounts of aid in the form of US-manufactured weapons, did give huge amounts of aid in the form of weapons manufactured in other countries. Yes, Iraq had started out as a Soviet ally and the Soviet Union had given significant aid to the Ba'athist regime. However, once they started invading Iran, the Soviets offered Iran weapons, and its allies in Libya and Syria sold Iran weapons.

WHEREAS, the continued sanctions only add to the food insecurity suffered by the people of North Korea. WHEREAS, liberal pacifists wish to avoid confrontation with this insane regime because they're little girls. THEREFORE, let's get this **** started! To the Korean People's Army: Make Seoul a sea of fire! To the Republic of Korea Armed Forces: Burn Pyongyang to the ground! Let us mobilize seven million people in a bloodbath of historic proportions! I am a war whore! Death is my business... and business is good!

"The US provided less conventional military equipment than British or German companies but it did allow the export of biological agents, including anthrax; vital ingredients for chemical weapons; and cluster bombs sold by a CIA front organisation in Chile, the report says."- Guardian "The United States and the CIA maintained a program known as the 'Bear Spares" program whereby the United States made sure that spare parts and ammunition for Soviet or Soviet-style weaponry were available to countries which sought to reduce their dependence on the Soviets for defense needs. If the "Bear Spares" were manufactured outside the United States, then the United States could arrange for the provision of these weapons to a third country without direct involvement. Israel, for example, had a very large stockpile of Soviet weaponry and ammunition captured during its various wars. At the suggestion of the United States, the Israelis would transfer the spare parts and weapons to third countries or insurgent movements (such as the Afghan rebels and the Contras). Similarly, Egypt manufactured weapons and spare parts from Soviet designs and porvided these weapons and ammunition to the Iraqis and other countries. Egypt also served as a supplier for the Bear Spares program. The United States approved, assisted and encouraged Egypt's manufacturing capabilities. The United States approved, assisted and encouraged Egypt's sale of weaponry, munitions and vehicles to Iraq." - the sworn court declaration of former NSC official Howard Teicher

Yes, and there is a difference between giving aid to Suharto to help him massacre the left-wing of Indonesia and the people of East Timor and "being a bystander." There is a difference between giving Saddam massive military aid and encouraging him to invade Iran and "being a bystander."

Was it deliberate, like the purges? Answer is no, your argument is invalid. Yes, the United States support of Suharto's regime was deliberate. We knew exactly what he was doing in his "Transition to the New Order" (killing over 500,000 Indonesians). We supported his invasion and occupation of East Timor, which killed at least 160,000 people. Yes, the United States' support of Saddam's regime was deliberate. We knew exactly what he was doing in the Iran-Iraq War (killing around 1,000,000 people total on both sides) but we supplied him weapons anyway. And when we used sanctions and bombing, we knew exactly what we were doing: causing the death of at least 350,000 people (some estimates put the excess infant mortality at 500,000). When we invaded them most recently, we also knew exactly what we were doing, killing at least 100,000 civilians, and most likely over 400,000.

My point is that an American communist in 1945-1953, acting on the limited information available to him, would believe that Yezhov was the primary author of the purges and that he had been righteously executed for it. PS: You can easily stack up over two million dead from US involvement in Iraq and Indonesia alone.

*sighs, draws katana* American communists were not Stalin; when they aided the Soviet Union, they were doing so out of a sense of genuine internationalism. Stalin's purges were long done with, and Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov (who had been tied to the whole affair) had been killed. In the Cold War, the number of people that the Soviet Union killed post-1945 is virtually nothing compared to the body count the United States stacked up in Vietnam, Cambodia and Korea and by proxy in countries such as Chile, Brazil, Iran, Greece, Nicaragua, etc.

"a discussion of response to an oil spill resulting from the activities proposed in this plan is not required for this Exploration Plan." - BP's Initial Exploration Plan for Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (where the accident took place), filed in February 2009.