Politics
- Started
- Last post
- 33,755 Responses
- ********0
Zimbabwe abolishes money
- TheBlueOne0
Nuclear waste causes piracy?
- robotron3k0
111 terrorist pirates attacked last year as Bush sat back and watched
- ukit0
http://www.breitbart.com/article…
"An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday in a U.S. Navy operation that killed three of the four Somali pirates who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a senior U.S. intelligence official said.
One of the pirates was wounded and in custody after a swift firefight, the official said.Capt. Richard Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vermont, was safely transported to a Navy warship nearby."
America - F YEAH!!!!
- robotron3k0
pirate hating is starting to make sense:
For about 15 years, the coast of Somalia has been used as an illegal dumping ground for several European companies. And these companies have dumped their most toxic substances, including nuclear and chemical waste, into Somalia's waters. Crew members from the offending ships would simply push the hazardous waste containers into the water along Somalia's coast.
"There's uranium radioactive waste, there's leads, there's heavy metals like cadmium and mercury, there's industrial wastes, and there's hospital wastes, chemical wastes, you name it,” said Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). “It's not rocket science to know why they're doing it because of the instability there."
The reason for dumping the waste in Somalia is quite simple: cost.
“On average, it costs European companies $2.50 per ton to dump the wastes on Somalia's beaches rather than $250 a ton to dispose of the wastes in Europe,” said Nuttall."
- TheBlueOne0
Never overlook an opportunity to make up damn lies, eh Rush?
"LIMBAUGH 4/10/2009: You know, people are like, "How come piracy is rebounding?" Piracy is rebounding precisely because of the American left and the European left's lack of intestinal fortitude -- gonads, if you will -- to categorize these people as they really are and to pursue them on that basis."
AP: "Obama had given standing orders for the military to take "decisive action" if Phillips was in "imminent danger," Gortney said."
Rush, you just can't stop the lies, can you? Typical drug addict.
- I don't see the lie here???********
- Of course you wouldn't.TheBlueOne
- I don't see the lie here???
- ukit0
Right wing invents an alternate reality
- KwesiJ0
next thing you know there will be a 'war on pirates' or some shit...so Obama will have an excuse to bomb something
- BattleAxe0
"Obama To Appeal Ruling That U.S. Can't Retain Suspects Without Judicial Oversight"
"WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday that it would appeal a district court ruling that granted some military prisoners in Afghanistan the right to file lawsuits seeking their release. The decision signaled that the administration was not backing down in its effort to maintain the power to imprison terrorism suspects for extended periods without judicial oversight."
spin this
- KwesiJ0
http://www.democracynow.org/feat…
"While Barack Obama campaigned for the presidency on an anti-war platform on Iraq, his administration has called for a major escalation of military operations in Afghanistan."
- BattleAxe0
what is the point of the war on terror , what is the end game, how do you say ok we won? be it in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan , what are we really accomplashing as a nation?
how is it that we have been in Afghanistan for almost 8 years and the situation seems to be getting worse?
- monNom0
Thailand getting weird again:
- robco0
we're probably holding out until our troops can be fully replaced with robots.
- ukit0
I hear a lot of talk that Afghan war was really about securing oil pipeline...Iraq war was surely about solidifying our control over a country with a lot of oil.
Ultimately, no country is going to war unless there is a large material interest.
- monNom0
I don't know too much about the region and oil and gas, but there is already a pipeline going through Azerbiajan/Georgia to access Caspian oil. There was supposed to be a natural gas pipeline through Turkmenistan/Afganistan on it's way to India, but that's delayed indefinitely with the war. Maybe that was the goal?
- ********0
After promising to adopt a puppy from the shelter, Obama FLIPS and chooses a breeder instead.
A missed opportunity for Obama & family. Too bad.
- really? this is news to you?BonSeff
- It's great to see you focus on important things and not try to distract the issues with meaningless bullshit..TheBlueOne
- Many animal advocates are upset, including myself. IMO, Obama fucked up. That's all.********
- you're a fucking idiot and priove it daily.DrBombay
- ... spelling DrB?********
- kill yourself, brain stemDrBombay
- The dog was a gift from Ted Kennedy.IRNlun6
- ********0
TBO, what should the Administration do to curb piracy? Should they attack the pirate's strongholds, or, police the seas, or, nothing more than we have done in past, or are doing today?
Also of note, and ironically, today is Thomas Jefferson's birthday. If you recall, during his Administration, he deployed a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. They were soundly and swiftly defeated. They never bothered us again.
- DrBombay0
More evidence that Somalia is a failed state run by warlords.
- TheBlueOne0
"TBO, what should the Administration do to curb piracy? Should they attack the pirate's strongholds, or, police the seas, or, nothing more than we have done in past, or are doing today?"
A) Police the seas, and seek to attack and deter the pirates.
B) Figure out the root causes of the piracy and address those issues. To that end, why and when did this move to piracy begin? Why is it so profitable?I think this article in the Independent points out some rationale behind these pirates actions. Doesn't in any means forgive the crime, but places it in a context:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opi…
Furthermore you usual right-wing distorted view of history by trying to invoke Jefferson as some rah-rah go kill 'em all, let god sort 'em out guy is incomplete. First Jefferson did try diplomacy and to negotiate ransoms, although strongly:
"In the early nineteenth century, President Thomas Jefferson proposed a league of smaller nations to patrol the area, but the United States could not contribute. For the prisoners, Algeria wanted $60,000, while America offered only $4,000. Jefferson said a million dollars would buy them off, but Congress would only appropriate $80,000."
Only after such a course failed did Jefferson pursue a military option:
"This new military [US naval & Marines] presence helped to stiffen American resolve to resist the continuation of tribute payments, leading to the two Barbary Wars along the North African coast: the First Barbary War from 1801 to 1805[24] and the Second Barbary War in 1815. It was not until 1815 that naval victories ended tribute payments by the U.S."
In the end it was the French invasion and occupation of Algiers that wiped out the pirates: "The thoroughness with which the French conquered and colonized Algeria, causing the deaths of up to a third of Algeria's population, put an effective end to piracy from the Barbary coast."
So, while I do favor a stong military response to these acts of piracy, I would say a two pronged approach of a) making the acts themselves pay dearly in lives and fortune of said pirates and b) utilizing all available diplomatic soft power to make the reasons for such piracy less necessary.
If you do indeed favor a use of solely military means to wiping out the piracy emanating from Somalia, I'd have to ask you, you being obviously a small-state, no deficient spending, no tax paying tea bag favoring Conservative if you're willing to expend billions of dollars to invade and occupy Somalia, because quite honestly history bears out that the only way to eliminate these things entirely.
And why would today being Jefferson's birthday be "ironic" rather than "timely"? I believe you're using the word wrong. As for the French being the ones who ended the scourge of the Barbary pirates ultimately and not the Americans, that would be, in light of your statement about rah-rah american military power, indeed, "ironic."