ARMA2 put you off the Army ?

[Vandrel 10]

This is drifting a good deal off of the topic.

The thread will be locked if this continues.

I agree, just lock it

[An Fiach 10]

ok, does it matter when the WMD was moved to Syria ?(hypothetically speaking because it didn't exist at that point anyway) What would have set that in motion huh? What would have been Saddam's motivation for giving his WMD away to Syria? Please give it some critical thought and you'll realize that what you are saying is absurd, by your reasoning WMD fell into the hands of terrorists in Syria because we decided to invade Iraq, I wonder why we haven't seen any of the WMD being used against our troops in all this time? wait... that's right... because your story is more ridiculous than Santa Claus. Saddam did let Un Inspectors in a few times, but he stopped doing so after Desert Fox, I don't think he appreciated the sanctions and the bombing that continued all throughout the Clinton Presidency. Why don't we tell all dictators to behave? Why do we pick and choose? Why do we smile and shake the hands of some dictators and say they're doing a great job? Forgot to add: If our military tracked large convoys going into Syria, why did we go into Iraq at all? We should have invaded Syria first then.

As far as your comment on Vietnam I don't know what the hell you are getting at, what about McNamara, and what did you expect from me?

Saying that most victims of Katrina deserved what they got is just sick. You are judging everyone that was a victim in New Orleans like that? You again trust the Media too much, just because the media *focused* on a lot of the negative aspects like looting and such doesn't mean that most people were involved in it. I think you lack sympathy for others and are too quick to judge, I don't wish a Katrina on you, but you must be lacking in perspective to say something that idiotic. I would also blame FEMA before I blame the government of Lousiana. Cuba and Venezuela offered more than FEMA delivered.

food for thought:http://www.snopes.com/katrina/photos/looters.asp

Regarding Katrina, don't put words in my mouth, I made clear the difference between those groups of people, and I've been there. You can blame FEMA all you want to but it is a deflection. I agree FEMA was a big sloppy failure, however, the local government is responsible for its citizens, on the federal level it is to come in and assist the local government, not take over the state, but that is what had to happen because everything was such a mess and it wouldn;'t have been half as bad if they had maintained their levees like sensible people, not that sensible people would choose to live in a hole under the level of the ocean, on the coast. Oh and your photo is from two different sources so there is no parallel drawn from each source to provide comparison. Besides, I'm talking about people taking televisions and stuff, not trying to find food (granted they are healthy enough they could have evacuated which a lot of very stupid people did not do).

Vietnam: Our involvement in Nam began in 1959 and steadily escalated. American deaths increased exponentially year by year and American military numbers increased more and more, leading up to the Tonkin Incident and your article has a bit of misdirection in it because it clearly states there were two reported attacks. The second attack supposedly did not take place, however, the first attack did. The number of troops requested continued to climb with the escalating attacks from the NVA and the VC and there even was some Chinese involvement but its something that was swept under the rug because it would have been an impossible war that likely would have drawn the Soviets in as well. Requests must still be submitted for additional troops and must be approved.

Final authority to send troops was not given to Westmoreland until 26 June of the following year due to 5 major attacks on Americans in less than 8 months. Remember, up until this point we weren't even sending troops in to fight, the ARVN were doing all of the fighting, the first ground troops were sent in to protect American military advisors and US air crews. The first major military operation by US troops was in October 1965 when the 1st Cavalry Div. assisted the South Vietnamese Marines and they managed to reopen the highway from the coast to Pleiku. The first major military engagement of US combat forces didn't take place until November and everyone can recognize that one from the movie "We Were Soldiers"

To state that we went to war in Vietnam based on a lie ignores the 5.5 years of involvement and suffered casualties at the hands of the VC and NVA prior to that incident. Let us also be intellectually honest here "the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution), which granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian government considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression," this was also intended to counter Khrushchev's 1961 statements about fully supporting "wars of national liberation".

I cannot even follow your logic in your statements about Iraq to even pose an answer but maybe you are trying to tell me that a self proclaimed pacifist that is ill informed can make better decisions regarding such matters than those that have years of experience making those hard decisions. I dunno.

On topic, I think it is safe to say that my answer to the OP is a resounding no.

---------- Post added at 11:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:13 AM ----------

I agree, just lock it

Stay on topic. :D

[Brainmagnet 10]

Anfiach, regarding Katrina I didn't put words in your mouth just read what you wrote. I also read to the end of the link I posted, that's why I linked it at the end of my comment in a separate paragraph.

Also, our *involvement* in Vietnam began in 1950 before the French pulled out in 1954, we were giving them material and monetary aid, so we involved in the conflict way before 1959. I still applaud you for giving me your first detailed response based in fact, but it ignores what I just stated above.

Follow my logic on Iraq? It's your logic. You said Saddam smuggled his WMD into Syria before we invaded did you not? You also said that if I thought terrorists could not have gotten their hands on the WMD in Syria that I am naive, did you not? I said that if that's true then we should have invaded Syria first. You can dodge the topic by saying I'm an ill informed pacifist that never had to make a tough decision on issues like invading other countries because it's convenient for you to side step the issue when you are flat out wrong.

[franze 196]

Ok, lock time. You were warned to keep it on topic, but apparently that's too hard.