[QUOTE="KC_Hokie"]

[QUOTE="Jag85"]

The problem is that if the West (US, UK, France, and Sunni allies) try to pull any punches, then the East (Russia, Iran, Shia allies, and possibly even China) may try to pull some punches too. It's a tricky situation for both sides of this proxy conflict.

Jag85

China and Russia aren't going to vote for one after what happened with Libya. The Libyan intervention was supposed to a 'humanitarian' mission. Instead, NATO and their allies used it as an offensive weapon against Gaddafi only.

The Chinese and Russians both felt tricked by what NATO & allies did in Libya. No way in hell they will vote for another intervention of an ally.

I don't blame the Chinese and Russians. I also felt cheated by that Libya "intervention". I thought that, with the new governments in the US and UK, surely they wouldn't try to pull another Iraq on us... But it turned out they did in Libya (though not quite to the same extent as Iraq, of course).

However, the current Syria conflict seems to be getting deadlier than the Libyan one was. And there doesn't seem to be a solution in sight...

Only thing U.S. and allies could do now would be covert stuff. And I doubt that would counter what Iran, Russia and China are sending to Syria. We also do a horrible job picking the 'good guys' in these proxy wars.

[QUOTE="sherman-tank1"]

[QUOTE="Jag85"] The US and allies were actually planning to invade Syria, but Russia and China prevented them. As a result, the Syrian civil war has now turned into a Cold War proxy conflict between NATO and Russia...Jag85

My jist is that if the government gains momentum the West will conduct a no fly zone from Jordan. And if the rebels gain the upper hand Iran is going to be sending in more than just advisors. What a bloody mess it is.

The problem is that if the West (US, UK, France, and Sunni allies) try to pull any punches, then the East (Russia, Iran, Shia allies, and possibly even China) may try to pull some punches too. It's a tricky situation for both sides of this proxy conflict.

China and Russia aren't going to vote for one after what happened with Libya. The Libyan intervention was supposed to a 'humanitarian' mission. Instead, NATO and their allies used it as an offensive weapon against Gaddafi only.

The Chinese and Russians both felt tricked by what NATO & allies did in Libya. No way in hell they will vote for another intervention of an ally.

[QUOTE="MacBoomStick"]

Ben Affleck is a fantastic actor and if he can add any sort of direction to this movie it should be good. Go watch Argo and The Town. Two recent movies he has acted in that are great.

Niff_T

As much as I love The Town and Argo, those movies weren't great because of Affleck's acting.

[QUOTE="PannicAtack"]I blame the Republicans. If it weren't for them we could've had a public option.Amvis

I blame both parties. Both who think that increasing government involvment and regulations would somehow decrease the cost. Seriously, the reason costs got so high before Obamacare was partly to blame for the senseless law that doesn't allow insurance to be bought across state lines. That decreases competition. On top of that, state governments get buddy buddy with insurance corporations all of the time, so they can jack up the prices.

I want both parties to do me a favor and stay the fvck out of my personal affairs. Seriously, we either have uber religious Republicans parading social issues, or Democrats parading around a hobo saying "gimmie gimmie."

My great-grandmother was the wife of a share-cropper during the Great Deperession. She would buy a bus ticket and travel from Alexandria, LA to New Orleans at least once a month or more to treat her failing kidneys at a private charity hospital. The disease eventually took her because not much else could be done medically those days. But she managed to stay alive and receive treatment for a year while raising her kids, working on the farm, and while in the economic slavery of share cropping. She managed on her own, and with the voluntary charity of others.

Then on the other side of my family, my grandfather was a doctor from the early 1940's till he retired in the 1980's. He starting working in New Orleans after leaving the Navy at the closing of World War II. He would make house calls all of the time. You know how much he charged for a house call? Depending on the decade, anywhere from $4-$10. Most of his patients could easily afford to pay him in cash. Fact is though, not many of them did. And surprisingly, the ones who couldn't afford to pay him in cash, the poor, always managed to pay him back some way. Whether it be by inviting him over for dinner one night, or giving him some sort of foodstuffs to take home with him later in the year, they managed to pay him.

This whole thing of not being able to acquire healthcare is nothing more than the end result of regulations over the past several decades that just make life more difficult. And those who agitate for more generally have a ulterior motive.

Same thing has happened with student loans. Prior to government involvement students could work in the summer and pay for a year's tuition. Good luck doing that now. Universities keep increasing the price and don't care about saving money because they know the students will qualify for government backed loans.

I'm always surprised at people who claim government involvement in an industry will cut costs and prices. Just the opposite happens.

[QUOTE="KC_Hokie"][QUOTE="dude_brahmski"]

whoa, a mentally defective, no-name DHS guy that nobody gives a flying fvck about is about to lose his job for saying dumb things

OMG

y isnt this front page news

dude_brahmski

He'll get fired, but in the case of a glorious bureaucratic fvck up, he'll be relegated to menial, practically non-work. An inconsequential, dead end job.

So no fvcks are given.

whoa, a mentally defective, no-name DHS guy that nobody gives a flying fvck about is about to lose his job for saying dumb things

OMG

y isnt this front page news

dude_brahmski

Are you really that bored?

Jebus213

A Department of Homeland Security employee who works on, among other things, the procurement of guns and ammunition for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spends his nights and weekends preparing for a coming race war and advocating for anti-gay causes, according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Meet Ayo Kimathi, a.k.a. the Irritated Genie," who told his bosses at the DHS that his anti-white, anti-gay site, "War is on the Horizon," was just an entertainment site that sells concert and lecture videos.