Because Bill Gates's history would be very different from somebody else's who wasn't worth $50-60 billion.
Huh? Why? Is this the "there are two Americas" crap again? Why would "his" history of America be different from that of any of the rest of us?
"He just happens to be a guy that watched a DVD and thought it was a good idea and had a bunch of money to fund it."
Ok, so he did not even devise the course himself — he just liked what he saw. I don't particularly like the guy — and do remember his company's anti-competitive practices of the past. But none of these critics do. So why is his wealth being held against him?
No, I don't know a single Finn or Korean. And even if I did, one person's circle of acquaintances is not sufficient to make meaningful conclusions about the quality of school system in any of their countries.
You do know that the even the most struggling students in Finland graduated trilingual right?
Big deal. I graduated trilingual too (Ukrainian, Russian, English) — and most of Europe does, I guess, out of necessity. I don't know, how well they write (in any language) or whether all the graduates can solve a quadratic equation. If you have any evidence, that Finns (or South Koreans) are, indeed, the best educated in the world, you should've offered citations two posts ago...
That's an idiotic way to read it.
I apologize. Because there could not possibly have been anything wrong with how you wrote it, all of the idiocy must be on the reader's side...
The point is that if the best of the best are CHOOSING to become teachers then EVERYBODY gets the best education
That "point" of yours is rather dubious. In fact, I think, it is not true at all. Being a master of something and being able to teach it to others are two very different things...
Even Linus Torvalds did a stint teaching !
Great example! Were you going to add, that Linus quit teaching, when he discovered a better programmer and OS-designer teaching in a classroom next door?
Of all the ways to measure a students abilities, exams are just about the LEAST accurate.
That was a great opportunity to list some MORE accurate alternatives, but you missed it. Likely, because none exist.
That exams do not do so much harm to the educational process as to undo any good you see in them (which when we look at the actual patterns of behaviour that emerge seems to be highly unlikely).
That comparing schools is both a necessary and a good thing to do.
....
The two countries with the best education outcomes in the world today
And how do we know that? Without exams of some sort?
they don't have to compare schools to see which one is better - since they are all excellent.
Sure. And I too am an excellent singer — so long as you don't compare me with anyone else.
That is ultimately the difference between a good or a bad school system - how many of the smartest people it produces go back to work in it.
That "difference" seems rather self-serving. The purpose of a school system is not produce good teachers. It is to prepare students for all pursuits they may choose — not just teaching.
I still don't understand, how you would know, your education is particularly good without some means to compare the results...
You might find recommendations on how to teach, but they are not enforced as requirements.
Distinction with no (or little) difference. The giant Federal Department of Education is paid for by our tax-dollars ($70bln per year give or take). If it issues "recommendations", they are either followed or are rejected necessitating local replacements (paid for by more tax-dollars).
The argument that a citizen (or a local government) are free to reject the (higher) government's "free" help is bogus, because we aren't free to refuse paying for it, whether we use it or not.
A close relative of mine was declared "special" student (aka "short bus") and assigned to a "special" class. He was, indeed, "special" but he was not dumb. Unfortunately the school — in a perfectly wealthy (and highly Illiberal) town — treated all "special" students the same so, when he refused to do a dumb math classwork, the teacher sent his parents a note to the effect, that their son's development is slow and he, unfortunately, will never amount to much.
A few years later he entered MIT and, after graduating, proceeded to a PhD program (in Math) in one of the Ivy League colleges. He is still "special" socially, but he is a mathematical genius... His parents still have that dumb teacher's note.
which the researchers argue could help close achievement gaps between at-risk students and more affluent students
Ah, never mind. The "at-risk" was an euphemism for "poor". Sure... Never mind the single-parenthood — a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle — if only we had the money to play more music to these kids! The best we can expect, I suppose, from a University, that lists a couple of actual unabashed domestic terrorists among professors — one of them in charge of "Children and Family Justice Center", whatever that is...
This very site used to see arguments against Microsoft's Windows — and one of the potent ones was that a "monoculture" is dangerous because, should a flaw appear in it, the entire field can be lost at once.
