tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post6611574037194986692..comments2024-03-28T04:50:14.406+00:00Comments on TPQ: The Ex-IRA men: ‘United Ireland? It’s All Guff’ AMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-62408299218105373762017-06-01T06:39:35.525+01:002017-06-01T06:39:35.525+01:00The Admiral says they do need and want the territo...The Admiral <i>says they do need and want the territory and so will keep it indefinitely. </i><br /><br />He might also think the world was created 6000 years ago. Ken Ham, ridiculous as he is, can marshal more followers for his young earth perspective. The admiral has an opinion which is so far off the wall that nobody cites it other than yourself. <br /><br />On John Biggs Davison<i>I don’t AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-48162336825041090592017-05-31T07:44:10.562+01:002017-05-31T07:44:10.562+01:00Owen,
Howard Zinn tells us nothing about realism ...Owen,<br /><br />Howard Zinn tells us nothing about realism that we did not already know. It is not called realism because it is a genuine or benign view of the world but because its practitioners see the world “as it is” and which requires management by power and security. Realism amounts to a very brutal application of a remorseless logic.<br /><br />For Zinn to be of any value to you in this AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-79150569638918431342017-05-30T06:26:06.710+01:002017-05-30T06:26:06.710+01:00Says the man who cites David Halberstam as “proof”...<i>Says the man who cites David Halberstam as “proof” of what the DOD thought about Vietnam.</i><br /><br />Says the man who could only cite a student to show the US waged war in Vietnam to get oil. <br /><br /><i> “The Pentagon Papers”, a much better book on what the DOD really thought about Vietnam</i><br /><br />And what it “really” thought was the oil. Cite the pages where it outlines this. AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-25701911580646500142017-05-28T08:42:06.207+01:002017-05-28T08:42:06.207+01:00Owen,
I am not persuaded by your claim or citati...Owen,<br /><br /><i> I am not persuaded by your claim or citation to David Halberstam. </i><br /><br />So he did not <i>lambast the Kennedy Administration for a plethora of policy mistakes and miscalculations based on this type of thinking in relation to the growth of communism.</i><br /><br />It is a matter of record that he did. Not a matter of my opinion. He was not alone in this type of AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-10781398544499421442017-05-27T09:14:07.359+01:002017-05-27T09:14:07.359+01:00Owen,
Bases - they weren’t building them just for...Owen,<br /><br />Bases - <i>they weren’t building them just for the sunny beaches.</i><br />Nor to find Vietnamese oil underneath Berlin.<br /><br /><br /><i>That’s what Henry Kissinger even says about himself.</i><br /><br />As do lots of others including those who despise him.<br /><br /><i>But ever notice how he never sides with left wing or political progressives in the US?</i><br /><br />WhyAMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-65874675731290069472017-05-26T07:03:30.955+01:002017-05-26T07:03:30.955+01:00AM said: “Perhaps the greatest regional power play...<i>AM said: “Perhaps the greatest regional power play of all was US foreign policy in respect of playing off the Soviets against the Chinese.” This is standard American academic speak. </i><br /><br />Read the history from a much wider range of writers than US academics. <br />Whether we agree or not it is indisputable that there is much more support for the view about the power balance than AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-35074499120975168912017-05-25T07:34:41.140+01:002017-05-25T07:34:41.140+01:00The US government, which is and always has been a ...<i>The US government, which is and always has been a creature of great incorporated family fortunes, doesn’t do anything it doesn’t want to do no matter who else demands it.</i><br /><br />That is an appetite drives policy view of the world in which system doesn't amount to anything. Poulantzas and Milliband debated this type of issue in the late 60s early 70s with Poulantzas demonstrably AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-80605585616744217432017-05-24T08:32:32.075+01:002017-05-24T08:32:32.075+01:00Owen,
FYI - the websites on point (it looks like ...Owen,<br /><br /><i>FYI - the websites on point (it looks like I missed posting some of them earlier here)</i><br /><br />Perhaps. But it looks more like you trawled the net for anything that might help flog a dead horse. The sites themselves don’t tell us anything to support the view that the primary reason the US went to war in Vietnam was to steal its oil. From where I sit it still looks very AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-80470519656549430232017-05-23T06:30:55.704+01:002017-05-23T06:30:55.704+01:00Simon,
