The wealth gap

[Partial]

Partial would you read the stupid paper once in a while before you spout? Bush is making up with NK, there is no longer need to put pressure on them. The "leftist biased" media that you hold in such disregard is still good for something.

Aiding Afghanistan when Russia invaded was to keep Russia in check and keep them from getting Afghan resources. The first gulf war was to keep the Kuwaiti oil flowing. We bowed to pressure to act in Bosnia and Kosovo and there may be clamor to stop the slaughtering, but you don't see the govt. getting involved there do you. Ever ask yourself why?

Actually I see the govt getting involved in EVERY situation you listed. Seems that the Russia invading Af is much the same as us going into Iraq keeping nukes out of Al Qaeda. Hmmm.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Partial would you read the stupid paper once in a while before you spout? Bush is making up with NK, there is no longer need to put pressure on them.

Bush may be remembered somewhat favorably for his foreign policy if NK and Iraq work out. But not in time for this election.

Aiding Afghanistan when Russia invaded was to keep Russia in check and keep them from getting Afghan resources. The first gulf war was to keep the Kuwaiti oil flowing. We bowed to pressure to act in Bosnia and Kosovo and there may be clamor to stop the slaughtering, but you don't see the govt. getting involved there do you. Ever ask yourself why?

This sounds right, except where does that "there" refer to? There are still NATO troops in Bosnia.

[MJZiggy]

The there in that sentence goes with the clamor part.

Yes, P, we were involved in those situations, and if you read my post, you'd see that for each one, I listed WHY we were there. Think about WHY we defended Afghanistan and look it up if you need to before you make silly assumptions. There's a lot of history on it.

[mraynrand]

Aiding Afghanistan when Russia invaded was to keep Russia in check and keep them from getting Afghan resources.

What resources? Poppies! Poppies!

[MJZiggy]

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of oil and gemstones, but whatever floats your boat.

[Partial]

The there in that sentence goes with the clamor part.

Yes, P, we were involved in those situations, and if you read my post, you'd see that for each one, I listed WHY we were there. Think about WHY we defended Afghanistan and look it up if you need to before you make silly assumptions. There's a lot of history on it.

Right, and yet protecting our country against a nuclear attack, scoring the natural resources that will soon be 200/barrel isn't adequate enough for you?

[/code]

[MJZiggy]

By that point they already had enough nukes to obliterate the entire planet twice. How is keeping them out of Afghanistan going to affect Russian nuclear ambitions in any way?

[mraynrand]

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of oil and gemstones, but whatever floats your boat.

The USSR invaded for gemstones?

Although Afghanistan is a good candidate for oil for pipelines from former republics bordering the Eastern Caspian, it's own reserves seem small, relative to other oil-rich countries.
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"Northern Afghanistan has proved, probable and possible natural gas reserves of about 5 Tcf. This area, which is a southward extension of the highly prolific, natural gas-prone Amu Darya Basin, has the potential to hold a sizable undiscovered gas resource base, especially in sedimentary layers deeper than what were developed during the Soviet era. Afghanistan’s crude oil potential is more modest, with perhaps up to 100 million barrels of medium-gravity recoverable from Angot and other fields that are undeveloped.

Soviet estimates from the late 1970s placed Afghanistan's proven and probable oil and condensate reserves at 95 million barrels. Most Soviet assistance efforts after the mid-1970s were aimed at increasing natural gas production. Sporadic gas exploration continued through the mid-1980s. The last Soviet technical advisors left Afghanistan in 1988. After a brief hiatus, oil production at the Angot field was restarted in the early 1990s by local militias. Output levels, however, are thought to have been less than 300 barrels per day (bbl/d). Near Sar-i-Pol, the Soviets partially constructed a 10,000-bbl/d topping plant, which although undamaged by war, is thought by Western experts to be unsalvageable.

[Harlan Huckleby]

I think the Soviets invaded Afghanistan because they were worried about the spread of Islamic fundamentalism into their own Islamic provinces - like the home of Borat.

[MJZiggy]

i was suggesting resources in general, and that's what I could think of off the top of my head. Screw it. I'm going to bed.

So Harlan, we defended Afghanistan so that Islamic Fundamentalism could spread freely?

[mraynrand]

G'nite Zig. BTW, sort of related - if you like Tolstoy, try reading Hadji Murad - it has some relevance to the current topic and has some of the most powerful imagery in all of Tolstoy (comparable to the Mowing 'scene' with Levin in Anna Karenina). Anyway, that's an aside, but I can't help but think about Hadji when I think about Russians versus Muslims (although it's not quite that simple in the novel as I hope you know or will discover!).

[Harlan Huckleby]

So Harlan, we defended Afghanistan so that Islamic Fundamentalism could spread freely?

I think we were fixated on the Soviet Union. But ya, the taliban were armed by the U.S., we were happy when they took over Afghanistan. Whups.

[MJZiggy]

Oh the irony...

[bobblehead]

Partial would you read the stupid paper once in a while before you spout? Bush is making up with NK, there is no longer need to put pressure on them. The "leftist biased" media that you hold in such disregard is still good for something.

Aiding Afghanistan when Russia invaded was to keep Russia in check and keep them from getting Afghan resources. The first gulf war was to keep the Kuwaiti oil flowing. We bowed to pressure to act in Bosnia and Kosovo and there may be clamor to stop the slaughtering, but you don't see the govt. getting involved there do you. Ever ask yourself why?

That had nothing to do with oil either. At that time saddam was DEFINATELY working on nuclear weaponry with a former german scientist. We set him up by basically telling him privately we didn't care if went into kuwait then when he did, we became "liberators" who promptly bombed the fuck outta saddam's nuclear research facilities and only stopped when he agreed to let in weapons inspectors who destroyed what was left.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Now compare that to how much we've spent in Iraq.

Anti American

What? I'd like my American money to stay in America, thanks.

(disclaimer: just because I detest the war doesn't mean I don't support our troops and what their idiot leader sent them to try and accomplish without the proper troop levels or support from above.

Just be glad you lived in a country where you're allowed to say something like that. You can now in Iraq. Several years ago your children would have been raped, you would have been tortured and then gased. Pretty picture, eh.

And that makes Iraq different from the multitudes of other countries that do exactly the same.

Will you be leading the charge to save them as well?

If they start slaughtering their own people, then yes. Funny, how quick everyone is to bitch about civil rights in China yet when we stand up for Iraqis right we are bombing for oil!!!!!!!!

Ok. Can we expect to see you joing the armed forces so you can lead the charge into zimbabwe? Or will you be leading the charge from your computer.

I cane name at least 10 countries off the top of my head that slaughter their own people.