sburke

No the difference is I am not Steve. Well I am Steve, but I am not the Steve from Battlefront I have seen how well you can ignore a well reasoned and documented argument and have no intention of spending that kind of time in futile discussion. At best you might change your asserted position, you'll never admit to possibly being incorrect. That sanction statement for example doesn't even make sense- your country is the one doing the damage in both cases. Oh wait yeah you've already conveniently ignored that the situation started in Syria when the gov't reacted violently to peaceful protest.... wait for it... yes just like Maiden! Russia and it's friends are at least consistent. Back to the rain gutters, yes we are finally getting rain in California! Steve (not of Battlefront)

You'll always have an excuse. Simplicity is the refuge for those who want excuses for their actions. I am not going to bother arguing with you. I need to go clear my rain gutters or something.

good lord. As much as I am fascinated by Middle eastern history on par with Steve's fascination with Russian history, I am not gonna spend all night writing a dissertation on the developments in Syria and the Sunni wahabist movement. That being said, I will write a little.... First off the Jihadist movement does not equal ISIL. ISIL is one organization. That it has it's origins in Iraq is literally completely irrelevant as to whether it could fill a power vacuum in Syria as the Assad regime lost control. Look at a map of Syria showing the areas dominated by various groups. Where is ISIL's capital? Hint there is a coincidental relationship to the Iraqi border. And if you think the relationship of Baghdad to the Sunni community is all roses and tea parties, look again. The Shia/Sunni conflict is alive and well and Russia's partner in Syria (Iran) is also involved stirring that pot. The situation in the middle east is extremely complicated and defies easy solutions. You have an area where Britain and France essentially let a child draw on a map and then said yeah that looks good! Then just for good measure they, the US and the USSR continued to intervene in those countries with no regard for the damage they might be doing. And then for the cherry on top, the Saud family makes a deal with the devil to establish themselves as the political/religous authority in the Middle East and proceeds to use their massive oil revenues to spread wahabism around the globe. So yeah the Middle East is F"ked up royally. But that doesn't mean every other poor sucker in the Middle East that wants to feed his family and be able to vote is suddenly an ISIL terrorist. On the other hand what has any one on the outside ever done for them? Who in the international community has ever really tried to promote change entirely without self interest? And before you ask, I opposed the war in Iraq right from the get go. It was stupid, ill advised and worse ill planned. Do I have any sympathy for Saddam and his regime? Not one bit, but when you kick over a house of cards it is imperative that you make sure to not leave a mess. Human lives were at stake and the US screwed the pooch royally. We created a power vacuum and we paid the price along with a lot of Iraqis. There was a brief moment in Syria where there might have been a negotiated solution. Russia however made sure that wasn't gonna happen with their UN veto. Transitions from a despotic regime are really really hard. There have been articles here on just how hard it is for a society to recover from a demagogue (I'll let you decide who they were writing about :-D ). When a demagogue is all you have ever known it is infinitely harder. I have a huge amount of sympathy for the people's of the middle east and more than a bit of a guilty conscience about the role my country has played. I don't however have any easy answers and leaving a despotic regime in power is not one. That just continues the problem. So the point of all this is if you want to really discuss power vacuums and the rise of ISIL you have about 100 years of history to brush up on. It is well worthwhile as an informed discussion on the situation in the middle east is about as rare as a Miss Universe contestant that Trump hasn't ogled.

Sorry they are not equal no matter how much you want to spin the "Donbass liberation movement." The US had nothing to do with the demand of the Syrian people for reform, but the US and many other nations did want to intervene to stop the bloodshed overwhelmingly committed by Assad's forces. Compare that to Donbass, a "revolt" instigated and basically run by Moscow for Moscow's geopolitical interests. Sorry you don't get to compare the criminal enterprise in Donbass currently run out of the Kremlin to a genuine outcry for reform in Syria. If anything Assad's actions in Syria are comparable to the Kremlin flunky Yanukovich during Maidan. Any doubts that might have remained about how deep the Kremlin has been involved have pretty much been answered with the hack of Surkov's email acct. And yes the Syrian gov't and Russia are intentionally killing civilians. It is Russia's MO from Afghanistan and Chechnya, why would we expect different now. And your assumption that every rebel is a "head chopper" is nice and comforting when Russia is busy area bombing hospitals, but if that were actually true, ISIL would actually be holding a lot more ground than it is and western aid workers wouldn't be there at all as ISIL loves killing them.

