Their feelings have no bearing upon whether they are right or at best ignorantly mistaken.
Agreed. This holds true for you as well.
Since when did the opposing side's feelings and reaction a grounds to validate or invalidate any claims?
It doesn't. I've not addressed your validity yet, only your intention.
Here's my question: Are you telling me that just because another reacts with 'hate' and 'discontent' that they are somehow in the right because they 'feel' so?
Nope, not telling you that. But if you are looking for Straw men, they are over there. >---->
Just what kind of carelessly weak minded position are you coming from that state something like this as if it is legitimate?
Are you even listening to yourself right now?
Me? Coming from the weak minded position of curiosity...I'm not arguing with you about anything you are asserting. Just curious that your writing seems to have the purpose of propagating profane nationalistic rants seemingly with the purpose to engender hatred toward the USA whilst apparently carrying its water, so I thought I'd offer you the opportunity of establishing some greater purpose, but you failed at that.
It makes sense. "Honeypot" is the term used for an attractive trap. In this case, you embody the indignant belligerent American racist to provoke others into senseless arguments over historical regional injustices of international politics of nations.
No region is innocent of injustice, and many folks will have enough regional or national pride to get excited over such provocations.
Carry on. I'll have some popcorn and leave you to your fun.
+1
I was going to address some of the diatribe about Israel, but maybe I shouldn... Ahh, fuck it. The issue was raised, I'm responding.
I have no problem with Jews. I have a huge problem with Israel. Specifically, I have a huge problem with Israel being backed by the United States of America. If Israel wants to get all medieval on their neighbors, they can AND SHOULD do it on their own hook. The British Mandate is over.
That's a specific. In general, I have a big problem with ALL foreign aid at the taxpayer's expense when our own nation is crumbling to ruin in a lot of places. I just moved from one of them. Western Pennsylvania looks and feels like the pictures coming out of the Soviet Union circa 1980. I now live in Idaho, where I have spent the majority of my adult life, and it's still pretty affluent. I have traveled all over the USA, having now been in 41 states, and a whole lot of it is a mess. If we are to have a central government (which I oppose vehemently, but it exists) then FFS can't they focus at least some of the loot they steal on fixing OUR problems instead of exacerbating problems abroad? We only need the rest of the world for trade. We do not need to interfere in their affairs, for good or ill. They are human and capable. If our alleged leaders continue down the path they've been pursuing, it will cease to enrich even them when our land goes up in the flames of revolution.
Another big beef I have with them is their "righteous" attitude when their poking at people causes a backlash. If the situations were reversed and, say, Mexico invade us because of some made up or even real slight, would our leaders claim that Mexico was in the right? (Nothing against Mexico, just that they are close by and populous. It is merely an example.)
From my travels and having grown up here, I have to say that over all, Americans are fairly decent people. Our rulers are not. At all. They are clueless about their own backyard, arrogant in their dismissal of the opinions and plight of their serfs, and downright dangerous to foreigners. They need to go. Before the situation becomes unrecoverable, if that hasn't already happened.
While I do believe Israeli lobby is a problem, I DO have a problem with people suddenly thinking Israel is the devil incarnate. It almost seems as if people are embarrassed by somewhat simplistic point of view they had about right and wrong and are desperately trying to play at being a contrarian.
No one told you to make such uninformed opinions than try to desperately correct it by trashing it overnight and playing for the other team. That's plain pathetic. Objectively weighing who take responsibility for what should place the majority of faults squarely on arabs and their hypocritical transgression against Israel.
Here's the deal: Israel is by no means perfect. But their neighbors have no standing or right to bitch and moan as if they are the victims. Israel has even attempted to reconcile and try their hand at two-state solution - meanwhile regular declarations are issued by arab public and figures about how Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth. Since when did Israel make turning arab world into a furnace their main goal? Don't anyone go fucking issue lies and denials about their obvious racist tendencies against a group of people barely holding out in a country half the size of NJ while they themselves sit on the riches natural resource on earth. If the position was the other way around, they would be squealing discrimination.
Israel is certainly not the one doing the poking. It will maintain its rightful place and survive as a nation without every single boy in middle east having a period over its existence. How about some fucking apologies for taking advantage of jewish people's misfortunes and pogroms of jews in the middle east? What of daily rhetoric coming from the middle east to 'exterminate jews' and 'destroy israel'?