absolutely. We should not be blinded by cu...Simon,<br /><br />absolutely. We should not be blinded by current practices or try to see strategy as timeless and ahistoric.<br /><br />The US is the primus inter pares among resource grabbing entities. Part of its self assigned remit was the protection of the goose from which the eggs could be stolen. That goose was much wider than Vietnam. Countries were not considered fair game merely for AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-4026162231823935042017-05-23T06:19:15.896+01:002017-05-23T06:19:15.896+01:00AM said: “I think the question most people will as...<i>AM said: “I think the question most people will ask is how do you alone (with the exception of some conspiracy sites) know that the war was fought for oil?”<br /><br />Most people? <br /><br />How would you know this?</i><br /><br />I said I think. But if Ken Ham says he knows that dinosaurs and humans roamed the world side by side 6000 years ago, we can make a fairly precise prediction as to AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-48016628195437042282017-05-22T21:09:35.073+01:002017-05-22T21:09:35.073+01:00AM, During the age of Empires and Colonies resour...AM, During the age of Empires and Colonies resources were very much the reason for invasion, genocide and puppet leaders. Rubber was a valuable incentive for the French. A reason for maintaining a colony but they bit off more than they could chew.<br /><br />However, it is easy to look at current affairs when judging history and let hindsight carry us away. We can't judge history from the Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15029656112153509987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-45605373536572132532017-05-22T20:41:02.659+01:002017-05-22T20:41:02.659+01:00Simon,
it is a widely cited figure of the US prov...Simon,<br /><br />it is a widely cited figure of the US providing 80% and I think I read somewhere that they armed 350,0000 French troops. There is no doubt the French treated it as a colony in much the same way the Belgians treated the Congo. It was very much a resource war for the French as they wanted what Vietnam had. The US had a different reason but a no less selfish one and were even more AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-13828972851423652162017-05-22T20:18:27.594+01:002017-05-22T20:18:27.594+01:00AM, your part about the oil beginning years after...AM, your part about the oil beginning years after the US started the war made me want to comment.<br /><br />Nick Turse points out in 'Kill Anything That Moves' that by 1953 the US funded nearly 80% of the French bill for their war in Vietnam. The fortune the French made in Vietnam was from white gold ie. Their colonists' rubber plantations. <br /><br />This rubber industry was the Simonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15029656112153509987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-10247141724181088302017-05-22T08:58:59.382+01:002017-05-22T08:58:59.382+01:00Owen,
Fred Landis really means nobody ever sugges...Owen,<br /><br />Fred Landis really <i>means nobody ever suggested it to him.</i> <br /><br />I doubt his fellow activists were keeping the most important reason the US went to war (for what you claim was the oil in Vietnam) a secret. Why would they. But it seems everybody was keeping it a secret, even Sy Hersh.<br /><br /><i>Vietnam Vets I served with told me they saw off-shore oil platforms AMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-35261560011322914252017-05-21T09:50:47.610+01:002017-05-21T09:50:47.610+01:00Owen,
US foreign policy hasn’t changed since the...Owen, <br /><br /><i>US foreign policy hasn’t changed since the Plains Indian Wars.</i><br /><br />A Cowboys and Indians view of the world in which nuclear weaponry, the USSR and the PRC did not exist and as such Foreign Policy did not have to be recalibrated to take account of it. <br /><br /><i>It’s always been about profiteering and racketeering for a few</i><br /><br />It is a question of howAMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00559413440743290550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-36940303890604218912017-05-21T06:48:24.659+01:002017-05-21T06:48:24.659+01:00AM said: “The British would leave Ireland in the e...<b>AM said: “The British would leave Ireland in the event of a referendum in the North favouring that.The logic inherent in the totality of their position leads me to be fairly certain of it.”</b><br /><br />The logic inherent in the totality of their position leads me to believe you’re all being played like the colonials you all are. Because besides Sloan’s very reasonable explanation of Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022464713471422860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-60773554170187067312017-05-21T05:59:28.504+01:002017-05-21T05:59:28.504+01:00AM said: “And it responded in capital's intere...<b>AM said: “And it responded in capital's interest to curb that threat.”</b><br /><br />The US government is indistinguishable from capital’s interest. <br /><br />They are one and the same. <br /><br /><i>OS said: “That the British are in Ireland for their own interests shouldn’t be hard to comprehend.”</i><br /><br /><b>AM said: “Tell us what that interest is. It is not because they need Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022464713471422860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-7554901882109862022017-05-21T05:55:15.043+01:002017-05-21T05:55:15.043+01:00AM said: “The US had a domino theory perspective b...