Apollo

K ,a bit excessive on the smily's ,anyway nice progress keep it up. Â

Well ,you could always give youre name ,unit ,rank ,number ,place of opperation and lentgh ,etc. and their might be someone here that can check that actually up ,i mean there are enough war veterans on this forum to conquer the likes of Bhutan or Micronesia. And you could give information that mostly only soldiers know ,as war veteran their must be sureenough thing's you know off that mostly only soldiers will know ,little details...

From now on i shouldn't care about what you think? Well ,won't be much of a change.... Â In any case ,you were very fast to call in youre war veteran brother just to make me shut up about a point i was wanting to make ,so did you use youre own alleged experiences to try to force youre points onto others. Whether or not youre a real Iraq vet ,such forms of conduct in debate won't spawn much respect by others posted ,as mentioned by others.

Isn't shooting iraqi's now with Israeli bullets just an extra insult more?

Well thats more of a gain for Sheryl that for Lance ,well ,atleast in poppularity. Lance has become a massive marketing symbol ,he makes a perfect inpression to most people and is regarded almost as a sort of superman.Also it's the American dream story playing ,coming back from cancer to win 6 tours is the kind of story that most Americans really love.His net worth for commercial use is enourmous ,basicly these days you could sell anything in the US with Lance on it. Especially since he has such a respected last name ,the name Armstrong brings much positivs sentiments up in an American. "If you want youre kids to growstrong later ,buy "brand xxx" milk ,Lance drank it to." that sort of stuff.

Just a question: Since the US presidential candidate's are allowed to accept gifts to fund their ellection campaign ,are they also allowed to receive funds for ellection campaigns from abroad by other country's? The problem is still that the conservatives or atleast Bush are able to gather 5x more campaigning funds that the democrats ,mainly because Bush has become very popular among rich American's ,mainly big industry Ceo's who obviously got the funds ,due to reasons of lowered taxes ,better laws for them ,no Kyoto emmesion limits anymore ,contracts in Iraq etc...

First of all they don't sell all to you ,the US company's sell oil to you and pay some taxes in Iraq. (and that tax is the Iraqi's oil income) in wich i want to note that Iraqi's would receive much more per barrel sold if they could run their own oil industry.And you can wonder what the price will be for the weapons ,probably rediculously expensive but it's not like the Iraqi goverment will be able to disagree. Thats what i ment with the Sattelite status.As long as the US apointed goverment is there their influence on that goverment will be big and that goverment won't dare to do anything against America as the Americans will sell em their obsolete material and keep some armored troops there to manifestate their power presence. But afcourse ,for the US it's a win win situation.They have an over production of weapons and a shortage of oil ,so afcourse weapons for oil is great for them.Heck my country does it to in the Congo ,there it is weapons for diamonds ,really a lucrative trade ,especially if you consider that most weapon producing country's have fair pproblems with getting rid of the exces production. (though a war once and awhile helps to ,especially if you bomb "US style")

No it isn't because they didn't ask for it.They could get a lot more out of the oil if they could appoint their own contracters and keep a part nationalized ,now the US is going to make sure that the Iraqi oil is sucked out as fast as possible against a price as cheap as possible ,hardly befits the long term bneeds of Iraq.Besides a lot of the oil revenue will flow to America trough dividents etc. ,even a lot of the workers working there will be Americans. And America will be able to break Iraq anytime politicly if Iraq doesn't agree with something the US wants. Iraq won't get a fair deal for it's oil ,by far not.And there is a reson why a country like Venezuala nationalized it's oil industry to effectivly LOWER the production ,afterall there won't be oil forever and it's smarter to trade the counted barrels in short amount's at higher prices than in a very short amount at lower prices. And this is just the oil industry ,The US goverment practicly gave most of Iraq's economy to US contracters.So in the end a hughe amount of Iraqi money l flow out to America. And think a moment about this: One of the First thing's tht Saddam did when he came to power was making a fight with the Brits to nationalize the oil industry ,apparently even in 1960 the Iraqi's want forigners to run their oil.

You don't understand ,as long as they are under the US appointed goverment they are effectivly a sattelite of the US ,,even if the Iraqi's vote an Shia goverment (and i think such ellections are unlikely) it won't mean that the concession that the US made in the Iraqi oil industry will be given back ,afterall in a democratic country the US is legal owner and as long as they can boost some millitary pressence the Iraqi goverment will be to scared to change that situation ,compare it to Saudi Arabia as example. Their international relations will be severely limmited by this in the sense that they will have to follow the US almost always in their foreign policy's. They would also be very dependant on the money they get from Oil wich it's revenue's for a large part whould go to Americans ,the millitary equipment they get and etc. That gives the US more than enough influence to get certain party's out of the ellections and others in for ex. ,so more than enough local influence.

