Enough bigotry on this BLOG!
I am assuming that many of the virulent comments from muslim-haters come from non-LLNL people. In that case, I look at such commenters as ignorant people that are still scared by the Bush propaganda.
These are the same people that despite the bad shape they are in economically still worship Bush. They really believe (honestly) that if Bush was not the president, we will have the terrorists roaming our airports!
In the event some of these anti-muslim comments are from LLNL employees, I have a message for them:
US citizenship, the right to life and the pursuit of happiness (and the right to have a Q clearance)are not the monopoly of any given race or religion.
As Anna Julian Cooper put it:
"The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class, it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity."
8 comments:
If the originator actually worked at LLNL he/she would know better than to make unfounded accusations like this.
The segue to Bush-bashing is laughable. The lab's political demographics are no different than the rest of the East Bay area.
I was at LLNL on the days following 9/11 and many people there were mad as hell. No different than anywhere else in the country at the time. But the anger was directed at terrorists, not their religion.
If this country really wanted to wipe the Islamic faith off the face of the planet it certainly has the tech to do it. But we as a nation don't operate that way - despite the lies and insuations some folks delight in spreading.
We, as a nation, pay a heavy price for our compassion. In the lives of our soldiers sacrificed in order to be selective in who and how we fight. We could easily have avoided losing the majority of those multiple thousands of US troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan - but there would have been massively larger casualty rates among civilians in the area.
The decision by Osama bin Laden to attack was based on mis-guided beliefs that have no support in the text of the Koran. Our country's response has nothing to do with his religion. We'd go after any fanatical group in exactly the same manner - find the target, isolate it, neutralise it, move on. The military takes no joy in the task and neither do LLNL employees.
There are many things wrong with LLNL these days. But the social morality of the rank and file isn't on the list.
"We'd go after any fanatical group in exactly the same manner - find the target, isolate it, neutralize it, move on."
The good old USA does not do this at all and they take their enemy far to lightly. They are nothing more than police officers trying to police the world with UN backing and that for sure is a joke too. Your pussy footing tactics don't work. It didn't work in Vietnam and it will not work in Iraq.The last good military on earth with correct military tactics was Germany and Japan, and before them was Attilla the Hun and Dracula Bram Stoker. Someday you'll learn but not as long as you have an East Bay mentality.
July 22, 2008 5:48 PM
If Scooby continues to allow your inflammatory comments - specifically under the thread of "stop the virulence" - then I'm done participating on this blog. I hope the rest of the world realizes that your views are not shared by 99.99% of LLNL's population.
BTW I completely agree with July 22, 2008 3:25 AM's post.
5:48 is obviously not a military science expert, much less a historian.
1. Current US strategic and tactical doctrine is completely different from Vietnam era. Basing troops in strongholds failed miserably in Vietnam. The "Surge" distributed troops all around a given region - much riskier, but far more effective in countering the enemy.
2. WWII Germany and Japan used completely different combat systems - assuming that's the Germany and Japan intended. German tactics used combined land-air operations - very similar to current US techniques. Japan depended more on massed troops and her excellent navy to achieve victories.
3. Bram Stoker was not a general. Prince Vlad III of Wallachia lost most of the battles he fought and was notorious for his brutality to both enemy and subject.
4. Attilla swept through Europe using light cavalry - his use of negotiation won him far more battles than his troops did.
As for current US forces being inept lightweights, they took Baghdad in just 2 days during Operation Thunder Run using 29 tanks, 13 Bradleys, and a brigade from 3rd Infantry. Military science scholars declared that battle a new classic for textbooks almost immediately.
July 23, 2008 3:16 AM
Great histoty lesson but here's are the facts'
The good old USA didn't finish the job and that's exactly why your enemies lives on to come back another day to kill you. You guys just don't get it. War is about total annihilation and full control after the conflict, not , lets talk about our issues and differences at starbucks.
Actually, war is not about total annihilation and has not been for most of recorded history. That's because war isn't an end unto itself; you're trying to acocmplish something beyond mere fighting. That reality generally forces restraints of some kind or another on one's actions.
Those who have pushed war toward total annihilation in the modern world have generally ended badly. John Keegan, about as good a military historian as there is living now, has written very eloquently on the dysfunctional and self-destructive nature of the pursuit for total annihilation.
The desire to simply crush absolutely, far from being wisdom or special insight, stems from the more juvenile aspects of ego. The world outside our minds is simply not something we ever have full control over. That's the fundamental fact of existence, and why all the major religions place such an emphasis on humility.
I guess that explains why when the America's were kicking some butt and about to roll into Baghdad to destroy it and its people they "had the support " of the American people, but as soon as they became "police" instead of soldiers, they lost all support overnight. This tells me one thing. 99% of Americans were hoping they'd we got it right this time and would allow the Admirals and Generals to run the war and do as they please. What they did was let the politicians step in alongside with the UN and it became another Vietnam. A worthless war leading to massive immigration being feed with your tax dollar. Enjoying yourselves yet, American's ?
July 25, 2008 11:46 AM
Evidently you've never been in a war no longer in the field being shot at or have your friend die next to you. Try it some time and put you books away. You may learn what war is really all about. Humanity. What the heck is that. The enemy is the enemy and termination with extreme prejudice in the most expedient manner is the only solution. POW's are a waste of resources. The best example I can think of is Hiroshima and Nagasaki and as far as I'm concern that wasn't adequate. Thank God we actually had people with common sense in charge in those years.
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