Posts made by Meijing

Let’s compare it to Afghanistan.
2001: 12
2002: 43
2003: 46
2004: 42

But the situation in Afghanistan is compeletly different, so there could be many reasons for those significantly lower numbers.

Comparing the situation in Iraq now to other countries and times can be done, but you have to be very carefull not to compare apples with oranges. It is for example meaningless to compare the deads among military personal with the deads among civilians in New York. We also have to be aware that those numbers do not include any deaths of Iraqi security forces. So comparing it to the deads of police forces in other countries is also shortsighted.
On the other hand we can assume, that a change of casualties from one month to the next is mostly due to a change of violence level. Eigther initiated by insurgents or by the American army.

In October 65 American soldiers died in Iraq. This is an improvement compared to the 80 deads in Semptember, but still worse than the 40 deads per month from May to Semptember 2003.
Will the situation in Iraq continue to improve in November or will it deteriorate?

I think it is less important how those numbers compare to wars like WWI or Vietnam, or conflicts like in Northern Ireland or in Palestine, or peace keeping mission like in the Balkans or in Afghanistan. What I think is more important is how those numbers compare to Iraq. The number of dead GIs is the most reliable indicator of violence in Iraq, we have.

Your right, 80 soldiers a month isn’t too much for a war. And it might be more dangerous for an unarmed civilian in New York than than for a full armoured soldier in Bagdhad.
I don’t think the important fact is not the absolute number but the change compared to the other months.
Yes, Bagdhad 2004 is a saver place to be than Verdun 1915, but it’s more dangerous place than Bagdhad 2003.
The situation in Iraq is not impoving.

In Semptember 80 American soldiers died in Iraq, which made it one of the bloodiest months since the beginning of the war.
Though at the beginning of october it was relatively calm, at least 28 soldiers died during the last six days.
Do you think that the casualties in october will exeed the casualties in september?

Sources:
icasualties.org
www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/casualties.asp

Worked out 40 pages detailing the conditions for this debate including room temperature and they forgot to make sure the questions were balanced?
To my information it was Bush’s choice to cover the Iraq war in the first debate.

@Janus1:

now take iraq. completely different. the people, had they enough will to rise up against saddam, could not. he was right there, with his gigantic army, and the republican guard, randomly and wantonly killing his people, and ready to crush any who opposed him with brutal force. the people were terrified of him. they could not, had they ever talked about democracy, been able to bring it about, they were too opressed.

i dont say that they can have it now, or will, or should. just that now that saddam is gone, it can come to be, if they want it. otherwise, it will almost certainly be a theocracy.

Yes, they could have brought democracy about not now, not with economic sanctions in place, but on the long run.
Watch Iran, unless the USA ivade it, it is likely to be the first democray in Middle East, with the exception of Israel.
Likewise I expect China to evolve to a democray.

It took 40 years for the East Germans to shake off comunism but in the end they succeded.

@Janus1:

i think the postwar handling of Iraq was misguided, but the war was still a good thing, imo.

Hey, this allmost sounds like Kerry.

I think, the “postwar” handling started before the war. Going to war on false pretexts like 9/11 or “weapons of mass destruction”, alienating allies like France or Germany, this all didn’t help.

Kofi Annan says credible elections are unlikely in February.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1590197,00.html

In face of the recent increase of violence in Iraq, many start to doubt, that there will be national elections next January.
On the other side Condoleezza Rize expressed confidence that they will take place.

What is your opinon on that matter?

@cystic:

I’m not sure why this should refer to the Pentacost. Jesus didn’t mention a time limit.

no, however this refered to an “event” not a “time”. The event occured at a specific time (much as the birth of Jesus, etc.).
I believe that the Bible is accurate, however it does not mention everything, and obviously many events occurred outside of it.

But Acts 2 doesn’t mention any poison or snakes. It mentions speaking in tongues, but why should it mention only the most unimpressive sign?

@cystic:

Anything is deadly in a high enough dose.
Millions of people are currently taking rat poison. It is known as Warfarin or Coumadin, and it saves lives at therapeutic dose, however it could result in liver problems, and if not monitored, could result in bleeding complications.

Hence he uses the word “deadly”.
Deadly poison is poison in a dose high enough to be deadly, else it isn’t deadly poison.

I’m not sure why this should refer to the Pentacost. Jesus didn’t mention a time limit.

You have to swallow huge amounts of HCl before it is deadly. Rat poison is probably a better joice. But make sure the dose is high enough.

@Mark:

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

Who has drunk deadly poison?

I voted rock, but I would rather use the British label indie.

Eels
Tori Amos
Placebo
Nirvana
Bad Religion
Korn
Tocotronic

But I also like some, mostly German, Hip-Hop

House of Pain
Die Fantastischen Vier
Kinderzimmer Productions

I never heard of reletivism. If you want an answer explain what you mean by it.

Is there absolute truth? Certainly no.
Are deeds intrinsicly good or evil? No.

I’ve got the impression that US people tend to see everything black and white.

Illegal weapon dumps? What’s that? Did they wreck their weapons illegally? What weapons? Chemical weapons? Biological weapons? nuclear weapons?

Yes, Saddam did have rockets exceding by a few miles their allowed range, and he dismantled them before the war.

Read what Kay was saying about illegal weapons:
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iraq-04c.html

It wasn’t only the war with Spain. The words I changed apear in italic.

The USA was looking to increase its power in the Middle East. It was just looking far a casus belli. When terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, the US governement wanted to make sure it got one. They sent an ultimatum to Iraq, hoping, that Iraq would reject it. Iraq accepted some but not all of those terms, and the USA declared war.

Even though Bush claims Saddam did not fullfill all terms, I think he did.

It was definitly the fault of Germany and Austria.

Austria was looking to increase its power in the Balkan. It was just looking far a casus belli. When terrorists killed the Archeduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austrian governement wanted to make sure it got one. They sent an ultimatum to Serbia, hoping, that Serbia would reject it. Serbia accepted some but not all of those terms, and Austria declared war. Germany is responsible for encouraging Austria in its plan to anex Serbia.

I was studying Mathematics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. And I was really suprised by its low standards.
The first week I met a graduate student grading a test for undergraduates. This test contained problems like
3 + (-7) !!!
and there were people incapable of solving that!
A friend of mine was giving a cours to students ef Electrical Engeneering, who could not simplify
(x - 1)/x + x/(x + 1)
I had “Real Analysis” in my first year at university. But in America, you don’t hear it before your first or second year of graduate studies.

Maybe the Americans should cut that “Greatest Nation on Earth”.

Two soldiers were killed during a raid early Fryday morning.

Peace is different.