Syria

Well, let's look at the bright side of all of this: We've attempted to encouraged Wolve to not be racist towards jews, and to have a more open mind and be more recievable when it comes to criticism and other ideologies.

Let me just throw this in:
No matter how much you say that you can easilier and clearlier teach people things and express yourself by having freedom of speech and being offensive, this is just simply not justified: That it actually helps you to teach, or the other person to learn, by you saying "Are you really that stupid?". I'd say it's actually opposite; Being offensive provokes anger, which blinds and causes people to make statements that they otherwise wouldn't use, and it ends with it all boiling up to what happened in this thread.

This is partially everyone's fault. Some more, some less. But I'd say the one to blame for the tragic way this discussion ended, is Cerberus. Yes, I am pointing out who's fault it is, and yes, I am blaming him, and yes, it does actually matter who "started it". If you (Talking to everyone now, in general) want to have a correct and just decision, you don't only need to be calm like Cerberus does, but you also absolutely are required to be respectful and as less offensive as possible. Otherwise, it all just boils up and ends like this because every human is defensive. It's like domino; If you tip the first brick, the rest goes down with it until they're all down, leaving a whole mess for you to look at.

Of course it does matter that someone's offensive words are calm and righteous, while someone else's are meaningless or hateful. But in the end, in the wholeness of it, everyone are required to refrain from being offensive, no matter if it is said in a reasonable way or not, because, again, it boils down to the end of it.

I don't really see the discussion continuing much for the moment, but I'll lock this for a while anyway to let it cool down, and from there on, concider wether to eventually unlock it, or delete it. -Skaara

 

Yea whats worse is that he doesn't look like a mass murderer. He doesn't look like someone to do something like this.

 

While history is often deformed to make things look good i agree. Not all people with money and power are bad. But the problem is that leaders today and monarchs of yesterday have to much power. But they themsleves are parts of a machine. gears that revolve in it pushing each part.
But not all of history has been like this. Some leaders were and are great.

 

Sadly, we're all, all of us, just cogs in the machine.

 

So what makes a leader great?

 

Now, that, my friend, is a question I have been pondering over for a looong while.
I've been watching a lot of SGU (Stargate Universe) lately, where Colonel Everett Young is in command, and there are very often someone who wants to replace him because they think he makes "bad decisions". But the fact is that if you are a leader for a long period of time, you will inevitably make bad decisions, and most often you will never know if the other choice would have been the right one, or if it would have been even worse. Of course you can mention thousands of reasons for why a leader should act in a thousand different ways, and a thousand reasons for why a leader shouldn't act in a thousand different ways. Some leaders will always be better than other leaders. A quick bad vs good, and not-so-thought-through example is Obama vs Osama.

The question 'what makes a leader great' is a very very abstract question. It's like asking "what is love".
I know this and can relate to is because back in my HL2RP (Half-Life 2 Role-play) days, my character Austin Riley was the leader of several large rebel/resistance -groups against the Combine and any other threat like bandits or aliens. Leading the whole rebellion was difficult and pressuring, and I often made wrong decisions, perhaps even more often than I made good decisions. Or perhaps not. I will never know, really. But what I do know is that a leader needs to stay calm and focused, and he needs to give direct and certain orders. That is where both Austin Riley and Colonel Everett Young failed miserably by locking themselves away, sitting in their bed downing alcohol to block out all pressure and thoughts.

 

Wow, this thread turned upside down.

Leadership is a great thing. I feel a bit burned out at this point, but here's a great speech about leadership given by William Deresiewicz at West Point that I've always liked. http://theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/#.US1QFnfYF8E

 

well this is getting worse

 

bump america to arm syrian rebels

 

Worst decision ever. It's a lose-lose situation, but I think the US are doing this to draw attention away from the NSA Prism reveals. Has worked before, will work again.

 

so its a good idea to keep in a annti-west dictator and with the whole prisim thing everyone spys on everyone

 

You have no idea, do you?
The Free Syrian Army's best fighters are members of the Al Nursa Front, an Al Qaeda offshoot. The FSA doesn't care about Al Nursa's motivations and ideology, because they keep besting Assad's forces on the battlefield. Therefore, any U.S. military aid that is sent to moderate leaders in the FSA will inevitably land in the hands of Al Nursa militants. The best fighters will get the best equipment, period. And once the guns and bombs are in Syria, the U.S. won't be able to control who gets what.
It's amazing to watch America continually arm the Islamists that they are supposedly fighting a "War on Terror" against. You would think that after arming the mujahedin in the Afghan-Soviet war, they would've learned that the enemy of your enemy is not always your friend. But no. The U.S.'s intervention in Libya has already proven to be a debacle. Al Qaeda in Mali has reportedly gotten its hands on surface-to-air missiles that originally belonged to Gaddafi's military. What happens if Al Nursa gets its hands on Assad's chemical weapons supply? That would be horrible.

 

and your sources are?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nusra_Front
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...03d06f4-3b2e-11e2-9258-ac7c78d5c680_blog.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/opinion/al-qaeda-in-syria.html?_r=0
http://www.smh.com.au/world/alqaeda...il-war-nears-israels-door-20130607-2nvje.html
I also have sources from radio, but I'm not sure they have been podcasted and they're in Danish anyway.

 

smh= so what exactly? al quada are looking for allies money and support nothing new
NYtimes= al quada forces fighting a global jihad so on and so forth, fighting in syria, but so is hezzlabolahballs

washington post= very biased with no hard evidence
the wiki= they are all doing jihads and extremists crap no difference

what points are you trying to make?

 

My point is that the picture of this war is blurry enough that a western power would not want to enter (And I am one of this persons who think a war can actually solve a problem), also because there is no obvious good guy in this. Assad has protected the minorities, and they are in grave danger if some extremist group seizes power. Of course I support whatever the people want, but where are the people? All I see are men aged 16-40, some of which are extremists and paramilitary units from other countries - not the Syrian people in itself.

 

now im going to be very honest if you find this offencive then bug off

The western world was not built in a day we have had world wars empires rise and fall the fedual years the rennaicance the cold war

asia has gone through the exact same thing

yet through all this we now live in a age where there is (releative) peace all exept for the middle east which continues to eat itself allive (i have excluded africa because well who gives a shit fix your own problems like we had to)

i look at it as if we could do ot why not them?

 

Exactly. Let them fight their own war. Do not intervene.