A Mafan

We can move it to PMs.

To be fair, we would also have to ask what the United States has gained from having the world not like us. Making people prove where Obama's foreign policy has done good for the US in the last year assumes that, e.g., Bush's years in the Oval Office would be rife with examples of how military aggression has benefited the US. Many of diplomacy¡¯s benefits are either non-riveting (and not news worthy in the US) or involve avoiding something negative such as war, and are therefore hard to prove. In 2008, for example, how much play was given to the success of the Bush administration for helping resolve ¨C through diplomacy ¨C the armed conflicts in the Congo? Did it help the US? I don¡¯t know. We didn¡¯t get anything tangible from it like oil pipelines, but if the conflict had escalated ultimately it could have spilled over into American¡¯s lives either economically or through terrorism. Well, for one thing: China allowed uncensored broadcasts of Bush's comments in China, but not Obama's. The number of nations that signed on to help in Afghanist and and Iraq are good examples of Bush getting cooperation despite people not like the US, too. NATO did not want to pony up troops in Afghanistan! Russia actually agreed to help with sanctions against Iran when Bush pushed for it, and they actually followed through on those promises. Bush got Syria to back off in Lebanon a little bit. Bush got the EP-3 crew out fairly quickly...we're still waiting on Iran to release the hikers they took from Iraqi territory. Bush got North Korea to agree to, and take several steps to fulfill, the 6-party talks. Bush got Taiwan to tone down some of their more inflammatory rhetoric toward China, and got China to increase their transparency on their military budget. I think it is also clear that the pro-democracy Color Revolutions we saw between 2003-2005 were the direct result of Bush foreign policy giving them courage to stand up to dictators. Now, we are looking at 8 years of Bush successes vs 1 year of Obama, so naturally there is going to be a disparity in numbers. I'm not trying to argue Bush has done 8 times as much as Obama, because that would be dishonest and unfair. It's just that since President Obama has taken over, all sorts of rivals are getting more boisterous. I haven't seen any trade concessions from Germany, France, UK, etc. I see France calling the US too weak and indecisive. I see Russia getting concessions out of us in exchange for promises they blatantly refuse to follow through on. I see Iran doing whatever they want. I see Venezuala threatening Columbia due to its relationship with the US, and the US not doing anything. I see North Korea being more combative than it has been in the last 20 years. It might be that the State Dept is inept, not the Office of the POTUS. I do think that after nearly a year in office, there should be some diplomatic successes. I've seen zero.

Imo, this is the type of better than thou attitude that has helped lead us into mediocrity. I think we have entered into a new era that calls for understanding, respect, and dialogue more so than force and strength. Yes, we should carry a big stick and be prepared to use it but there is also such a tool as diplomacy which I feel we have collectively gotten away from over the years. Kudos to Obama for having the courage to do this, knowing that he would face a lot of criticism for such an action. Mankind is a predator. A predator only respects stregnth. Thats old school Tony. I would like to think us younger generations are a little more enlightened. Maybe in the US. Putin isn't. Chavez isn't. Iran seems to think/act like predators. Both China and Japan bluff and bluster to intimidate nations into giving up most of their advantages, and THEN start negotiating halfway from there. The leaders in Burma aren't all that impressed with niceness, either. This is a lowest-common-denominator equation, alas. And I'm still waiting for someone to give me a few good examples of anything the United States gained from having the world like us more. Because I'm trying to be as fair as I can, and I can't think of anything.

Hey, we should make sure all the college students are female! That would help balance their gender ratio!

China's education superiority might also have to do with schools being more concerned with education than teacher benefits, combined with intense parental concern/interest in education. But in China, getting a degree is often just considered "checking a box". If you pass the test to get into college, you are already the best of the best, and many graduates never work a day in the field they get their degree in. I think that's why Chinese universities don't compare well with US universities. But that's just what I understand, I could be wrong.

The NY Times:

I understand the thought behind it. President Bush was supposedly a rogue cowboy running roughshod over friends and enemies alike, a bull in a China shop who could only attack countries, couldn't used diplomacy. But to be honest, I don't get this opinion at all. Polls may show love for the US declined when President Bush was in office, and increased with the election of President Obama, but polls don't protect our allies or the United States. I can see President Obama is trying to use diplomacy, but what has it gotten us? I can't see a single positive result at all since President Obama took office. We screwed over Poland and the Czech Republic to back out of the missile deal, in order to get Russia's help with Iran. Russia laughed at us. We haven't gotten Iran to come to the negotiating table for their nukes. Every day brings us closer. NATO countries won't pony up any troops for Afghanistan. Venesuala just keeps getting worse, trampling on human rights, insulting the US, engaging in economic warfare against us, getting in bed with the Russians for military technology, threatening Columbia for helping us in the drug war. We betrayed Honduras for trying to rid themselves of a Castro-like socialist dictator wannabe who refused to step down from office at the constitutionally-mandated end of his term. We apologized, profusely, for any perception of harm to almost all of our enemies. We did not demand any apologies from anyone else for their betrayals and selfishness. What tangible thanks have we gotten? It really seems like mos of the rest of the world likes us to be weak, indecisive, self-conflicted, and too busy with our own problems to stop them from gaining economically and diplomatically at the US' expense. If I've forgotten some huge diplomatic breakthrough that dwarfs these diplomatic failures, please remind me.

