BruceVC

Drones are very expensive hardware devices and when one is shot down over international waters it is considered an aggressive act, yes its not the same as shooting down a plane and killing pilots but its still considered a belligerent act

Iran or rather the more influential conservatism element ,who has the real power in Iran, like the Republican Guard have always been in contempt of the previous Nuclear deal Remember they agreed after much USA flag burning and belligerent anti-Western rhetoric to the Nuclear deal in 2015 and then continued to destabilize the region through proxy wars, funding brutal dictatorships like Syria and deploying there Quds special forces. But worst of all after agreeing to not develop Nuclear they tested Ballistic missiles....how is this in keeping with the spirit of peace and regional stability in the region? https://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/23/middleeast/iran-ballistic-missile-test/index.html https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-30/did-iran-just-break-nuclear-deal-again-ballistic-missile-test-launch I agree that Iran will continue to push the boundaries but they also seem to want to provoke the USA so as I mentioned earlier whatever happens is on them No you not crazy but merely mistaken, you dont need irrefutable evidence when Iran is clearly disinterested in peace and stability in the region as we can see from there actions over the last 2-3 years

I just watched a really entertaining series, called Charite at War , its a true story about a hospital and its staff who operate in Berlin during WW2 So you get to experience several aspects of life under the Nazis like eugenics and the utter intolerance for what the Nazis considered anathema and should be exterminated, like homosexuals. But its really about the amazing job numerous doctors did under terrible conditions. Well worth watching

I have just watched an interview with Trump where Justin Trudeau was present, Trump was asked several questions around this incident and he actually played it down He made several comments like " people must wait for his response " , " its not the same as USA soldiers being attacked as its basically a robot " and " it was probably a mistake from Iran and they didnt mean to it " So we will have to see how this unfolds ....but it was a mistake from Iran on several levels. They not in a position to be over-zealous and jingoistic with the USA, why provoke countries you cant possibly win a war against. That kind of hubris is really counter productive to Irans future

Iran claims the drone was over there territory, the Pentagon says it wasn't. Either way Iran shouldn't have shot down the drone I believe the Pentagon, lets see how it unfolds but the Revolutionary Guard is not thinking clearly to provoke the USA like this and whatever happens is on them

I see its on Netflix, is it worth watching. How would you compare it to ?

I dont think Trump is very religious at all, I think he adopted a " renewal\belief " in faith because he wanted to connect to part of his base to gain support and win the 2016 election. Trump is someone who can read successfully certain voting patterns and peoples concerns and he knows how to reach out to those groups and what they want to hear him say It helped him win in 2016 but its uncertain if the same methodology will help him win in 2020 ?

Im on episode 4 of Chernobyl, its brilliant Its sad, evocative and haunting .....hard to believe how many people had to die and how many lives were irrevocably altered because the USSR decided not to be honest initially about the disaster

Congrats 2133, nice one

True

QFT, that is what a RPG experience is about. Its fantasy and about creating a journey with people you think about....but I cant RP with something I cannot understand on certain levels, like Romance with a mindflayer

You make several good points and I agree with several But I just want to add something relevant to the whole perceived and real" Saudi Arabia is spreading and funding Islamic extremism ", you can make the argument that there are different types of Islamic extremism and not all of them we need to be concerned with to achieve my previous objectives of a stable ME What are the most destabilizing and militant groups are the likes of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, these are not supported by the Saudi government but rather funded by certain wealthy Saudis, and other people in the ME, who have there own ideological objectives outside the official Saudi government. Saudi Arabia has been a key partner to the USA and its allies in the war against Islamic extremism, yes they really started this alliance when they were targeted by extremism themselves but the outcome is still the same. They have played, and other countries like Jordan and UAE, an important role and assisted in fighting Islamic extremism

