Nidan1
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Posts posted by Nidan1
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Why the false dilemma to begin with? The entire premise of this question is predicated on the assumption that some physical need must be fulfilled by carrying out a punishment. Will his death really improve the world and society in some way? Will terrorism and fear stop tomorrow because of this verdict? It's all just goes nowhere, and solves nothing. Potentially creates more problems even.
I just think we need to understand that justice is a very narrow concept, essentially just the concept of deterrent (ie: fear of retribution for criminal acts), and more options need to be considered to deal with people who want to lash out at society.
Like what? When a person serves notice on any society that he/she is not willing to live within the rules/laws that that society has put in place and accepted, what can be done with them.
Human nature being what it is, there will always be predatory individuals who will seek to do harm to others in order to satisfy some need that they have which cannot be satisfied any other way. What other options are out there that have not been tried already? Imprisonment, mental health facilities, lobotomys, shock treatments, hanging, firing squads. I can go on and on because this is a dilema that has plagued humankind for centuries.
The law does its best to make the punishment fit the crime, we are fallible beings, but there is a need for a society to be able to protect itself from criminal behavior.
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Dzhokhar Tsarnev is sentenced to death.
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Sorry for that, but sometimes it is just practical to cut a longer posts into pieces and it's easier to just use quote blocks.
Yeah, no problem, I figured it was a matter of practicality. Trying to parse out sections of a large post in order to answer specific points while maintaining the poster's identity can be a pain in the butt.
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Guys, just a peeve of mine that I've noticed lately on these new boards. There are times when posts are quoted where the name of the poster is omitted and it just says QUOTE. For example Lethaface, your post above contains a couple of quoted posts, but no name as to who made them. I'm not picking on you,,,,I've seen it on other posts with quotes as well. Is this deliberate, or does the forum somtimes leave off the name from a quoted post.
When multiple quotes are involved, and the discussion has generated a lot of interest, it's really annoying not to know who a person is quoting when responding to a post. It's no fun scrolling back over a long list of posts to try and piece together the multiple quotes and who they belong to.
If it happens deliberately, guys, please try to make sure your quotes have the name of the poster in them, if it is something with the board itself, BF please fix or do sumfink!
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I heard he went out to the privy to take a dump and the hogs ate him.
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I
My frustration with Iraqis came from the fact they kept indulging in very self destructive choices for short term gain. In the wider view it makes sense as given Iraq from the 1980's on, anything long term rarely panned out, but grabbing the money and running was highly successful in the short term. But in terms of rebuilding, it meant you'd at risk and expense install a generator to provide power for the local community, and then six hours later it's been stripped down to pieces and is being sent up to Turkey to be sold as scrap as the pennies on the hundreds of dollars of investment in the generator is worth more to someone than having reliable electricity. And then the local community basically just sitting and watching it happen because maybe they can steal the wires the guy didn't take and sell those!
George Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant" is strongly illustrative of the feelings of being in Iraq, in terms of having all the power to murder the heck out of everything, but being ultimately unable to change the behavior of the locals, or address the underlying problems in their community.
I'll address this one section first, I'm a little pressed for time right now, but you made some interesting observations.
What you say about 19 year olds is probably very true. However for me personally, when I was 19 I was up to here in rice paddies, different times no doubt, but I was definitely politically ignorant at the time. I believed in the "Domino Theory" and the Red Menace had to be stopped no matter where it reared its ugly head. My experience in Vietnam made me feel exactly as you describe, of course Iraq had more urban areas than where I was, so you were in contact with locals a lot more than I. I think that feeling may be a fatal flaw in Americans, especially when in the military in a foreign country in wartime. Hell we interrupted our lives, or had them interrupted because the draft was still in force back then, and we came over here to help you, and you dont seem to give a damn. The ambivience of the South Vietnamese made us furious. Of course we knew nothing of them as a culture or anything of their history, no one ever bothered to give us any information about the place before we went over there. So if most of them considered us just another colonial master, and the farmers just wanted to be left alone, we (I) understood none of it. So we went along feeling superior and then resented the people we were there to help. What made things worse was that we were castigated by our own people when we came home.
A little catharsis for me here, but I find it very interesting that 50 years later American military men have similar attitudes and gripes about what their country was asking them to do. It boils down sometimes, and this is true in many walks of life, the higher ups never ask the people that are doing the job what they need to do it better.
