Syria

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Why do we need to build rapport?

Why not?

They have oil - you can also grow excellent coffee in the Levant, but the constant wars have burned the plantations down to almost nothing. Then there's the old chestnut of being able to visit the Holy Land without getting killed - not to mention the wasted opportunities in Science and Literature for collaboration.

Do you realise that Iranian poets and Scientists are some of the best in the world?

Those guys are building nukes under a blockade, it's harder for them than it was for the US/American team during WWII!

[rvg]

Why not?

What's the practical purpose of that? Love or hate has little to do with business.

They have oil - you can also grow excellent coffee in the Levant, but the constant wars have burned the plantations down to almost nothing.

I can live with the Venezuelan coffee.

Then there's the old chestnut of being able to visit the Holy Land without getting killed - not to mention the wasted opportunities in Science and Literature for collaboration.

It's okay, we've gotten by so far just fine.

Do you realise that Iranian poets and Scientists are some of the best in the world?

Will Iranian poetry make me a richer man? If not, then meh.

Those guys are building nukes under a blockade, it's harder for them than it was for the US/American team during WWII!

Shows us where their priorities lie.

[rvg]

So Greed is your only geopolitical motivator...

Greed? Certainly not personal greed. It's more of a general disenchantment in humanity in general, and in the humanity inhabiting the Middle East and South Asia in particular. It's not that I wish them ill, it's that I just don't care. They wish to kill each other? Let them. In the Syrian conflict specifically, I support Bashar because Syrian Christians support Bashar. They're the only people in that conflict that I care about. Their interests are my interests.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Greed? Certainly not personal greed. It's more of a general disenchantment in humanity in general, and in the humanity inhabiting the Middle East and South Asia in particular. It's not that I wish them ill, it's that I just don't care. They wish to kill each other? Let them. In the Syrian conflict specifically, I support Bashar because Syrian Christians support Bashar. They're the only people in that conflict that I care about. Their interests are my interests.

Me, I want a quiet life - that's why I don't often voice just how loathsome and alien I find much of US political and social life.

Your perverse election of law enforcement a judicial officials, your failure to care for the poor...

Given that the US essentially engineered the collapse of the British Empire and left Britain a basket case for decades I have more reason to hate Americans than Syrians.

I don't, though, I'd much rather make friends because having friends is the way to have a quiet life.

No hatred of America - no 9/11. It's that simple.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Me, I want a quiet life - that's why I don't often voice just how loathsome and alien I find much of US political and social life.

You don't really know what the typical social life for Americans is....

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

You don't really know what the typical social life for Americans is....

I said "much" not "most", but here are a few things that baffle and/or terrify me.

1. Lack of professional Constabulary, mostly elected Law Enforcement.

2. Limited services outside municipal districts (remember the fire engine that turned up and watched a guy's house burn down because he wasn't covered?).

3. Lack of State-run healthcare.

4. Lack of understanding of the necessity of state-run healthcare.

5. Attitude to guns.

6. Attitude to handling of guns (as in, keeping loaded weapons out of gun safes with children around.)

That's my top six - the fact that things are the way they are tells me most Americans don't have a problem with most of this - which shows that Britain is much closer to Europe or Commonwealth countries than the US.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Alright, well much of the confusion is simply due to lack of knowledge regarding American history and culture. Let's just take a brief look at each thing.

1. Lack of professional Constabulary, mostly elected Law Enforcement.

Much of the issues regarding police in the US as pointed out by watchdogs like Crazed Rabbit is due to the effect of the War on Drugs which has been a major policy across all level of government for over thirty years. You have to understand that a lot of people were scared by the drug hay-day of the 1960s and 1970s which led to the creation of the War on Drugs. Then again in the late 1980s into the 1990s the crack cocaine epidemic once again scared a lot of people who worried that new, more powerful drugs were going to systematically destroy the fabric of society, at least in urban areas. What has happened has been a slow conditioning for the law enforcement officials and the prison system to make requests (increasingly absurd) under the banner of fighting the good fight. This coupled with the backlash against the anti-authority movements of the 1960s and 1970s (which were associated with rampant drug use) has made criticism of public servants (soldiers, firefighters, police etc...) very socially unacceptable. This is now why we are in the situation we have today. Socially the cops are Gods, and financially/politically they are.

2. Limited services outside municipal districts (remember the fire engine that turned up and watched a guy's house burn down because he wasn't covered?).