The "recent" discovery, that fat is not nearly as bad for you as the sugars put into "fat free" products to make them edible, shows, how the similar effect can happen, when the government decides, what's best for all of us: the science is declared "settled" and "guidelines" (backed by the carrots of subsidies and sticks of fund-withdrawals) start touting the new best method.
The field of pedagogy is just as unsettled as that of dieting advice or economics. Maybe, local (private or public alike) schools ought to decide, what and how to teach? With some music or with more math instead? With essays or with puzzles or with multiple-choice tests... That way, at least some of them are going to get it right and, maybe, even show others how to do it.
Now, we know, that teachers dislike the standardized exams imposed by the Federal law(s). Sorry, no dice — the exams must be standardized, otherwise the results of the different approaches used by different schools can never be meaningfully compared.
Oh, I doubt, North Carolina is alone in this. But even if you can still pack your own lunch for your kid, as long as you have to do it, while the subsidized lunches are unsuitable (in your opinion), it is still oppression. Because you've paid for the subsidies (with your taxes) and find yourself unable to benefit from them.
This is an example of the much broader argument against using tax money for anything, that people can procure themselves. Whenever the party, that decides what to buy, is distinct from the party providing the funds, the situation is ripe for abuse. When the deciding party has the authority to compel the payers into paying (at gun-point, like the IRS), the abuse is inevitable.
We all consider slavery to have been abhorrent, but, hey, the slaves were getting food, shelter, healthcare, and education for "free" — all they had to do was to work. They were not paid — or, in other words, their rate of taxation was 100%. Ours today is about 50% all told (federal and state income taxes, sales taxes, plus real-estate taxes paid either directly by us or by our landlords).
The difference between the 50% and the 100%, in my not so humble opinion, is quantitative, not qualitative. The slaves weren't free to choose, what sort of education they were getting, where they lived, what food they were given, what doctor treated them. Our freedoms to make these choices are likewise melting every time the government decides, yet another thing ought to be "free".
Some piece of legislation empowers the schools to not only search children's lunches (desensitizing them to future 4th Amendment violations), but to also discard the parent-provided food and shove the "approved" food down their throats instead. And bill the parents for the government fare afterwards.
Same was for Bush support when he decided to send troops to Irak.
Are you equating Iraq with Ukraine?!... Wow... Let's see. You confused Mr. Nobel with "nobility". And you spell Iraq with a "k". Must be a Russian...
When YOUR people invade OTHER people, it's a good thing.
It was a good thing — Saddam Hussein did to Kuwait, what Putin is doing to Ukraine right now, and under very similar pretexts.
We kicked him out with his tail between his legs, but did not pursue so as to "give peace a chance". A chance, which Saddam Hussein has blown over the course of 10 years. We were justified in resuming hostilities much earlier than that, but Clinton didn't have, what it takes. Bush did.
When neither are YOUR people
What? Ukrainians are not "our" people? That's a relief. At least, you aren't claiming, the Maidan revolt was organized by American spies... Maybe, not all is lost in Russia after all...
You might wanna read this list [List of Nobel Laureates]
This is funny... Nobel was a last name of the man, who set up the annual prize. Becoming a laureate does not automatically make one noble (Yassir Arafat and Barack Obama are two most obvious examples.)
Of course, if "lately" doesn't mean "last 6 months" or something like that.
Yes, it does mean something like that. Support for Putin in Russia shot up, when he invaded the "brotherly nation". Thus, the vast majority of Russians today are rather ignoble... Even the "liberals" among them (referred to as "liberasts" by the pro-Kremlin majority), who acknowledge, that seizing Crimea was illegal, still feel, that it was nonetheless just somehow.
That Mr. Monakhov is not only opposing Putin, but is not afraid to make it known, makes him an outstanding Russian indeed. That he also happens to be an open-source developer, makes the story new/.-worthy.
When many other people get flat-out killed in too-many-to-count conflicts all around the world, you'd think this is a big story?
Neither this story, nor the earlier one I referred to, are about people killed in conflicts around the world.
No rarer, nor more common than in other times. There are more than 143.000.000 Russians living in Russia after all...
