dearjohn comments

Posted in: Embattled Afghan Taliban rely on human shields See in context

A human sheild is someone you hold in front of you, physically, like a shield. Hence the name. This expansion of the term is not helpful except as a propaganda ploy.

Not all of these civilians are unwilling participants. I can't even give a percentage, but I would wager that most are willing even if they are total fools for it. I would prefer to call them a "civilian fence". But then, I have no interest in propaganda bullocks.

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Posted in: Mossad under fire over Dubai hit squad See in context

It would be nearly as dumb for Mossad to have no Israeli dual citizenship folks in the group as all of them. It is smart to have many countries represented. I am just surprised there were so many dual citizen Israelis. But that too could be to throw off the scent. What is of little doubt is that the people and the passports are not matches. That makes them pretty useless as evidence for pointing any fingers.

But Mossad remains the prime suspect for many good reasons. Not saying they did it, just that they are the prime suspect.

And yes, Mossad is as fallible as any other spy group. The CIA has its own list of blunders and so does even Mossad. And the young blood entering those groups in both countries are probably not like their predecessors considering this Mickey Mouse age of the west. Nevermind all this tech, James Bond they are not.

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Posted in: Mossad under fire over Dubai hit squad See in context

goddog wrote- "No one here thinks that Israels neighbors are not targeting Israelis?"

Does anyone here think two wrongs make a right? Choosing Mossad and the IDF over the military wing of Hamas is just choosing one terrorist group over another. Yes, on terrorist was murdered, but eleven others escaped.

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Posted in: NEC research chief arrested for molesting girl on train See in context

Molenir wrote- "Hes been arrested for being a nuisance, not for molesting a girl, assaulting her repeatedly."

The police are not judge, jury or executioner. They are just police! What he gets arrested for and what he gets charged for in court are two separate things! Besides, the police do this as a tactic so they can rearrest people on separate charges a few weeks later and keep them locked up indefinitely. If they charged him with everything at once he would be out on bail in three weeks!

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Posted in: NEC research chief arrested for molesting girl on train See in context

CaptainPanchira wrote- "Japanese people don't cause a turmoil because that's not their style! they are not Rambomono, like for instance ... Chinese."

Japanese are not the only people who don't start cracking heads when they don't know what is going on. The girl was not complaining, she was not being held down, her mouth was not being covered, she was not fighting him...it might have been difficult for anyone to have any idea what is going on. Even the groper himself noted how docile she was!

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Posted in: Marines link up in Afghan Taliban stronghold See in context

nandakandamanda wrote- "Great to hear they can refuse orders to fire high explosive rounds and change to smoke bombs if they fear civilians are in the area. "

A request is not an order.

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Posted in: Japanese luger disqualified over excess weights See in context

Women's weight rules go on a weird equation if they are under a certain weight. She is. Given that, they should weigh them before and after or simplify the rules.

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Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive See in context

SuperLib wrote-"You mean we could have killed civilians with our gutless missiles and drones while taking out Al Queda? Don't you have any heart at all?"

I have no qualms about bombing cowardly terrorists' training camps over the heads of the Taliban that abet them. I have no qualms about precision assassinations of terrorists using spies, assassins or even small strike teams not invited by the Taliban. The goal of turning Afghanistan into a viable country beginning with smashing the Taliban that rule most of the country though? Just bullocks!

But if you are going to give it a shot, its not my ideas of cowardice you need to worry about. Its not me you need to impress. Its the Afghanis mate.

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Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive See in context

Odogma wrote: "Clinton turned down Sudan's offer to have OBL taken out. Not Bush."

Two separate things. "Turn over" is not even remotely close to "take out". On October 14 the Taliban said they would turn him over to a third country if they were shown evidence against bin Laden. Bush said forget it. No deal no discussion. That is just disrespectful. The Taliban would not be able to hold their heads up in Afghanistan without that tiny caveat. It would be political suicide if they just turned over. I think the Bush administration knew that. I think they counted on it.

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Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive See in context

Noliving- "You honestly think that deal was realistic?"