Even if their ancestors came to the US after slavery was ended. Even if your ancestors came to the US after slavery was ended. Even if half or more than half of his ancestors were slavers. It's all about identity politics. Some people live to harbor grievances. Thank God we have people of all races who actually seek Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream: to be judged by character, not color of skin.

The biggest problem I see for China is that most people don't understand the reasons for the US' rights and freedom: balanced, separate powers; rule of law; difficult-to-amend Constitution. Popular voting for leaders doesn't even make the top 3 for guarantors of freedom (although I'd hate to see us do without it), but it seems to be what most people in and out of the US focus on. They need to reform their judicial system first, I think...then develop some system of letting the legislature and judicial systems be more independent of the executives, then they can work on human rights and have them stick. Without the first two, they are just whistling past the graveyard, no matter how much voting they do.

Sorry, I should have worded it differently. The article talks about Japan being extremely proud of having developed separately on their own island, genetically/linguistically/culturally unique, uninfluenced for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It also talks about Japan claiming that their occupation of Korea was nothing more than returning to the natural historic status of yesteryear when the Japanese invaded and ruled Korea. They feel so strongly about this they ignore archeological facts, and accept only those that support them being the only race that developed in near-total isolation. That's all in the article. So I enjoy science kinda saying, "Um, no. You're Koreans." It doesn't take away the occupation of Korea and the mutual disdain. But I do enjoy seeing the truth become harder to deny in the same way I enjoy watching the Denver Broncos get beat.

Where do the Japanese come from? Short answer: Korea.

I find it interesting that most of those states are traditionally blue states. My state, Indiana, is in very good fiscal shape considering the tough times we are in. Colorado and Nevada aren't your prototypical blue states...although apparently Colorado has so many people fleeing the People's Republic of California and bringing their principle of govt with them that I guess that it is starting to flip. I don't know about Georgia and Kentucky, but I didn't think they were solidly in the blue state column like the rest of those on the list are.

Since leaving Missouri at age 8.5, I've lived almost all my life in: #2 (Hawaii), #7 (Washington), #12 (Montana), and #21 (Texas). I'm hoping to get assigned to Colorado (#4) next, and hope to have my post-retirement mainland home there.

Now there is a compelling argument for that view: Superman. The bad guy fires shots at Superman. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! They all bounce off his chest. Then the bad guy throws his gun in desperation. Superman ducks. The subtle truth of this sequence cannot be underestimated.

That's because he chose the course of action that filled his intent: Killing as many soldiers as he could before they could go to Afghanistan or Iraq. He stated that opinion. His actions are in line with that opinion. Any other questions of motivation really should be moot at this point. It is an indictment of the current norms of society and broadcast news that those questions are not moot.

A death is a tragedy. It doesn't make it more of a tragedy if it is caused by a gun. In the US, more children die of drowning in a pool than getting shot by guns. And more than half of all murders in the US are with things like hammers, baseball bats, knives, bricks, etc. The most difficult thing to consider is: would this death/murder have occurred without a gun available? Sometimes the answer is no. Most of the time, however, I think the answer is yes: murderous rage or narcissism doesn't need a gun to act out. Then again, one of the things I struggle with is: Guns are, sort of, the great equalizer. It doesn't matter if you are a 4'11" 80 pound female or a 6'5" Navy Seal cage fighter...you have the deterrence that comes from a few pounds of pressure from a trigger finger. The problem is when only one side has a gun. Most of the time, the presence of a gun is a deterrence to violence. The presence of a gun on each side is even more of a deterrence. But when it fails to deter violence, the violence is worse. And when someone wants to kill, a gun allows them to kill people outside of arm's length. Yet it is a gun that is the best way to stop someone intending to kill...there are increasing examples of people using knives to murder 5-6 people in places like Taiwan and China. On the other hand, Baghdad on 18 August and 25 October showed that there are ways to kill far more destructive than a pistol. Myself, I want the right to own and carry a weapon for my own defense, whether or not I actually decide it is a good idea to do so.

Link (the article has some live links for references at this source)

link I'm skeptical. I've been hearing the same sort of thing for more than a decade now.

Either way, I agree that he should have been removed from the officer corps LONG before his deployment orders came up, just based on the horrible, heinous things he had said and done earlier.

