OT:Letter to Southern Califonia newspaper that was not printed

[Al]

Well said.

Al

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[Dave Balderstone]

If you can honestly equate 16 year olds with explosives strapped to their waists blowing themselves up in buses filled with innocent women and children to selling people Coke and Levis, then I feel very, very sorry for you, believe you have a mental disease of some kind, and no longer wish to converse with you in any form.

Good bye.

[Dave Balderstone]

Israel is, of course, entirely justified in defending itself. The world gets upset, however, when it uses its *army* to do this.

My own opinion is that it's time to support Israel in DESTROYING Hezbollah. Completely and utterly.

The Arab/Muslim world understands humiliation and defeat. It does not negotiate in good faith, nor does it feel it has to. The Koran allows, nay demands, lies and deception when dealing with infidels.

[Glen]

Yes, I do believe, for some reason that you would indeed hide behind women and children to protect your self.

Glen

[Upscale]

So essentially what you're saying is that survival by any means is the only thing that really counts. Forget about family, forget about honour, forget about basic human diginity. That's exactly what you'd be doing hiding behind those skirts. And, if you'd consider foregoing all those things just to survive, what kind of person would you be and what kind of life would you have left if you did survive?

Which leads me to ask, does such a person deserve to survive?

You couldn't be more wrong.

Easy to see what you think.

[Nick Hull]

I don't agree; both have EQUAL meaning to me ;)

[Nick Hull]

And they invented the wheel and airplane, and were the first humans as the Piltdown man proved ;)

[Nick Hull]

"Civilized" war is just war fought by rules invented to make the bigger guy win. If you fight by his rules you are guaranteed to lose.

[Nick Hull]

I have never given money to the IRA. Maybe guns, ammo, C4, but never money ;)

[trader4]

Do the John Emmons's of the world, with their ideas of moral equivalency ever follow the news? There are certain inflection points in most conflicts where it's painfully obvious which side is right and which side is wrong.

Look at events in the middle east over recent years. For decades Israel tried to negotiate with Arafat to reach some kind of accord where Israel and the Palestinians could coexist. In keeping with the "Can't we all get along?" approach, during the Clinton administration, Arafat was at the White House more frequently than any other head of state. Despite the best efforts of Clinton and enticements of huge amounts of aid to the Palestinians, no agreement could be reached, despite every attempt to be reasonable with Arafat.

So, a couple years ago, Sharon finally decides to unilaterally give the Palestinians much of what they could have had decades ago, had they been willing to negotiate in good faith. He dismantles settlements on the West Bank and returns Gaza to Palestinian control, a good first step. What is the reaction from the Palestinians? Do they now do something positive to meet Israel half way? No, they elect Hamas, a terrorist organization with the stated goal of destroying Israel to be their new govt.

Let's look at Lebanon. Israel occupied souther Lebanon in the early

80's because it was being used as a staging area to attack Israeil There were a UN resolutions calling for Israel to withdraw and for Lebanon's military to assert control of southern Lebanon. Israel withdrew from Lebanon 6 years ago, but Lebanon never took control of southern Lebanon and knowingly allowed Hezbollah to use it as a staging area. Hezbollah was formed two decades ago with the alleged purpose of driving Israel out of Lebanaon. Israel has been out of Lebanon for 6 years, giving Hezbollah exactly what they wanted, yet now Hezbollah starts launching thousands of rockets from Lebanon into Israel.

The above is enough for any fair minded person to conclude which side is reasonable and really seeking peace and which side is totally unreasonable and hell bent on continuing the violence at any cost.

[jtpr]

Never would I think somebody here would put a statement like that into print. That you would hide behind innocent women and children to accomplish your needs is one of the worst statements I've heard in any OT thread in this group. And to have the audacity to suggest anyone else here would do it... shame on you.

-jtpr

[J. Clarke]

Actually, if you count presidents of the Continental Congress, which is what he was, there being no nation called the "United States" until after adoption of the Constitution, then John Hanson was the _third_.

So if some random netloon can't get a thing like that right what chance is there that any other information he provides is correct?

Why is it that someone who makes a great show of his own ignorance then comments on others "resorting to namecalling"?

[J. Clarke]

I find the cat having constipation to be of greater concern--if he doesn't go soon then there's going to be a vet bill.

[Goedjn]

IIRC, we had eight or so more, at the time.

[Kurt Ullman]

The West has been hopelessly floundering around in the area since the earliest days of "colonizing" the area. Nothin' to indicate anyone in the West has any better understanding of what is happening there than in the past.

[Dave Balderstone]

A bit more complicated than that, but it's a decent nickle tour. The poliitical division of the entire area after the fall of the Ottomans was a complete cluster-f*ck and certainly set the stage for the mess the region is today. The meddling after the fact was largely driven by the cold war and the west's battle against Soviet communism with oil at the center.

[todd]

The only info I find describes the Manhattan project as having produced three atomic bombs. Two plutonium bombs (one tested at the Trinity site and one dropped on Nagasaki) and a uranium bomb (dropped on Hiroshima). If there is documentation of addition weapons available at the time, please provide a link.

todd

[Mark & Juanita]

As an interesting exercise, take a look at what is required to be an alien in Mexico. Let's just say that openly criticizing the government of Mexico if you are an alien living there is *not* a good way to remain in that country.

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[Keith Williams]

Stuff I've read said that there were only those three until August '45, but that one Pu bomb could be manufacturered every three weeks (U235 was too difficult to separate hence the reason for the Pu research in the first place). The Manhattan project wasn't just a research program, rather manufacturing.

[Al]

It should be that way here as well there are allot of things I disagree with in the country however my dad fought in WWII and I fly my flag openly and with respect to what it stands for. The men that died for that flag did so to protect our way of life which is now very threatend. Unless you are a citizen of this country I don't feel you have the same rights as our citizens. I also feel you should be locked up if not shot for burning a US flag, to me that is treason against this country. As always this is my opinion and the way I feel strongly, so for all the people out there that want to I have my flaq jacket on go for it.

Al

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