Since it came on the point of a sword I don't see the harm in giving it a few days. In fact, if the Taliban backpedaled, it would have given us the moral highground. I know the Taliban pussyfooted around before. But this was different. They had bombs coming down on their heads!

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Posted in: Bayh the latest exit as moderates leave Congress See in context

Article says- "ever-more-polarized colleagues locked in gridlock — exactly what voters say they don’t like about politics in the nation’s capital."

As soon as we get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, gridlock sounds nice! We don't need so many new laws and rules. The system is in place. The only thing I want more than gridlock is for the legislature to start erasing crazy old laws and give us the freedom we are supposed to have in America. Everybody talks about freedom. Few seem to actually realize how restricted they are.

But I would rather see the ends chopped than the middle go. People in the middle don't need to be gridlocked. They know restraint.

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Posted in: Netanyahu: Israel not planning war with Iran See in context

kinniku wrote- "Iran would never suggest Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth."

No need for him to clear that up. Everybody already knows he never said that. He was only quoting Khomeini. And even Khomeini never said that. Khomeini said: "The regime (exact word, "rezhim" in Farsi) occupying Jerusalem should vanish from the pages of time." He didn't say Israel and he didn't say Earth. He never implied slaughter.

Moving on to, errrrm, important things, of course Israel is not planning to war with Iran! Getting to Iran by ship would be interesting. Throught the Suez and around Arabia? That would be fun! And by plane would irritate Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and through Iraq, maybe even the U.S.! And all of Israel's neighbors would attack Israel again just like they did in the last major war. Israel would probably win out but the cost would be high. Israel wants no war with Iran and I did not need Netanyahu to tell me that!

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Posted in: NEC research chief arrested for molesting girl on train See in context

Amazing that anyone is coming down on the cops. They outsourced because their presence at the platform or on the train would have alerted the bloke in question in the way seemingly random train security would not. Since they let him approach the girl again (and I don't think an 11th time was going to break her) there is now an eyewitness who is not a cop. What this equals is an almost air tight case against the man. I would think that is the most desirable outcome for most of you.

But bear in mind, the only hole in the case is that the girl waited so long to complain. There is nothing on Earth the cops can do about that. They got the best result for what they had to work with. If they had just walked on the train and asked "Is this the bloke?", then it would be simply her word against his. You just can't please some people.

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Posted in: NEC research chief arrested for molesting girl on train See in context

This crime was so horrible the girl must have had memory lapses each time, which explains why she never jumped on an earlier train, turned to face the other passengers, or used the women's only train, or any manner of other defensive actions. You actually buying this? Actually it is amazing how ignorant people are of female sexuality. If she was not just curious about all this, then she was enjoying it. And why talk now? Because she has had her kicks and now wants to get paid. Seriously, is there any other explanation for this happening 10 times while knowing its the same guy before going to the cop shop or doing anything at all?

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Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive See in context

Sarge wrote- "Surrender Afghanistan to the Taliban and play strictly defense."

Its really annoying hearing from people who can only imagine the worst case scenario. Mate, the Taliban will still have homegrown opposition that can be armed. And we can still bomb terrorist training camps.

"Guaranteed if we'd played strictly defense since 9/11, we'd have been attacked again big time."

We were not attacked by Afghanistan. We were attacked by al-Quaida, led by bin Laden. And Bush refused a deal from the Taliban to turn over bin Laden. The Taliban were never a threat to us until we went over there and challenged them directly. We could have hit al-Quaida and got out and everything would have gone back to normal. But no, no! Bush had to play cowboy like it was the Magnificent Seven.

And are you suggesting it is better to push what would have been attacks on us onto Afghani civilians? Are you at home with that sort of cowardice?

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Posted in: I’m shut out of my daughter’s life See in context

Bazza at 09:47 AM JST - 16th February = equals awesome information. In this country where every damned thing seems to be based on pieces of paper that we foreigners are simply not given, the only way to beat the system is to make sure you never give up what you will never get back. Once you are off that koseki, you are finished. So stay on because its the only koseki you will have.

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Posted in: Man saves woman from train after she falls onto tracks See in context

Glad to see the Japanese finally put a hero on the TV. Japan badly needs to celebrate heros.

