Monday, April 23, 2012

Making America Safer

15 comments:

  1. It's an interesting thought, one that has come up from time to time. There are places in the world that require the military attention of someone--the coast of Somalia, for example. Who would take on that role if we don't?

    ReplyDelete
  2. "There are places in the world that require the military attention of someone--the coast of Somalia, for example. Who would take on that role if we don't?"

    The coast of Somalia is not being attended to by the U.S. or anyone else, except the locals (and possibly some Al Queda operatives), piracy is an ongoing venture with numerous vessels attacked, some of them seized for ransom--despite the presence of a shitton of military vessels serving in the process of interdiction. The U.S., and pretty much everyone else, gave up on Somalia after the "Blackhawk Down" incident. Somalia is a "failed state" in that it has no effective system of national government. Somalia is truly a Type 2A "paradise", the rule of law is supplanted by the rule of the gun.

    Interestingly, Somalia's current state of "Wild West" style lawlessness can be traced back to the 1960's when Siad Barre took over the government and unwittingly began the process of turning Somalia into an armed and EXCEEDINGLY impolite society. After years of oppressive rule the Somalis (with some serious help from outside parties--willing or not--revolted and defeated the oppressive government in a matter of hours with their personal private weapons. Oh, sorry, no it actually took YEARS of interncine strife with thousands killed (nobody knows how many) on both sides*.

    Somalia may or may not have had much of a shot at being a U.S. or other sort of democracy. Many factors contribute to its current state of lawlessness and its--or anyone else's ability/resolve to contain or eradicate the pirates that operate from it's shores. Tribal and sectarian factionalism are traditions that pre-date Somalia's current geographic/political boundaries.

    Teh gunz? They sure ain't helpin.

    BTW are you a fan of the gummint--which you say can't do much, if anything right, in this country--going all over the world to "help" less fortunatelydemocratic** peoples in their quest for
    self-determination***.



    * The government troops of Siad Barre had no qualms about bombing, strafing and dislocating innocent bystanders; behavior of that sort is a feature, not a bug, of "oppresive regimes".

    ** They want to sell other people OUR oil.

    *** Or at least being ramrodded by a despot we LIKE.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. democommie Apr 23, 2012 04:36 AM

      The coast of Somalia is not being attended to by the U.S. or anyone else.....


      EXACTLY, this is the problem, the only way top solve the problem, is to board every vessel that sails within 500 miles of the coast, every last one, board and inspect them.

      And if they refuse inspection SINK THEM.....
      No second chances no recovery of survivors.....

      Then sink every vessel, in every port, on the coast of Somalia every last one, down to the last dinghy, if it floats it SINK IT.

      Then flatten every building/villa taller than one story, and every expensive car that moves.

      That's how you attend to the pirate problem in Somalia, and our spoiled little child president Obama will never get the hair on his nuts to attend to the Somalia problem.

      Delete
    2. Good little Socialist that Siad Barre, nice guy another failed socialist state...... gotta love you some socialists....

      The Barre-led military junta that came to power after a coup d'état in 1969 said it would adapt scientific socialism to the needs of Somalia. It drew heavily from the traditions of China. Volunteer labor harvested and planted crops, and built roads and hospitals. Almost all industry, banks and businesses were nationalized, and cooperative farms were promoted. The government forbade clanism and stressed loyalty to the central authorities.

      Delete
  3. I like everything that man had to say. I am all in favor of pulling back our military presence from all over the world and to concentrate only on key areas. We can acquire all the petroleum products we need from this hemisphere -- screw the middle east. We would need to guarantee a supply of a few key raw materials such as rubber and trace elements used in electronic components that we cannot readily acquire in our hemisphere. That would be somewhat interesting although I'll bet that we have plenty on hand already if we were diligent about recycling electronics.

    When we pull back our military, we can also shrink it and save trillions of dollars every decade. If we shrink our entitlement programs similarly, we might just find ourselves a superpower again in a decade or two.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "We can acquire all the petroleum products we need from this hemisphere -- screw the middle east. We would need to guarantee a supply of a few key raw materials such as rubber and trace elements used in electronic components that we cannot readily acquire in our hemisphere."

    You really need to do some reading. We are not able to produce enough petroleum to meet our current needs, by a pretty significant factor according to this:

    "The U.S. imported approximately 11.4 million barrels per day of petroleum in 2011 from about 80 different countries. This accounted for 45% of the petroleum consumed in the United States, the lowest annual average since 1995."

    from here: (http://205.254.135.7/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=36&t=6)

    Much of the so called, "proven reserves" are difficult and costly to extract as well as depending on highly polluting processes.

