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Speculation On the Doomed Satellite
scim writes "Intelligent speculation has led one knowledgeable observer to believe the satellite recently announced to have failed is a radar satellite named USA 193. According to an earlier story on the satellite: 'The experimental L-21 classified satellite, built for the National Reconnaissance Office at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, was launched successfully on Dec. 14 [2006] but has been out of touch since reaching its low-earth orbit.'" The ArmsControlWonk story leads off with what purports to be a photo from the ground of USA 193.
Yeah, have fun with the hydrazine.
Personally, I wouldn't want to keep anything that's flammable, explosive, toxic, corrosive, carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic. At least it's not radioactive...
I'm surrounded by assholes.
If your state is not a legitimate democracy, it has no right to exist
Odd reasoning there. I can think of quite a few countries that are most definitely not legitimate democracies - China (who basically bankrolls the US thus ensuring it is free to oppress its population), North Korea (who pokes its nose at the US every other week, to no reaction whatsoever, while murdering its own citizens), Burma (saw all those dead monks? did the US government do anything about it?), Russia (and each day under Putin makes it worse, but the US president has 'seen into his soul', so that makes it alright), most of the former USSR republics in Central Asia, along with pretty much most of Africa, plus whatever I forget now (it's snowing and I'm having a warm cup of sake). Yes, Iran is a theocracy, and an evil one too - your point is? How do you decide who to fuck with, and in what order?
Please don't say oil.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. -- G.B. Shaw
This 'joke' is so tired. Show me ONE EXAMPLE of someone held in Gitmo who WAS NOT an ununiformed combatant fighting our troops or implementing terror attacks.
There is plenty to bash the US for. Let's try to stick to facts instead of cheap mod point whoring with stupid jokes that have no basis in reality.
Thanks. Have a nice day.
I think GP's point, and the answer to his rhetorical question is, maybe we shouldn't fuck with anyone at all. I don't see anything that's worth the blood of thousands of civilians and tens of thousands of soldiers, beacuse 9/11 is what happens when you fuck with other cultures, the current Iranian regime is what happens when you fuck with other democratic governments, Iraq is what happens when you fuck with other soverign countries.
The US is in a location not easily attacked by anyone else. Our nearest neighbors are Canada and Mexico, and Siberian Russia. No sane government would dare attack us on our soil, and no insane government would have the means to do so. And quite frankly, if we weren't poking our noses around the world trying to enforce our rebranded form of colonialism, nobody would have attacked us at all.
Yes, certain things may require our assistance. I know I'm invoking Godwin, but the rise to power of the Nazis was one of them. But our assistance was requested. We were actively engaged in the war through the shipping of war supplies even before Pearl Harbor, and the Europeans practically begged for us to send troops over by the time the US began its counteroffensive.
But such are very special cases where by gaining control of the Atlantic ocean, US security would be threatened by Nazi Germany, and of the Pacific ocean, US security would be threatened by Imperial Japan (albeit not terribly much without ICBM's). Other than that, there has been no instance since where the US's security was threatened, only US "interests," which is a better word for "people who have lots of money and give lots of it to our corrupt politicians."
The answer you gave is why the rest of the world won't shed a single tear if another 9/11 happened. Because they've already seen through the moral, humanitarian, security facade, and they know us for the greedy, self-serving bastards that we actually are--which isn't the problem in and of itself if we only didn't pretend to be the righteous saviors of the rest of the world and try to stick our "morality" into everyone else's asses whenever we do intervene. If everyone here thought the same as you, I wouldn't be surprised if the US implodes upon itself trying to stop the mass wave of terrorists at our front door. In fact, that might already be happening.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
Genocide requires intent. If Israel intended to commit genocide, there would be no Palestinians left. Maybe a few token Palestinians living on reservations.
and has violated more UN resolutions than any other nation, since the establishment of the General AssemblyIrrelevant. The UN is illegitimate since at least a majority of member nations are illegitimate governments.
It also denies full citizenship rights to some, based on ethnicity - despite being indigenous to the region.Many Arabs are full-fledged Israeli citizens, who even hold the right to vote. The only difference in citizenship rights is that Israeli Arabs are not compelled to serve in the military.
It was created through acts of terror against the UK.So was Ireland. So was the United States, by that standard. The King David Hotel bombing was against a legitimate target (the hotel was the headquarters of the British colonial authority) and multiple warnings were issued before the bombing. The Jewish population of Israel never attacked buses, pizzerias, or other civilian targets. They never even attacked the UK itself. Furthermore, the creation of Israel was a result of the Balfour Declaration, made by the UK in 1917, decades before the King David Hotel bombing, and secured in a war of independence, not against Britain but against nearly every Arab country that existed.
You also should understand that the UK was perhaps the greatest imperial power the world has ever known, and managed to piss off about half the world in the process. Iraq? The UK invented Iraq by conquering most of the Middle East and dividing it into different British colonies. Same with Jordan. Anyway, eventually it became more expensive than it was worth and the British gave up. The point is, it's just plain wrong for you to cast the British as the good guys here, as they were one of the most genocidal imperial powers in world history. Not that I want to bomb London, but on the other hand I have minimal sympathy for mid-20th-century British bureaucrats overseeing an imperial possession and consider such persons very legitimate targets.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
no, oil is better for us if we drill it and use it to make useful things like plastics. IIRC, the last Shah of Iran thought that burning oil for fuel was one of the dumbest things to do with it.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs