F4 Norfork Virginia. I love this statement
USN/USMC Electronic Warfare Division "In God we trust, all others we monitor." [sm=yikesomg.gif] If they only knew how true that was quick .[sm=type.gif]How many guys actually running on the 6.06. DOD network here lol[sm=ts.gif]

 

12 Billion a month to aid war efforts.......
Were in for a world of hurt. Estimated cost 2 trillion by 2017. We are going down for this one.

As for the soldiers, they are doing what they are told. They may see things differently but they are not in control of the outcome. Only a select few are in the war room making the calls.

Our economy has been hit already and it is getting worse by the day. The dow jones has plunged over 2,200 points in the last 5 months. Fuel, food and utilities have sky rocketed in the last year.

Enjoy what you have now cause next year were all going to be rembering "the good 'ol times"

 

Yes, really, what happened to the one-liner nonsense, delinquent version of Norfolk? Are there two of them? That guy was night-and-day different from how he is now--cleaned up his avatar and signature--posts are lucid and adult--I couldn't be more surprised if thomasintexas stopped humping chickens and flaming military threads...

 

Damn RCR you have come up with the right answer. It's right in front of us in your graph. All we need to do is clone Truman and Reagan and put them back in office. We will have a Teflon coated Cast Iron presidency seriously. I can remember my old man saying, how Reagan was always willing to cowboy up to a task, but never got bogged down always strikingandmove. Sure the hell shut Moammar the duck up and put out a few other international fires without a hell of a lot of collateral damage. Except for Beirut, a bad day for Marines around the world

 

I agree with alot of this, but global demand (China, India)has had as much to do with this as a weak dollar. But we have had several interst rates cuts so this should have a few effects:

1) continued weak dollar in the short/mid term

2) increase in GDP and a better economy and then a stronger dollar.

3) falling food prices, energy will stay high and go higher due to global demand

While I agree with you, this economic cycle is similar to others. Presently we are in a 'Bust' soon we will be in a recovery, then maybe a boom again. What is different not is that we don't have a manufacturing base to buy goods from and that a boom may just mean importing more crap from China.

Ike and Trumanhad to deal with a post WWII world and this is when the U.S. really grew economically. THESE WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS. This was the war dividend. This is why these is a saying that 'war is good for the economy'.

Kennedy and Johnson were idiots.

As far as that graph that was posted, it tries to point out that Nixon/Jimmy Carter had things figured out, but they simply started an era of relative peace and improved trade. The U.S. was a manufacturing giant, the WWII dividend was still in effect, Korea and Viet Nam were over and those wars were good for business.

There are a few things to consider, what ever you see in that graph is due to actions takena fewyears before, but Carter was a lousy president. Interest rates to but a home were rising (up to 16%) and it wasn't until Reagan was in office for two years did Interest rates fall. Nixon was a good man, a little paranoid, but he brought the troops back from Nam and had to deal with the first Oil Crisis and runaway inflation. That oil embargo was a wake up call. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis That told everyone that oil is a weapon and that we were due for a Holy War sooner or later.

The Reagan years were spent breaking the Soviet Union. We out spent them instead of going to war with them. The reason why so many of us 40 year olds are alive is because of that debt, we fought them with $$$$ not bullets. I am glad I did not die in Europe trying to stop 100,000 T-72s and T-80sfrom rolling into Germany. But oil prices fell because there was nobody for the 'bad guys' to get financing from to fight Israel or the U.S. So we set policy and took their oil cheaply. But that party ended with the demand rising and that let Terrorism get financed with all the excesss profits.

Bill Clinton refinanced the debt with lower interst rates and short term instruments, and then George Bush inherited a recession and the beginnings of a Holywar.

Remember that this war is about Oil. Oil finances terrorism. This war had to be fought while we still had the economic strength to do so. Like it or not this country doesn't exist to make it citizens happy. It exists to support itself and to preserve its security.We should count your blessings that there is no draft andwe didn't get dragged into a war like Viet Nam, our only problem is that gas is expensive and the games for our PS3 or Xbox are so expensive that it makes it harder to buy beer, weed, and all that hippy musicwe listen too.

 

a holy war!!!! what makes it a holy war ??
im a muslim guy and a good believer and i disagree with u on how u understand it.. i wanna know where did u get that idea from.. dont base ur opinion on stuff u see on the media and cnn or even history channel ..

 

People that have lived and worked in the Middle East have led me to that conclusion that fanatical muslims do not view non- Muslims as human.

1993 World Trade Center

2002 Bali Bombings

9/11 WTC

Londonbus bombings

Madrid Train bombings

The common thread to all of these acts are the targets were all innocent civilians (aside from the Pentagon attack on 9/11) and they were perpetrated by fanatical Muslims.

I apoligize if I inferred that all Muslims are bad (note the respectful capital letters I use when typing Muslim), but there is a common theme throughout history with repect to war.

Wars are fought for resources, land, or religion. We have all three goig on now. We want oil that resides under a bunch of Muslim countries that want to eradicate Israel (our ally).

I usually don't listen to CNN because of their liberal spin, but I wasn't alive 1500 years ago so I have to go on something, right?

http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/Commentar...story0212.aspx

While I respect your Religion, it seems to attract a few people that are not sane.

I don't get Al Jazeera on my TV I am sorry. But anyone can understand that the terroristevents listed above lend credence to the thought that a fanatical Muslim does not value the life if a non-Muslim at all. So perhaps I did think this through a little bit, right?

A little food for thought

http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...is_questioned/

 

If you go back to the times of the Holy Crusades, there were many cases of mass murder perpetrated by so-called Christian knights on the Muslims, and vice-versa, all in pursuit of wealth and power, at least for the most part, so what's changed ? I'm certainly no Muslim, but if you read the Khoran, as Hardcore (hi Gunny)suggests, you will see that the Islamic faith preaches tolerance towards all men, irrespective of beliefs. It's the hardliners you have to watch out for, whether they be Christian, Muslim, or whatever creed.They're the ones with the bombs who kill innocent civilians.......(look at what happened to the FBI building)They don't for the most part, have the guts to go for military targets, but then as Mao said "the purpose of a terrorist is to terrorise" Their plan is to make an area ungovernable, irrespective of who gets hurt in the process. Coalition troops don't have that luxury........
This thread began with a discussion on the abhorrent beheadings we can see on certain sites - maybe that's the real difference between the Coalition, and the Muslim fundamentalist - they don't care what the world thinks of them, because they see their actions as being in response to some holy edict. As for the coalition troops in the field, it's often a case of "when we do right, no one remembers, but when we do wrong, no-one forgets." - It's not the troops that are to blame, it's way higher up the food chain........on both sides.....and all the coalition troops can do, is endure........

 

Maybe so, but at what cost? I mean we are paying out the *** for fuel right now and there is no sign of the price going down.Even if we use our own oil it will not be cheap-hell it might cost more since we will have to refine it ourselves and all that stuff. Any way you slice it we depend on the middle east and will for a long time to come

You would think that we would get a price break on oil since we have done so much for the middle east, but NO WAY! they just keep hiking the price up and our goverment just lets it happen since they can tax the **** out of it-the higher the price the more tax they can charge.

 

Maybe most of the Koran, but not all...

"Fight for the cause of God with the devotion due to Him...He has given you the name of Muslims..." (Surah 22:78-)

"Muhammad is God's apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another." (Surah 48:29)

"Slay them wherever you find them...Idolatry is worse than carnage...Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God's religion reigns supreme." (Surah 2:190-)

"Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it." (Surah 2:216)

"Seek out your enemies relentlessly." (Surah 4:103-)

While I am sure most of the Koran preaches tolerance those fanatics that are presently causing trouble only read/follow remembertheses types of passages.It is kinda like going to Disneyland and only remembering the fun but not the 2 hour wait in line for each teacup ride.

Whatever the case is, we as a society should educate ourselves so we know the history of why there is conflict. Only at that time can we come up withan opinion pertaining to the merits of this conflict and what we expect the outcome to be. I personally see no end to this conflict and no way to negotiate peace. It is what it is, and it will continue to be what it was.

This conflictis a constant in an ever changing universe, like gravity, wind, and sun it will be with us forever. The only way to end it is to rid the world of one of the players.