koheesti

flying, on 2012-05-27 11:51:43, said:

I do not agree with you on much, but this is the exception. Without victory, telling the enemy when your troops will be withdrawing in advance is the height of stupidity.

folium, on 2012-05-27 10:17:43, said:

The French saw a minimal amount of action in Afghanistan  As such, they have a moral responsibility to support the 3 allies that bore the brunt of action in AFghanistan during the draw down.  Sentiment is very strong in the USA, UK and Canada to withdraw all troops, yet these governments are honouring their commitments to ensure an effective transition. The French  retreat is sheer cowardice and an attempt to curry favour with certain vocal interest groups in France.  For the record, the death toll for the 3  countries that carried the bulk of fighting were as follows; United States 1,886, UK 395 and Canada 158.
Yes, it is tragic that 86 French soldiers died in Afghanistan, but it is telling that many other countries paid a much higher price per contingent. Poland, Australia, Denmark, the Nederlands all took it harder (as a % of personnel)  than the French and yet none of these countries abandoned their allies. The French, Italians and Germans sought out the least dangerous areas to place their personnel and left the nasty zones of Kandahar to the UK, Canada and USA. Kandahar was the killing zone and the French wouldn't go there. The Australians  were  not afraid of Kandahar and provided their special ops teams to provide cover to the Canadian and US forces stationed there, while the French and some other Europeans stayed safe.  And now the French leave. They won't even provide  protection for NGOs. This speaks volumes.
I am sorry, but I have absolutely no use for the current French government and its position on this matter. As usual, the responsibility for keeping  the EU safe in future  will once again fall upon the weary shoulders of the UK,  Nederlands and Denmark. It is so typical. Some things never change. I suppose when  the national psyche is influenced by standing up to totalitarian bullies in the past, it influences the political policies of future generations.

It is unfortunate that the French are unable to honour their agreement.  It is fortunate for the French  that the Commonwealth and the USA honoured their word 70+ years ago.

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Ah, as usual insurgents from just about any 'Stan' except Pakistan. Were they not violating Pakistani sovereignty by being there? Or perhaps they had a T1 terrorist visa.

Rather a long time back( 25+ years) while I was visiting family in Maharashtra who are English farmers descended from the days of the Raj and thus England's colonial past.I met a tiger face to face..

I was walking in the fringes of a wooded area and  all but stepped on a sleepy tiger, we both were  a trifle uneasy about the encounter  which  resulted in a rapid about turn on my part  as well as the part of the tiger after our eye contact and very near physical contact.

Luckily for me the tiger  decided that  it  should mirror my actions thus all ended well apart from the somewhat unexpected  rapid cure for the constipation I didn't know I had at that time !!  

Truth be known I probably managed the 100 metres in around a world record shattering 5 seconds, shame there were no people with stop watches to record my athletic antics..

As I recall  the tiger was indeed a magnificent creature however I  don't think that was a mutual feeling though after being woken up and rudely disturbed by a gangly human being..

Shooting poachers.

Indeed a splendid idea and leave their carcasses where they may drop so as they become part of the food chain  as a  reward for the illegally hunted  creatures  in general.

You are not required to read stories that don't interest you.  You do not have to respond to them either.  If you are going to post stay on the topic of the OP, which is not about Thaivisa.com.

chuckd, on 2012-05-23 20:17:04, said:

You get one of these which comes with a remote as well.

flying, on 2012-05-22 09:54:33, said:

There is no moral equivalence and there never was. If every single ISAF soldier left tomorrow Afghanistan would revert to it's 7th century status quo of stonings, floggings, amputation, acid attacks on schoolgirls, honor killings etc etc, even if the Taliban ceased to exist the situation would only be marginally better.
If our troops were given the remit of removing the Taliban completely without politicians calling it a day for electoral reasons, or the usual suspects colluding and conspiring to handicap them in every way possible then you could given time remove the foul and repugnant ideology that exists there. However as it stands the aforementioned limiting factors mean the mission was lost ages ago and in this respect alone I agree - it makes no sense whatsoever to keep any troops there for a single day more.

I've heard it said that a democracy is only as good as the values and beliefs of the population allow it to be. In that case I would recommend nuking the entire place as these are the values and beliefs we are looking at.

http://www.emirates2...-05-21-1.459649

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For those who think I'm selectively making (ahem) certain groups look bad all I could ask is how could I possibly paint a picture worse than the reality?

One major difference is the two DEA agents are permanently assigned to Colombia and brought the girls to an apartment one of them rents and lives in.

Obama's folks were TDY and staying in a hotel where the President was to stay.

If they start coming down on federal employees that use hookers, the State Department might also be investigated.

Scott.  Prostitution is not illegal in Colombia.

Colin Yai, on 2012-05-21 10:11:03, said:

As Adam Smith explained in The Wealth of Nations (1776), the entrepreneur's greed is actually a positive trait (for society) as it is this self-interest that leads him/her to service the needs and wants of his/her customers.

I do not understand why many people view wealthy capitalist's as evil when they have become rich by identifying and servicing people's requirements and desires. There are not many successful business people selling products/services that nobody wants.


Sent from iPhone; please forgive any typos or violations of forum rules

pomchop, on 2012-05-20 22:23:26, said:

Yeah But the best part of it he made it all himself by hard work with brains thrown in, this world needs more like him , Bill Gates,Richard Branson,Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google) , Jeff Bezos (Amazon) ,etc etc , all started with nothing and now they have business Empires employing thousands of people ,why some people write of them in derogatory terms as "rich bastards" etc has always been a mystery to me as only rich people create employment ,paupers in many cases can't even keep themselves .

chooka, on 2012-05-20 11:51:37, said:

a "lad" with 20 BILLION BUCKS is going to get more press than a lad with 20 thousand bucks...

Any chance we could just cut the Bollox ,and just enter into the world of realism ,and  that it could be just  a simple case that  they love each other and have done so for quite some time ,long before the  guy has "made it good" big time and just leave it at that

Recent consensus of polling says a slim majority of all Americans support legal same sex marriage. A much larger majority of younger people. Does that mean the same as pro gay? I think not really. I think pro civil rights and fairness, more like it.

As many social commentators have noted, the rapid change in support for same sex marriage is largely probably due to television shows! Such as Will and Grace and Modern Family.