swiftcrane96 said:I don't think any conflict the USA has been involved in since Vietnam has stirred up quite as much controversy or dust as the war in Iraq. When most people think about war, their minds immediately go to the casualties and the sheer destruction left in its wake. But for certain corporations, Iraq turned out to be an incredible gold mine. Take Halliburton, for example; they managed to rake in over $17 billion in just three years through military base construction and oil well repairs. Then you have Veritas Capital, which saw massive returns when their subsidiary, DynCorp, pulled in $1.4 billion to train the new Iraqi police force. Even Washington Group International walked away with $931 million from oil field maintenance and repairs. If you're curious about the other companies that cashed in on the conflict, you can check out the details here: http://www.businesspundit.com/the-25...ar-profiteers/
Copy-pasted from Monitor HR
When you crunch all the numbers and look at the big picture, you're left with the cold reality that this whole thing was essentially a profiteering venture. All those millions of lives lost—a number that keeps climbing even today—were treated as nothing more than acceptable collateral damage.
It just keeps getting more ridiculous. Honestly, the more facts and evidence we see surfacing, the more I’m convinced this is shaping up to be one of the absolute biggest embarrassments in human history.
It blows my mind that they haven't fully cleared the path to carve Iraq into pieces yet. Kurdistan is just sitting there like another proud seat at the table, waiting impatiently to be handed over to the actual butchers—pardon me, I mean the "saviors."
People will throw money at anything if it means they get to protect their precious "democracy," "their way of life," or the "American dream." It’s all just nonsense peddled by a nation built on occupation and a messy blend of everything under the sun. At the end of the day, there's no real religion, culture, shared identity, or tradition holding them together—it's just cash, pure and simple.
Thomas Williams59 said:Oh, right, so if we just assume the flag is the one and only symbol that actually carries weight for people—even though it's used on the historical flag of Sicily too, BTW—is that just because you said so? So, does that mean this down here is just made up? http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Swastika Come on, people, try to grasp the fundamental principle here. If a symbol belongs to a totalitarian regime, and they use it specifically to glorify that regime (which is exactly what that Canadian guy did), then it is a symbol of totalitarianism, murder, and genocide. If someone tries to claim it has some other meaning, they better have a solid, well-argued case for it. That wasn't the situation here. Even the ECHR ruling confirms that the specific Canadian man wasn't carrying it to honor some ancient tradition, but rather to glorify that failed, murderous regime; plus, it shows that Canada is a decent enough democracy that it can't allow the resurrection of a regime that brought so much evil and death to both Canadians and the rest of the world. Learn how to actually debate instead of just digging yourselves into ideological trenches. Period.
I never claimed any symbols were exclusive or held some absolute meaning for everyone. But since you want to go there, a national flag is the most vital symbol a citizen has. It’s been sung about countless times; our own flag is all over our songs. Or am I wrong? And looking at the flags of the major powers around the world, I haven't spotted a swastika anywhere.
Whether you're talking about stars or swastikas, the point remains: the swastika doesn't show up in that link I posted above, whereas you can definitely find the star (including the red one) somewhere. And that link doesn't show flags from some ancient history; it shows the flags of nations as they exist today.
Taking a quick glance at the current flags of various nations, I’ve noticed a whole lot of random stars, and man, there's a ridiculous amount of red everywhere. To be fair, though, I didn't spot a single swastika.
Values are just vanishing everywhere at this point... honestly, I'm not even surprised. They turned those 4,000 WTC casualties into this massive global tragedy, yet they treat the million lives lost in Iraq as nothing more than the necessary price tag for freedom. 😵
Where are all those quasi-neoliberal-democratic slogans now? You know, the ones where they claim every single life carries equal weight. Apparently, those ideals got swallowed up by some intense American "patriotism" and the whole "just cause" routine; I guess it’s just too heavy a burden to carry when you're busy navigating a world full of injustice and terrorism.
Just look at how the media is spinning this... they aren't even addressing what actually counts as a "success" in this operation, or whether those women and kids are even being labeled as militants. We've been fighting two different wars for a while now... one on the ground, and the other in the headlines.
Since January 2008, more than one million (1,000,000) American civilians have been killed...some estimates even push it up to 1,500,000 people.
So, what is this, a Holocaust for you guys on the forums? Or is this just some side effect of fighting for freedom, libertarianism, and democracy...over in Iraq??
The Americans turned those few thousand victims at the Towers into a massive tragedy... so what’s the deal with this? Is every life really equal? Or are some lives just a bit more equal than others?
Looking at these numbers, Saddam Hussein looks like a total amateur.