Not only is it not all our fault, none of it is our fault. Assad created the conditions and Russia backed him. THAT is why Russia is getting dinged on this. This is not some regime change begun by the US as Vlad has insinuated nor has the US jumped on some bandwagon of supporting Jihadists everywhere with some kind of blinders on. The Jihadists are filling a political vacuum that is created when despotic regimes greet peaceful political protests with gunfire. Those forces that would have presented some sort of opposition get overwhelmed as they don't get any support from the west (at least partly because of Russia's vote in the security council) while the Saudis and other regimes have no compulsions at all about who they finance. Blame Assad, blame Russia and Iran or blame Saudi Arabia, but leave the US out of it.

wow the rewrite of history here is pretty fascinating. Let's take a moment to actually go back to reality. The current situation is a direct result of the Assad regime's response to non violent protests in 2011. Below is a nice little timeline for Syria from wiki. Pretty straightforward and objective. What becomes clear is the civil war is a direct result of Assad's refusal to actually negotiate for a more open political system - a state of emergency in place for 48 years? WTF and you guys think that is okay? People should be happy, that there isn't some reason a state needs a state of emergency for almost 5 decades? Nice try on blaming the US, but it is Russia's use of veto power that has kept the UN unable to do anything to try and help this situation. So I guess you think that it is okay for a state to murder it's citizens for trying to get better political representation and it is their fault for asking for reform that caused the whole mess. Nice level of newspeak apologizing. You guys can wriggle all you want, the US is in no way responsible for this debacle. Assad has responded to his own people with violence when they peacefully asked for reform and Russia has insured that no meaningful role would be played by the UN. Yeah it's all our fault. Mass protests in Syria began on 26 January 2011. Protesters called for political reforms and the re-instatement of civil rights, as well as an end to the state of emergency which had been in place since 1963.[60] One attempt at a "day of rage" was set for 4–5 February, though it ended uneventfully.[61] Protests on 18–19 March were the largest to take place in Syria for decades and the Syrian authority responded with violence against its protesting citizens.[62] First, limited, sanctions against the Assad government were imposed by the U.S. in April 2011, followed by Barack Obama's executive order as of 18 May 2011 targeting Bashar Assad specifically and six other senior officials.[63][64][65] On 23 May 2011, the EU foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Brussels to add Assad and nine other officials to a list affected by travel bans and asset freezes.[66] On 24 May 2011, Canada imposed sanctions on Syrian leaders, including Assad.[67] On 20 June, in a speech lasting nearly an hour, in response to the demands of protesters and foreign pressure, Assad promised a national dialogue involving movement toward reform, new parliamentary elections, and greater freedoms. He also urged refugees to return home from Turkey, while assuring them amnesty and blaming all unrest on a small number of saboteurs.[68] Assad blamed the unrest on "conspiracies" and accused the Syrian opposition and protestors of "fitna", breaking with the Syrian Ba'ath Party's strict tradition of secularism.[69] In July 2011, U.S. foreign minister Hillary Clinton said president Assad had “lost legitimacy.”[64] On 18 August 2011, Barack Obama issued a written statement echoed by the leaders of the UK, France, and Germany, that urged President Assad to "step aside".[70][71] In August, Syrian security forces attacked the country's best-known political cartoonist, Ali Farzat, a noted critic of Assad's regime and its five-month crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators and dissent. Relatives of the severely beaten humorist told Western media that the attackers threatened to break Farzat's bones as a warning for him to stop drawing cartoons of government officials, particularly Assad. Farzat was hospitalized with fractures in both hands and blunt force trauma to the head.[72][73] Since October 2011, Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, repeatedly vetoed Western-sponsored draft resolutions in the UN Security Council that would have left open the possibility of UN sanctions, or even military intervention, against the Bashar Assad government.[74][75][76] By the end of January 2012, it was reported that over 5,000 civilians and protesters (including armed militants) had been killed by the Syrian army, militia (Shabiha) and security agents, while 1,100 people had been killed by the anti-regime forces.[77] On 10 January 2012, Assad gave a speech in which he maintained the uprising was engineered by foreign countries and proclaimed that "victory [was] near". He also said that the Arab League, by suspending Syria, revealed that it was no longer Arab. However, Assad also said the country would not "close doors" to an Arab-brokered solution if "national sovereignty" was respected. He also said a referendum on a new constitution could be held in March.[78] On 27 February 2012, Syria claimed that a proposal that a new constitution be drafted received 90% support during the relevant referendum. The referendum introduced a fourteen-year cumulative term limit for the president of Syria. The referendum was pronounced meaningless by foreign nations including the U.S. and Turkey; the European Union announced fresh sanctions against key regime figures.[79] In July 2012, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov denounced Western powers for what he said amounted to blackmail thus provoking a civil war in Syria.[80] On 15 July 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross declared Syria to be in a state of civil war,[81] as the nationwide death toll for all sides was reported to have neared 20,000.[82] On 6 January 2013, Assad, in his first major speech since June, said that the conflict in his country was due to "enemies" outside of Syria who would "go to Hell" and that they would "be taught a lesson". However he said that he was still open to a political solution saying that failed attempts at a solution "does not mean we are not interested in a political solution."[83][84]

We call this the 15 second rule. Why take the time to research it when in 15 seconds I can ask you and have you look it up.

