Donnervogel

it's also about sharp and smooth edges

hmmm looks like the attack could be delayed a bit... Iraqi briefed on Falluja plans missing Now that's something I worried about for some time already. All those "precisssion bombings" hitting civilians and stuff. I get the impression the US is relying on the wrong people to get and give information...

yeah that's not possible. we know that for some time already. Engine limit.

I'm not sure if I understood this right. Are you saying a doctrine of preemption and intervention is an undebatable moral issue? I could't disagree more if you said that. IMHO this "doctrine" is nothing more than political strategy motivated by the prospect of economical and political advantages. Therefore it's perfectly debateable for me.

Well if you look at it objectively Bush did help reuniting Europe. Already forgot the Axis of Weasels? Yeah it consists of two major EU countries (France, Germany) and another power that can have quite some influence on Europe (Russia). If you watched the news you probably noticed that Schröder and Chirac meant more often than Chirac and his wife and they behave like a gay couple. Also Putin joined the merry men a few times. Now if that isn't reuniting europe. (Considering how the french used to hate the germans after the two world wars)

@shrike please watch your language. Everybody has a right to have his own opinion. So don't start flaming please. Plus it's against the forum rules.

You forogt "God bless the world" - because the world will need it most. Bush isn't bombing the US so there is the least damage done.

At least they elected the monkey boy this time ;) Well anyway. I hope Europe will take this chance to lower it's dependency on the US. Because it's foolish to depend on incompetent religous fanatics.

The problem starts at the point when the enemy decides to use civilians as human shields. How would you all knowing expert of urban warfare handle that situation? I really would like to know. Oh and by the way retreat and surrender are not options. It drives me nuts how people will not condem the ones who actually hide behind women and children. They know what the outcome will be when they do that. Basically taking hostages is ok. If you take a hostage or hide in a school or populated area you are cleared of all responsibility for any damage caused. Absolute madness. Hi my friend. You are right. Those people fighting against the US are using tactics as you decribe them sometimes. Not allways though. Sometimes they are just fighting in their neighbourhood and it's clear that there are civillians around too. Now since I'm a total expert in living in urban areas I can tell you this much: It' doesn't matter if the terrorists take human shields or not. If you're going to bomb civillian houses without proper knowledge of who is in them you will kill civillians. Not to mention that your bombs often hit the wrong targets (I don't know why. I just saw it too often to belive in the total precission bullshit). See I don't say you're not allowed to go for insurgents that are acting in urban surroundings. But you need to adjust the means you use to get them. If you're using heavy firepower to protect your troops (because the US is always panically afraid of losing own troops - still they send them to war - how strange) it's done at the cost of the security of civillians living in the area you operate. You can still choose to flatten the whole neighbourhood and not lose your own troops. But then don't wonder why the resistance is growing stronger every day. It's like putting petrol in the fire. People that have lost everything they have except their life don't get intimidated by brutal power. The only get a strong convition that it's right to kill the oppressors.

Well you can try go to Iraq and say to the mother that lost her children in an airstrike that it wasn't on purpose. I'm sure she will forgive you. (notice the sarcasm) It doesn't really matter if you kill them on purpose or not. The problem starts at the point when you decide to bomb areas full of civilians.

What John "the seared man" Kerry is pandering up the ass with promises he know he cannot do... Sancta Simplicitas! EDIT: Looks like that phrase isn't common knowledge here: clicky

No. There's only one Akira! But, frankly, I'll ask you: what major mobile workshops and materials to make WMDs did the US find and confirm that they served for that purpose? Nothing major. I think the mobile workshops were burnt out, and yes i can remember them on tv, not sure about the materials though. Those were not "mobile laboratorys to produce wmds". Thats a fact. Are you really that stupid that you think Iraq had wmds? Even after USAs own investigations have prooved that? Did i say Iraq had them? No. I said they had the mobile labs too, but no materials. I got a a few different types of bullets in my room, but no guns, therefore how can i use them? Borrow your neighbor's, on the north side of the street. hmmmm, Saddam could of borrowed the Iranians WMDs yeah because Iran is such a good friend of Iraq and the fundamentalistic religious government in Iran hat so much in common with the secular baath regime... hmm wtf?!

waiting for mirror without registration ;)

Yes actually. So they have a right to remove them? Boy... Yes they have. Because the laws that form your constitution (although you don't really have one in britain) say that they have the right to do so. The members of the house of commons represent the people. It's how a representative democracy works. If you have a problem with that you could try to form your own party (once you're 18) or support people that would want to change that. Then you can have your King again to have the right to change your constitution if that is what you like more. But I guess you would prefer a System like in Switzerland where we can demand a binding referendum on constitution changes. But be aware that your country won't be able to act as a global power then because every political decission will be extremly slow because there is always a minority that will demand a referendum and it takes months to prepare one and it can delay laws for years. Trust me I speak out of experience. The point is you should take advantage of the actions you are offered trough your democratic form of government rather than complaing about the big bad foreigner (EU in this case). It's a hyprocrit reaction and only evading the real problem that lies in your own country. But it's a comfy way of thinking. Unfortunatly reality can be very unfomfortable at times. Just think how much power the people have in the current britain. If your country would still follow the Magna Charta from 1215 there would be no rights for most people because most people wouldn't even be free. The Magna Charta is just a law that forced the King to share power with other privileged groups in the society. And those groups were a clear minority of the inhabitants of your island. And even your beloved Bill of Rights from 1689 does not give the majority of people any influence on politics. The foundation of your democracy was built later when the constituencies were redistributed and more people got the right to vote (houseowners and so on... I don't remember all of your history)

err you are aware that the members of the house of commons are freely and generally elected representatives of the people, aren't you?

