ExodusNirvana
Change is inevitable...
LOL those chicks from p*ssy Riot are still in jail...keep stanning Putin though
... perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the commander-in-chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek; one in which we are joined by 42 other countries -- including Norway -- in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks.
Still, we are at war, and I'm responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill, and some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the costs of armed conflict -- filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.
... over time, as codes of law sought to control violence within groups, so did philosophers and clerics and statesmen seek to regulate the destructive power of war. The concept of a "just war" emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when certain conditions were met: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the force used is proportional; and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence ....
...with the advent of the nuclear age, it became clear to victor and vanquished alike that the world needed institutions to prevent another world war. And so, a quarter century after the United States Senate rejected the League of Nations -- an idea for which Woodrow Wilson received this prize -- America led the world in constructing an architecture to keep the peace: a Marshall Plan and a United Nations, mechanisms to govern the waging of war, treaties to protect human rights, prevent genocide, restrict the most dangerous weapons.
And yet, a decade into a new century, this old architecture is buckling under the weight of new threats. The world may no longer shudder at the prospect of war between two nuclear superpowers, but proliferation may increase the risk of catastrophe. Terrorism has long been a tactic, but modern technology allows a few small men with outsized rage to murder innocents on a horrific scale.
Moreover, wars between nations have increasingly given way to wars within nations. The resurgence of ethnic or sectarian conflicts; the growth of secessionist movements, insurgencies, and failed states -- all these things have increasingly trapped civilians in unending chaos. In today's wars, many more civilians are killed than soldiers; the seeds of future conflict are sown, economies are wrecked, civil societies torn asunder, refugees amassed, children scarred.
We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations -- acting individually or in concert -- will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified....
support autocrats brehs
I'll add and re-post what I said in the syria thread from a NYTimes commentator
I'll add and re-post what I said in the syria thread from a NYTimes commentator
"We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos."
For over two years, Russia has blocked every UN intervention proposed to stop Assad's slaughter of 100,000 Syrian people, the creation of 2,000,000 refugees fleeing their own country and over 6,000,000 Syrians displaced from their own homes, all along supplying Assad with state of the art weaponry.
During this period, when Russia and Syria worked against the United Nations, ignoring the pleas of human rights organizations and the US and the EU to negotiate a political solution with the Free Syria movement, Al Quaeda fighters from every corner of the globe took advantage and entered Syria. Al Nusra Front, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria is largely the result of that.
In a UN report recently released documenting the horrendous use of chemical weapons in Syria, one attack, among the smallest, has been linked to the rebels while every other one, and there have been many, have been found to have been directly released by the Assad government.
This is a beautifully written piece but it ignores years of Russian obstruction of UN intervention.
However, I applaud President Putin's move toward the UN and President Obama's, also. If the Syrian people are to be saved, it will be at the UN. How unfortunate that two long, brutal years have been wasted.
It's not my job to watch a forty minute video to look for what you're claiming is evidence.
It is not the UN's job to involve itself in domestic disputes. The UN exists to prevent nations from attacking each other, particularly protecting weaker countries from smaller ones, for precisely the reasons that are being pushed for intervention today.
Nonsense.No. Especially if you have been paying attention to the last 40 years.
Nonsense.
The excerpt below is directly from the charter of the UN.
Pres. Obama
And you didn't bother to read article 2.
I kind of feel bad for Obama. No matter what he does people will always demonize him even though it's clear he's trying to do the right thing. Unlike his predecessor he never invaded countries for his personal/political benefits. The Libyan people asked for help to over throw a tyrant and we did just that and got the fukk out of there. No the Syrian people are asking for help and Obama is getting criticized for doing the humane thing. 99% of Muslims aren't terrorists and helping some of these Muslim countries get rid of there dictators might actually be beneficial to the US because the number one tool a terrorist organization has is recruiting people who hate America. If we go in there and get rid of Asad I find it hard to believe that the Syrian people will somehow become terrorists who will attack America.
It's sad that the Right and Russians are brainwashing people into thinking Asad is a good guy and is the only person who can keep Syrians together. Guys like Asad is why the Middle East hates us because we hand picked these dictators and put them in power for our personal agendas instead of letting the democratic process take it's course. No Obama want's to undo that and people are bashing him for it. Reality is that people want to live in peace and that's no different in the Middle East.
5. Assad has kept the country together. He has been in office since 2000, why didn't he feel threaten then? How about the next year or the follow year after that?
Basically.
Just because America got guns, they can't keep going to the extreme on everything.
Going from 0 to 60 is not going to fly in 2013. It is making us look silly.