My grandma is a soldier in Iraq to (fedayin) ,but that doesn't mean that she knows more about the political situation ,she got dementia anyway.And making such statements is rediculous and illogical ,true he could know some things more ,but the reverse is equally true. Nope ,the majority of iraqi wants Americans out and a goverment they chose ,it's proven in poll's. Wrong ,their is the fundamentalist Iraqi ,the fundamentalist foreigner ,the nationalistic insurgent or patriotic insurgent (who could as well be an atheist) ,their are religious leader with political ambitions ,millitary ex rankers with ambitions ,educated people with ambitions ,you got the suicidal man that lost his whole family and wants revenge ,you got the pro saddam faction ,etcetera etcetera. People In iraq are against the US for various reasons.Some want a religious goverment ,some want Iraq to be non secular but just not a puppet of the US (like most sunni insurgents),some iraqi's are interrested in the oil wells and want to get it in their hands rather than US company hands.Some like the Kurds would rather have indepandance. Youre not dealing with exlusivly terrorists ,youre mainly dealing with insurgents and Guerilla's many of whom fight for Iraq not Allah.

There are a number of reasons why the US lost Vietnam ,among them the Ho-che-Ming trail ,the flanking trough Cambodja and the consequenting extension of war there. But in the end ,i think eventually DETERMINATION won that war for Vietnam.The lost millions of men in war but were preparred to get every man ,woman and sometimes child to fight.Even Vietnames people with disabilety's still fought. Compared to that ,the US lacked determination and eventually subdued to the carnage. Note that atleast in vietnam the US had still the South as an allie and safe haven ,now they have no friends at all in iraq.At most the Kurds are neutral.The rest is against you and US has to rely on strongpoints right into enemy territory. (wich is everywhere and nowwhere) But these Iraqi's are determined though ,determined to kick the US out and it's puppet goverment.

It won't be the end by far ,it will be a very gradual process. Look at turkey for ex. ,they might join the EU in 5-10 years ,but it took them decade's for to put all the reforms trough that Europe wanted.However ,grudually as they improve their relations with the EU increase and this has short term advantage's to ,turkey's economůy and tourism has grown a lot by better relations with the rest of Europe ,multiple investor's build hotels all over Turkey among them Greek investor's who feel confidednt about Turkey now it backed down in cyprus. But to every wish of the EU that Serbia put's trough the better their situation will become graduatly.It could happen fast to ,but i don't think that Serbia is politicly ready for it just like it tok Turkey to get politicly "ready" . Look at it from this perspective.Slovenia is now an EU country ,that means they can live and work anywhere in the EU they want.Kroatia is on the good way to.In the future should the EU be able to get all the Yougoslavian country's among its members then All serbs will be free to move and live anywhere within the Yougoslavian country's ,or to Albania if its incorperated to. Why conquer it if you can become an equal part of it?And once youre part of EU the incomming funds will be considerable.

It's the French spitting at Lance ,they don't want him to win a 6th time and beating Hinault with this.French newpapers have been digging and speculating on dirt on Armstrong for the whole tour already ,it's a bit rediculous. Then again so were the freedom fries ,guess it's payback. He'll beat Eddy Merckx (Belgian) his record to (also five wins) ,but most Belgians respect Armstrong for the friendly and honest personality he has. (and that for a Texan!!) Besides ,lance is far away from winning as much total courses as Merckx did ,he took atleast 80 tour course victory's for himself ,won about 10 of the 20 courses every tour ,extreme number.And then that is not taking into account his wins in other tours like Veulta etc. But Lance is an all round great guy ,no wonder he's so popular.

Do you know how many Al-Jazeera buildings and reporters have been killed/destroyed by "accidental" US bombing's? Heck even if Al-jazeera provides the USAF with coordinates of their building location their buildings still get bombed. Their website's get professionaly hacked by " US symphatists" ,co workers mysteriously dissapear ,investor's pull back their investments. Before we judge Al Jazeera ,lets see how the court trial turnes out.it wouldn't be the first time that Al-Jazeer gets a pretty controversial lawsuit on it's back ,however i have yet to witness Al-Jazeera actually losing one of those lawsuits. But i sure suspect that their are some powerfull people in the world who'd love to break Al-Jazeera. Not that i find this "CNN of the middle east" superb of quality ,it's pretty comercial ,but it's rediculous that they get boycotted that much because they give coverage on events in the middle east that many country's wouldn't like to show to their people. For ex. Al Jazeera at one point i think a year ago spread footage of American soldiers killed in action.Sure these picture's shocked America ,but the reaction against it was redicuulous ,the whole American media just worked toghether to show as few of the carnage in iraq as possible to the American viewer. But the reality must be shown IMO ,especially in democratic nations ,if you can't face the fact that 100's of soldiers die if you send then in such a conflict ,then you shouldn't give the orders to it.Almost all American people supported the president at the start of the war ,by this they are also responsible for the casualty's they suffer.It's easy to keep war weariness low if you minimize the footage and information on the conflict. It's easy to support a war if you don't have to face the grim carnage of it and can live hapily in youre western safe haven in ignorance. They tried that in vietnam to ,until private reporters actually went to the region's itself to witness the war first hand.The cruelty's that were shown by their footage resulted in the massive peace demonstrations. But the cruelty  was there ,the war was senseless and useless ,it deserved to be demonstrated against.

