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Originally Posted by Yakk
I am talking about scale. Death is death. Death sucks. Do you understand that 1 million deaths sucks more than 1 thousand deaths?... ...If you cannot tell the different between millions of innocent people killed, and thousands of innocent people killed, I cannot help you understand it.
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Yes, I understand that. But do you understand that threatening one person with death sucks
less than plotting to and succeeding in killing thousands of civilians?
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Originally Posted by Yakk
Terrorism is evil. Terrorism is, compared to nations making War, incompetent at doing evil. Because War causes evil with far less effort and with far greater efficiency than Terrorism ever has.
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Terrorism is a specific act that happens in war. It is an atrocity, often during a war, where civilians are attacked and killed in order to damage the enemy's resolve and morale. So saying that terrorism is less effective at "causing evil" than war doesn't make a lot of sense. Certainly, your typical large battle is more costly in terms of lives than your average terrorist attack, but, since terrorism is an act of war, divorcing it from other kinds of warfare is unwarranted.
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Originally Posted by Yakk
Yes, Terrorists kills people. I claim that, compared to the modern military, they are ineffective at it. Terrorism kills people retail, while modern war kills people wholesale.
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...while Pat Robertson hasn't killed anyone at all. Can't say that about Osama, can we?
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Originally Posted by Yakk
I have never not demonized OBL. He's an evil fuck. But he's a gimpy, ineffective evil fuck if you compare him on a world-wide scale.
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Not as ineffective as Pat Robertson.
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Originally Posted by Yakk
Given the USAs history, the USA is quite likely to off the President of Venezuela. The USA has a pattern and habit of killing Latin American elected leaders and overthrowing their governments. The USA has tolerated one nation in it's hemisphere that is constistently openly defiant of it (Cuba), and it took the threat of nuclear holocaust for that to happen.
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You sure like to hold grudges against entire nations years after the perpetrators are gone from power. Does it seem "quite likely" to you that Germany will invade France again? Given their history...
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Originally Posted by Yakk
So, no, I do not consider Pat's comments to be idle threats. They fit the pattern of US foreign-policy behaviour in the region quite accurately.
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Yeah, but Robertson doesn't speak for the government! If a prominent neo-Nazi in Germany suggested that we should kill the President of France, say, would you be worried that another blitzkreig is around the corner?
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Originally Posted by Yakk
Both instances of defensive guerilla warfare -- of people pushing occupiers off of the land they grew up on. I stated that Terrorism is an ineffective offensive weapon.
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How about the IRA bombing campaign in England, then, if you don't like those examples?
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Originally Posted by Yakk
Pat Robertson has influence over millions of Americans, a non-trivial percentage of political activists in the USA, a good chunk of the US House of Representatives and Senate, and is complemented and invited to visit by the president of the USA.
So, no, Pat Roberston is not just "some blowhard". Ayn Coultier is "some blowhard". Ayn Rand is "some blowhard". Pat Robertson is someone with influence.
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Vastly overstated. The sensationalism does not help your cause. Can you find a Congressman, Senator, or President that has made a statement supporting Robertson's suggestion?
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Originally Posted by Yakk
So, other than a number of examples, the US has not been causing civilian megadeaths. I'm sorry, but I won't brush Vietnam under the carpet.
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Research *chuckle*... MEGADEATHS! - in the Soviet Union and youo might have a better understanding of why we did what we did in Vietnam.
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Originally Posted by Yakk
Anyhow, the US is working on a new megadeath. What was the official US government Iraqi civilian bodycount for current 15 year old War in the Gulf? If not, have any decent estimates?
How does that compare to the American bodycount caused by OBL -- heck, caused by all terrorists -- in the same period of time?
I am getting this mental image of a pile of pebbles next to a mountain.
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Well, if you take into account the number of Iraqi civilians that are killed by the insurgency every day, I'd say we're running pretty close to even, with the terrorists gaining every day.
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Originally Posted by Yakk
OBL and Pat Robertson are the same -- people who use religion to generate hate. The difference is, Pat Robertson has influence over people who are far more deadly than OBL does.
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Oh yeah? Like who? Who are these deadly people Pat Robertson can motivate to action?