Fun fact about US military spending

[Ray McKigney]

So, the U.S. military spends a lot?

[TobiasFunke]

Juan, why don't you start a separate thread about modern Vietnamese history and we can have fun in that

[HaloFan85]

I'm not trying to tell anyone what to value. Just pointing out that there must be something more to our current foreign policy than coming to the aid of innocents in peril.

It's called preservation of the petrodollar as the global currency for all oil trade.

 

Saddam starting trading oil in Euros in 2001.  We invaded in 2003

 

Gaddafi announced he was going to trade oil in the gold dinar and was about to convince all African nations to do the same.  He was killed despite Libya having the highest standard of living among all African nations.  They had free healthcare, free education, free electricty, and even interest-free lolans.

 

What other countries wish to move away from the petrodollar?  Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and now Russia.  What's their crime?  That they refuse to 'privatize' their oil and gas industries.  Privatizing your resources is basically giving up your soverignty as a nation.  Why does the US want to privatize everyone's oil and gas?  To ensure all oil and gas is traded in the petrodollar.

[Crampknees]

What blows my mind is how unbelievably obsessed the left is with Fox news. Do they actually watch it, or do they just recite the talking points they hear about it? If the former, why do they watch something they hate so much? And if the latter, why are they so critical of something of which they aren't knowledgeable?

This is a good question.  The left can be obsessed with FOX News because it is important to understand where such hatred and bile comes from.  People who's lives are just fine being told by millionaires how bad they have it need to be watched.  Hatred is dangerous and the FOX and friends do much more damage to our country than the Kenyan Muslim Messiah Socialist....................could ever do. Yes they do hate it but need to try and understand where the psychotics are being bred from.  They are very knowledgeable because they can spot a FOX News junkie miles away.  God Bless America and God Bless FOX News.   

[wopphil]

This is a good question. The left can be obsessed with FOX News because it is important to understand where such hatred and bile comes from. People who's lives are just fine being told by millionaires how bad they have it need to be watched. Hatred is dangerous and the FOX and friends do much more damage to our country than the Kenyan Muslim Messiah Socialist....................could ever do. Yes they do hate it but need to try and understand where the psychotics are being bred from. They are very knowledgeable because they can spot a FOX News junkie miles away. God Bless America and God Bless FOX News.

I just honestly don't understand it. There are certain buzz words/phrases that cause a liberal to go crazy, and "Fox News" is one of them. If they hate it so much, don't watch it.

On the flip side, I don't get the right's hatred for CNN. Maybe I am just able to filter out the slant, but CNN doesn't seem skewed one way or the other to me.

[Lou]

If it weren't for the libs, i would have no idea what is on Fox News

[wopphil]

If it weren't for the libs, i would have no idea what is on Fox News

Yep. I honestly have no idea what channel it is on at my house. Or if I have it, for that matter.

[Tank]

I don't watch it. Or cnn either. To me, both of them are filled with way too much commentary and analysis, and not enough news coverage.

If I want just simple straight forward information and news then I tend to tune in to One America News.

[Lou]

Al Jazeer

[Vegas Halo Fan]

During the 2012 presidential election I turned over to Fox News right after CNN called the election for Obama just to watch Karl Rove's head explode. For at least 20 minutes they refused to call the election at all, then when they finally did they had little left to talk about but their own disbelief that anyone could vote against the guy with the prancing ponies and the staff of servants who tried to appear so tuned in to what the rest of us were experiencing.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Vegas Halo Fan

[Glen]

I have two family members (dad, older brother) that are Fox News fanatics.  My brother even thinks that Fox News is too liberal sometimes and he hates Shepard Smith.  At work (Air Force base) the TV in the lounge is split about 50/50 between Fox News and CNN so I get some secondhand exposure to both.  They're both terrible.  On rare occasion the work TV is on MSNBC and my god, it's even worse than Fox but in a benign way.  It's like a kid trying to imitate its asshole father.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

My wife sees a retinologist every six months or so. For whatever reason, the television in their lounge is always tuned to Fox News. A lot of information has been shoved into my ears against my will in that place. Notice that I didn't say "news", because despite the name, I have found damned little but slanted commentary on there. I have never seen them break a story, only comment on one.

[Crampknees]

I just honestly don't understand it. There are certain buzz words/phrases that cause a liberal to go crazy, and "Fox News" is one of them. If they hate it so much, don't watch it.

On the flip side, I don't get the right's hatred for CNN. Maybe I am just able to filter out the slant, but CNN doesn't seem skewed one way or the other to me.

phil, I agree.  I think it is safe to say that any media outlet is whack these days. 

[Jason]

They are all editorial channels, not "real" news. Fox gets substantially higher ratings so that may be what irritates the left when they just hear the name.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/05/29/cable-news-ratings-for-thursday-may-28-2015/409983/

[Vegas Halo Fan]

They are all editorial channels, not "real" news. Fox gets substantially higher ratings so that may be what irritates the left when they just hear the name.

