monty16

To explain it to you in simple terms, a soldier who thinks he is fighting for his country, has in the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan been led down the garden path by his country's propagandists. Because, no soldier fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan was fighting for his country. And besides, if the soldier had thought it through as opposed to going after the easy money and employment, he would have come to that conclusions. I have a lot more to say about Afghanistan where the illusion was closer to being credible if I'm asked. I invite a detailed discussion! So you see, if the US led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were promoted and waged on phony reasons, we can only conclude that Bush2 who led that country into those wars is guilty of crimes against humanity equalling thousands of times more egregious crimes than one lone gunman.

Ahhhhh, I see that you are trying to escape from standing behind your words now. You not so cleverly say that he was in the midst of a killing spree when in fact at the time he was captured he wasn't. So you want to take the moral high ground after all and you don't 'really' advocate the police murdering the man when they were able to capture him unharmed! Good for you! Sometimes it only requires a few moments to think it through. Alas, had the US military people taken the time to think it through before obeying their government's propagandizing of Iraqis and Afghanis, a lot of live could have been saved.

How many US military persons refuse to go to Iraq and fight in that war? Were they all morally corrupt individuals who didn't care that they were doing the devil's work in killing innocent people? Or was it a case of them feeling morally on the side of right because they were told they were fighting for their country? Can you think of any other instance of a war where the aggressor side was so positively on the side of wrong? This US action in Iraq was precedence setting and even Nazi Germany's war, for one example, can be justified in the minds of some. What justification can you give for the US? And in fairness to some Americans, how many of them refused to join the military because they saw the truth. A truth that most Canadians saw and expressed to our government in large enough numbers to prevent us from taking part.

You just can't stay away from the personal attacks can you! I won't report this one but don't try the same on me.

Really? On what basis do you say that? Is it better to kill a human being than to capture him and prevent him from killing again? What makes him a monster to you? Can you stand behind your words or are you already wishing that you didn't say them? Let's see how many on this forum will stand with you and maybe we can make something worthwhile out of this thread after all? I'm thinking it might help us to understand why soldiers go off to kill people in foreign lands. I consider yours an emotional outburst of anger and that could have a lot to do with the ease of conditioning a soldier's mind to kill. You advocate killing and therefore I have little doubt that you would kill with impunity.

Any move by Harper's Conservative government is not aimed at social responsibility unless they stumble into it by mistake. They didn't in this case. Conservatives (small c) tell us that they don't believe in socially responsible government every day. Why would anybody continue to not believe them? Can any conservative or rightist on this forum say they believe in social responsibility? Haven't they already made their bed on the issue at least once on this forum already?

In fairness to you, I feel that I need to explain further even if I'm not asked to. When I suggest their were no consciences present I am saying that justifications for what the military was doing were firmly installed into the minds of the military people taking part. In other words, they were propagandized to accept the message that suited the US military's cause. And so, I have no doubt that many will be able to walk away from it believing in what they accomplished. Many will never stop to think back and question any of it. I'm just saying that I suspect that this one individual did. In retrospect, if a soldier walked away from it in Iraq because he saw through the propagandizing he received that enabled him to kill Iraqis, he would have definitely been on the side of right. Is there any difference? Is any soldier truly on the side of right if he kills in any ME country?

You pretty well have it right when you say that I think the other soldiers are robots without a conscience. I can get into that in more detail if you would like to look into it deeper. And as for making a difference there in Afghanistan, do you have any idea on how many lives were lost to the US and/or Canadian forces? If you do you can compare that to the estimate of how many lives would have been lost to the Taliban. That would be the same Taliban that the US is trying to make a deal with before they leave/pretend to leave the country. I find it a bit humourous to hear your feigned compassion for the people of Afghanistan when you refer to them as bottom feeders. That would be, the same Taliban again that the people choose over other factions. Go figure? Maybe your values aren't in tune with the values of the people? Maybe it's just a case of you thinking we need to impress our Western values on the people? So now that you have had time to consider how many people died to US bombing and other means they employed to kill people, do you think it's better to have acid in the face, hands cut off, a father executed and a mother raped or 100 times that number dead? No my friend, it wasn't a war to save the little girls so they could go to school, and neither was Iraq. By now you should know exactly why the US enlisted the support of Canada. I'll leave you to think about that when you dare to. Then let me know if you reach any conclusions. p.s. I'm no fan of religions, no religions, but I understand that it's impossible to lead a people out of their archaic, brutal, and destructive beliefs by bombing them. It's no more successful than any efforts to prevent Christians from killing for their cause. When the women put their burquas back on after you told them they didn't have to, the military should have got the message. I think the smarter ones did but it wasn't the message they wanted to hear.

Just one more attempt by Harper to turn Canada into a cesspool of political hate and racism as we see south of the border. He's trying to rig our elections so we won't be able to get rid of him. And was there ever any doubt that he would love to destroy our health care system, along with his accomplices at the Fraser institute?

And so what do you have to say about the topic of the thread?

Well, it's going to be disappointing to not hear anymore about what everybody learned from watching police shows on t.v.

I know the difference between a personal attack and something that is not. Your expression of sympathy would probably fit within the rules of this forum. Thanks for being polite for a change.

