Thoughts & Commentary on the Obama Administration

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I don't know. I haven't changed my position. I can't really make my mind up about Afghanistan. Last page I said I thought there were reasons to support a surge, and reasons not to.

Then jingoism broke lose: 'disgraceful', 'beneath my dignity', 'no backbone', 'my friends die because of this'.

Which irritated me. So I pointed out that Poland and the UK have contributed less troops to international missions this past decade, and that much of the troops and resources that were committed were send to Iraq. Which is currently commonly regarded as unsuccesful, and also as detrimental to the cause in Afghanistan and other missions.



'Also, where do you get the figure "40,000" from for Iraq? Is that the total number of men we sent overall, because some of those were the same men going back three or four times. Or is it the number for the actual invasion? I'm fairly sure it isn't.'
I was referring to the number of UK troops deployed for the invasion. Wiki below says 46.000. 200 Poles were involved in the invasion as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_Force_-_Iraq

Funny how the mind plays tricks on you. Ok, so Britain sent 46,000 troops to invade Iraq, then left 8,300 troops there, and those numbers continued to fall. So that figure is a bit of a red herring when talking about troop commitments long term. If you were to wiki military forces and deployments you would see that Britain has deployed more men per-capita, and from a smaller armed forces.

As I said, your country is more populous (by 4 million), has more money and a larger army. You also have a larger defence budget and the only reason we get ahead of you in military rankings is because we have more planes and an extra aircraft carrier.

As far as "jingoism", you basically said, "I only think we should go if it can be won", which ignores the fact that the major problem is troop numbers, so that "winning" could well be dependant on whether France gets involved seriously or not; along with Germany.

So you look like you are setting up a self fullfilling prophecy, where you can turn around after we fail for lack of men and say, "look, we were right not to send more men". That position then become win-win for France, unless the Coalition wins in Afganistan.

It is also a fact that my friends died because their units were stretched too thin, because of lack of resources. That is not jingoism, it is a logistical and strategic reality.

[ICantSpellDawg]

Lame speech. He looks weak and seems worried, but I missed the first half.

[TinCow]

Lame speech. He looks weak and seems worried, but I missed the first half.

Interesting, I thought it was a superb speech; the best I'd heard in the last decade, if not longer.

[ICantSpellDawg]

Interesting, I thought it was a superb speech; the best I'd heard in the last decade, if not longer.

I usually like his speeches, this one rang hollow to me and was disappointing. I'll watch the beginning later. Also, did McDonnell call facebook "fistbook"?

[Lemur]

Haven't seen it yet, but this comment on it made me guffaw:

Tax incentives, small-business veneration, glorification of the entrepreneur, chest-thumping on competition, and even a bit of nationalism. Obama articulates Republican policies better than Republicans do. Doesn't look sour and mean, or like he wants to bite somebody.

[AlexanderSextus]

Obama knocked it out of the park with this one.

For you europeans, that means he hit a 6.

[Kadagar_AV]

Obama knocked it out of the park with this one.

For you europeans, that means he hit a 6.

I assume knocked it out of the park is an american phrase referring to when you in baseball make a home run...

But the explanation for europeans confused me, hit a 6?