 

Frankly I have no idea what their ratings are, and I couldn't care less about them. Other networks at least cover things live when they happen. Fox just takes a story that someone else is covering and tries to turn it into something to blame Obama and the Democrats for.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Vegas Halo Fan

[arch stanton]

Fox Political Commentary Channel doesn't roll of the tongue as easily.

[juansavage1]

Would it be the French, Americans and Vietnamese in general who would be responsible for all of those deaths? I might also point out that it was the VietNamese who ended Pol Pot's reign after the U.S. abandoned Cambodia. (Except for all of those unexploded ordinances they left behind).

What I admire is the strength to kick off the shackles of those who are trying to rule you when they really have no right to do so. Imperialism was/is a failed foreign policy.

People who live in different cultures have different ways of viewing things. However basic needs and wants are all the same. Most people just want to be able to feed themselves and their families, have a little bit of fun and be left alone.

 

 

Thank you for validating my earlier point. I said that leftists sympathize with communists dictators and tend to be skeptical of American power and that that was the main reason they don't support the US military in general (Vietnam and other communist countries used aid from the Soviets and Chinese) and allowed the communists to take over Vietnam and who now don't want to fight ISIS. If Vietnam had been saved from genocidal communists in the same way South Korea was, it would have meant that anti-Communists were right and they were wrong.

 

Now, if leftists felt the same way about ISIS and Communists that they do about Fox News- if Rupert Murdoch had taken over Vietnam instead of the brave Ho Chi Minh (I said they're real enemy is conservatives), they probably would have attacked Vietnam.

[juansavage1]

As for Fox News, I think I have a simple explanation why people criticize it. Are the people here complaining about Fox News mostly liberal? If so, they might not like Fox News because it's not as liberal as they are. But, they want to pretend it's something else besides Fox News being on the other side because that would just be a personal preference, so they complain about something else.

 

Does anybody else think that makes sense?

[Vegas Halo Fan]

 I said that leftists sympathize with communists dictators and tend to be skeptical of American power and that that was the main reason they don't support the US military in general (Vietnam and other communist countries used aid from the Soviets and Chinese) and allowed the communists to take over Vietnam and who now don't want to fight ISIS. If Vietnam had been saved from genocidal communists in the same way South Korea was, it would have meant that anti-Communists were right and they were wrong.

 

My father, who was career military and who was as conservative as they come, said that we had no business being in Vietnam. He said that we weren't there to win the war, so there was no point. Sometimes reality dictates that you aren't going to win a war halfway around the globe, no matter how many troops you bury. The North Vietnamese had the backing of China, who could have easily outnumbered us no matter how many troops we sent over. Vietnam was an exercise in futility from the very beginning.

 

At some point we have to realize that military force isn't going to solve every problem anywhere in the world, and we can't militarily intervene everywhere something happens.

 

Not every liberal is Jane Fonda, either.

[juansavage1]

My dad also thought that we weren't there to win the war, but we should have. That wasn't the majority of the opposition to the war, however. Neither was it strict non-interventionists. You have to admit that it was mostly the left who didn't want to fight communists. I think they didn't want to because they sympathized with them and not with the American position. By the way, liberals who did want to fight communists (and, who used social science to promote conservative ideas) formed a intellectual movement called Neo-conservatism.

 

The facts about the surrender to Vietnam was that Dems had a super-majority because of Watergate and didn't want to defend the South when the North broke its treaty. Had Watergate not occurred, we would have a Communist Vietnam supported by the Soviets or Chinese and a free Vietnam. The Cambodian genocide wouldn't have occurred either since we would have prevented the Communists from taking over there as well. Vietnam was too busy re-educating and killing its own people to stop the  Cambodian genocide, if they cared about genocide in the first place, and only invaded Cambodia when Pol Pot attacked Vietnam to retrieve some disputed territory.

[juansavage1]

This isn't true. You think that from media. Nixon was for winning the war (and did, in fact, win the war) and he won a landslide against the antiwar McGovern.

[qquote name=Vladdylonglegs" post="590880" timestamp="1433030039]

I think the majority of the country was against the Vietnam war, not just the "leftists". Same thing with Iraq, many of those who supported it in the beginning (who you would label as 'conservatives') are now very much against it. You are definitely the minority in not getting tired of decade long wars.

[TobiasFunke]

The fact is Juan is talking out of his ass, not presenting any actual data except for his opinions which he thinks is fact, and you guys keep engaging him like it's worth a damn.

Edited May 31, 2015 by TobiasFunke

[nate]

The fact is Juan is talking out of his ass, not presenting any actual data except for his opinions which he thinks is fact, and you guys keep engaging him like it's worth a damn.

 

Based on his conversations with unnamed people.

[RallyMo]

Based on his conversations with unnamed people.

...which he's not even going to bring up as evidence.

[juansavage1]

Did the antiwar candidate win in 1968 or 1972?

Don't elections express the popular will?

Did you not extoll the virtues of Ho Chi Minh and argue for the justness of his cause?

But, thanks for continuing to prove my point.