Yes. And the support for Putin rose from around 50% to 90+% among them all, when he invaded Ukraine at the end of February and annexed Crimea. That cut down the number of decent Russians from (roughly) 71.5 mln to 14mln. Dmitry Monakhov is among them.
I don't know what forces lie behind the current push towards portraying Russia - the country - as enemy of the 'West' again
These forces are pro-Kremlin Russians (see above), eager for a revanche over USSR's loss of Cold War. They are joined by those Westerners, who are paying attention.
this does not mean they have the moral support of all of those 143.000.000+ Russians
Putin is very popular in Russia today. The handful, who — like Mr. Monakhov — oppose him, are noble. The rest are not...
This is a far bigger story — as far as humanity is concerned — than some thug being shot by a wannabe-cop fearing for his life. At least, it has an open-source developer in it. And he is doing a noble thing too — a rare thing among Russians lately, I must add.
If the government is providing food directly, such as in the case of school dinners
Yeah, that's a very common fallacy used to justify all sorts of government intervention, which the Constitution nor popular will supports. Other examples include federally-mandated minimum drinking age and speed limits — both forced upon States on pain of lowering their Federal highway-maintenance allowances.
Whatever the government is providing, it is not paid by its money — for it does not have anything, but taxes — it is ours. Unless it is a charity (private or governmental, such as Food Stamps), there is no justification to attach strings to such disbursements.
People who avoid carbohydrates and eat more fat, even saturated fat, lose more body fat and have fewer cardiovascular risks than people who follow the low-fat diet that health authorities have favored for decades [emphasis mine -mi], a major new study shows.
A person can choose to eat this or that and it is his own responsibility. But, when the government decides, what's good for you (based on some "settled" science), it not only affects citizenry's opinion and makes us less responsible for ourselves, it also leaves millions directly controlled by the government — such as pupils in government schools — without choices at all.
Now, I don't doubt, that some of the stuff removed from schools by our omni-scient and caring Congressmen will never be considered good for anyone again. But they still force fat-free chocolate milk on kids, for example, in seeming contradiction to this new study. Maybe, both ought to be available — and parents, rather than the Federal government, be allowed to control the children's nutrition?
Sadly, the movement seems to be in the wrong direction. Some parents are already being punished for children eating incorrectly. And though in this case (200+ pound 8 year old), it is fairly obvious, that the parents are, indeed, screwy, it is likely to be a "poster-boy" for future interventions in cases less and less obvious.
But the problem isn't the cables in most cases, its the service. I no longer have to deal with Cogeco's policies, I get Teksavvy's instead.
Sure, I understand, I had the same deal — with Verizon in place of Cogeco and SpeakEasy in place of Teksavvy. While it worked things were fine. When something went wrong, figuring out, which of the two is responsible was rather difficult.
Because Verizon was selling their DSL service — direct competition with SpeakEasy — they weren't exactly anxious to help SpeakEasy resolve problems...
I wish, you had anything on-topic to offer, when you get "started"... The topic, in this case, being the abuse of the Executive Order 12333 by the intelligence community decades after the order was signed.
So long as we redefine "premature" to be a synonym for "forever", then yes, "we withdrew prematurely."
We are still stationed in Germany, Japan, and South Korea... Maybe, it is time to leave those places now — many decades since the fighting ended. But leaving when such a major force as ISIS remained in Iraq was irresponsible and stupid.
Your position has lost popular support
Not in the US it has not... When the troops stopped dying, the public was willing to see us remain in Iraq as we remain in Kuwait nearby... And we are still in Afghanistan without much outcry. Oh, and even the Gitmo is still open...
That data ranges from e-mail content to Facebook messages, from Skype chats to practically anything that passes over the Internet on an incidental basis.
None of those things existed, when the order was signed, though. And if none of the subsequent Presidents — including the current "tech-savvy" wonder — have abolished it since then (when the explosive use of computers made it truly dangerous), then is Reagan really to blame?
It's not even clear that the issue is weapons. This isn't 1980s Afghanistan we're talking about. Ukraine is a former member of the USSR and was within spitting distance of NATO, so they're armed with fighter and attack aircraft, helicopter gunships, transport aircraft, artillery, armored personnel carriers, etc. etc.