And now we have people preaching about pseudo-prosperity and all those other fairy tales that supposedly carry the USA. One thing is certain, though: they bring nothing but devastation, death, poverty, the complete fracturing of entire societies, and a whole bunch of other lovely things. History and humanity are going to remember the USA with nothing but shame and disgust, I'm sure of it. In a way, Hiroshima, Korea, later Vietnam, and everything else that followed defined their fate... there's no escaping it. No rewriting history either. What's 100, 200, or 300 years to humanity and the grand sweep of history? It's nothing...
Jesse Adams said:If you ask me, Jews and everyone else should live wherever they want. That’s actually one of the few silver linings of globalization—it lets people move. I don't see why anyone is singling out Jews in this discussion.
Just look at the thread title and the very first post... I've been saying from the jump that this whole debate is pointless anyway, and I already made my stance on "where Jews ought to live" crystal clear.
Linda Hughes88 said:I'm the one taking stances that don't make sense with common sense?🤣 coming from a guy who's fully bought into those 9/11 conspiracy theories. You and people like you are basically the laughingstock of any decent conversation, honestly, you're at rock bottom. No one who actually matters takes you seriously. And what the hell makes you think you can come after me? Someone drops a wild claim without a single shred of evidence and then suddenly my post is the problem...🙂
Calling Goldstein a pauper or a charity case?? How much lower can you actually sink than that...
Look, quit acting like you're all that. You need to stop being so insulting and actually work on your vocabulary—it wouldn't hurt you one bit, honestly. There isn't some grand conspiracy going on here, and nobody's pulling strings behind the scenes... the whole setup is obvious and incredibly simple. The pieces just fall into place on their own, so all this mocking from the "civilized" elite is nothing more than a total distraction—just noise meant to lead you nowhere. Don't buy into those elaborate narratives.civilized circlesMan, my head is absolutely killing me...🙂
Look, Joe, your claims about Goldstein are pretty questionable, but honestly, there’s no point in getting bogged down in that right now—it’s not even what we're here to talk about.
Linda Hughes88 said:I honestly can't believe the sheer amount of nonsense you're capable of typing out... seriously, imagine thinking they own a publishing house and that's somehow massive wealth! Do you even realize what a publishing house actually is? It's not like they own a Ford factory or something. To you, they're just loaded. The only thing you've actually proven so far is that they aren't living on welfare. Well, bravo, they probably have Soros to thank for that. Your logic is just so incredibly stupid! You still haven't offered a single shred of evidence regarding their wealth; it's just more rambling fueled by your personal grudge and hatred toward the Goldsteins. The biggest martyrs in America and beyond? Is that what they call themselves? Come on, either cite a real source or just beat it! So, to wrap this up, you basically just showed up here to pour out some bile while lying through your teeth. Honestly, there's no reason to take anything you say seriously.
What are you guys even arguing about? And why are you being such an arrogant jerk to everyone else? Where do you get off acting like you're superior when half the stuff you defend doesn't make any sense to anyone with a brain? At this rate, that Goldstein you're obsessed with is going to end up looking like a total pauper on welfare. Who's actually crazy here? Now you two are just going back and forth, post after post, obsessing over Goldstein's bank account. The whole topic is just ridiculous.
People can live however they want. As long as they're in the States, there shouldn't be any special treatment compared to other minorities, just like in any other country; as a minority, they have to follow the laws and rules of the land just like everyone else. And look at the absurdity of it... take Goldstein, for example. He's a Jew... does that make him American? Does he need specific papers? There's zero issue if you treat "Jew" as a religious term, but things get messy when you try to use it as an ethnic label. If an American is of Jewish faith, they aren't even a minority in that sense. I'm telling you, the whole thing with Jews is incredibly complex because even among themselves, they don't seem to agree if it's an ethnic or a religious identity. And that's where the mess starts... Zionism was forced into the spotlight, and just imagine if someone decided to create 1,001 different factions of Christianity in the US based solely on religion and declared themselves a separate nation. The level of absurdity among homo sapiens truly feels endless.
Anthony Taylor393 said:So, help me out here—if this is the "Apartheid" you're always talking about, how come Arabic is an official language, Arab kids go to school right alongside Jewish kids, and, weirdly enough, there are even Arabs serving in the military?
I don't owe you an explanation, and honestly, I don't want to give one, especially when you kick off a thread like this. Just the perpetual pseudo-victim playing the same old card over and over... and there's really no need to put "Apartheid" in quotes; that massive segregationist Wall speaks loud enough on its own.
Everything you need is online... and out of all the "irregularities" people point to, the one that fascinates me most is how cars are clearly marked just so everyone knows exactly who they belong to.