Not to pile on here, but did want to address this statement about the west failing miserably in the war on terror. I don't believe that is an accurate statement though you'd think from listening to Trump over here that we not only have done nothing, we've created the whole dang Daesh thing. The middle east is in a bad way. Popular stable governments are in scary short supply and some of the more stable ones actually provide support for the terrorists/insurgents as long as they attack their enemies (Pakistan, Saudis, Iran etc). The US is never going to be able to eliminate the radical Islamist threat under these conditions. Anyone who thinks we are is just deluding themselves. The only thing that will stop this is stable governments that actually represent their people and make at least a halfhearted effort to improve their lives. There is no truly effective military response. N Ireland, Colombia and a host of other situations have proven this over and over again. As it is the US has been able (without barrel bombing cities or carpet bombing etc etc) been able to target leadership in these organizations and their infrastructure to limit their effectiveness. To that end we have actually been pretty effective. I do not know the actual expected life span once you hit higher echelons in these organizations, but I am pretty certain it is short. Russia on the other hand has succeeded in their one battle (Chechnya) by simply co-opting the worst guy. In a way not too dis-similar from their role in Syria. This used to also be pretty much US policy until it seems it finally dawned on someone that this was terribly ineffective and simply ended up creating an unstable situation that eventually blew up in our face (The Shah, Pinochet, Diem etc).

Oh man, that is dangerous

What do you mean, Guinness is still plenty available.

In my best Trump imitation - Wrong! (TM)

Blasphemy! While I will admit Guinness in a bottle is something I just won't do, Guinness on tap is sweet nectar of the bar tender gods.

Posted this on the Red Thunder forum. This is the typical process to gift, your situation is pretty similar. https://battlefront.mojohelpdesk.com/help/article/127848

Hey Daroc, Typically when gifting one you just order and pass the person the license. Do you have hard copy or DL? Here is the typical way to transfer a game. It should work for you, I'd try it and if you have a problem contact BF. https://battlefront.mojohelpdesk.com/help/article/127848

Whoa!! Can I vote to have Charles moved over to being your primary PR guy?

damn that avatar looks reaallly familiar, but I can't put my finger on where I saw it. Is that a famous statue or something? Some great leader of infinite wisdom perhaps? Maybe a really great brewer? Oh wait for some reason I am suddenly feeling a little vertigo...

Steve my impression of you just went up by several points - there are few things as good in this life as a well poured Guinness - how does the saying go? "Guinness -built not poured". As to Shock Force - despite it's age it is still my favorite and the first I reload when I rebuild my PC.

This is far too adult a post. Sorry you need a decent rant somewhere in there . As to bugs absolutely you can post. It can only help, BF has no fear of bug reports, it is after all software. As to how it gets treated and analyzed would remain to be seen based on the nature of the bug, but is totally acceptable, expected and desired to be reported on the forum.

He is what he is and when he makes it into preschool they will begin teaching him how to play with others. Until then I guess he'll keep posting uniformed petulant comments. He must be bored as he's on a tirade lately.

Hmm sounds like you are ready to finance your own game company. Excellent, the industry could use more.

Yeah this is actually something I ran into. The installer looks for a specific default location. If you have selected anything different you have to make sure the directory path is correct at the install window and edit if not. It only takes a moment, but if not expecting it and you click right through it will leave you scratching your head a bit. Funny thing is I had never run into it before and I have been using this same drive setup for years. Minor nuisance, but something to be aware of.

I do still remove them just for surety. It takes only a minute to do and you know immediately if your install is good. For example I had edited the American names file to add a lot more names and have less repetition. Seems with the update though that file is no longer acceptable and I had to go back to default. It is on my list to tinker with and find out what is being objected to.

personally I think it was the guy who first floated the line "maybe he should have been named the Galaxy 7". There is no limit to what some people will do for a punchline.

The other point is what really does Ukraine have to gain from this? Yes it certainly isn't gonna cry about his death, but I seriously doubt if they have assets in place in LPR/DNR capable of this that they'd waste them at this level. I'd certainly want a lot more bang for my buck out of those assets than a hit on Motorola.

About the only time I give direct orders is to support a specific maneuver. If I am going to take a building for example that I know (or suspect) is occupied. I'll suppress with a unit on target brief to keep the occupants head down while my assault unit gets up into position. Don't try and enter the building, just get next to it and in the time that it takes the occupants to stop cowering hopefully my guys will spot and eliminate. In non urban situations I may do the same to allow a unit to cross exposed ground by suppressing the units that are capable of taking them under fire. Beyond that I find the less I interfere wit the AI generally the happier I am with the results.