None of it in a particularly good order, most of it a generation behind. And not enough of it to withstand Russia, which poured their gas-monies into weapons and training — in addition to skilful propaganda relying not only on the Leftists traditionally sympathetic to anything "revolutionary", but also on the Rigthists this time...
early on in the conflict, a group of soldiers simply surrendered their armored personnel carriers without a shot being fired
And the keyword here is "early in the conflict". Up until late Spring Russian television was allowed to broadcast in Ukraine... But, yes, Ukrainian's regular military does have issues of its own — many senior officers entered service during Soviet times. But not the newly-formed National Guard volunteers, who remain the shining edge of Ukraine's otherwise rusty blade. And they had to scrounge equipment themselves — from guns and ammunition to infra-red detectors to life-saving Celox...
presumably they're offering intelligence support such as satellite photos as well
Yeah, "presumably". Maybe, now they do alright. But what prevented them from doing it before Crimea got invaded? Russia was massing forces for it for a month in advance — had Pentagon not seen it from above? They had... And they surely had informed the President. But Mr. Incompetent did no see fit to inform Ukraine — neither side of the political fight there — so the invasion was a complete surprise for them... Ukrainian units stationed on peninsula did not know, what to do, and the new leaders did not have a worked-out policy. Their excuse is, they had more important things to do, what's Obama's? Too busy signing people up for Obamacare?
The US has sent body armor and night vision goggles.
Only in June!Four months since Russia first invaded — and only after multiple people, both Republican and Democrats, demanded it. Had Obama been anything more than a pathetic "community organizer", he would've reacted in March instead of trying to glue the pitiful attempts to "Reset" his relationship with Russia back together. But then, if he had been, Putin might not even have dared to invade in the first place...
Perhaps more importantly, the West has committed $27 billion in aid to Ukraine over the next two years
First of all, it is an IMF loan, not true aid. It is still welcome, of course, but it will be a while before it helps troops on the ground. Putin remains a step ahead of our amateur, who is training on-the job (as his own Vice-Amateur once said).
If Maliki's politics are to blame, then Bush is ultimately the one to blame for Maliki
Tenuous in the extreme...
Except wait a minute, who was it who approved a Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq that called for all U.S. troops to leave in 2009... hm, it'll come to me... oh, that's right, it was BUSH!
The forces withdrawn under the agreement left in December of 2011. Obama was in charge for three years...
They're pretty badass, they act more like an occupying army than a terrorist organization. Turns out, there's a reason for that- they include a whole bunch of former Iraqi Army officers, who went to military academy and everything. Iraqi army officers who joined the insurgency after the Iraqi Army was disbanded by, wait for it... George W. Bush.
Yeah, Bush disbanded it the same way his predecessors disbanded German military. He also started de-Baathization of Iraq the same way we de-Nazified Germany after winning there.
And, guess what, those Nazis — fired from the army and banned from public life were pretty upset too — had we left West Germany to its own devices back then, there could've very well have been a similar insurrection there too (happily encouraged by the USSR-occupied East)... Obama should not have withdrawn from Iraq, period.
The "might not have handled things terribly well" is rather damning indeed, considering the source...
Right, as opposed to the previous guy, who went into Iraq to settle his daddy's score
His daddy has kicked Saddam's ass so bad, there were no score left to settle. But let's not change the subject, Ok?
blunder around with pointy objects in the dark making a lot of noise and hoping everyone swoons over your manliness
Oh, I guess, you just can't help it, can you?
the country you did invade is falling into civil war.
Had we withdrawn from Germany in 1955, that country would've fallen into a "civil war" as well... Whatever you blame Bush for, the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq are squarely Obama's doing. As is the emboldened Russia, to bring us back on topic.
Slashdot Mirror
Huh? Why? Is this the "there are two Americas" crap again? Why would "his" history of America be different from that of any of the rest of us?
Ok, so he did not even devise the course himself — he just liked what he saw. I don't particularly like the guy — and do remember his company's anti-competitive practices of the past. But none of these critics do. So why is his wealth being held against him?
No, I don't know a single Finn or Korean. And even if I did, one person's circle of acquaintances is not sufficient to make meaningful conclusions about the quality of school system in any of their countries.