What made me so sad about this incident, is that I was stationed at Fort Hood for 5 years, and lived in Harker Heights(suburb of Fort hood, same as Killeen and Copperas Cove). I have actually been deployed though the same center as the shooting occurred. When soldiers are being deployed the center is a madhouse. All US Army agencies (JAG for wills. Medical, shots, barbers, Supply to issue new equipment, etc, etc.) are there. You are either standing in one line or another, for the better part of a day. Suffice to say, and not making light of the situation, a person armed with a 5.56mm, in close quarters would be akin to "shooting fish in a barrel!" I'm happy to see that one security person was "on the ball" and flamed him four times. Thank you, 9mm Beretta! If it had been a .45-caliber Colt, he may not have made it! 9mm have no stopping power, and this idiot get to pay the price. Yes Virgina! There is a Santa Claus! From being in the US Army, stationed at this very same post, with a "clown" psychologist, that found Jihad or whatever, afraid to deploy or whatever...Well suffice to say that you wouldn't want me on your jury! BTW, she also was shot in the encounter http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...or-bravery.html. Which tells me that he had a lot more people he wanted to shoot! He hadn't even started yet! ROB, you were former SAS or SBS. How would have the soldiers in your country handled a soldier like this? Not flaming meant. I'm interested to see how Britain would have handled a clown like this! Last report is that the clown (and I won't even respect him as an Army officer), is still critical, but stable. The first thing he did was to call his lawyer! Now this is a defense I HAVE to see! This is better than even O.J. Any polls/wagers, on how long the jury pool will be out deliberating his fate? I suggest that his fate will be decided in 30 minutes, and the jury will sit out the court for another 2 hours, to make it look good, so that they aren't accused of "railroading" a man! The one question that I did have was the weapon that was used. I haven't seen anything definite. I personally suspect a M4 carbine, 30 round magazine, with one taped to the side. The bullets at the close of quarters would not normally tumble, but would pass through one humans body and hit others in the same altered path. Hence, the large number of wounded. Suffice to say, I believe that everyone knows where I stand. The sucking part is that in execution (if we are this lucky), is not a slow deserving death. It is extremely quick! I hope/think he gets court-martialed. There is no reason to try him in the civil system. Lets hope so, but politics its politics, right BTW whats the punishment for treason/murder for a serving US officer ? Not sure, but I think it would be death or a lifetime of (truly) hard labor. I usually prefer death sentences for people who prove clearly they have rejected society completely through their heinous behavior...but in the military system, life imprisonment with hard labor truly is no joke.

He was an officer in pay and customs and courtesies, but he was not a line officer, meaning he would NEVER be a commander or in charge of troops. That doesn't make him less of a traitor, of course, but it may explain why the Army was giving him more wiggle room than they would give, say, an Infantry officer.

What made me so sad about this incident, is that I was stationed at Fort Hood for 5 years, and lived in Harker Heights(suburb of Fort hood, same as Killeen and Copperas Cove). I have actually been deployed though the same center as the shooting occurred. When soldiers are being deployed the center is a madhouse. All US Army agencies (JAG for wills. Medical, shots, barbers, Supply to issue new equipment, etc, etc.) are there. You are either standing in one line or another, for the better part of a day. Suffice to say, and not making light of the situation, a person armed with a 5.56mm, in close quarters would be akin to "shooting fish in a barrel!" I'm happy to see that one security person was "on the ball" and flamed him four times. Thank you, 9mm Beretta! If it had been a .45-caliber Colt, he may not have made it! 9mm have no stopping power, and this idiot get to pay the price. Yes Virgina! There is a Santa Claus! From being in the US Army, stationed at this very same post, with a "clown" psychologist, that found Jihad or whatever, afraid to deploy or whatever...Well suffice to say that you wouldn't want me on your jury! BTW, she also was shot in the encounter http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...or-bravery.html. Which tells me that he had a lot more people he wanted to shoot! He hadn't even started yet! ROB, you were former SAS or SBS. How would have the soldiers in your country handled a soldier like this? Not flaming meant. I'm interested to see how Britain would have handled a clown like this! Last report is that the clown (and I won't even respect him as an Army officer), is still critical, but stable. The first thing he did was to call his lawyer! Now this is a defense I HAVE to see! This is better than even O.J. Any polls/wagers, on how long the jury pool will be out deliberating his fate? I suggest that his fate will be decided in 30 minutes, and the jury will sit out the court for another 2 hours, to make it look good, so that they aren't accused of "railroading" a man! The one question that I did have was the weapon that was used. I haven't seen anything definite. I personally suspect a M4 carbine, 30 round magazine, with one taped to the side. The bullets at the close of quarters would not normally tumble, but would pass through one humans body and hit others in the same altered path. Hence, the large number of wounded. Suffice to say, I believe that everyone knows where I stand. The sucking part is that in execution (if we are this lucky), is not a slow deserving death. It is extremely quick! I hope/think he gets court-martialed. There is no reason to try him in the civil system.

Well said Maffan, for once we are in complete agreement. We agree on lots of things. Just not the current health care reform bill, or whether this guy was a terrorist or a nut. But I can live with your views on those, even if I don't agree.

Well, if anything I said gave anyone the impression I blame Muslims or think that Muslims are all potential terrorists, let me dispel you of that notion now! You should not feel worried when you meet a middle-eastern or Muslim individual. You should feel worried when someone says that al who don't think the same way as the speaker should have their heads cut off. You cannot and should not and must not assume that everyone in any given group has the same beliefs and desire as the most extreme of that group. Watch people's actual actions. Condemn them only for their actual actions and statements. If you start blaming people by association, you are getting close to "thought crimes", discrimination/racism, and not giving people a chance. Character will reveal itself through words and actions.

You demonstrate exceptional insight and an ability to approach difficult situations with a healthy dose of wry humor. I applaud you!