Meet your new thread, same as the old thread.

[Spanky]

These guys just can't wait to lose. It’s like they are just chomping at the bit for us to screw up and then gloat about it. Patreus asked till September to see if he can make this work and then make an assessment. We just get out of the gate and these guys are already calling it a failure. Are we even close to September? By calling it a failure now they are just making it that much harder for Patreus to succeed. Can't they for once put the interest of the country above their own petty political objectives and keep their damn pie hole's shut until September?

At Kasserine pass we suffered terrible losses. A good thing these guys didn't control congress then.


Iraq surge a failure, top Democrats tell Bush

Jun 13 04:38 PM US/Eastern

Top US congressional Democrats bluntly told President George W. Bush Wednesday that his Iraq troop "surge" policy was a failure.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi challenged the president over Iraq by sending him a letter, ahead of a White House meeting later on Wednesday.

"As many had foreseen, the escalation has failed to produce the intended results," the two leaders wrote.

"The increase in US forces has had little impact in curbing the violence or fostering political reconciliation.

"It has not enhanced Americas national security. The unsettling reality is that instances of violence against Iraqis remain high and attacks on US forces have increased.

"In fact, the last two months of the war were the deadliest to date for US troops.

The letter appeared to preview a fresh showdown over Iraq between anti-war Democrats and the president, just a few weeks after Bush forced his foes to strip troop withdrawal timelines from a 100 billion dollar emergency war budget.

It also came a few days after the US military mourned its 3,500th soldier killed in action in Iraq.

Pelosi and Reid told Bush in the letter that they planned to send him new legislation to "limit the US mission in Iraq, begin the phased redeployment of US forces, and bring the war to a responsible end."

On Tuesday, Reid said that Senate Democrats would attach troop withdrawal deadlines to a Defense Department Authorization bill, due to be debated within weeks.

The next critical point in the showdown between Bush and Congress over Iraq is expected in September, when US commander in Iraq David Petraeus is due to report on progress in the strategy to "surge" up to 30,000 more US troops into the war-ravaged nation.

Even senior Republicans have said they expected the president will have little choice but to make adjustments in the Iraq strategy, once the report is made public.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
Is this fueled solely by alcohol, or are other drugs and/or sleep deprivation contributing?

A valid question... But, think about it. The thing Darwin's theories have most damaged is the thing that causes us to kill each other the most, thus going through a natural selection process of sorts in certain parts of the world.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
A valid question... But, think about it. The thing Darwin's theories have most damaged is the thing that causes us to kill each other the most, thus going through a natural selection process of sorts in certain parts of the world.

I can't understand this at all, but I'm completely drained (alas not from some fellatio analog) and now have had the drink described on the other board.

[Oliver_Wendell_Ramone]

Originally posted by Spanky
Can't they for once put the interest of the country above their own petty political objectives ?

I just had to see that again. GO.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
I can't understand this at all, but I'm completely drained (alas not from some fellatio analog) and now have had the drink described on the other board.

Part of natural selection is survival of the fittest. Right now, in a lot of places, the religious are the most "fit" in the sense that they control the levers of power and kill or imprison their enemies. They're the "alphas" so to say, at the top of the Darwinian pyramid of animals striving to survive and succeed. I was just noted that it was curious a group who Darwin confounded would be a good example of a group excelling in the struggle to survive that he outlined. They're the least advanced and arguably most regressed on the planet, yet they're succeeding. Kind of a quirky observation, I know. It's not complete, and I don't mean it to be an argument or position. Just a goofy little thought.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Spanky

At Kasserine pass we suffered terrible losses. A good thing these guys didn't control congress then.

We retook Kasserine Pass within a week of losing it, and completely overhauled our strategy and tactics as well as our command structure. Eisenhower had the heads of a number of commanders, and learned very quickly. Within 6 weeks, the new commander, Patton, had reversed the momentum and was mopping up the German presence in Tunisia.