Big deal. I graduated trilingual too (Ukrainian, Russian, English) — and most of Europe does, I guess, out of necessity. I don't know, how well they write (in any language) or whether all the graduates can solve a quadratic equation. If you have any evidence, that Finns (or South Koreans) are, indeed, the best educated in the world, you should've offered citations two posts ago...
I apologize. Because there could not possibly have been anything wrong with how you wrote it, all of the idiocy must be on the reader's side...
That "point" of yours is rather dubious. In fact, I think, it is not true at all. Being a master of something and being able to teach it to others are two very different things...
Great example! Were you going to add, that Linus quit teaching, when he discovered a better programmer and OS-designer teaching in a classroom next door?
That was a great opportunity to list some MORE accurate alternatives, but you missed it. Likely, because none exist.
Thanks for playing.
And how do we know that? Without exams of some sort?
Sure. And I too am an excellent singer — so long as you don't compare me with anyone else.
That "difference" seems rather self-serving. The purpose of a school system is not produce good teachers. It is to prepare students for all pursuits they may choose — not just teaching.
I still don't understand, how you would know, your education is particularly good without some means to compare the results...
Distinction with no (or little) difference. The giant Federal Department of Education is paid for by our tax-dollars ($70bln per year give or take). If it issues "recommendations", they are either followed or are rejected necessitating local replacements (paid for by more tax-dollars).
The argument that a citizen (or a local government) are free to reject the (higher) government's "free" help is bogus, because we aren't free to refuse paying for it, whether we use it or not.
A close relative of mine was declared "special" student (aka "short bus") and assigned to a "special" class. He was, indeed, "special" but he was not dumb. Unfortunately the school — in a perfectly wealthy (and highly Illiberal) town — treated all "special" students the same so, when he refused to do a dumb math classwork, the teacher sent his parents a note to the effect, that their son's development is slow and he, unfortunately, will never amount to much.
A few years later he entered MIT and, after graduating, proceeded to a PhD program (in Math) in one of the Ivy League colleges. He is still "special" socially, but he is a mathematical genius... His parents still have that dumb teacher's note.
Ah, never mind. The "at-risk" was an euphemism for "poor". Sure... Never mind the single-parenthood — a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle — if only we had the money to play more music to these kids! The best we can expect, I suppose, from a University, that lists a couple of actual unabashed domestic terrorists among professors — one of them in charge of "Children and Family Justice Center", whatever that is...
This very site used to see arguments against Microsoft's Windows — and one of the potent ones was that a "monoculture" is dangerous because, should a flaw appear in it, the entire field can be lost at once.
The "recent" discovery, that fat is not nearly as bad for you as the sugars put into "fat free" products to make them edible, shows, how the similar effect can happen, when the government decides, what's best for all of us: the science is declared "settled" and "guidelines" (backed by the carrots of subsidies and sticks of fund-withdrawals) start touting the new best method.
The field of pedagogy is just as unsettled as that of dieting advice or economics. Maybe, local (private or public alike) schools ought to decide, what and how to teach? With some music or with more math instead? With essays or with puzzles or with multiple-choice tests... That way, at least some of them are going to get it right and, maybe, even show others how to do it.
Now, we know, that teachers dislike the standardized exams imposed by the Federal law(s). Sorry, no dice — the exams must be standardized, otherwise the results of the different approaches used by different schools can never be meaningfully compared.
Oh, I doubt, North Carolina is alone in this. But even if you can still pack your own lunch for your kid, as long as you have to do it, while the subsidized lunches are unsuitable (in your opinion), it is still oppression. Because you've paid for the subsidies (with your taxes) and find yourself unable to benefit from them.
This is an example of the much broader argument against using tax money for anything, that people can procure themselves. Whenever the party, that decides what to buy, is distinct from the party providing the funds, the situation is ripe for abuse. When the deciding party has the authority to compel the payers into paying (at gun-point, like the IRS), the abuse is inevitable.
We all consider slavery to have been abhorrent, but, hey, the slaves were getting food, shelter, healthcare, and education for "free" — all they had to do was to work. They were not paid — or, in other words, their rate of taxation was 100%. Ours today is about 50% all told (federal and state income taxes, sales taxes, plus real-estate taxes paid either directly by us or by our landlords).
