Middle East - DejaVu?

[Toad]

after all the NATO exercise we've kicked your bellybutton in.

Yeah, you guys must be... well, have to be...  expert at small unit tactics.  

(j/k)

[Nash]

Hehe... easymo if you haven't done it already, I'd march that baby down to the local trademark office.

[Staga]

Originally posted by Pongo
Staga, do you feel that Finland(or the other counties) in your list have some moral supperiority over the US because they have thier conscripts on UN tours? Vs the US putting its professional soldiers in harms way as peace makers?

Nope; Who or what ever will work for help keeping peace is good but IMHO it has to happen with mandate from U.N.

[Eagler]

U.N ... NATO = US doing 90% of whatever/wherever while the rest of the world feels it's doing its fair share by splitting up the remaining 10% ...

[Staga]

Toad I was expecting to see how many people were involved to U.N operations and not how many soldiers were occupying countries like germany

Maybe between Israel and Lebanon/west bank should be U.N forces in two layers: U.S blue-barets sitting in their bunkers waiting when next shell from Israel artillery hits their positions and troops from Poland, Bangladesh, Ireland, Fiji, Finland and Nepal drinking tea with Lebanese villagers in their houses and flirting with their women

[Staga]

btw what NATO/U.S did in KFOR-operation in Kosovo/Serbia etc. was great work.
It was really a pleasure to see how that coalition strike back against a country which was slaughtering innocent civilians and conquering "lebensraum".

Now I wonder if same would work in middle east ? Would be nice to see from tv how missiles launched from NATO planes are blowing few Merkavas to pieces

[Sikboy]

Originally posted by Staga ]Toad I was expecting to see how many people were involved to U.N operations and not how many soldiers were occupying countries like germany

I'm sure the Germans love this phrase

Maybe between Israel and Lebanon/west bank should be U.N forces in two layers: U.S blue-barets sitting in their bunkers waiting when next shell from Israel artillery hits their positions and troops from Poland, Bangladesh, Ireland, Fiji, Finland and Nepal drinking tea with Lebanese villagers in their houses and flirting with their women

Yeah, I'm sure the Troops along the DMZ for the past 50 years probably find that pretty funny too. Yeah, it's all beaches and Mai Tais. While my Service in a foreign country was a positive experience with little danger, It's sad to see it trivialised here. Oh well

-Sikboy

[Staga]

Sikboy we had russian bases in here (I was living in one when serving my time in army, dam cold place in winter) thought original owners left over 80 years ago

Edit: I don't have my dictionary with me so if there's better word than "occupying" please let me know. Maybe renting a flat?

[Toad]

if you're in the military... anyone's military... and you're NOT wearing a Blue Beret on an "official UN peacekeepin mission"...

then you are not contributing to world peace or peacekeeping?

Just want to be sure I understand you.

[Pongo]

Staga
I would have enjoyed being a fly on the wall when you were convinced and indoctrinated to hate Jews. It would have been facinating to watch. Anyone that can equate the actions of Isreal vs  the Palastinians with the idealologys of your former friends and allies of the Third Reich is just anti semetic. It is so crazy that listing the attrocities that were commited by the germans vs anything that is or has happend in Palistine is just assinine.
You are a facinating combination of jeolosy and hate.

[Staga]

Toad this is something that confuses people: Are U.S troops around the world for helping countries they're in or helping U.S itself.
By acting under blue flag and with mandate from U.N it's easier to people of those countries to understand those troops are there to help them and not the country they're coming from. That's why I would like to see those operations are under command of U.N.
If one of the sides can doubt that those forces are biased that's pretty bad thing for those troops and for operation itself.

Pongo quit using dope; It does bad things to your brains

[Sikboy]

Originally posted by Staga
Toad this is something that confuses people: Are U.S troops around the world for helping countries they're in or helping U.S itself.
By acting under blue flag and with mandate from U.N it's easier to people of those countries to understand those troops are there to help them and not the country they're coming from.

Our troops in Korea were sent there by UN Mandate, and stay there through treaty agreements with the Government of the Republic of Korea. Our presense in Japan and Germany are also dicated by treaty obligations. These are all mutually benifitial, considering that the current regimes within each of the countries is democratic they MUST be mutually benifitial. I'm a fan of the UN, but it is an organization that is struggling to find itself in the post cold war world. I certainly don't share your altruistic view of UN actions.

-Sikboy

[Staga]

Colin Powell otw to the middle east:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1911000/1911421.stm

Thumbs up to Mr.Powell.

From BBC By Barnaby Mason;Diplomatic Correspondent :
"American support for Israel at this moment makes the United States once more a target of popular anger.
In the words of one Arab commentator, it pushes Arab and Muslim opinion into the hands of the hardliners.
An oil embargo against the United States, advocated by Iraq, is improbable.
But the radicalisation of ordinary Arabs may increase the numbers of those willing to take part in attacks of the kind endorsed or planned by Osama Bin Laden.
In other words, many European governments think that President Bush's Middle East policy is working against his own proclaimed war on terrorism."

Turkish news agency Anatolia:
Prime minister Bülent Ecevit is accusing Israel for a genocide of Palestinians.

btw Israel and Turkey made a military co-operation deal in 1996 and it doesn't look good if your allie is accusing you about genocide or does it?

[Sikboy]

Originally posted by Staga


btw Israel and Turkey made a military co-operation deal in 1996 and it doesn't look good if your allie is accusing you about genocide or does it?

Considering it's Turkey we're talking about the Irony of the statement is just too much to bear. I honestly don't think the Turks know the meaning of the word. And as a NATO member, Turkey is VERY familiar with allies accusing IT of genocide.

-Sikboy
[edit] in case you don't follow this stuff, here's something from the US congressional Record http://www.csce.gov/crs_csce.cfm?crs_id=105

[Staga]

You're absolutely right. Where did you guys found these allies of yours ?