Completely OT : Cannes, Mickael Moore and the Iraq War

[Atrocities]

Good God, info poop overload. Chocking chocking....h e l p m -

[Mephisto]

Simeron, please, cut your quotes down to the required parts. Please! Thank you!

[AMF]

Oog. Too much to respond to at once. For now, wanted to respond to the part about foriegn aid with simply a quote from the CFR:

"How do U.S. aid levels compare with those of other countries?
The U.S. foreign-aid budget as a percentage of gross national product (GNP) ranks Last among the world?s wealthiest countries (at about 0.1 percent). In raw dollars, however, the United States is now the world?s top donor of economic aid, although for more than a decade it was second to Japan, which is far smaller and has been beset by economic woes. In 2001, the United States gave $10.9 billion, Japan $9.7 billion, Germany $4.9 billion, the United Kingdom $4.7 billion, and France $4.3 billion. As a percentage of GNP, however, the top donors were Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Sweden. The tiny Netherlands (pop. 5.3 million) gave $3.2 billion in 2001?almost a third of what America contributed."

This can be found at:
http://cfrterrorism.org/policy/foreignaid_print.html

More to come...maybe tomorrow...

Originally posted by Simeron:

Who does everyone come to for money, military help, humanitarian aid? What country is the first to offer such things? The old USA. And when has the world ever come to help US?
...
No, I don't know WHERE I got the idea the US was the world's policeman. But let some hot spot flare up and the first military troops sent in from outside will have an AMERICAN flag on thier shoulders.

[Simeron]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,115046,00.html

If anyone of you has any illusions still about why the war in Iraq had to happen and why further such actions will need to be taken in the future, here is a good news article to demonstrate it.

Due to the current military efforts terrorist Groups are not only having problems getting hardware delivered and finding new, willing victims to blow themselves up but, their leaders are either in hiding or getting killed.

The fact is, fear works, sad but true. And its time the terrorists felt fear instead of the rest of us.

And right now, they are.

[Simeron]

Originally posted by alarikf:
Oog. Too much to respond to at once. For now, wanted to respond to the part about foriegn aid with simply a quote from the CFR:

"How do U.S. aid levels compare with those of other countries?
The U.S. foreign-aid budget as a percentage of gross national product (GNP) ranks Last among the world?s wealthiest countries (at about 0.1 percent). In raw dollars, however, the United States is now the world?s top donor of economic aid, although for more than a decade it was second to Japan, which is far smaller and has been beset by economic woes. In 2001, the United States gave $10.9 billion, Japan $9.7 billion, Germany $4.9 billion, the United Kingdom $4.7 billion, and France $4.3 billion. As a percentage of GNP, however, the top donors were Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Sweden. The tiny Netherlands (pop. 5.3 million) gave $3.2 billion in 2001?almost a third of what America contributed."

This can be found at:
http://cfrterrorism.org/policy/foreignaid_print.html

More to come...maybe tomorrow...

quote:

---

Originally posted by Simeron:

Who does everyone come to for money, military help, humanitarian aid? What country is the first to offer such things? The old USA. And when has the world ever come to help US?
...
No, I don't know WHERE I got the idea the US was the world's policeman. But let some hot spot flare up and the first military troops sent in from outside will have an AMERICAN flag on thier shoulders.

---

Look forward to it and yes, percentage wise, the US ain't first I know.

But when can you take percentage to the bank and deposit it? *wink*

The fact remains that American are the first to go and help, even in countries where the leaders "hate" Americans yet, America never seems to recieve the same gestures.

This is my point.

[Simeron]

Originally posted by rextorres:
Simeron:

You may be right about the reconstruction - were did you get your figures?

Anyway since when was nation building the reason we went into Iraq? I would have preferred that the ~$200B being spent was used for nation building here at home.

As far as the Al Qaeda link - all I can say is that if what you say were true then GW would be claiming it as well - I guess with your "ultra clearance" you may have some insider information.

BTW: Did anyone notice that there was no mention of WMD?

Checking with my buds on the Al Q links. Might be dated info as I really have not kept up to the minute with things. The WMD dropped off the radar and I think the Iraqis were working on it but, were nowhere NEAR where we thought they were. We know they had it and used it but, I personally think they honestly did destroy much of it (or hid it REAL good).

My own gut feeling is that any and all WMD headed to Syria when the war started and is still sitting somewhere within it.

On the reconstruction figures those come from US Military status reports from Iraq and similar areas. Part of the US military mission there is to make sure the infrastructure is rebuilt to higher standards then before. A good example is the port of Um Kasar (thing I mispelt that) that is currently at 4 full offloading areas whereas before the war, it was only operating 2. The other 2 are needed for the offloading of supplies both military and humanitarian.

I do want to say that I am not a "100% Bush fan" and think there is alot of things the administration could be doing better but, I also think that they could be doing alot of things worse too. I'll leave the final judgement on that to history.

The cost of the war in $$$...well, yeah, I'd prefer to see that spend elsewhere. But, I also think that its money well invested if for no other reason, its put the "bad guys" in a hunker down mode. Terror pundits are on the defensive and two major backers of such people are off the board now.

Add to this that the other major backers are either scared (Syria, Iran, North Korea to a small extent) or rolling over (Lybia and numerous small cells in the far east) and I personally think the purchase price, at least for now, looks reasonable.

I should warn people that I, quite frankly, think the US should either draw some really hard lines in the Mid East for our so called "allies" or find new ones.

And unless I miss my guess, the second is exactly what we are doing.

I agree that the government should just go ahead and tell us that is the plan in the first place or at least not use smoke and mirrors to cover that fact up but, perhaps, they really were suckered into this with some rather nice misinformation on Iran and/or others parts. My Ultra clearance won't get me anywhere near that info at all.

In all truth, it really only lets me talk with people still in the services I know and get some info I am still allowed to know.

[Simeron]

Originally posted by Mephisto:
Simeron, please, cut your quotes down to the required parts. Please! Thank you!

Will do my very best..and sorry. Was more worried about cutting out something relavent then leaving chaff in there.

Will do better oh lord of the 8th plane of hell *wink*