Bordoy. The sad thing is just that you obviously don't even know how the EU works. Yet you put everything you don't like on the shoulders of the EU. I beg you to inform you first. And get real information. The sad fact is that most things you don't like about the EU have passed your parliament and are imposed trough british law. Yes it's the EU that wants some things to happen. But the EU in it's current state can't give you any laws nor is it strong enough to influence national parliaments in a great way. Only the british parliament can give those laws. So if you feel betrayed go complain to your domestic parliament for betraying britain.

anything going on tonight?

but it's funny. lol

This is a terribly biased and misleading article. The EU court has made no decission in this case. As Denoir explained it's a Blegian issue. Not an EU issue. Therefore the EU court can't act in that matter. However. If the belgian court would, as the article suggests, "ignore human rights" the EU court could act against the state of Belgium for breaking human rights. But that's a different matter.

well... I'm sure you can go for some underwater searches for missing persons in the Vltava ;) 1348 - foundation of one of europe's first universities (first in central europe) in Praque. The Univerzita Karlova. 1355 - Praque being the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Carl IV. Praque being a hotspot of european culture. 1583 - After Vienna it's again Praque that is the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Rudolph II. Praque being the centre of european sciences. People like Johannes Kepler or Tycho de Brahe come from Praque. 1618 - the Defenestration of Prague Marking the beginning of the 30-years war (1620 Battle of White Mountain near Praque) that devastated central euope and endet in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia. A very important treaty for euopean history. It was one of the first real international treaties and it marked the beginn of modern diplomacy. It also marked Sweden as a great power and Sweden got territories in northern germany and could collect taxes from the river mouths of the rivers Elbe and Oder. Thus strenghtening the Swedish position in the baltic sea. It was also the first treaty that officially recognized the Swiss Confederation and the Unified netherlands as independant states. Enough history for me ;) while Praque is not a Mega City like the ones you mentioned it still can be called a metropole. It has a rich cultural life and you can find anything you want there. uhhmm from the view of a chinese person it's maybe quite exotic ;)

well just a little question for the russian version. Does the door really open that way it does now? It would tear it off if opened inflight for parajump... maybe you could change it ;)

Actually what followed the dark ages was a system of ruling royalities that onwed land and the people on it. The people were part of the land and they were not allowed to move away. The people also belonged to the ruler of their area. There were only two exceptions. 1. Land owned by the church. There were monks or nuns caring about it. 2. Free cities. They began to appear slowly. Those were maybe places as you describe it but their impact on the society at the time were minimal since less than 5% of people lived in cities at that time (and not all cities were free). Also as I said above most people could not go to cities since they were bound to the land they lived on Later however they became more important but their "free" development was stopped rapidly when absolutism and the modern territorial state became the concept of the ruling classes. All in all there are only few of the ideals you mentioned. Those Ideals however were the roots of the european period of enlightment which, ironicly, was at the same time as absolutism was on it's high in europe. To remember you. It was the time of monrachy with absolute power (unlike the time before where monarchs had to share most of their power with rivaling monarchs in the region). This is very similar to the roman empire. Also the system of economy at the time (merkantilism) was not what you would call a free market. Infact most of it's elements could later be found in the centrally planned economies of socialist countries. The state, or better the King/Emperor was controling everything at the time when the ideals you mention were developed. And it was not developed by the unpriviledged people. Despite the popular believe, the leaders of the french revolution and the people that had the ideals of liberty, tolerance and so on were upper class people or religious leaders that had a great life in absolutism. Sometimes those ideals were even carried by the monarchs themselfs. Like the absolutistic King of Prussia who was very famous for it. As you see history is not as easy as one would think. And the source of such great ideals are often people who did not follow them themself and only desired political power. We're only lucky to live in a period of democracy. But that can change very quickly as one can see when studiying history. I hope it won't.

hahah... get down from the paranoia trip... Most "human rights groups" are still what they've always been. Objective and a bit too idealistic (but that's good - the world could need some idealism) surveillance groups. If they begin to critisise Israel or the US it's not because they support terrorism. It's because they apply the same standarts to "western states" and to the terrorists. And if western states commit criminal activieties or don't follow international law they report it. So if you find yourself being targeted by their critisism you should not begin to cry how unfair everyone is. But you should follow the law.

you know. politicians think maximally 4 years ahead in the US ;) and yes. Most western countries import more than they export. that's generally a good sign because it means the people are consuming much. And dropping dollar doesn't mean it hurts more. It's more complicated. The import prices hit the consumer. the export prices hit the enterprises. So in short term (4 years thinking cycle) you can get the CEO's of great enterprices to cheer and give you money to get reelected. To the consumer you can just say it's because of Osama the weasels. (of course in longer term it will make the consumer spending less because he's not able to buy more) Think like a politician

Well at the moment the dollar is not so low that it would hurt the import dependant economy too much. On the other hand it boosts the export sector which is quite strong in the US. Also a lower dollar makes US enterprises more cometitive internationally because they can offer services at lower prices. And since the US has many enterprises that act internationally a lower dollar helps to keep jobs in the US and to get comissions abroad.