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On the topic of the parade...I think the Russians and Chinese put on great military parades...regardless of politics.
I did notice most of the Russian troops were smiling as they passed the review stands. I'll have to see older parades to see if that usual.
Looks like war and misunderstandings is going to be with us for some time judging from this thread.
Yeah I noticed their expressions as well. They seemed genuinely proud to be there. Some of them also looked suntanned. Where would Russian soldiers get a suntan in early spring, is the Black Sea Region that warm this time of year?
Of course they may have had someone dressed as Krusty the Clown mooning them as they went by, but that would have been off camera.
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Pretty much. I can accept you wrote an article about tanks on mar/moon/whatever or believe the USN got in a fight with aliens. That's something I think is loco but that's your bag. Most of your posts on here are a bit out there but they're at least somewhat grounded in what's discussed on the board. I can accept the out there though because I'm either not forced to read it, or it might be topical and worth talking about.
Either way though reacting to folks bringing in the more Art Bell parts of your beliefs is not going to help anything because it'll just encourage them to do it more. So please do calm down and stick to the more interesting stuff discussed here. It'll be best for all parties.
Re: 105 MM
Again it was not optimal, but the lack of efficiency at long range is often cited by Soviet Power Supreme fanboys as an example of how NATO would have sat weeping powerless before STRONG MEN OF SOVIET MIGHT RODE ASTRIDE COMRADE TANK while ignoring historically, on the offensive especially given similar sensor capability the defender still tended to inflict heavier losses regardless of armor/weapon imbalance (see the fairly strong performance of Allied armor in the west against German armor when on the defense for a pretty good historical example). Longer engagement ranges would be preferred as that best leverages the sensor gap between west and east, and gives the western unit more time to shift battle positions to receive the next wave. But I still feel it is incorrect to simply state the 105 MM was useless against Russian armor without a very big * and some footnotes to clarify it wasn't good where we wanted it to be good, but would still murder comrade tankist at closer ranges.
The 105 was not perfect, or even really good at all post 1972 or so, but it was suboptimal vs totally useless.
Re: "Just War"
Afghanistan is pretty cut and dry, UN approved high fives all around, following some pretty unambiguous casus belli. Here's where Stagler consumes so many hats from his high horse after my textual resounding body blows of great strength he becomes known as "The defeated pig dog horse rider hat eater"
I do not support the fact we went to war in Iraqi in the first place. I did support it when it kicked off because I was an idiot 19 year old and I believed the case that got pitched to the UN. I was already in ROTC when it kicked off, but darn it didn't I believe there was a world that needed bombing sometime.
I think many of the posters on here were equally dumb, jingoistic and willing to believe war fixed things when they were that age, or they're dishonest enough about it now to pretend they wouldn't have lept on the warwagon willingly themselves had roles been reversed.
As I continued in my college education it became apparent that a lot of the reasons to go to war were wrong (for a variety of reasons outside this discussion). At that point I believed we had a need to do whatever we could do to restore Iraq to some level of normalcy, and counter the people who were sawing heads off because allah told them it was a swell thing to do to murder his creations for an imperfect understanding of him. So I came to believe going to war was wrong, but finishing it was right.
Having gone to Iraq twice, and leaving just a few steps above Kurtz in my feelings towards the locals, my opinions are somewhat interestingly colored. At the same time it's noteworthy that the Iraq war 2004-2010 was fought at great expense to give the Iraqis the government they voted for, the infrastructure they needed, and the security they wanted. And on departing in 2010 broadly speaking that had occurred, although the fact the Shia leadership decided Iran knew best in running a country rather dismantled it in short order.
Kosovo's objection has more to do with who's friends with who. The behavior of the Serbian military pretty much 1993-1999 is on the road to terrible, and we're ready to remember the agony of sad that the Serbs went through during the bombing, but not the well filled ditches the Serbs left from Croatia, through Bosnia, and beyond. All the Serbs had to do is stop shooting civilians, and there wouldn't have been much of a leg to stand on.
As the case is the region is a lot more stable today, and there's a marked downtick in violence. And Kosovo isn't a US territory so there you go.
