Wow, lots going on...
UAE deal, Iran still being douches even to the Russians, Harvard Prez resigns...
Lets start with the one thats the biggest deal, the United Arab Emerites is supposed to take control of the US ports. Yep, an ARAB country is going to be in charge of security of US ports. Yeah, I think my initial reaction was of disbelief and outrage. How dare Bush even THINK this is a good idea? So I did what i always do, i researched. Check this out,
Whether this is it or not i am not sure. I am concerned with it for the way it looks and what the implication are but then i looked more into the UAE itself. Oddly, they are one of our very good allies in the region. Not only the government but the people like us as well. So we got that going, and perhaps the best way for us to show this isn't a "war on Islam" is that we have a friendly, allied muslim country doing exactly what any other country can do. It just seems to me (and i am guilty of this too) that we claim we need to be more out-reaching and help strengthen ties but then all of a sudden, we turn into a bunch of assholes when the government does just that. UAE has served with the US in many military conflicts and we have permanent military stations there. In addition, they pretty much hate Iran and remember very well that we have defended them before. Perhaps its not to much to ask that this country be treated as an ally and get our trust.
Back to Iran for a bit, their talks with the Russians have concluded with...more talks but in Tehran this time. Progress no?
Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, has resigned. If you remember from about a year ago, he put forth the idea that perhaps men were better suited to math because of scientific reasons (as a study found that men did better in math given all other equal variables). He was practically run out of town on a rail. God forbid ever actually think about even the remotest possibility. Never mind that the same feminists that ran him out will tell you (published works on in fact) that a single father does not have the same instincts and abilities as a single mother. Cause equal means women are at least as good if not better than men at everything...right?
This link here has interesting thoughts. I don't know i agree with it, though the logic is good. There is one point i take from it though.
Bin Laden and many most of the Muslim world is still seething at the Crusades. Its a justification given not only by him but also the "Joe Sixpack" of the Muslim world. If this is still indeed the case, then is there really anything that we here in the US can change? Cause that means that they have hated the US for 700 years before there was a US, and that shit don't really make sense. If there is a real sense of victimization from the Islamic community and they are looking to take the fight to the West, they really need to look carefully, as even with all the faults and bullshitting we have been doing for years now, if the US military ever gets to take the kid gloves off, cities fall in hours. Its not done now as we don't want to kill thousands and millions of people. We could in minutes, even with conventional weapons. Mosques blowing up whenever militants go in them, fallujah not raided after giving civilians a chance to leave but leveled to the ground with carpet bombing from B-52s or MOABs to demolish everything. We are accused of actively disregarding caution or intentionally targeting civilians, but if we did, there wouldn't be opposition, it wouldn't have survived.
Lets start with the one thats the biggest deal, the United Arab Emerites is supposed to take control of the US ports. Yep, an ARAB country is going to be in charge of security of US ports. Yeah, I think my initial reaction was of disbelief and outrage. How dare Bush even THINK this is a good idea? So I did what i always do, i researched. Check this out,
The critical point is that Dubai Ports World won't be running the port of Baltimore, or any other U.S. port for that matter.And on whose authority do we find that little nugget? Why a former rep and port authority advisor named Helen Bentley of Baltimore. Seems like a pretty reliable source. Her opinion is its all over nothing. UAE will be conducting the managing of the contracts, but union labor will still be doing all loading and unloading of the docks. Much ado about nothing really.
Whether this is it or not i am not sure. I am concerned with it for the way it looks and what the implication are but then i looked more into the UAE itself. Oddly, they are one of our very good allies in the region. Not only the government but the people like us as well. So we got that going, and perhaps the best way for us to show this isn't a "war on Islam" is that we have a friendly, allied muslim country doing exactly what any other country can do. It just seems to me (and i am guilty of this too) that we claim we need to be more out-reaching and help strengthen ties but then all of a sudden, we turn into a bunch of assholes when the government does just that. UAE has served with the US in many military conflicts and we have permanent military stations there. In addition, they pretty much hate Iran and remember very well that we have defended them before. Perhaps its not to much to ask that this country be treated as an ally and get our trust.