    As for other "strategic materials"; chrome, among others, comes from a number of countries NOT in the western hemisphere.

    Regardless of whether substances like lithium are available in the western hemisphere they are not, currently, obtained within U.S. borders. Are you suggesting the western hemisphere is ours to do work our will upon?

    "When we pull back our military, we can also shrink it and save trillions of dollars every decade."

    Citations required for the assertions made here.

    "If we shrink our entitlement programs similarly, we might just find ourselves a superpower again in a decade or two."

    What are "rhetoric", "cant", "talking points" and "bullshit"? They are descriptors for the sort of simple minded pronouncements like the one above. No facts need intrude on your beliefs. No wonder so many KKKristians are KKKonservatives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Democommie, Capn Crunch didn't say that we have enough oil in our own territory. He said it was in this hemisphere. A major source of the oil that we use is Canada. Mexico is another. Venezuela could be another. Before you attack someone, why do you read what he writes?

      I'm ignoring your response to me, since it addresses no point that I made and no question that I raised.

      Delete
  6. ""When we pull back our military, we can also shrink it and save trillions of dollars every decade."

    Citations required for the assertions made here."

    DC - I would cite the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan military operations over the last 10+ years. Haven't we heard that trillions of dollars have been spent on these activities? Now if we stop those military expenditures along with removing and closing all other foreign military bases don't you think we could reduce the size of our standing army and thereby reduce the amount of money we spend on the military?

    And it is not like we couldn't still buy oil from the Middle East in the future. They would have to sell it to someone if they want to reap the profits of drilling for that oil. Why do we care what type of government exists in these countries as long as they are willing to trade with us and don't threaten to attack us?

    ReplyDelete
  7. The title of the video is "Making America Truly Safer". What the dude says is simply common sense. How do you possibly make your home safer by being a destructive, bullying, troublemaker, pissing-off everyone and dictating how they should live after you have bombed the crap out of them and destroyed their infrastructure.
    If you agree with this guy you should vote for Ron Paul.
    orlin sellers

    ReplyDelete
  8. "There are places in the world that require the military attention of someone--the coast of Somalia, for example. Who would take on that role if we don't?"

    followed by:

    "I'm ignoring your response to me, since it addresses no point that I made and no question that I raised."

    You brought up Somalia as an example of what the U.S. is doing to protect the rest of the world. We're doing little to nothing to help Somalia and damned little to help anyone else. The pirates are still seizing ships and holding them for ransom.

    IOW, you once again have to move the goal posts because you opened your piehole before opening a book.

    "DC - I would cite the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan military operations over the last 10+ years. Haven't we heard that trillions of dollars have been spent on these activities?"

    You "would cite" them? THAT is not a citation. A citation is a reference to a germane document or other data which supports your contention. If you're going to make assertions about $T's you can spend a few minutes googling something to back it up--or maybe you can't--assertions without evidence = bullshit.

    Ron Paul's a hypocritical, isolationist, anti-choice, racist and ecomonically illiterate; no wonder orlin sellers luvz him some Ron Paul.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Democommie, you are a slack-jawed clothpate of the first water. Do we really have to provide you a citation for the money wasted in Iraq? Have you heard of common knowledge? I doubt it, since you clearly possess none.

      As for Somalia, the American Navy, along with a few others, is taking action. Not enough, to be sure, and I've suggested arming ships that travel in that region. Were we not tied up in other areas, we'd be freer to intervene in that problem, though.

      But you're always attacking Ron Paul. What, did he squeeze your skull too hard when he delivered you?

      Delete
    2. Dc said: "Ron Paul's a hypocritical, isolationist, anti-choice, racist and ecomonically illiterate; no wonder orlin sellers luvz him some Ron Paul."

      That is so stupid, you've left me speechless.
      To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of ignorance. ~A. Bronson Alcott

      Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
      orlin sellers

      Delete
    3. "Ron Paul's a hypocritical, isolationist, anti-choice, racist and ecomonically illiterate; no wonder orlin sellers luvz him some Ron Paul."

      I assume you have a citation for that?

      Delete
    4. Almost everyone agrees, we need to stop policing the world, or at least we need to stop policing the world so much.

      Greg wonders if we don't do it who will.

      Delete