Klink! Kilink! He's our man ,if he won't do it ,no one ..... will. Good to hear youre still making constructive progress. Godspeed to you.

Oh the tour is full of such thing's. Take for ex. mass falls during flat courses. Sometimes ,when the lead of a peleton falls into a pile of riders ,those behind them that are heading towards them and can't turn anymore (or cant see the fallen due to riders in front of them) will start jumping over the fallen guys ,and the guys behind the guys that jump over the pile will emediatly start a jump to even if they havn't seen the pile ,because they know that if the one in front of him does it they have to do it to.in effect ,it will happen sometimes that a small group falls in fron of the peleton and then youle see the whole peleton jumping over these guys one by one with jumps that reach over half a meter at a speed of 50kmph.Quite impressive to see.

I am hyperkenetic.I got a relative good mathematical and analytic mind ,wich is good for informatics. But i am also a extremely active person that needs to discharge lots of energy after work by sports etc ,sitting down after a desk a lot really works on my nerves. I love action and dangerous thing's ,i'm currently training to go climbing in the alps next year with experienced climbers ,did stuff like benji jumping ,rapid river kajacking etc. Â The harder the better really. And i'm almost obessed by millitary thing's ,not just the material but also the tactics ,the endurance etc. hyperkenetic people don't make bad soldiers i heard.Then again they are daredevils from birth. It's strange ,i'm a freedom loving person ,and a pacifist in ideoligy actually ,always been leftist.Yet my mind is sometimes like a switchboard ,if you can turn the right button you can do a lot with me (scary sometimes) ,i know that if i would have an able drill sargent ,he would make me obey him with ease.

Well it's just that i never actually experienced it ,so i guess i'm longing for all the fun stuff of such a job. But the thing is ,i never shot a real rpg in my life ,neither a rifle for that matter. I really really want to do that atleast once in my life ,blowing up in the air something like a stupid garden house with a rpg would rock.Or sabboting some car wrecks for ex. ,oh baby!

Well the following country's (with large muslim poppulations) IMO could conform with the humanitarian standards we expect of a peacekeeping force. -Pakistan (though it has lots of religous fanatics large components of the army supports Musharrav and the moderate forces in Pakistan) -Indonesia (very good candidate ,millitary quite powerfull country ,got the largest muslim poppulation in the world ,got some terrorist problems to deal with itself thus experience on the matter) -Marokko and Tunesia (two of the most stable and democratic country's in the middle east ,not a large millitary but trustworthy) -Egypt (good millitary ,fairly democratic country) -Bahrain,koeweit,United Arabic emirates and Quatar (the smaller natons on the arabic continent ,tiny army's but their funds could be important. -Kazachstan and Uzbekistan ,the 2 most succesfull "Stan" country's ,they profited a lot from their independance from Russia ,their goverment is remarkebly democratic for the region ,the country is growing strong economicly and theyr got an army of well trained proffesionals. -Jordania and Syria ,although having a reputation are both relative stable monarchy's actually.The new king of Syria is a young monarch with intrest in modernization etc. Last but not least: -Turkey ,wich can serve as a bridge between the West and the Muslim world.Millitary quite powerfull ,experienced in anti terrorism.A non-secular country with an religous party in power that promote's the extension of democratic right's and wich is working in close coorperation with Europe to conform to European standards for being allowed in the EU.Turkey is the proof in the middle east that a religous party shouldn't be nessecarily un-democratic ,this is a powerfull message to the middle east ,that one can have a religious party with it's morality's in a non secularized country.Highly respected by the US and Israel ,though while turkey helps Israel in exchanging technoligy and experience in anti terrorism (and vice versa) ,Turkey doens't nessecarily picks a side in that conflict. Turkey is highly respected by some Middle east country's ,while despised by some other's that once lived under their scepter ,yet today they may very well be the most modern and powerfull country in the middle east ,not purely millitary as indonesia for ex. may surpass them on that ,but in a total package.turkey has a lot of diplomatic influence ,got strong friends and is booming economicly and technologicly. 20 years ago Iraq served as the example of the modern and powerfull Middle east country ,today Turkey is taking that symbolic position of most prominent muslim country.

