While the Taliban were in power, little girls, children, would have a hand chopped off if caught carrying a book. Not reading it, not learning, but simply for the act of carrying one. The logic being that she ‘might’ be reading it. We can’t have that, now can we. That no longer happens there. We have put a stop to it. If people like Jack Layton ever get his way, Afghanistan will fall back into the hands of the Taliban and in five years or so we’ll have to go back and stop them all over again.

While the left-wingers of our society agonize about the meaning of “support our troups,” the right-wingers are busy stopping genocidal maniacs from destroying their country and culture and threatening their neighbours. Imagine a world where those who protest against war put as much time and effort protesting against genocide and brutal dictatorships. Remember the tens of thousands of protesters back in the mid-90s demanding we do something about Rwanda? Yeah, me neither, because there weren’t any. Those left-wingers didn’t give enough of a shit about Rwanda do drag their arses out of bed and make a statement. But the moment anyone raises a hand to one of these demonic regimes, the protesters drop their bongs and rush out in droves yapping like they actually have a clue.

North Korea stand as a shinning example of what happens when you choose to do nothing, save for pesky sanctions. Eisenhower placed sanctions on Cuba after Fidel overthrew the country. Here we are 50 years later waiting for them to have an effect. In the case of North Korea, any chance to save those millions of people from this despot nutjob is now gone, thanks to their development of nukes and long range missiles. And we sat back and did nothing. Michael Moore would be pleased.

In June 1981 many nations were shocked and outraged when Israel bombed the Osirak nuclear facility near Baghdad; yet looking back on it, it was clearly the right decision, both for Israel and the rest of the western world. Dr. Imad Khadduri — Hussein’s top scientist involved in Iraq’s nuclear program from 1968 to 1998 — claims there is little doubt Iraq would have developed nuclear weapons long ago, if not for Israel’s pre-emptive air strike. Imagine Hussein with nukes!

Bottom line: Don’t waste too much time hand wringing on the meaning of “support our troups.” Life’s too short. People are being butchered every day in some faraway land. The tough question left-wingers should be asking themselves is this, why don’t I give a rat’s ass about the millions of deaths that occur each year under the iron-fisted rule of despot regimes?

As for the tired argument, why not leave it to the UN; we all know that’s a monumental waste of time. The UN is virtually useless.

what actual ‘colonies’ did they have?

as a cold warrior i’m not suggesting that their imperial thrust didn’t flow into the Warsaw Pact?

but “colonial”?
that’s more of a western European notion.

it may seem like a fine point, but i caution you against easy concepts and knee-jerk catch-phrases when it comes to the Russian mind– even those of us westerners who swim in the same gene pool don’t have quite the same dark edge to our sensibilities– we are mere iron to their steel in the absence of the refiner’s fire.

was he being ironic in a sailor’s uniform? i think so– remember “Mission Accomplished” in flight suit? Putin is a patient man.

in light of the current Ossetia situation, not only will Bush 43 do nothing to assist Georgia [who did provide ~2000 bodies for cannon fodder since returned to the motherland] because he needs to preserve Russia as an ally in re Iran.

Reality check: Religious ideals trump both academic ideas and political specifics. In religious life, there are no such things as false ideas but only actions ordained by an inscrutable god. So fuck Kant and his crooked timber.

In the end, this NYT Mag piece is a bunch of hand wringing over what might as well be a failed initiative not by Caligula, but his horse. As such, it has really pissed me off.

Notwithstanding a wickedly funny blog-take.