Contrast and compare:

[Celerity]

hahahah ahahHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHH WHEW Oh god I can't breathe,

HAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHHAH AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAH OH HAHAHAHAHAH

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/04/car...back/index.html

Victor Davis Hansen wrote:

Imagine a different Nov. 4, 1979, in Tehran. Shortly after Iranian terrorists storm the American Embassy and take some 90 American hostages, President Carter announces that Islamic fundamentalism is not a legitimate response to the excess of the shah but a new and dangerous fascism that threatens all that liberal society holds dear. And then he issues an ultimatum to Tehran's leaders: Release the captives or face a devastating military response.

When that demand is not met, instead of freezing Iran's assets, stopping the importation of its oil, or seeking support at the U.N., Mr. Carter orders an immediate blockade of the country, followed by promises to bomb, first, all of its major military assets, and then its main government buildings and residences of its ruling mullocracy. The Ayatollah Khomeini might well have called his bluff; we may well have tragically lost the hostages (151 fewer American lives than the Iranian-backed Hezbollah would take four years later in a single day in Lebanon). And there might well have been the sort of chaos in Tehran that we now witness in Baghdad. But we would have seen it all in 1979- -and not in 2001, after almost a quarter-century of continuous Middle East terrorism, culminating in the mass murder of 3,000 Americans and the leveling of the World Trade Center.


Read em and weep. Discuss.

 

[totalburnout]

Americans are all about aftercare and not preventative maintenance. Its the same reason why the majority of Americans will allow their health to decline; they just figure that there will be some cure for it or some major pill rather than doing the intelligent thing and preventing the problem in the first place.

The East and the West are very different places. In the West, these problems would have been squashed before they truly became major problems, but in the East we just let the problem inflate until its too late and then its all damage control from there.

I will say this, history does not reveal its alternate courses and one may never know the ultimate outcome had the situation been different. Surely, I believe if we took a stand when the problem was still in its infancy stage we would be much better off, but hell lets just be Americans and not care until its too late. Afterall that is how we're characterized and we would absolutely loathe not being able to fulfill a stereotype.

 

[Celerity]

Not the jist of what he is saying.

The jist is this: Carter, while not following through with his threats, made the same types of decisions that Bush did. Bush followed through with all of them. He doesn't bluff. And because of George (And with Iran Contra - Reagan) the entire world knows that if you fuck with the US, the US will come to get you. There are no more threats.

And have there been terrorist attacks in the US since his promise ? No. I think that the UK is finally following suit with our methods.

I remember when Israel offered training and methods on how to deal with terrorists. And I remember hearing (Someone, and immediately I said it myself) that Israel knows nothing about handling terrorists, because they still have a big terrorist problem. This is true. The US model of how to deal with extremists should be regarded as the only true method that currently works. At some point, someone else will have something else.

the UK is starting by rounding up and marking all of the Muslims. Talk about over board. Even if you hate America, thank whoever you pray to at night that you are here and not somewhere else.

 

[totalburnout]

Quoted post[/post]]
Not the jist of what he is saying.

The jist is this: Carter, while not following through with his threats, made the same types of decisions that Bush did. Bush followed through with all of them. He doesn't bluff. And because of George (And with Iran Contra - Reagan) the entire world knows that if you fuck with the US, the US will come to get you. There are no more threats.

And have there been terrorist attacks in the US since his promise ? No. I think that the UK is finally following suit with our methods.

I remember when Israel offered training and methods on how to deal with terrorists. And I remember hearing (Someone, and immediately I said it myself) that Israel knows nothing about handling terrorists, because they still have a big terrorist problem. This is true. The US model of how to deal with extremists should be regarded as the only true method that currently works. At some point, someone else will have something else.

the UK is starting by rounding up and marking all of the Muslims. Talk about over board. Even if you hate America, thank whoever you pray to at night that you are here and not somewhere else.

Honestly, I think it brings more of a point about Carter not following through and using preventative maintenance rather than the worlds current political situation.

Had Carter followed through then these things would probably have never occured.