The difference between the 50% and the 100%, in my not so humble opinion, is quantitative, not qualitative. The slaves weren't free to choose, what sort of education they were getting, where they lived, what food they were given, what doctor treated them. Our freedoms to make these choices are likewise melting every time the government decides, yet another thing ought to be "free".
I realize, that what you said is simply not true.
Some piece of legislation empowers the schools to not only search children's lunches (desensitizing them to future 4th Amendment violations), but to also discard the parent-provided food and shove the "approved" food down their throats instead. And bill the parents for the government fare afterwards.
Are you equating Iraq with Ukraine?!... Wow... Let's see. You confused Mr. Nobel with "nobility". And you spell Iraq with a "k". Must be a Russian...
It was a good thing — Saddam Hussein did to Kuwait, what Putin is doing to Ukraine right now, and under very similar pretexts.
We kicked him out with his tail between his legs, but did not pursue so as to "give peace a chance". A chance, which Saddam Hussein has blown over the course of 10 years. We were justified in resuming hostilities much earlier than that, but Clinton didn't have, what it takes. Bush did.
What? Ukrainians are not "our" people? That's a relief. At least, you aren't claiming, the Maidan revolt was organized by American spies... Maybe, not all is lost in Russia after all...
This is funny... Nobel was a last name of the man, who set up the annual prize. Becoming a laureate does not automatically make one noble (Yassir Arafat and Barack Obama are two most obvious examples.)
Yes, it does mean something like that. Support for Putin in Russia shot up , when he invaded the "brotherly nation". Thus, the vast majority of Russians today are rather ignoble... Even the "liberals" among them (referred to as "liberasts" by the pro-Kremlin majority), who acknowledge, that seizing Crimea was illegal, still feel, that it was nonetheless just somehow.
That Mr. Monakhov is not only opposing Putin, but is not afraid to make it known, makes him an outstanding Russian indeed. That he also happens to be an open-source developer, makes the story new /.-worthy.
Neither this story, nor the earlier one I referred to, are about people killed in conflicts around the world.
Yes. And the support for Putin rose from around 50% to 90+% among them all, when he invaded Ukraine at the end of February and annexed Crimea. That cut down the number of decent Russians from (roughly) 71.5 mln to 14mln. Dmitry Monakhov is among them.
These forces are pro-Kremlin Russians (see above), eager for a revanche over USSR's loss of Cold War. They are joined by those Westerners, who are paying attention.
Putin is very popular in Russia today. The handful, who — like Mr. Monakhov — oppose him, are noble. The rest are not...
This is a far bigger story — as far as humanity is concerned — than some thug being shot by a wannabe-cop fearing for his life. At least, it has an open-source developer in it. And he is doing a noble thing too — a rare thing among Russians lately, I must add.
Yeah, that's a very common fallacy used to justify all sorts of government intervention, which the Constitution nor popular will supports. Other examples include federally-mandated minimum drinking age and speed limits — both forced upon States on pain of lowering their Federal highway-maintenance allowances.
Whatever the government is providing, it is not paid by its money — for it does not have anything, but taxes — it is ours. Unless it is a charity (private or governmental, such as Food Stamps), there is no justification to attach strings to such disbursements.
A person can choose to eat this or that and it is his own responsibility. But, when the government decides, what's good for you (based on some "settled" science), it not only affects citizenry's opinion and makes us less responsible for ourselves, it also leaves millions directly controlled by the government — such as pupils in government schools — without choices at all.
Now, I don't doubt, that some of the stuff removed from schools by our omni-scient and caring Congressmen will never be considered good for anyone again. But they still force fat-free chocolate milk on kids, for example, in seeming contradiction to this new study. Maybe, both ought to be available — and parents, rather than the Federal government, be allowed to control the children's nutrition?
Sadly, the movement seems to be in the wrong direction. Some parents are already being punished for children eating incorrectly. And though in this case (200+ pound 8 year old), it is fairly obvious, that the parents are, indeed, screwy, it is likely to be a "poster-boy" for future interventions in cases less and less obvious.
