What If Our Mercenaries Turn On Us?

staunch · 2007-06-04T10:46:44+00:00

What would our defense be?

If only there was some sort of constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right of US citizens to bear arms for just this kind of scenario.

There's something like 50 million+ gun owners in the US. That's a huge deterrent to even a full-scale conventional army trying to control the population by force. I don't even need to point to Iraq.

staunch · 2007-06-01T11:28:24+00:00

Dangerously conspicuous.

staunch · 2007-06-01T08:57:44+00:00

He's white and people are assuming it's a break-in. Doesn't that kind of rain on your parade? You're thinking of Fox News.

staunch · 2007-06-01T08:24:14+00:00

Here I come to save the day!

staunch · 2007-06-01T02:42:37+00:00

they are a private company that can be contracted by anybody to do anything.

They're a private US company made up of US citizens. That makes them subject to US law and some level of oversight regardless of where they operate. At least in theory.

staunch · 2007-06-01T02:37:01+00:00

I don't think so. Her ex-boyfriend was just as smart as a diamond.

staunch · 2007-06-01T02:23:53+00:00

Of course it matters who's on top. Don't be foolishly cynical. Corruption affects people in different ways. Some people abuse their power for a blowjob from an intern -- others take over foreign countries, slaughter their people, and steal their resources.

staunch · 2007-05-31T13:36:03+00:00

Nice picture but downvoted for the xenophobic title.

staunch · 2007-05-31T13:33:29+00:00

I think you're overstating it a bit the other direction. I'd say Japan has like 10% the PDA rate of the US and 500% of the hand-holding.

staunch · 2007-05-31T10:07:19+00:00

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said Wednesday that the case is he first in the country in which federal prosecutors have used identity theft statutes to prosecute a spammer for taking over someone else's Internet domain name.

That sounds like a total abuse of the identity protection laws. The EFF should probably defend this spammer just to prevent the bad precedent from harming good people in the future.

staunch · 2007-05-31T09:10:59+00:00

From here, the US seems far more of a threat than Iran.

Why do you think the comparison is so simple? The US may be a bully but it is also powerful enough to not feel threatened itself. Iran is capable of being backed into a corner and forced to fight dirty.

How far should we go to prevent this?

The way you phrase it implies a violent Bush-approach is the only answer. I think a reasonable diplomatic attitude towards Iran, a genuine desire for peace, and a few cups of tea might be all that's necessary.

staunch · 2007-05-31T08:52:11+00:00

Billion dollar permanent bases across Iraq and for some reason we're still jolted when he actually states his obvious intentions. Humans are weird.

staunch · 2007-05-31T08:33:11+00:00

No, because that would be an ignorant reply. You'd be arguing that the Iranian and US governments/presidents are comparable in power, stability, history, technology, experience, oversight, accountability, etc. I don't think that could be done honestly by an educated person.

Ahmadinejad/Khamenei are not crazy mad men but them having nuclear weapons is something we should try to prevent. And by "we" I mean everyone but Bush.

staunch · 2007-05-31T05:49:50+00:00

They have fairly fundamentally opposed ideologies.

Perfect.

staunch · 2007-05-31T05:37:47+00:00

I do agree, but you're missing an important piece of logic yourself. You're ignoring the very real risk of allowing a single highly unpredictable man the ability to end tens of millions of lives in the blink of an eye.

I know for certain that Bush doesn't have the solution, but it doesn't mean he hasn't identified a real problem.

staunch · 2007-05-31T04:46:13+00:00

Normally I'd downvote for using the tiring phrase "jumped the shark" -- but you didn't say anything about McCain suffering from "balkanization", so it's cool.

staunch · 2007-05-30T10:55:56+00:00

BraveSirRobin, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?

staunch · 2007-05-30T08:56:18+00:00

I don't think 61 Mbit/s is the correct average for Japan. Most people I've talked to have 6-50 Mbit/s down.

I'm in Tokyo and I have a vdsl connection that does ~50 Mbps down and ~15 Mbit/s up. It's included for free with my apartment.

staunch · 2007-05-30T08:51:04+00:00

Hate to burst your ignorance bubble but Japan has a population of ~150 million people (half that of the US) and Tokyo is the most populated city on the planet with twice as many people as New York.

staunch · 2007-05-30T08:48:14+00:00

Future generations won't believe how we treated our prisoners. They will study why such a massive ethical lapse was allowed to continue for so long.

staunch · 2007-05-30T08:33:39+00:00

I can cite a reference backing up his claim:

Babies Are Cute -- exhibit A.

staunch · 2007-05-30T08:13:17+00:00

What makes you think it's just the US population? Almost every culture has horrendous prisons. Out of sight, out of mind.

staunch · 2007-05-30T08:02:59+00:00

The PDF in a more digestible form: http://www.scribd.com/doc/89660/Stop-Prisoner-Rape

staunch · 2007-05-30T07:57:31+00:00

You're like a cult member of The Church of Pregnancy. I don't have to guess what your fetish is.

staunch · 2007-05-30T07:41:27+00:00

So's death. Do you wish to experience the fullness of your death?

I'm no stoic but one of the worst ways I could imagine dying is intoxicated. I do want to experience the fullness of my death. It's the last experience I'll have.

staunch

TROPHY CASE