So Bush has now had four years in Iraq, and four months of the surge, and you're complaining that we're not patient. Kasserine Pass indeed.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Part of natural selection is survival of the fittest. Right now, in a lot of places, the religious are the most "fit" in the sense that they control the levers of power and kill or imprison their enemies. They're the "alphas" so to say, at the top of the Darwinian pyramid of animals striving to survive and succeed. I was just noted that it was curious a group who Darwin confounded would be a good example of a group excelling in the struggle to survive that he outlined. They're the least advanced and arguably most regressed on the planet, yet they're succeeding. Kind of a quirky observation, I know. It's not complete, and I don't mean it to be an argument or position. Just a goofy little thought.

I'd love to see stats on Islamic views of evolution. Compare the relative ignorance of all our fundamentalists.

My suspiscion is that the differences in views on evolution don't necessary break down between Dems and Rs, but instead fall more on religious lines. The difference between the Dems and Rs is probably attributable to more Catholics being Dems.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
I'd love to see stats on Islamic views of evolution. Compare the relative ignorance of all our fundamentalists.

My suspiscion is that the differences in views on evolution don't necessary break down between Dems and Rs, but instead fall more on religious lines. The difference between the Dems and Rs is probably attributable to more Catholics being Dems.

Catholicism shows how it is more a business than anything else in its stance on evolution. Rather than fight it and look like absolute laughingstocks as many of the imbecillic evangelicals and fundamentalists often do, Catholicism made a business decision to co-opt Darwin. It's brilliant. First, it makes them look progressive. Second, it allows them to argue everything biblical is allegorical, which makes their product maleable and impossible to refute (even though they talk out of both sides of their mouth with their "infallibility" thing). Third, they look reasonable in comparison to people as foolish and absurd as literalists (not that almost everybody doesn't already).

The question left is whether fools who actually believe the absurd are more dangerous than a shrewd business that claims to "believe," but hedges in ways that suggest it doesn't really believe and is just shucking and jiving to keep its flawed model running.

I'll say this - I won't even talk to a fundamentalist. I've met some and find them appalling the same way I find neo-Nazis and racists appalling.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

• Three months into the new U.S. military strategy that has sent tens of thousands of additional troops into Iraq, overall levels of violence in the country have not decreased, as attacks have shifted away from Baghdad and Anbar, where American forces are concentrated, only to rise in most other provinces, according to a Pentagon report released yesterday.

WaPo

[Watchtower]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Catholicism shows how it is more a business than anything else in its stance on evolution. Rather than fight it and look like absolute laughingstocks as many of the imbecillic evangelicals and fundamentalists often do, Catholicism made a business decision to co-opt Darwin. It's brilliant. First, it makes them look progressive. Second, it allows them to argue everything biblical is allegorical, which makes their product maleable and impossible to refute (even though they talk out of both sides of their mouth with their "infallibility" thing). Third, they look reasonable in comparison to people as foolish and absurd as literalists (not that almost everybody doesn't already).

The question left is whether fools who actually believe the absurd are more dangerous than a shrewd business that claims to "believe," but hedges in ways that suggest it doesn't really believe and is just shucking and jiving to keep its flawed model running.

I'll say this - I won't even talk to a fundamentalist. I've met some and find them appalling the same way I find neo-Nazis and racists appalling.

With logic like this, I have no doubt that we are descended from Monkeys.

[sgtclub]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...270455,00.html

• Hamas fighters have overrun the headquarters of their rival Fatah's Preventive Security force, as factional fighting in Gaza continues.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Watchtower
With logic like this, I have no doubt that we are descended from Monkeys.

Penske, this sock blows. It always has.

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by sgtclub
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...270455,00.html

• Hamas fighters have overrun the headquarters of their rival Fatah's Preventive Security force, as factional fighting in Gaza continues.

I don't get it. Who is saying that "Its Israel's Fault"?

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by sgtclub
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...270455,00.html

• Hamas fighters have overrun the headquarters of their rival Fatah's Preventive Security force, as factional fighting in Gaza continues.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Gattigap
I don't get it. Who is saying that "Its Israel's Fault"?

Now do you get it?