Back to Iran for a bit, their talks with the Russians have concluded with...more talks but in Tehran this time. Progress no?
Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, has resigned. If you remember from about a year ago, he put forth the idea that perhaps men were better suited to math because of scientific reasons (as a study found that men did better in math given all other equal variables). He was practically run out of town on a rail. God forbid ever actually think about even the remotest possibility. Never mind that the same feminists that ran him out will tell you (published works on in fact) that a single father does not have the same instincts and abilities as a single mother. Cause equal means women are at least as good if not better than men at everything...right?
This link here has interesting thoughts. I don't know i agree with it, though the logic is good. There is one point i take from it though.
The U.S., fortunately, is still on a demographic expansion wave and will be till at least 2050. But if the Islamists achieve their dream of nuking “crusader” cities, they’ll make crusaders out of the U.S., too. And this time, a West with a chauvinized America at its head would smite the Saracen with weapons that would destroy entire populations and fuse Mecca into glass. The horror of our victory would echo for a thousand years.The sad fact is that if this war last long enough that we lose all sense of patience and sympathy for the masses of people in the ME, I could see this plausably happening. Not likely for sure but still there.
Bin Laden and many most of the Muslim world is still seething at the Crusades. Its a justification given not only by him but also the "Joe Sixpack" of the Muslim world. If this is still indeed the case, then is there really anything that we here in the US can change? Cause that means that they have hated the US for 700 years before there was a US, and that shit don't really make sense. If there is a real sense of victimization from the Islamic community and they are looking to take the fight to the West, they really need to look carefully, as even with all the faults and bullshitting we have been doing for years now, if the US military ever gets to take the kid gloves off, cities fall in hours. Its not done now as we don't want to kill thousands and millions of people. We could in minutes, even with conventional weapons. Mosques blowing up whenever militants go in them, fallujah not raided after giving civilians a chance to leave but leveled to the ground with carpet bombing from B-52s or MOABs to demolish everything. We are accused of actively disregarding caution or intentionally targeting civilians, but if we did, there wouldn't be opposition, it wouldn't have survived.
posted by Maddawg at 2/21/2006 11:34:00 PM
3 Comments:
No, No, No...U.S. security is still going to be handled by the U.S.
The UAE will only manage the ports, just as the Brits have done for the last few years.
But, as you most likely know, the Security of our ports has not been getting the attention it should have these last five years.
Some improvements, like the purchase of several huge x-ray machines are great, except they need about a hundred times the amount that they have and the trained people to operate them.
The "sniffer" that took years to make that supposedly can detect radioactive materials, doesn't work as advertised.
About one percent of all of the thousands of containers that arrive each day are ever inspected in any way.
Scary..yes?
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
Sorry, meant to leave this link:
Hesperophobia (cont.)
Papa Ray
Yep, turns out this is going to be one of the most overblown stories, sadly becoming common place. It is up to the individual to go find out the facts from other sources than those that are the most common place. MSM has played this story out massively without giving us the whole facts as to what is really going on in the Ports. I trusted not only the MSM such as the Washington Post and CNN but also AP. I, along with many others, was wrong. Totally agree about the lack of screening period at the ports though. Its something we really need to work on.
I tend to sorta agree about the comment from Burgess, the big issue is that its not really the lack of success that is the primary issue in my eyes. I think that first we should look at why they say they hate us than worry about our own little pet theories. We seem to make the assumption that they don't really know why they hate us and they are just lying or we know better. I say we take Bin Laden at his words since he has put out many many volumes of his ideals and what he thinks.
Its a culture of shame in the ME where its not the results of an action but more how they look on the surface. A loss of face even with good results is not acceptable. What in the Poly Sci world is called a High-Context culture i believe. There can not be a loss of face and therefore to be helped or to make changes indicate that they were wrong and that brings more shame. This is in contrast to a guilt culture which the West has where we feel not shame but guilt.
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