This runs a pretty good contrast where Russia's current military acts have been to carve off choice parts of its neighbors, or trying to kill its way out of an insurgency in Chechnya. Granted Chechnya is nominally Russian and honestly while I can object to the methods, whatever get your hands all bloody life goes on elsewhere but where I object is when we start finding Russian troops where they do not belong, and there's a long history of that in the last hundred years resulting in significant swaths of Eastern Europe getting a one way ticket to rapey-steal anything worth stealing-install the resident pet stalinist as leader town.
While there's a history of western military adventurism, in the last few decades its been the White Man's Burden madness, or the silliness with pretending somehow putting Americans/Brits/French people on the ground will return the region to stability (with some imperfect success). Russians show up, it's generally to take anything that isn't nailed down, and failing that, take what the things are nailed to.
It's pretty standard Russologic. Your country did a bad thing/something we did not like, which means our thing of equal or often more dubious morality is okay! Rather than addressing the topic at hand it's pretty classic misdirection because bluntly if we're going to talk about Russian/Soviet actions, it's going to be a pretty lopsided fight in favor of anyone who doesn't find red especially fabulous. Effectively he wants the discussion to migrate to a medium in which he can talk a lot about Iraq, or the like, while avoiding talking about the fact the Russians are currently facilitating an entirely illegal war in the hopes of carving off parts of a country they already more or less stole land from, or the fact that when the west shows up, hungry people come looking for food and comfort, but when Russia shows up, they send their daughters, and more attractive livestock as far away as they can.
Trying to match Kettler post for post, is a difficult thing. At times he is very rational and puts forward arguments that are both relevant and interesting. In mind mind he is somewhat of an enigma, claiming to have problems which effect his ability to think and read, but yet is capable of posting enormous rambling items, with numerous links and expert use of the coding of the forum.
Someone else is doing this or he really has no cranial difficulties and uses it as a defense against some of the severe and maybe mean spirited criticism he receives here. I am sometimes intrigued by what he posts, and I am often at odds with his viewpoints, but I can never match him for pure ability to frame any argument, back it up with dozens of internet links, and make claims that sometimes are totally unverifiable. Still, he is an interesting character and adds a lot of flair to otherwise dull exchanges on military and game related matters.
You seem like an intelligent guy with a lot of in the first hand field experience with the goings on in the post cold war realm of the military. You at least also take the time to propose your point of view with no apologies, and no concern for the sensibilities of other posters. Which I am sure will rile some folks up, but is often needed for an honest discussion of things that have nothing to do with the game. The Admin folks have been fairly benevolent in allowing discussions not directly related to game play to go on, especially in the Black Sea Forum. Once an East vs West argument reaches critical mass, I'm sure they will step in a lock things up.
Who do you dislike (I won't say hate, too strong a word at this point) more, the Iraqis or the Russians? I'm may be one of the ones who thought that going to war in Iraq would turn out to be a good thing. I also believe that war used as a political tool is usually the cause of problems later on. Maybe if we had crushed Sadaam Husein in 1991 when we had sufficient power on the ground to enforce a surrender we could have avoided 2003. If warfare is used one side or the other must totally impose their will upon the other. The last time this happened was in 1945, look how nice the Japanese and Germans have been since then. Especially in the light of how horrible they were prior. Mutually Assured Destruction changed the ground rules of warfare we could kill each other with glee as long as it didnt get to the point where one side would drop the bomb. The age of total conventional war was ove, and all of the unresolved conflicts that we have had since have come full circle in the behavior of the Russians in the current Ukraine situation. IMO of course.
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Who is to say that Soviet soldiers would have performed any better in their equipment than their Arab counterparts? In 1973 they had very little practical combat experience in armored warfare. Soviet tank design during that time did not lend itself well to the deserts of the Middle East. Squat turrets and low silhouettes may have worked on the North German Plain, but not so much on the Golan or in the Sinai. Good hull down positions were difficult when the main guns could not be depressed enough to fire over desert escarpments. The Israelis with their higher Centurians and Pattons, could hide much better in defense and be able to fire first without exposing themselves.
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The only gap was numerical, granted. Western tank design proved itself superior time and again before the Abrams was fielded, in 1967 and again in 1973 in the Middle East. Centurians, M-48s, M-60s and SuperShermans easily handled Syrian and Egyptian T-54/55s and T-62s.