<b>AM said: “The US had a domino theory perspective before Kissinger.”</b><br /><br />Yes, it was called: the only good Indian is a dead Indian. <br /><br />And they fell like dominoes. <br /><br /><b>AM said: “The US view of the threat to global capitalism was very real, not paranoia.”</b><br /><br />Only liars and nuts say this.<br /><br />When I was in the Army then President Ronald Reagan Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022464713471422860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-19124139226870956572017-05-21T05:50:54.830+01:002017-05-21T05:50:54.830+01:00OS said: “British Rear Admiral Sloane is part of t...<i>OS said: “British Rear Admiral Sloane is part of the British State”</i><br /><br /><b>AM said: “As are the range of others who tell us something entirely different.</b><br /><br />Of course they will tell you something different. That’s their policy. <br /><br />That was Sloan’s point about “geo-political dualism”, a Kissingerian word if ever there was one. <br /><br /><b>Yet Sloane is Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022464713471422860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-51619037846815187492017-05-21T04:05:20.842+01:002017-05-21T04:05:20.842+01:00AM said: “As brutal as Kissinger was, he seemed to...<b>AM said: “As brutal as Kissinger was, he seemed to present a much more coherent argument for his power balance than you do against it.</b><br /><br />His argument as always is a self-serving lie and a cover for his wealthy handlers.<br /><br />But if you don’t like my argument then consider Howard Zinn’s:<br /><br /><i>Realism is seductive because once you have accepted the reasonable notion Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022464713471422860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-64411900135441932782017-05-21T04:03:17.480+01:002017-05-21T04:03:17.480+01:00OS said: “Then why is the big elephant in the room...<i>OS said: “Then why is the big elephant in the room still there?”</i><br /><br /><b>AM said: “Nature of politics in the modern world.”</b><br /><br />And how is that any different from the nature of politics in the world before?<br /><br />Are US aircraft carriers all that different in purpose than British gun boats were?<br /><br /><b>AM said: “Same reason they are still in Wolverhampton or Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022464713471422860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-6001239307022686972017-05-21T03:59:28.249+01:002017-05-21T03:59:28.249+01:00AM said: “With you looking increasingly like the e...<b>AM said: “With you looking increasingly like the emperor. Mere puffery works as long as you don't set out to try and prove it.”</b><br /><br />Says the man who cites David Halberstam as “proof” of what the DOD thought about Vietnam.<br /><br />Note too that his book was published after “The Pentagon Papers”, a much better book on what the DOD really thought about Vietnam which is why the Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022464713471422860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-47958241000029256722017-05-21T00:05:29.182+01:002017-05-21T00:05:29.182+01:00Speaking of the realist school of international re...Speaking of the realist school of international relations check out this short video as an aide of sorts as proof that it isn’t me alone who has this sort of opinion about the US as the dominating global hegemon for its own self-aggrandizing corporate ends:<br /><br /><b>Chomsky explains Cold War in 5 min</b><br /><br /><i>“The US has created the image of the Soviet threat to justify interventionAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022464713471422860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-3657099374402231692017-05-20T23:56:49.347+01:002017-05-20T23:56:49.347+01:00AM said: “But I am sure Hersh had quite a lot to s...<b>AM said: “But I am sure Hersh had quite a lot to say about the acquisition oil driving US policy in Vietnam? Can you cite where he shows that oil was the real/primary reason for US involvement in the war? You have read the book so it should require no Herculean effort to provide the page references. He could hardly have missed out on it.”</b><br /><br />These are curious questions since I Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022464713471422860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807238897188927967.post-23487950700047134562017-05-20T23:51:58.513+01:002017-05-20T23:51:58.513+01:00AM said: “He is one of the most important figures ...<b>AM said: “He is one of the most important figures in international relations in the last century.”</b><br /><br />We disagree. He has always been overrated. <br /><br /><b>AM said: “There is no need to take at face value anything he says, just important to read what he says.</b><br /><br />No doubt about that: <br /><br /><i>“[Nixon] wants a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. He doesn&#Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15022464713471422860noreply@blogger.com