Some tribes are just more native than others...
Native Native Americans wiped out by Native Americans. This will be a fine discussion...
Sure, I understand, I had the same deal — with Verizon in place of Cogeco and SpeakEasy in place of Teksavvy. While it worked things were fine. When something went wrong, figuring out, which of the two is responsible was rather difficult.
Because Verizon was selling their DSL service — direct competition with SpeakEasy — they weren't exactly anxious to help SpeakEasy resolve problems...
Because?..
I wish, you had anything on-topic to offer, when you get "started"... The topic, in this case, being the abuse of the Executive Order 12333 by the intelligence community decades after the order was signed.
Fallacy of excluded middle. No, it does not solve all the problems — but it does solve many...
We are still stationed in Germany, Japan, and South Korea... Maybe, it is time to leave those places now — many decades since the fighting ended. But leaving when such a major force as ISIS remained in Iraq was irresponsible and stupid.
Not in the US it has not... When the troops stopped dying, the public was willing to see us remain in Iraq as we remain in Kuwait nearby... And we are still in Afghanistan without much outcry. Oh, and even the Gitmo is still open...
Haterz gonna hate...
None of those things existed, when the order was signed, though. And if none of the subsequent Presidents — including the current "tech-savvy" wonder — have abolished it since then (when the explosive use of computers made it truly dangerous), then is Reagan really to blame?
None of the dictators we propped up was as murderous as the Communist alternative...
None of it in a particularly good order, most of it a generation behind. And not enough of it to withstand Russia, which poured their gas-monies into weapons and training — in addition to skilful propaganda relying not only on the Leftists traditionally sympathetic to anything "revolutionary", but also on the Rigthists this time...
And the keyword here is "early in the conflict". Up until late Spring Russian television was allowed to broadcast in Ukraine... But, yes, Ukrainian's regular military does have issues of its own — many senior officers entered service during Soviet times. But not the newly-formed National Guard volunteers, who remain the shining edge of Ukraine's otherwise rusty blade. And they had to scrounge equipment themselves — from guns and ammunition to infra-red detectors to life-saving Celox...
Yeah, "presumably". Maybe, now they do alright. But what prevented them from doing it before Crimea got invaded? Russia was massing forces for it for a month in advance — had Pentagon not seen it from above? They had... And they surely had informed the President. But Mr. Incompetent did no see fit to inform Ukraine — neither side of the political fight there — so the invasion was a complete surprise for them... Ukrainian units stationed on peninsula did not know, what to do, and the new leaders did not have a worked-out policy. Their excuse is, they had more important things to do, what's Obama's? Too busy signing people up for Obamacare?
Only in June! Four months since Russia first invaded — and only after multiple people, both Republican and Democrats, demanded it. Had Obama been anything more than a pathetic "community organizer", he would've reacted in March instead of trying to glue the pitiful attempts to "Reset" his relationship with Russia back together. But then, if he had been, Putin might not even have dared to invade in the first place...
First of all, it is an IMF loan, not true aid. It is still welcome, of course, but it will be a while before it helps troops on the ground. Putin remains a step ahead of our amateur, who is training on-the job (as his own Vice-Amateur once said).
Tenuous in the extreme...
The forces withdrawn under the agreement left in December of 2011. Obama was in charge for three years...
Yeah, Bush disbanded it the same way his predecessors disbanded German military. He also started de-Baathization of Iraq the same way we de-Nazified Germany after winning there.
And, guess what, those Nazis — fired from the army and banned from public life were pretty upset too — had we left West Germany to its own devices back then, there could've very well have been a similar insurrection there too (happily encouraged by the USSR-occupied East)... Obama should not have withdrawn from Iraq, period.
The "might not have handled things terribly well" is rather damning indeed, considering the source...
Please, explain the actors in the analogy you are trying to build.
His daddy has kicked Saddam's ass so bad, there were no score left to settle. But let's not change the subject, Ok?
Oh, I guess, you just can't help it, can you?
Had we withdrawn from Germany in 1955, that country would've fallen into a "civil war" as well... Whatever you blame Bush for, the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq are squarely Obama's doing. As is the emboldened Russia, to bring us back on topic.