Palestine? You do understand that was the name given by Roman exterminators to destroy jewish culture and forcefully revise the identity of the land.
How can any objective person weigh the 'sins' of Israel against the muslim world and not be outraged at the sheer ignorance of those who seek Israel's extermination? When was the last time Israel claimed the whole of Saudi peninsula as its 'holy land', plopped down a golden synagogue in riyadh and claimed it as their great holy place?
Being a contrarian against a simple idea of right and wrong is one thing, but jumping on the superficial, racist and ethnically biased bitchfest bandwagon is very, very pathetic.
I chose Israel as a response because you brought it up. I am not oblivious nor ignorant to the problems in the middle east. I'm not a young man, nor have I lived with my head in the sand.
I used it as an example only because you did.
I could list off a whole lot of examples of foreign aid gone wrong. Finding a few that went well is much more difficult. Something given is of no value, unless value is exchanged, thus "biting the hand that feeds" and all of that.
I am opposed to ALL foreign aid, other than the one that has historically been prove to work every time. Free trade. Ideas pass borders as easily as goods and services. Bastiat said it well. "Where goods and services do not cross borders, soldiers will".
I am an agorist. I do NOT believe that government is a "necessary evil". Evil, yes. Necessary? No!
America is a place. The United States of America is a corporation. All corporations exist to further the profit of their shareholders. Exactly who those shareholders are is somewhat shadowy in this case, but it sure as hell is not the "citizens" who in this day and age should be called subjects.
The America I grew up in no longer exists. We every day resemble Germany circa 1936 to a greater extent. I fear this. When I was young a great many of my friends traveled to foreign lands for various reasons. They were all happy to come home, even though they had fun. Fast forward 20 years (about ten years ago) and they started going on holiday to Europe or Asia and not coming home. Because they found better conditions for themselves over there. Mind you, they were NOT looking to leave the US hegemon, they were on vacation! Yet they found other places more attractive than the land of their birth.
Now I'm seeing this a lot. People are getting tired of living in a place where your every move is monitored. Even if they don't DO anything to you, they are still watching. Voyeurism isn't a great governmental paradigm any more than the territorial ambitions.
As for "appropriate reparations", what's that? Should we go down the road of the treaty of Versailles and guarantee future problems? Or what?
Personally, I'd like to see the United States say to the world: "Well, we tried. We have found that we were misguided. Good luck, happy trading, you're on your own". And then pull the fuck OUT. We do NOT need a huge military presence round the globe. We do NOT need to keep playing power games with the various polities around the world. We only need to trade with them. If our ideals are correct, we should not violate them. A hand in friendship and trade, entangling alliances with NONE. People see. If they like what they see, they emulate it. If they emulate it and their leaders won't, the leaders suddenly find themselves outnumbered, and either conform or get cast out. If you don't believe that, look to history. as little as 3 centuries ago everybody KNEW that the only "proper" form of government was a monarchy. Yet the monarchies faded away, didn't they? How many are there now? Ten?
Now the dominant paradigm, at least in discussion, is democracy. Another proven failure, because it never actualizes, but instead becomes a republic dominated by the loudest voices or the most coin. Usually both. It's inherent flaws are too many to list in a simple forum post, but there it is.
Final thought for today is that hating the United States of America and hating America are two different things. I don't hate America. It is my homeland. I was born in western Washington, I am of mixed ancestry but that includes a great deal of Cherokee. My roots run deep to America, Norway, Germany, Scotland and England. I have no problem with any of those peoples. Just their governments. As an outsider, it's easy to criticize another nation. It is much harder to be objective about your own. I tried to work within the system for many years, and found that at root, it cannot be reformed. This is because it WORKS AS INTENDED for those in power. Not so much for the vast majority of us. They can bail out a corporation for billions of dollars, but will hardly throw a bone to the people from whom they took the money, and future. The idea of a government accountable to the people is nice. It hasn't happened once on a scale larger than a small city. And it never will, as it CANNOT. Thus, decentralization makes sense if you are aiming for the best result for the largest number of people. This was well understood in early American history. It got lost along the way. People like me are trying to bring it back. For this we are called unpatriotic and even treasonous when we quote Thomas Jefferson and his posse.
I smell something rotten in a swamp a bit north of Maryland.