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Posted in: Taliban's top military commander in Pakistan reported captured See in context

SuperLib wrote- "If you take out a commander another one fills his shoes, but keep doing that over and over and you end up with lesser qualified people in power positions."

A good theory that reality proves does not work. Sometimes the guy with the power is not as bright as his successor when it comes to actual warfare. There is no certainty in anything with new blood. And the ghosts of martyrs are notoriously hard to fight. Worse, you assume we can keep getting the leaders over and over. Sooner or later one is going to figure out how not to get killed if this keeps going on. This is not natural selection, but it is Darwinian.

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Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive See in context

SuperLib wrote- "I'd estimate that 95% of the media coverage is on NATO killing that other 20%."

Well that clearly shows your bias. It seems I may have misquoted a statistic or it was misrepresented to me. In fact, in 2008, the Taliban was responsible for 55 percent of the civilian deaths. Nato forces for 40 percent, and rest assured the bulk of that is by the U.S. military.

http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2008/09/ap_afghanistan_civilians_091608/

And how ever much that estimate that you dredged up from your guts is skewed to favor the U.S., the Afghanis will skew it the other way. Remember that when the U.S. kills civilians, U.S. flags are on all those sleeves or on the side of planes, helicopters and drones. When the Taliban kills civilians it is so often hard to actually know who did it. IEDs are not full of Taliban leaflets. Its easy to even assume an execution was done because that person did not cooperate. You cannot cooperate with a bomb dropped the air. And so, America cannot even be seen to be giving civilians a chance.

And a 15 percent difference between the U.S. and the Taliban is not something to celebrate.

I know you will hem and haw from there though, rather than just accept what it all means. Maybe something about unfair Taliban tactics? As if Afghani civilians accept excuses!

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Posted in: U.S. rockets strike Afghan home, killing 12 civilians See in context

Odogma wrote- "The US does not want to occupy or take over Afghanistan the way the Soviet Union did. "

That all started in 1979, not 1945. Stalin was dead. Afghanistan had just fallen apart and was a state bording the Soviet Union. There is no doubt that they, as the U.S. does too, had ulterior motives. Since the Soviet Union was not believed by many to have any goodwill intentions, despite 1978 treaty of friendship with Afghanistan, why do you think the goodwill intentions of the U.S. will be believed without question? To non-Americans, America is just another superpower as was the Soviet Union. There is no special love, and no reason to think America is pure and honest for those people. And every time Americans kill civilians, it creates a lasting impression of America.

The Soviets were notorious for massive amounts of civilian deaths. We have far fewer. But it still does not matter. Every one is a huge black mark on us, because we are the foreigners. This is the way people are and it won't change.

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Posted in: U.S. rockets strike Afghan home, killing 12 civilians See in context

I wrote: "That is why you let them kill each other without interference!"

Sarge wrote: "We tried that already - we got burned on September 11, 2001!"

Like many people, you seem to think that Afghanistan had something major to do with 9/11. Outside of harboring bin Laden, and being the ground for a brief meeting of the hijackers and the mastermind, Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11. None of the hijackers came from there, none trained there, none lived there. The only connection is bin and other al-Quaida members.

What is more, I read that plans for Afghanistan were put in motion before 9/11. I don't know why I did not hear about it before. The Bush administation decided to give the Taliban an ultimatum to hand over bin Laden on 9/10/01. They really seem to have wanted war and it was nothing to do with 9/11.

These civilians are dying at our hands for some other reason. I think money is one of the bigger ones. Somebody made a pretty penny for those errant rockets you know.

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Posted in: Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive See in context

It is estimated that 80 percent of the deaths of civilians are caused by the Taliban. That fact does not comfort the people whose loved ones were killed by foreign troops however. They will decide that their loved ones would be alive if the foreign troops had never come, and their logic will end there. The Taliban might be hated, but every wrong done by foreign troops counts 20 times more. All that is left for us to do in Afghanistan is dig the hole deeper.

