This never gets old We thought we'd heard the last of our own laughter at the disgraced former director of the CIA, all-the-stars Gen. David Petraeus, after he agreed to plead guilty in March of this year, in exchange for a little slap-and-tickle on the wrist. KINKY. What was it he was guilty of? Oh, that's right, side-banging his subordinate "biographer" girlfriend Paula Broadwell (
Imagine if spiller-of-secrets Edward Snowden suggested co-operating with the "nicer" people in Al Qaeda. Fox-promoted presidential candidate, or raging, spittle-flecked wingnut shitstorm?
When the (wahhabist) Taliban are all, "Whoa, those (neo-salafist) ISIS guys are fucking nuts!", you know they're cut from different cloth. With ISIS setting up shop in Afghanistan, they'll be shooting at each other soon enough.The US created both groups - but it took two separate fuckups. And our policies (abetted by our bffs in the Saudi royal family) arguably inspired bin Laden to create (wahhabist) Al Quaeda. And who knows what the US-supported Kurds or Pesh Merga will turn into. Everybody feel better now?
Okay, so I read comments sorted by Oldest, 'cause I often have to actually Do Work during the day and see them in the evening. I was congratulating myself on being among the vile nasty little snark mob this evening in part because I saw your earlier comments on the Taliban and al Qaeda and the financing of each, etc., and thinking I'd have to go follow up on that and learn more. Kudos to you.
Could you, please, consider that other folks don't have your level of knowledge (or don't share your judgment) on the issues that are of most significance to you, and that that's not because they're avoiding it (or maliciously refusing to read the comments you've already left, or something), but just because they haven't been exposed? Linkies to sources would be great, by the way. Not kicking at people because they haven't read stuff (even other comments in the same thread, because Disqus doesn't actually make that trivial; it defaults to Newest and things are easy to pass over) would be nice, too.
I could be dismissive/hateful and say "would like to subscribe to your newsletter" shit, but I don't wanna do that at all. I'd like to have some pointers to sources (of course, I was trained as an historian, and Daddy was an historian, so the idea of being forced, against my protesting will, to go and do horrible, lonely, forsaken research ... makes me grin with unholy glee, so there's that). And I think that there are others here who would also be interested, because the stories that are easily heard, here, are either that it's evil Mooselimbs or that it's the evil neocon Gummint. Your narrative seems at least differently nuanced.
Also? And this may undermine my point, but I don't give a shit, 'cause it's late and I'm finishing a bottle of wine, but: You have a tagline, "Have a great day!" It's nice, a lot of the time. On a story about raping children? Not so much. Tone-deaf, at best. Even on the comments that you're making here, where you provide equal portions of information and disapprobation, there's a weird, awkward note to it. That doesn't necessarily mean you should stop it (I start emails to half-brained incompetent colleagues at work, that are filled with vituperation and vulgarity (the emails, not the colleagues, though those, too) with "Dear %victim-name%"), but you really should be aware of the effect, even if there's some life-habit that drives you to the closing salutation as strongly as I'm driven to the initial salutation.
Imagine if spiller-of-secrets Edward Snowden suggested co-operating with the "nicer" people in Al Qaeda. Fox-promoted presidential candidate, or raging, spittle-flecked wingnut shitstorm?
As I understand modern anti-terrorist warfare theory, a moderate member of al-Qaeda is one who has run out of ammunition
That beats the usual, but highly contingent, offer of 72 virgins.
[Insert bird-in-the-hand joke here.]
I thought our generals were taught history at West Point. Did Petraeus just read the Cliff Notes?
Still sweaty . . . the photographer showed up early.
The hypothetical American general not having lines of supply, and the hypothetical Russians having no nukes, yep ... this could definitely work.
ISIS has US weapons that are still in their crates. Yay, modern logistics!
When the (wahhabist) Taliban are all, "Whoa, those (neo-salafist) ISIS guys are fucking nuts!", you know they're cut from different cloth. With ISIS setting up shop in Afghanistan, they'll be shooting at each other soon enough.The US created both groups - but it took two separate fuckups. And our policies (abetted by our bffs in the Saudi royal family) arguably inspired bin Laden to create (wahhabist) Al Quaeda. And who knows what the US-supported Kurds or Pesh Merga will turn into. Everybody feel better now?
They aren't going to drop themselves!
That "great day" business was old before it was born.
I hear they ride unicorns into battle.
SHe hasn't been heard from in a while. And there's a funny smell coming from her house.
"Bache bazi". "Boy play" is pronounced the same in Persian, a language I know.
"But what does Ollie North think?"
FIFY.
Errrrr.
Okay, so I read comments sorted by Oldest, 'cause I often have to actually Do Work during the day and see them in the evening. I was congratulating myself on being among the vile nasty little snark mob this evening in part because I saw your earlier comments on the Taliban and al Qaeda and the financing of each, etc., and thinking I'd have to go follow up on that and learn more. Kudos to you.
Could you, please, consider that other folks don't have your level of knowledge (or don't share your judgment) on the issues that are of most significance to you, and that that's not because they're avoiding it (or maliciously refusing to read the comments you've already left, or something), but just because they haven't been exposed? Linkies to sources would be great, by the way. Not kicking at people because they haven't read stuff (even other comments in the same thread, because Disqus doesn't actually make that trivial; it defaults to Newest and things are easy to pass over) would be nice, too.
I could be dismissive/hateful and say "would like to subscribe to your newsletter" shit, but I don't wanna do that at all. I'd like to have some pointers to sources (of course, I was trained as an historian, and Daddy was an historian, so the idea of being forced, against my protesting will, to go and do horrible, lonely, forsaken research ... makes me grin with unholy glee, so there's that). And I think that there are others here who would also be interested, because the stories that are easily heard, here, are either that it's evil Mooselimbs or that it's the evil neocon Gummint. Your narrative seems at least differently nuanced.
Also? And this may undermine my point, but I don't give a shit, 'cause it's late and I'm finishing a bottle of wine, but: You have a tagline, "Have a great day!" It's nice, a lot of the time. On a story about raping children? Not so much. Tone-deaf, at best. Even on the comments that you're making here, where you provide equal portions of information and disapprobation, there's a weird, awkward note to it. That doesn't necessarily mean you should stop it (I start emails to half-brained incompetent colleagues at work, that are filled with vituperation and vulgarity (the emails, not the colleagues, though those, too) with "Dear %victim-name%"), but you really should be aware of the effect, even if there's some life-habit that drives you to the closing salutation as strongly as I'm driven to the initial salutation.
Persian is widely spoken in Afghanistan.