akhalteke

"they" as I stated before are those that use violence and fear as their only tools for negotiation. "Us" would be those that desire cooperation and peace. I made no assumption or suggestion what country either side was; nor even that uses and thems were in separate countries. As long as there are those that wish harm upon us and as long as there are people who use violence as the only means to voice their opinions, there will always have to be violent men to take up arms against them.

The nagging question is whether those that have based their power and identity on violence can join the rest of us; also whether or not we will in fact join them.

The use of force is one of a final means to carry out one's will once all other means have been exhaustivly and futively tried. There are consequences to the use of force; force itself being one of them. Militants who use force and murder as their only means to deal with disagreements and disputes are being shown this harsh reality; a reality that they and Israel will share for some time to come. I have no sadness for the militants who bomb innocent civilians or civilians who hide such murderors. My prayers go out to the innocent civilians that are caught in the crossfire.

If I had to guess, it is a sequella to the fact that we are anticipating the pull-back of forces in Iraq to comply with the timeline that the Iraqi government has set forth. The current government has had Iraq as a priority for some time now. Now that it is obvious that getting the conclusion that we had hoped for will be impossible, diverting troops and assets to the other war we are waging will be the next task. I think that this will be beneficial as much more of the hardline insurgency seems to be focusing on Afghanistan given our recent propensity to ignore it. Afghanistan, as Serenity stated earlier has many problems with its infrastructure, culture and geography which will make any semblance of victory difficult. Places like these are gold mines for insurgent forces. If we can use Civil Affairs and other units to bring this country up to speed, so to speeak, it might make one less place where the bacteria of terrorism might use as an agar plate.

Werd on da street here is that we are going to double our strength within the next year in Afghanistan. Should be interesting to see what that will do. Depends on who they send. I know I have my biases. I would think that the people that made such a difference in the outset should regain control, but what do I know?

You might be suprised bro. I think you have a jaded idea of what goes on with some of the other elements of the military. Read up on the guys who first went into Afghanistan. You will understand a little more about what some in the military are doing over there. "The Hunt for Bin Laden" is a good place to start to see the kinds of people I am talking of. Drinking gallons of tea and talking is a huge part of how so many battle victories took place over there.

WTF is that scurvy?!?

phish

Ivan. For the "billionth time" maybe you are forgetting the revolutionary war. Not many placed much faith in the rag-tag buch who took the largest military might in the World.

And no one is suggesting that. Complex ideas are often not completely solvable, but they can be mitigated by taking steps in the proper direction. Like having tracealbe ammo, for example. traceable ammo only makes ammo more expensive. Furthermore, it will not deter anyone from using a gun in a violent crime. It is easy as hell to get smuggled ammo/ guns in this country. (or any country in the World for that matter). This is just a way for the anti-gun nuts to say "we can't take your guns away, but we can try to take away the bullets so you can't shoot them."

now we know you've gone 'round the bend - chris rock is funnier'n'hell! i like my gun control solution more - the only guns allowable should be ones that use the technology extant at the time of the writing of the 2nd amendment - single shot, black powder muskets - hell, they can even drop the bar-coding yer shot shit if'n they'll do that - let's see someone take on a whole mall, 1776 style! Sure. If the Army would only have that too. Would defeat the purpose if it didn't. This is the most ridiculous argument I have heard on 2nd amendment rights. Yes I can. "red dawn" must be your favorite movie, eh? for the billionith time, if the army wants to take over 2day, you won't be able to do a goddamn thing about it w/ your guns

Also, how are they going to deal with import ammo? A large portion of ammunition is imported. Also, do you really think that someone will not be able to get banned ammo to commit a crime? Or steal some that is under someone else's name? Violence is a large and complex problem that cannot be solved by any one radical idea.

I don't trust anyone; especially politicians.

now we know you've gone 'round the bend - chris rock is funnier'n'hell! i like my gun control solution more - the only guns allowable should be ones that use the technology extant at the time of the writing of the 2nd amendment - single shot, black powder muskets - hell, they can even drop the bar-coding yer shot shit if'n they'll do that - let's see someone take on a whole mall, 1776 style! Sure. If the Army would only have that too. Would defeat the purpose if it didn't. This is the most ridiculous argument I have heard on 2nd amendment rights.

I know a teacher here that had a customized plate that said "BEATEM" and it was a teachers' only licence plate. F-I-R-E-D.

You all are absolutely "Fucked Up"

Prole, may I suggest PRAVDA.ru? I peruse it now and again. Might be to your liking.

I like the idea of the straps for faux ice tools. Safe, plus it requires a concentrated swinging that woul simulate swinging an ice tool when you are smoked more-so than with dry tooling alone. I think I would just make my own though. Those ones look overengineered for increased expense.

I did my part. Twice.

...not a republican boss. More of a devil's advocate on this here board (as anyone who has met me can attest to). Just helping add a little from both sides on the site. My party gets thrashed every year. No real shocker this year either; though I am starting to get used to it. Maybe 2012.

Yes, I really don't see the Economist as a bastion of the Right-wing conspiracy or a Fox-news offshoot. I am a long time subscriber and find them remarkably neutral (likely due to their poly-national writing staff).

It doesn't matter. The voter did not fill out the form correctly, therefore it doesn't count. I am sure you encourage this kind of enforcement regardless of the political leaning of the poller. I suppose I can guess what you thought about the Florida election results for GWB.

If he wasn't voting for Coleman, whom was he voting for?

You young guns kill me,always trying to prove your faster,tougher,and better as if us old farts never were young and dumb! I really love it when your the frist to fall a sleep in the car on the ride home! Whatever son. Be there in a month if you wanna go climb something and test out your theory.

"slack!"