We didn't leave people to die on the beaches at Normandy or Tarawa or Okinawa or Inchon, and according to your own theory it was more or less the same elite running the country in the Forties as it was in the Sixties. If you blame them for getting it wrong in the Sixties you ought to at least recognize that they did get something very important right at another time. Or are you too petty to do so?
People can sometimes be blind to their own point of view. I am aware of no illogical and fallacious aspects to my point of view. Perhaps you can point them out for me?
Look at the other thread. You were completely illogical about the Confederate invasion of Kentucky. You also didn't understand economic dumping or why a country would want to control transport between its own cities rather than let foreigners run everything.
I also turned out to be absolutely right about the war in Iraq.
I don't think I was wrong about that either, but the discussion was so complicated and so heated and people that I otherwise respected were so wrong that I don't like to boast about maybe getting it right. In any case, I notice you only started posting here in 2011, so nobody will know if you're truthful about that or not.
Now that I think about it, I have a pretty d@mn fine track record of calling out really bad ideas when they are first proposed.
I don't know about that. You've had some nutty ideas yourself even apart from the Civil War stuff. I'll have to start keeping track of them.
It would seem to me the earlier elite still had some sense of ethics that the later elite had lost. The Kennedys were effectively Mafiosos because their fortunes were made with criminal activity. John, Robert and Teddy were spoiled rotten rich brats. Second generation wealth always seems less capable than the earlier generations.
If you blame them for getting it wrong in the Sixties you ought to at least recognize that they did get something very important right at another time.
The WWII generation has been regarded as the "greatest generation" for good reasons. It was a time when everyone was pulling for what they believed to be the best interests of the country.
You were completely illogical about the Confederate invasion of Kentucky.
Disagree. The North had already invaded Missouri and Maryland, and the South was trying to grab whatever it could at that point. Kentucky should have been a natural ally for them, and so the effort made sense in the context of a war which had already began.
You also didn't understand economic dumping or why a country would want to control transport between its own cities rather than let foreigners run everything.
Addressed in the message prior to this one. Even if your theory about economic dumping would have occurred in an independent South, the end consequence would be a gain in value for the Southern states, and a massive loss of income in the Northern manufacturing states.
I don't think I was wrong about that either, but the discussion was so complicated and so heated and people that I otherwise respected were so wrong that I don't like to boast about maybe getting it right.
Well what was *your* position on the war in Iraq?
I notice you only started posting here in 2011, so nobody will know if you're truthful about that or not.
I have posted elsewhere before 2011, and I have mentioned my position on the war in Iraq many times on this forum, so if I'm lying, I've been doing it for a long time.
In a nutshell, Paul Bremmer with the acquiescence of George W Bush, absolutely f***ed up everything. They showed a fundamental misunderstanding of the Nature of the Iraqi people and their society. They turned a victory into a nightmare by the stupid decisions they made, and it could have turned out so very much better.
I predicted exactly what was going to happen when Bremmer made his announcement that he was both disbanding the Iraqi army and banning any member of the Ba'ath party from working in the Government.
I said at the time, "He has just given the most dangerous men in Iraq a very good reason to kill as many Americans as they possibly can." They will now attempt to wipe us out in any manner of which they can conceive.
The bombs started going off days later, exactly as I knew they would.
Said at the time, " I can't believe all those "War College" graduates did not tell Bremmer that this is absolutely the most stupid thing he could possibly do. "
We didn't even do this with Nazi Germany, and that's because our leadership back then had better sense.
You've had some nutty ideas yourself even apart from the Civil War stuff.
Would be interested to know what ideas I have advanced that you regard as "nutty."
Now I do occasionally engage in hyperbole and attempting to get a rise out of people, so sometimes I will say things that are a little outrageous just to provoke a conversation, but I also argue soberly and seriously, so I guess it would depend on the subject and my mood at the time.
But by all means, identify any of my ideas you consider nutty.