The Wow I Can't Believe That News Story Thread

[Lisnaholic]

Originally Posted by Frownland

Anyways, the united states military is currently occupying over 150 countries!

^ This is a surprisingly large figure. Are you confusing "occupying" (which implies controlling the govment and people by force) with "maintaining a presence in"? Plankton can explain the difference, I imagine, because he was stationed in Germany as part of a continuing US military presence there. I don't think he would have considered himself as part of an occupying force and nor should he have.

Originally Posted by Exo

I get the point you're making. 'I'm just saying it's more complicated than that and you know it. I'm not a war supporter. I'm basically a pacifist. Yet, I'd have been in support of going to war in WWII knowing what we know now. Sometimes there's a gray area where there is no other choice but to fight back. Problem in the last 70 years though is that there were SO MANY other choices and we chose to go kill people. That I'm against.

^ I agree with Exo, and especially the bolded. I'm no fighter either, but in the face of physical aggression, it's a natural response to physically protect what is yours - and that applies at an individual, tribal and national level. During the First World War, the military authorities in Britain had this question for people who claimed to be pacifists, "If you saw an enemy soldier raping your sister, what would you do?" There were some true courageous pacifists who wouldn't resort to violence, but most people, of course, opted for a violent solution. As such they were considered not morally so far from fighting men and therefore suitable for conscription.

[Frownland]

Ja I was just going by military presence. Still concerning.

[Janszoon]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

Have you ever stepped on a roach?

I once crushed a roach with a dictionary, and a little white semi-transparent roach with a halo and a harp rose up from his flattened corpse and disappeared into the ceiling with a tiny flash of light.

[Chula Vista]

Originally Posted by Frownland

Still concerning.

Why?

[Janszoon]

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

^ This is a surprisingly large figure. Are you confusing "occupying" (which implies controlling the govment and people by force) with "maintaining a presence in"? Plankton can explain the difference, I imagine, because he was stationed in Germany as part of a continuing US military presence there. I don't think he would have considered himself as part of an occupying force and nor should he have.

Also, how small is the presence? According to this we had a grand total of 8 members of the US military in Ireland in 2011. Does that mean the people in question were just guards for the embassy or something?

[Lucem Ferre]

Originally Posted by Janszoon

I once crushed a roach with a dictionary, and a little white semi-transparent roach with a halo and a harp rose up from his flattened corpse and disappeared into the ceiling with a tiny flash of light.

That's a beautiful story, Janszoon.

[Frownland]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milita...3media_complex

[Janszoon]

Originally Posted by Lucem Ferre

That's a beautiful story, Janszoon.

He told me he forgave me. I could tell it wasn't in English or any other human language, and yet I understood.

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by Chula Vista

Why?

If China ends up building a military base in California will you not be concerned?

[Lucem Ferre]

Might be a little late, but is anybody really surprised that Madden is the game that enraged somebody enough to shoot up a tournament?

Luckily we don't have Monopoly tournaments.