I'm studied informatics and doing that as job right now. But i have tried to join the army (the belgian "army" that is) as an electronics specialist for the air force ,but i somehow didn't pass the psycho-test. Â I really would like to be in the army ,like most of the guys on this forum i'm actually an army freak.I earn really good money for an conftable position but i'm jelaous of these guys here that man artillery pieces or run around as grunt trough mud and rain all day in the worste conditions.i guess it would be tough but worth to have done. Pitty there isn't a forced consscription service anymore in Belgium ,though i'm probably one of the only of my age that thinks that way.

Lol ,i think i know wich accident you mean ,and i know who it was. it was 7 years ago i think in the decline of an Alpes ride ,and it was johan Bruyneel of team ONCE. (current team leader of US Postal ,boss of Lance) It was the same year that Fabio cassertelli died i think ,in fact it was the day before that tragic day.It was a strange year ,Indurain for the first time since 5 years couldn't hold t toghether no more ,and it began a fight for seconds between multiple favourite's ,so everyone was in a hurry ,even when declining mountains. Bruyneel declining toghether with most of the lead group in a very fast decline on wet ground. He sliped somewhat in a corner when declining ,hit a sidepanel of the road and catapulted over it into a gorge that was a few 100's of meters deep.Lucky him he fell into the top of a tree ,climbed down it and upto the slope (with his bike that landed in the tree to) ,got on it and continued. (well have up later though) Johan Bruyneel ,Lance's his boss ,was the only team leader in the cycling sport that even gave Lance a chance to join his team after ge got recovered of cancer ,other team leaders just couldn't believe at that moment that Lance could ever win a stage again ,even perform on a proffesional level. If it wasn't for bruyneel Lance may have never been a proffesional cycler again after his recovery ,if it wasn't for that tree that saved Bruyneel ,.... ,well you can figure. ;) That year btw saw some speed records of declining certain mountains ,you don't know what speed these guys are going at it's insane.And that was a very wet year.Poor Cassartelli ,his name is a symbol in the cycling world.

2 , take water from sponsor car 6 o clock 100. 5 , smack person cheering at 3 o clock 1 centimeter 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 , pee brake at EF07 Man ,i would love it.

Well you got to choose a good team to work for. I think most of the US postal guys are happy in their team ,they earn lots in prize money as bonusses. But afcourse ,asside from these win bonusses every rider has his own contract ,and the more you win the bigger youre contract gets ,however if you can prove yourself very valuable as worker than that can lead to a very fat contract to.Take the case of Hincapie and floyd Landis ,both of the stronger Armstrong helpers who can kill a peleton on high mountains by tempo and survive to the last moment. Or a guy like Stephano Zannini ,he pulls team sprinters to a few hundred meters before the line from where the sprinter jumps from.He is one of the best riders in that role ,he may not have won many courses ,but he launched sprinters to atleast 10 tour de France course victory's. Specialized workers have fat contract's to and a victory of the guy they "launch" almost counts as their victory in contract terms. Never witnessed a mass sprint where 2 guys put theyre hands up? Ussualy thats the sprinter who wins and his launcher who ends between 10th and 20th.

Depends what you see as sacrifice. First of all , any of Lance his teammate's know all to well that they stand no chance to win the tour the France.With the support of Lance and the team though they might win a stage one and awhile though if they managed to break loose from the rest of peleton with their leader ,Lance would usually give a course victory away to a teammate if he can do so. Second of all ,Armstrong's gain is the team's gain.Everything Armstron wins in prizes is shared equally among it's teammate's just like in other teams.Now Lance has a fat contract ,but his price money is easily 1.000.000$ a year and that gets shared among the teammate's ,a good incentive for them to let their leader win as much as possible. Last not but least: the essence of teamtactics. What would happen should Armstrong have to ride the whole tour on his own withought team? He would loose for sure. He needs his team to make a tempo in the peleton.This tempo is important for the yellow jersey holding team as riding slow would mean that other cyclers can jump away from the Peleton easily and make time.Now if armstrong is alone in the yellow Jersey ,he would have to react on every atack made from the peloton by a guy relative close in time as well as keeping the peleton speed high ,impossible really. It would be easy for the other teams ,they would just attack attack attack each 1 at the time forcing Armstrong to waste precious energy.

Doom can be an excelent game for guys about under 18 or something.I am a bit older now and have other exceptations of games ,but i know if i would be 16 now i would love a game like Doom. Mind you ,like the original Quake ,it can be probably scary and tense as hell for young guys.I know that when i played Quake at high difficulty levels when i was 16 that game sure scared me ,even became mentally stressfull ,beginning to transpirate and all.If doom can be as hard as the original Quake was then it might be fun for some players. Not a game that i would play now with my current preference's ,but i can expect that for certain players this will be a wonderfull game. However ,atmosphere and difficulty will be important facets.