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Posted in: Taliban's top military commander in Pakistan reported captured See in context

Super. But the new boss will be the same as the old boss. This video has been stuck in automatic replay mode for a while now in case you have not noticed.

"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - The Princess Bride

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Posted in: Clinton: Iran is becoming a military dictatorship See in context

"Prove they don't have nukes."

This sort of negative cannot be proven and I think you know that. That said, thinking they don't is to be wearing one's tin foil cap too tightly.

And some of you might want to realize that becoming a military dicatorship is different from already being one.

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Posted in: Biden and Cheney spar over antiterrorism policies See in context

From the article "he had been at odds with the majority of Bush administration officials on the decision to release prisoners from the military lockup to their home countries when cases against them were determined to be legally untenable."

This is known as "guilty until proven innocent". Its hard to believe that someone with such an unAmerican belief was one step away from the presidency.

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Posted in: Four youths arrested for beating student unconscious See in context

"Police arrested four youths in Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, on Monday after they severely beat a fellow student at their public high school."

Note to JT- It should be public junior high school or public middle school.

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Posted in: Relatives wonder how Alabama professor held in shootings got hired See in context

The 20/20 hindsight crowd is out in force I see. Could you imagine these people running your HR department?

"It says here that a man died in a car accident the day after you angrily yelled at him. I know the police cleared you of any wrong doing, but we just can't take the risk..."

I don't know if some of you come from alternate realities or what!

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Posted in: U.S. rockets strike Afghan home, killing 12 civilians See in context

Sarge wrote-"Who needs civilians like these?"

Nobody! That is why you let them kill eachother without interference!

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Posted in: 7-year-old samba queen breaks down in tears at Rio's Carnival See in context

"The news says the kid was terrified, and some of the other people who were in the venue had said that."

The article clearly said it was being surrounded by cameras that made her terrified. They swarmed the girl, the was the problem. When they stopped doing that, it went fine. Lesson learned.

Not when a 7 year old does that, but a brazilian woman with well developed hip does that.

There ya go! Normal people won't see sex! A sexy woman need not move at all to be sexy you know! And most dancing is going to involve some hip shaking. Or do you have a problem with little girls doing hula too?

Look. I make you this promise. If you try to hide children, you will only increase the problems. Swarming a child with strangers and cameras ought to be an obvious no-no to any adult. It isn't because the children are hidden away. Children are supposed to be part of the community as well. They are supposed to participate. If you hide them they will be misunderstood.

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Posted in: U.S. rockets strike Afghan home, killing 12 civilians See in context

SuperLib wrote- "Whose to say a single terrorist attack brought by those conditions wouldn't have killed more than all coalition forces in the area combined."

You can't reason with people when their neigbor got killed by foreign troops! Forget it.

"You'll always have those who feel sorry for weaker parties who use terrorism because they don't think it's fair that one side can have guided missiles while the other has just knives"

You seem to define terrorism in a very strange and selective way. For starters, neither side are technically terrorist. But both sides are using tactics which cause terror. You seem to be playing a hair-splitting game of who is the nicer terrorist and your basis is body-count alone. If that works for you, fine. It will not work for the Afghanis no matter what you say. Its not fair or logical, but that is the way it is.

And as always, you have to compare it with the alternative, which is what could have happened with 8 more years of open terrorist training grounds.

That is a huge fallacy. The goal of destroying terrorist training camps and building a nation are two entirely separate things.

"I think the approach of helping the Afghans rule their own country is a winnable goal. "

I remember hearing in the eighties about people who swore Vietnam was winnable and were as bitter as Nazis blaming "defeatists" for the loss. There are psychological obstacles that rockets will not overcome, not the least of which is a proud, independent people feeling like thralls to a powerful technological advanced nation. Many Americans actually think they are going to get mountains of gratitute, and the little bit they get will confirm that delusion. Every extra day we are there is a direct stab at their self image. All our tech and affluence are just causes for self-loathing and loathing of us, and that goes triple when that tech kills civilians.

Your "winnable goal" has spilled that Taliban into nuclear armed Pakistan. You are like the man lost and driving full speed the wrong way, but absolutely refusing to ask for directions.

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