All-purpose news and politics thread

[mikekerrIII]

How many are you willing to sacrifice over handing the Taliban a PR coup and convincing yet more Afghanis that we kill them for sport?

They already have that PR coup

Anyone here recommending summary execution?

The poster I stated this topic wuiith wanted to turn him over to the Afgans, a massively corrupt government, for trial, summary execution would be kinder and just as just as that

My proposal is an explicitly above board UCMJ Court Martial... IN Afghanistan, WITH Afghan witness, and the transcripts released into the public domain.

Will that convince _everybody_ that mass murder is not the US goal? Nope. But it would convince a lot more than sneaking the guy out of the country did.

I guess all the folks that will likely be killed in that process are just acceptable losses? That number is very likely to be very large

No matter what his actions?

That was about Staying in Afghanistan at all, not about this case. But "no matter what his actions" is a good line for US troops dying to support the Karzai govermnt.

[king mob]

That is a stupid and ignorant lie, so it suits you very well.

that comment was about another poster who was advocating the murder of a US serviceman without a fair trial.
Everyone deserves a trial, but I guess that doesn't apply to folks the chicken hawks ( the left's variety of the species) disprove of, and so you justify him being murdered.

Tell me where I said I supported the death penalty? I don't under any circumstance, but I do support this soldier doing life in an Afghan prison should he be found guilty.

[king mob]

I don't doubt tha most of them are critical of the Taliban, but not enough to drive them out after 10 years even with massive help.

You really think Afghans haven't tried?

Bloody hell.

Unlike you I don't see the lives of US military persons as being expendable to back a corrupt government and an Army that can't decide reliably who the enemy is.

I don't see any life as expendable Mike, but maybe this is a wee bit more complex that goodies and baddies.

[Spike-X]

I don't see any life as expendable Mike, but maybe this is a wee bit more complex that goodies and baddies.

Of course it's not.

USA #1! Everyone else, hack, ptooey!

[king mob]

Get lost! We don't need those Jocks with their oil and their foreign exports and their finance & IT sectors and their soldiers and their agriculture and....

Don't forget water. There's a drought going on in the South of England and there's a very simple solution which seems to be missing...

[king mob]

The UK's Budget is bearing down on us. It's confirmed that the 50p top rate for thr wealthy is being cut to 45p. In return for the Lib Dems going along with it (and because it'll look bad otherwise), the tax-free personal allowance is to rise to £9,000 by April 2013 (it's going over £8,000 this April), and there may be a cap on the reliefs and allowances that the rich can claim on their income. (I wonder how much extra cash the wealth will have if the rate is reduced but they have a relief cap? Are they going to actually spend that money on things and wages? It's pretty useless if they don't)

Great, they've made the rich richer.

We're all in it together!!

And £20bn of low-interest loans will be going to small businesses. The goverment's backing this because the banks won't bloody lend on their own.

The banks have failed on their lending targets. The coalition haven't done anything even though it's part of the deal for the banks to get taxpayer money.

[Puppetmaker Grae]

Don't forget water. There's a drought going on in the South of England and there's a very simple solution which seems to be missing...

Maybe, but the infrastructure build required to deliver water from Scotland to South-east England is so massive as to make such a scheme seem unlikely. (Though if they went for converted oil-tankers, it might be a goer, so who knows?)

[Charles RB]

The banks have failed on their lending targets. The coalition haven't done anything even though it's part of the deal for the banks to get taxpayer money.

It's a bit feeble all around.

[Rasputin9977]

Robert de Niro made a comment at an Obama campaign about it being too soon to have a white first lady in office. Neat Gingrich wants an apology, not from de Niro but from Barry Obama as he deems it too racial. Not sure why he ia going after Barry when it was de Niro who said it.
I hope Americans are lucky enough to see Ann Romney as first lady soon though.

[mikekerrIII]

Tell me where I said I supported the death penalty? I don't under any circumstance, but I do support this soldier doing life in an Afghan prison should he be found guilty.

Do you think there is any chance in hell that he would get a fair trail in Afghanistan, or that he would live to serve any sentence?

[mikekerrIII]

I don't see any life as expendable Mike, but maybe this is a wee bit more complex that goodies and baddies.

Do you think that NATO forces containing casualties for the next few years will do any good, I do not think so, no more good that the casualties already suffered. I just think that expending lives on a fools mission is the wrong thing to do.

The government of Afghanistan is acknowledged as being massively corrupt, we can't fix that.

The Taliban has significant popular support in the South, we can't fix that within decades.

Unless we can somehow fix those problems we are just spending lives for no good reason

[Iangould]

That just leaves China; how likely are they to vote for it or abstain?

China virtually never vetoes a Security Council motion alone.

So if it is brought to the Council it will probably pass and - achieve nothing.

That's based on what we're hearing so far about the content of the plan which seems to consist of allowing humanitarian aid in; a ceasefire and "political dialog" with Assad remaining in power.

In other words it's not so much a peace plan as a surrender plan.

[Matt Algren]

I hope Americans are lucky enough to see Ann Romney as first lady soon though.

That's hilarious.

[Cavemold]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/p...,7898443.story

I don't care about unemployment . Political sucide 101

[Captain Clarkie]

I just find it so funny that the ones who routinely tell me to ignore Mike are also the ones who don't follow their own advice and keep routinely engaging him.

One of your factual beatdowns would be fairly apropos every now and then though.