-
We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.
Blackwater performs flawlessly
Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
nick1985
Lifer
Its stopping me right now.
Just within the last few days Harvey, 1EZduzit, JohnOfSheffield, and now eits have all spouted nasty personal attacks (calling people retards, dipshits, telling people to eat shit, wishing death on other members), and not one has gotten a ban. What do these people have in common?
I have gotten a ban for much less...
NoStateofMind
Diamond Member
Probably deserved from the way I've seen you speak to people.
So says the guy who is making a personal attack on three posters right now. I pointed out to you that the other guy started the name calling in the thread your refering to but still you insist that I was the one who broke the rules.
You better watch it or I just might complain to a mod about your name calling.
Is Harvey working today??? 😉
Perhaps maybe that is exactly what has happened with Blackwater?
"The formula for failure isn't hard to calculate. An Iraqi is driving in Baghdad, on his way to work. A convoy of black-tinted SUVs comes down the highway at him, driving in his lane, but in the wrong direction. They are honking their horns at the oncoming traffic and firing machine gun bursts into the road, in front of any vehicle that gets too close. The Iraqi veers to the side of the road. As the SUVs drive by, Western-looking men in sunglasses point machine guns at him. Over the course of the day, that Iraqi civilian might tell X people about how "the Americans almost killed me today, and all I was doing was trying to get to work." Y is the number of other people that convoy ran off the road on its run that day. Z is the number of convoys in Iraq that day. Multiply X times Y times Z times 365, and you have the mathematical equation of how to lose a counterinsurgency within a year."
Text
"But Blackwater has earned a special reputation among Iraqis. Much of this stems from the highly visible role it has played in escorting U.S. officials. Iraqi government officials claim that there have been at least seven incidents of civilian harm in which the company has been involved. The most notable that has been reported in the press was on Christmas Eve 2006, when a Blackwater employee allegedly got drunk while inside the Green Zone in Baghdad and got in an argument with a guard of the Iraqi vice president. He then shot the Iraqi dead. The employee was quickly flown out of the country. Nine months later, he has not been charged with any crime. Imagine the same thing happening in the U.S. -- an Iraqi embassy guard, drunk at a Christmas party in D.C., shooting a Secret Service agent guarding Vice President Cheney -- and you can see some potential for how Blackwater's Christmas tidings were not happy ones for U.S. efforts at winning hearts and minds."
This kind of crap seems fully at odds with our mission as I understand it in the Iraq, we are completely undermining their sovereignty and making enemies all along the way.
On the most recent shootings:
"Then the Blackwater shootings happened, and senior U.S. government officials went from figuring out how best to pressure the Maliki government to scrambling to repair relations. Within hours, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had called the Iraqi prime minister. She didn't call to press him to take action on key political benchmarks like passing an Iraqi oil-sharing agreement or solving amnesty issues. Instead, she called to express her regrets about the Blackwater shootings. With the State Department so dependent on contractors that its personnel could not leave the Green Zone without them, Rice and Ambassador Crocker soon were reduced to begging the Iraqis to not kick out the firm, because the shutdown had paralyzed nearly all U.S. diplomatic and intelligence efforts inside the country. (Blackwater also has a contract to guard CIA offices in Iraq.)"
Text
All around this is an unsustainable policy not to mention the costs associated with this. What this is really enabling is to allow continued engagement in a conflict that the American people don't support. Otherwise massive Guard and Reserves call ups would be required to fulfill these needs and that dog don't hunt.
NoStateofMind
Diamond Member
Originally posted by: palehorse74
Well, at least you've finally admitted whose side you're on.
Not only did you snip that quote, but you also fail to see (at least in my view) that he includes himself in it. He isn't saying "YOU" and all "YOU guys", he is actually saying "we're" or "we are" . I think his statement is true. We ALL have a part in it. Idly we stood by while the patriot act was passed, Idly we stood by while we went into Iraq without justification and we are now just as ever more mouth then action. Our (includes everyone) complacency has given the ones that make decisions license to do as they please, without fear of recourse. So, I agree. "We're the enemy. We're our own enemy".
palehorse
Lifer
Some of us didn't "stand idly by"... some of us actually helped them do it, and would do so again! 😀Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
Originally posted by: palehorse74
Well, at least you've finally admitted whose side you're on.
Not only did you snip that quote, but you also fail to see (at least in my view) that he includes himself in it. He isn't saying "YOU" and all "YOU guys", he is actually saying "we're" or "we are" . I think his statement is true. We ALL have a part in it. Idly we stood by while the patriot act was passed, Idly we stood by while we went into Iraq without justification and we are now just as ever more mouth then action. Our (includes everyone) complacency has given the ones that make decisions license to do as they please, without fear of recourse. So, I agree. "We're the enemy. We're our own enemy".
NoStateofMind
Diamond Member
Originally posted by: palehorse74
Some of us didn't "stand idly by"... some of us actually helped them do it, and would do so again! 😀Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
Originally posted by: palehorse74
Well, at least you've finally admitted whose side you're on.
Not only did you snip that quote, but you also fail to see (at least in my view) that he includes himself in it. He isn't saying "YOU" and all "YOU guys", he is actually saying "we're" or "we are" . I think his statement is true. We ALL have a part in it. Idly we stood by while the patriot act was passed, Idly we stood by while we went into Iraq without justification and we are now just as ever more mouth then action. Our (includes everyone) complacency has given the ones that make decisions license to do as they please, without fear of recourse. So, I agree. "We're the enemy. We're our own enemy".
The you are just as much the problem as the idle hands.
EDIT: From your post it seems that you would pass the patriot act even with hindsight? This is troubling if true.
palehorse
Lifer
I would not pass it in its entirety. I do believe that some aspects of FISA and The Patriot Act are necessary tools for me to do my job, but I do not approve of the current way they are written.
It would require a much more intelligent congress than the one we have to properly author a new FISA/PA bill that is acceptable...
eits
Lifer
wow, selective reading really fucks you, doesn't it?
i said we're our own enemy, which we are. we caused a mess and continue the mess, which breed more resistance fighters to kill our soldiers. that's called shooting yourself in the foot.
so, i guess you're saying that if you shoot yourself in the foot, the foot is the enemy for being painful?
by the way, this patriotism isn't standing buy your country even when it's wrong. that's like being the battered wife who still sticks around her abusive husband. patriotism is standing up and telling OUR EMPLOYEES (aka our government) that they're wrong when they're wrong and that we want some fucking changes.
so, i guess you fell because you're clumsy, right? are you icing those bruises? don't worry... the kids never saw him do it.
eits
Lifer
Originally posted by: palehorse74
Some of us didn't "stand idly by"... some of us actually helped them do it, and would do so again! 😀Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
Originally posted by: palehorse74
Well, at least you've finally admitted whose side you're on.
Not only did you snip that quote, but you also fail to see (at least in my view) that he includes himself in it. He isn't saying "YOU" and all "YOU guys", he is actually saying "we're" or "we are" . I think his statement is true. We ALL have a part in it. Idly we stood by while the patriot act was passed, Idly we stood by while we went into Iraq without justification and we are now just as ever more mouth then action. Our (includes everyone) complacency has given the ones that make decisions license to do as they please, without fear of recourse. So, I agree. "We're the enemy. We're our own enemy".
then "some of us" is an idiot.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 24K
-
-