What caught the Israelis and Western analysts by surprise in 1973, was the extensive use of Sagger AT missles by the Egyptians, which effectively negated Israeli tank tactics early on.
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I think that all military analysts of the Cold War era did a great dis-service to America by consistently over-hyping the capability of the Soviet Military in order to line their own pockets with lucrative Defense Department (taxpayer funded) contracts.
I.e, the missile gap, the bomber gap, Soviet tank and aircraft superiority. It all turned out to be bunk. One case in point the Mig-25 hype job.
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Well, because of all those who post here that are from Russia and keep us informed. For the first time in my life I watched this parade. Never thought of doing that before. So to actually see it and how they do it was very interesting.
I was actually impressed with the WWII armor they ran. To have that many running tanks from that era was surprising to me.
The Russians learned how to keep old vehicles running from the Cubans. Havana has more vintage American cars on the road than Jay Leno
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Yeah but on this website posters are more likely to tear apart a WW2 movie because it has M-48 tanks in place of something that remotely looks like a Panther tank, than an actor playing a Cheyanne Warrior wearing the wrong style warpaint.
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Cowboy movies are not meant to be historically accurate. The genre is about the state of mind and personality of people living in the American West in the early to mid 19th Century. Most cowboy movies revolve around people not historical events. Horses and six guns, damsels in distress and villans are all that are needed.
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Agreed, but Colonel_Deadmarsh was asking what would happen to a game in progress if both players intended to upgrade.
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Yes, if you save your current turns in the COMMAND phase before upgrading.
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I think its kinda creepy, sort of like the NSA or FBI checking on you. Perhaps he just dropped off the grid for a time....we all know how weird he is. Maybe a Reptoid got him, I understand there is a huge battle against them going on in the Pacific region.
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Unfortunately you starting a new thread Story Teller, seems to have awakened groups of Aussies who have not been around here for quite sometime. We were quite happy with their absence, have you not heard of the phrase. "Let sleeping dogs lie"
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Probably because there were no bites over there for several weeks. It was re-posted here, and now look, even you chimed in....
Out.
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A great scenario for H2H play in the MG Mod is "Borderland"
++++++++++++++Spoliers++++++++++++++++++
This is a mainly infantry contest (Germans get three small tanks) simulating the shrinking British pocket at Oosterbeeck.
Heavily wooded terrain with small villages and buildings scattered about. Deadly close quarter fighting. I suffered shocking losses as German player...you just keep walking into one ambush after another. So much fun! Probably easier for the Germans against the AI, but smart human defender (which I had) makes every inch of ground forward a deadly chore.
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Actually the Irish Easter uprising began in 1916, pretty much all British forces were evacuated from the Dardanelles by January of that year.
I must admit none of these posts (including mine) have anything to do with Normandy or NW Europe in 1944-45.
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The landing of the ANZACs must have really annoyed the Turks who were also commencing their Genocide against Armenians on the same day as the landing.
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akd,
If I had the requisite neural circuits online, rest assured I would play. Presently, it takes a great deal more specialized brain processes and level of concentration than I have. Also, am so run down it takes little to overload my ability to correctly take in and effectively use visual information. You have no idea how fortunate you are to simply be able to sit down and play.
Regards,
John Kettler
John, I'm sorry to hear that you have issues that so severely restrict your ability to navigate through the game.
How is it though, that you can pull off numerous links from the internet containing videos and written information when you want to make some point or provide others with arcane information.
It puzzles me, having read your posts for years now, I can deduce that you are an intelligent man, but you try very hard to come off otherwise based on some nerve condition that you claim to have. I don't get it.
Death
in General Discussion Forum
Posted · Edited by Nidan1
You are really stretching here, you could probably take any group in a society and plug them into a category of doing "harm" But honestly do you equate the financial "wizards" and politicians who made decisions that made them rich, but ruined a lot of others financially, with people who seek to physically harm, maim or kill innocent people?
And if you had any children (and I dont know if you do) you would realize that parents must raise their children, so that they can be productive members of the village. Not the other way around. We don't live in prehistoric tribal situations anymore, but maybe you and Hillary Clinton think we still do.
You are right about a society paying for the upkeep of those we incarcerate, otherwise we would be headed back to the prehistoric tribal societies, and either banish or kill offenders. outright.