First off, we really need to clear the air on who or what Jews actually are. Are we talking about an ethnic group, a religious community, or something else entirely? As an ethnic group, they belong to the Semitic lineage, but religiously they are Jews, and honestly, Zionists have gone out of their way to essentially become Jews themselves.
So, they’ve lived all over the place, but European politics—specifically in Germany, though plenty of others aren't far behind—got fed up with the greed, the manipulation, and the other schemes pulled by a certain group (who look like infants compared to Italian mobsters). Consequently, with some pretty seamless cooperation from Zionist circles, those powers made sure to minimize their influence in Europe, at least temporarily, by securing them a state in the Middle East.
And get this: where are they supposed to live? It’s just this endless, exhausting loop of playing the victim. Seriously, how much longer can this go on? Who even claims that Jews don't have the right to live in Europe? And more importantly, where is that actually happening? People live in Europe with a much higher standard of living than most elsewhere; they know exactly where the leverage is—law, medicine, and even things like diamond dealing—so they gravitate toward those fields while constantly pushing this narrative of being perpetually threatened, which is basically pure fiction. As for the Middle East, for the hundredth time, it’s blindingly obvious what they’ve done to the people who actually lived there, the ways they’ve forced them out, and how they segregate both people and territory. Setting aside Islamic fundamentalism and the global power plays mostly driven by oil, all of this is still very recent and extremely well-documented, so eventually, it’s going to have to be looked at from a different perspective. All this talk against the existence of Israel and the boogeyman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is just part of the propaganda machine. Look, I don't care if there were a hundred Israels, basic human rights still have to be respected, and this Israel violates them constantly. The level of segregation and torture inflicted on non-Jews (the indigenous population of that area for hundreds of years—hey, we’re in the 21st century!!!) would make Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa look decent by comparison. Incredible propaganda makes this all possible. But let’s be real: no amount of propaganda, political maneuvering, or lobbying would work if the world didn't still have a massive interest in the Middle East, primarily fueled by oil (the expansion of Islam is just a convenient cover for those who aren't paying attention to the traditional power structures).
I’m asking the ladies on this forum and anyone like them to stop using this space to advertise the constant suffering or victimhood of Jews, because frankly, it doesn't exist (certainly not in Europe or the US). Meanwhile, people from the Middle East, born in various reserves and refugee camps, will always want to return to their homeland—which is natural, logical, and justified. Those who rushed to take someone else's place are the ones who'll have to deal with the fallout. The methods used by those fighting for their own land are incredibly messy and unsuccessful (mostly because they are, for the most part, uneducated and easily swayed by the interests of the educated elites), but their goal is undeniably just. Israel/Palestine, whatever you want to call it, has to be a state where Jews, Muslims, and Christians all enjoy equal rights. Right now, that sounds like a total utopia, but without it, there will never be peace there. Ever. Only then will Jews, like any other religious group, be able to live in total peace in the Middle East, just like they live anywhere else in the world today. It’s interesting how some Christians identify as Palestinians... and why wouldn't they? To avoid being oppressed in a hundred different ways by the Israeli Zionist machine, I'm sure they wouldn't mind calling themselves Israelis if their basic rights were secured first. They didn't arrive via a mass migration from Europe; they’ve been there for generations, with their own land, crops, traditions, and religious customs.
There will be no peace in the Middle East as long as the "developed world" keeps finding its own selfish interests in that region.
Olivia Sanders24 said:It’s all just more evidence that the Middle East isn't really meant for human habitation...
since even the Saudis aren't far off:
will Saudis Ban The Letter ‘ x>
...it just keeps getting weirder and weirder🙂...what's next?...even though I can see that initiative got shot down immediately, unlike this other one with the plus sign that's moving full steam ahead...
...Albert Einstein is probably spinning in his grave right now...though, let’s be real, a Mexican woman was actually the one doing his math, and she didn't see a cross as some kind of threat🙂...
...I honestly can't believe you're actually saying this...seriously, trying to link generally accepted mathematical symbols to religion? Who even thinks like that? I can wrap my head around Americans being skeptical of SI units outside of scientific circles, but this is just getting ridiculous...
...p.s...here it is, just found it—there's even stuff about it on Wikipedia, so it's not just some urban legend...what kind of phobia of the cross is this, it's unbelievable 🙂...thank god the minus sign isn't slightly curved, or he might start aiming it at the crescent moon...imagine the absolute mess it would be if people started inventing alternative symbols 🙂...
...seriously, what is wrong with you people? this isn't breaking news... we've known about this version of "democracy" they run in Israel for ages... ...we aren't just talking about some "crazy rabbis" here; this is the exact kind of policy Congress goes out of its way to push...