Shady's objections to the search going on are once again immaterial. He doesn't make decisions that are important and it's obvious that it's a good job he and his cohorts don't!

I can gladly go along with keeping threads on topic but that has to be the norm on this forum rather than the exception. In the meantime, you are out of line in even bringing the subject up. Let me know when you start to abide by the rules as you are probably the worst offender of anyone in my opinion.

I can't see the US/Nato ever being content to let the people of the Crimea choose their own destiny. I would expect that the Ukraine government has intentions of taking back the Crimea because it's so essential to their original mission to cause a problem that Russia just couldn't ignore. We must not forget, the whole problem has been caused by the US/Nato and it's plans to encroach further on Russia. The Russia bashing before the Olympics, during the Olympics, and even closely following the Olympics, due to it being a huge success, should have told us early on that the US/Nato had plans to start the cold war again. Russia's opposition to more US wars in the ME is completely out of the question for the US control over the ME. If the US doesn't accomplish it's goals now then it's more and more unlikely that it will be able to in the future. The window of opportunity is closing. And so what will be the pretence for the Ukraine, with US backing, to move on taking back the Crimea? Will it be charges of ethnic cleansing of the sort that was fabricated in Kosovo? Can the world be fooled again now, as the US track record of causing justification for wars is so easily recognizable? As the US/Nato pushes, will Russia push back again? Will the missiles finally get to Cuba? Nothing's off the table if this proceeds the way I can imagine it doing.

Yes, with our Harper government everything has a price. But it wasn't so with Chretien who told the US to go blow smoke on their war with Iraq. In retrospect, we had it figured out because he was hearing the wishes of the people. That could serve to save us from the next terrorist/freedom fighter attack when it comes.

Rather than spam the forum with your ridiculous unsupportable claims of more insanity, why not try to explain why you think my explanation is insane?

It's not a hatred of America, it's a hatred of US foreign policy. And so as I said, the US can't understand the common good for humanity, it can only understand the good of individual states regardless of the costs to the good of their country. Hating (if you like), is clearly justified by the US track record of the last 25 years since the Soviet Union hasn't been a force to neutralize US aggression. Russia is now stepping back up to do the job. The people of Syria and Iran are likely quite safe now because of Russia's and China's influence. You can't wish those facts away or try to discredit the truth by your accusations of hate.

WE just need to look at the pictures of the guy to see what the main problem really is. The camos and the military type weapons are a dead giveaway. He's been conditioned by the gung-ho military images of killing people in foreign lands and he thinks he needs to be a part of it. Violent video games perhaps or watching too many US made war movies that glamorize their armed forces? The bad effects of the US led wars will obviously wear off on society and cause such people to pick up the guns and go on a rampage. The only reason why it's so much less in Canada is because it's a little farther from home for these kind of individuals. And of course, the increased difficulty of obtaining the weapons that are expressly intended for killing people. Sad that he probably won't get to tell his story because these truths would surely leak out.

Show us how any energy source, green or otherwise, can be stored easier than another. You just lack understanding of the issues. So let's begin with your re-education. First off, I'm going to tell you that energy demands are reduced dramatically when the sun doesn't shine because of nightfall. Thereby eliminating most of the redundancy with solar. You may also want to consider, because your side seems to be so worried about redundancy, that a lot of energy from conventional sources is not used when that part of the country sleeps. See if you can absorb that before your next lesson.

The propaganda has begun. Bergdahl looked healthy, fit, and well fed regardless of what the US media tries to say. The Taliban video was expressly meant to show just that. It will never do for Americans to see the Taliban as human.

Not a lack of mental capacity, only the fact that racists will spill their guts on their racist agenda if asked simple questions. They can't help it, it's what they are and they can't pretend it away. Let all that sympathize with him be known for what they are. The legality argument is thin cover at best.

Suspect any Conservative attempt at improving things for women or making our country more socially responsible. This is a good example of the fraudulent actions of the Harper government. Not everybody hooks into this kind of dishonest approach no matter how hard Harper and his frothing at the mouth accomplices try to fool us.

Which one of the leaders of countries would you like proof for. I can supply lots of proof that nearly every intended victim was fully demonized by the US before and during the war. The sad fact is that too many people don't understand that and if they did they would perhaps become a little suspicious of the US's intentions. I never pretend to hold Canada guilt free. We have willingly participated in most of the US led wars and we bear the guilt for it. If there is a revenge attack on Canada then we should be able to understand why. But your objection is only intended to bring Canada along with the US in sharing the blame. It's an admission of 'blame' because you have no interest in denying, only including Canada. Not very bright was it! You're completely sold on your country's excuses for wars and I've no intention of being able to convince you otherwise. It would be a waste of time. But I still have confidence that at least some Americans can be led by the nose to understand the truth, regardless of how much they have been propagandized.

Don't worry, the US priority will be to make sure that it's not seen as a person with a conscience not being able to continue to fight against people in their own country that are innocent of crimes. The US must always try to maintain the façade of the moral high ground. In actual practice for the past 65-70 years, they haven't been on moral high ground. We know now that the Iraq war was a phony trumped up cause for oil and we know now that the Russians never were coming.