Brazil to rescue Argentina

[Johnny]

"My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence"
Colin Powell, UN, February 5th, 2003.

A shame about Colin. An exemplary life long servant to the country and a patriot. Well, when you lie down with dogs....

 

[camberiu]

A shame about Colin. An exemplary life long servant to the country and a patriot. Well, when you lie down with dogs....

Not sure about that. It seems that he was directly involved on the cover up of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

 

[expatinowncountry]

A shame about Colin. An exemplary life long servant to the country and a patriot. Well, when you lie down with dogs....

I personally like Colin despite of this big misstep. He seems a coherent and sensible person. There is a problem with military education that do not allow you to put into question what your superior tells you to do/say. Of course, you would not like to be questioned during a battle but that has sometimes negative consequences.

 

[camberiu]

Has the US invaded its neighbors recently? If not, I'm not sure why it got dragged into the Brasil invading Argentina discussion (which would never happen).

I do think that we have a propensity to single out the US. I am guilty of that myself. Let's not forget that Russia, France, the UK, China, Israel, Syria all have been practicing the sport of "country invading" over the past 50 years or so.

The truth is that power corrupts and if other countries had the military power that the US holds today, they would be probably be invading countries left and right too.

 

[Johnny]

Not sure about that. It seems that he was directly involved on the cover up of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

Indeed. That one slipped my memory. Well...there have been a surplus of dogs to lie down with over the years.

 

[citygirl]

I do think that we have a propensity to single out the US. I am guilty of that myself. Let's not forget that Russia, France, the UK, China, Israel, Syria all have been practicing the sport of "country invading" over the past 50 years or so.

The truth is that power corrupts and if other countries had the military power that the US holds today, they would be probably be invading countries left and right too.

That was exactly my point - thank you for catching it. The US is hardly unique in having a history of military actions. So I found it interesting that it was immediately mentioned.

In regards to the US military action in Iraq (which personally I didn't support), I think one would be hard-pressed to pont to any economic benefits that were reaped from it.

 

[TomAtAlki]

Halliburton! (not sure about the spelling)
Nancy

 

[camberiu]

In regards to the US military action in Iraq (which personally I didn't support), I think one would be hard-pressed to pont to any economic benefits that were reaped from it.

That was because the politicians who made that decision were stupid, arrogant and full of hubris. I have no doubt that they thought the invasion would bear both economic and geo-political fruits. It is just that invading and occupying a arab country turned out to be much more complicated then the chicken hawks and the neo-cons running the show predicted. They even fired the army chief at the time, general Eric Shinzeki, when he told Congress that it would take 500 thousand troops to occupy and pacify Iraq.

They were under the delusion that Iraq would be a cake walk, that the Iraq oil would pay for the cost of the invasion and that Iraq would serve as the "platform to spread western democracy across the middle east". Of course, they were wrong on all counts.

 

[expatinowncountry]

That was exactly my point - thank you for catching it. The US is hardly unique in having a history of military actions. So I found it interesting that it was immediately mentioned.

In regards to the US military action in Iraq (which personally I didn't support), I think one would be hard-pressed to pont to any economic benefits that were reaped from it.

I am always impress by the naivete of lot of Americans with respect to foreign affairs.

Some cost-benefit analysis for you

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/03/the_economic_co.html

And this analysis does not include all the contracts (billions$) given to the companies that were close friends with the Bush administration (specially its VP).

 

[camberiu]

Indeed. That one slipped my memory. Well...there have been a surplus of dogs to lie down with over the years.

I think that there are very few military people of high patent that are truly honorable. The truth is that power corrupts, so when you get that high up, it is very hard to keep your hands clean. Although one can argue that Powell was rotten since early on his career. Some of the military folks that I really admire and find them to be true patriots are:

General Roméo Dallaire - Royal Canadian Army
General Smedley Butler - US Marine Corps.
Colonel Andrew Bacevich - US Army
Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski - US Air Force
General Yiftah Spector - Israeli Air Force
Colonel Avner Raanan - Israeli Air Force