Okay but we focusing on the wrong developments over the last 20 years in the ME if you want to address or understand the geopolitical, historical and societal problems if you think " Americans illegally invaded Iran and Libya , they to blame for the chaos ", I will contend those events ostensibly contributed towards aspects of instability in the region but they not the fundamental reasons for the problems But before we can have this debate everyone needs to ask themselves a simple question " what do we expect from the ME " because then we can see a way forward to achieve and agree on common and sustainable objectives I have spent quite a lot of time travelling for business to the region and trying to understand the complicated political undercurrents that influence the region and I have changed my view several times on what is the best way forward. What I want to see is simply Effective ME governments that offer quality of life to there citizens, this in turn would make the region stable Oil production must continue and oil prices must be manageable and fair I am not asking for things I use to think would work like implementing Democracy or even expecting ME governments to necessarily believe in the correct " Western " way of belief in human rights So then we have to identify what are the core strategies we would implement to achieve these goals and that mean articulating the problems, in summary the main problems that have lead to instability in the ME are The historical Shia/Sunni conflict 9/11 which lead to the rise of ISIS which has been a major source of conflict and sectarian violence The Arab Spring You will notice none of these developments were caused by the invasions of Iraq or Libya, these interventions were symptoms and outcomes of some of the points above but not the actual reasons these events occurred. Finally if you disagree then can anyone give honest and proven justifications how for example " the Iraq invasion " contributed towards these events from a foundation perspective?

Im unsure from an aesthetics perspective if that will work for me ...can you imagine courting a mindflayer Part of the Romance arc is where you literally RP the dating experience like most other things in a RPG so the person has to have some level of physical connection Actually that would be an effective way for me to lose interest in Romance, you can only create Romance options around party members like mindflayers

I hope there are Romance options, there should be as it was part of BG2 and added immersive and realistic dialogue options and also lets you build more meaningful relationships with your party members...like the beautiful Viconia

Well Iraq use to have WMD and used them against both the Kurds and Iran in the past, also the worlds credible intelligence agencies said Sadam Hussein still had them ....Im sure you can appreciate how these things can be misunderstood Also we cant keep bringing up Iraq every time we want to dismiss other blatant breaches of law and order or attacks like this latest Iranian aggression. Elerond sometimes we just need to accept what we observe as true

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2019-06-13/us-says-iran-removed-unexploded-mine-from-oil-tanker Occam's razor, Iran is responsible because of the US sanctions having a hugely negative impact on there ability to sell oil so they want to interfere with the Saudis oil resources The link I posted is further evidence of Irans Revolutionary Guard being involved in the latest attacks, its irrefutable

Yes that makes sense......the Saudi's attacked themselves, glad you pointed that one out. I had completely missed that connection

I have always lived in the suburbs, in CPT I am living for the first time in the city. One of my customers is in the CBD and today I decided to walk to there offices. It was great and a very unusual experience not driving. I got to see early morning life and lots of people who were going about there business. The distance is about 1.5 miles one way so its additional exercise outside of gym and I will definitely do it again

Why who do you think is behind it Zora, lets not equivocate ...lets speak plainly in the interest of robust debate

Its a good observation you raising, its so blatant why not try to be more covert ? The only point I can raise is the general pattern of most events in the ME. Countries and sectarian groups dont seem to either understand or care about negative attention or being able to deny there actions....like the killing of Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudis and there pathetic initial attempts to deny it

Its perfectly coherent and part of there strategy to undermine and attack Saudi Arabia oil production

There is no question of " is Iran involved " obviously they involved. Its part of the broader, historical Shia/Sunni interminable conflict effectively represented by Saudi Arabia and Iran Iran is fighting several proxy wars in the ME like supporting the Houthi rebels in Yemen, keeping Assad in Syria and funding Hezbollah in Lebanon. They have been a very destabilizing influence in the region which is why Im aligned with the Gulf Arab states. Iran has made several indirect attacks on Saudi oil assets this year. Even though it may seem counterproductive because of there own production of oil due to US sanctions there own oil sales have been severely impacted so within Iran there exists an attitude from some " if we can't sell oil, no one else can as well " ....so they will go out there way to impact all Saudi oil sales within there own region but not through direct and obvious attacks. They will operate surreptitiously through there various proxies and special forces like the Revolutionary Guard https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-05/iran-guards-says-can-stop-hormuz-oil-exports-after-u-s-threat

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sarah-sanders-raj-shah-planning-to-depart-the-white-house/ Sarah Sander is going to be leaving the Whitehouse, good. I never liked her. Maybe we will see less fabrications and absurd justifications for some of Trumps outlandish and controversial comments

Hi Mani Nice to hear from you again, what will you be doing at the college. You mentioned its full time work now ?