Such things are difficult to explain from an American to a European. it is no fault of your own, but you simply don't "get" the American mentality. Throughout American history, groups of people have strove to become self-reliant or independent from as many external influences as possible. In the modern society, this attitude has adapted into what is now popular libertarianism. This is where you get communities that have disestablished the traditional roles of government in favor of privatizing things like fire control. This kind of community wants to get as close to anarchy as possible that a strong wind could push over the council chambers and make it happen.

3. Lack of State-run healthcare.

Again, very long history that involves many battles between progressives asking for collective improvement with isolationists that wish for increased Federalism and self sufficiency.

4. Lack of understanding of the necessity of state-run healthcare.

This is a matter of opinion whether you want to admit it or not. Ultimately, you call it a necessity because your priority is on the public health as a whole. Many Americans disagree, which is why they do not argue for it. They understand as well as you do (well most people prob don't, but you get my point) and they simply reject it on more philosophical grounds.

5. Attitude to guns.

Threads upon threads of tired arguments about this and you have no clue about this at all? Do you just not bother to understand those you talk to?

6. Attitude to handling of guns (as in, keeping loaded weapons out of gun safes with children around.)

The gun community actually strictly lambastes people who don't practice proper gun safety. I don't expect you to know this though, because like me you don't know anything about the average gun owner unless you make the effort to go to the range with someone like I did.

[Tuuvi]

I said "much" not "most", but here are a few things that baffle and/or terrify me.

1. Lack of professional Constabulary, mostly elected Law Enforcement.

In my state you have to be certified as a peace officer before you can run as a sheriff. My own local sheriff has a pretty extensive background in law enforcement, just because we elect our Constables doesn't mean they're not professionals.

ACIN did pretty good job covering the rest, but I'd like to point out that there are regional differences in political beliefs and government across the US. In more liberal areas of the country you'll find plenty of people who support state-run healthcare, and are opposed to gun ownership. A lot of the horror stories you hear about police abuse, government incompetence, etc. are a result of local politics and management practices and don't represent the US as a whole.

[rvg]

They don't want to kill eachother. Surely you don't believe that?

I judge them by what they do. They do it a lot and they do it well.

I'm not qualified to tell you what to believe, but in my opinion the Christian thing would be to wish an end to the fighitng above all else, and not the victory of a certain group over the other.

Not at the expense of Christians being subjugated by the islamists.

How much do you even know about Syrian christians? Do you feel for them because they suffer, or do you feel for them because they provide you an excuse to root for the fascist?

Middle Eastern Christians are my people, as in I'm descended from that group. This is personal.

[rvg]

By that logic, we love killing eachother too. Or have you forgotten the staggering statistics from our Civil War? You're not stupid, man. I know that you know that people at war usually don't want to be at war.

Let's not mix wars between the governments into this.

Islamists who are entirely our fault. We created them, armed them, funded them, and over the decades since have given them plenty of target practice.

Precisely. No reason to help them any further.

Its good to respect your heritage, but you should take advantage of the broader scope you have available to you as compared to your relatives in the middle-east. They know only that they are in a war. You, on the other hand, are capable of seeing the big picture if you want to.

Which is why I say: screw the Sunnis.

[rvg]

Nothing for it I guess.

Do not despair. You're still very young and I understand your drive to be Don Quixote. Give it a decade, or maybe a decade and a half, then we'll see if your perspective changes.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Middle Eastern Christians are my people, as in I'm descended from that group. This is personal.

Unless you're an Assyrian yourself, they aren't the Eastern Orthodox Christians are a splinter group who had little to do with the Latin West or Even the Greek Orthodox until relatively recently.

Your religion would be only slightly closer to them than to Islam itself.

[rvg]

Unless you're an Assyrian yourself, they aren't Te Eastern Orthodox Christians are a splinter group who had little to do with the Latin West or Even the Greek Orthodox until relatively recently.

Your religion would be only slightly closer to them than to Islam itself.

Brilliant deduction. I am in fact Assyrian.

[Hax]

This explains so much.​

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Brilliant deduction. I am in fact Assyrian.

Well, I did think you might be.

Well, OK - I can appreciate your viewpoint but I still think you're wrong.

In the long term a pluralist society will benefit Christians accross the Middle East - currently the dictators uses them as a scapegoat for the majority to vent on whilst protecting them from major harm, and keeping both groups loyal as a result.