Ted Rall for September 12, 2009

Ted have you seen” War Inc.”? I’m guessing , “yes” everyone should ahh …Ghanis with the right sauce they’re delicious.

Just love the never been there, never done that critics, from both sides, who just know how it is.

You wouldn’t like me, then Humphries, because I’ve never been there, I don’t know how it is, and frankly I’m not even sure what that is.

Never been there. Never done that. Don’t know how it is. Perhaps you might enlighten?

Really? You’ve carried a weapon and had to kill people who wanted to kill you? You should definitely add that to your Wikipedia page along with your flunking out of engineering school!

Wow, no one could have predicted this unless you watched the pilot ep of Star Trek: TNG and saw this sort of thing mentioned as part of our future. Oh, and Gene Roddenberry flew combat in WWII, so, you know…

Never been there, never did that. Still, I want the troops to come home, or be allowed to actually find Osama Bin Laden, arrest him and bring him to the USA for a trial.

One could make an analogy to the number of musclebound policemen seen these days.

I wish to God it was just a matter of finding Bin Laden, and bringing him to trial, but the threat is MUCH larger than that. By far the majority of Muslims in this country are peace-loving, and want to enjoy the American experience. But, considering the millions of Muslims in this country, even if only, say, 5% of them are fanatical, that’s hundreds of thousands who would be perfectly willing to walk into YOUR school, YOUR office building, YOUR ballpark, with a bomb strapped to their waist, and blow up everyone in their proximity. THAT’s the larger picture. Think about it.

“never been there, never done that”

You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.

Christian fanatics???

In the broader sense- “been there, done that”, so has my son in the current “conflicts”. Having been around different cultures, and religious nuts, met some-got along fine, killed some. I have to admit I am far more leery of “Christian hypocrites” than “Muslim nuts”, and that ultimate minority- right-wing “Israeli Jews”, looney toons are totally scary. Any race, species, or philosophy that thinks destruction of the planet opens the way to a better world, or “heaven”, needs a LOT of time on the couch. Show me a philosophy that say the highest force in the universes demands peace and cooperation among ALL species, on ALL planets, in ALL universes and dimensions, without kissing up to “it”, and I’ll listen up. There IS something out there beyond our comprehension, but all organized (bible) religions are based on HUMAN desires, demands, and intolerance at some level.

Not all who serve carry a gun.

meowdam, Amen.

and we never thanked you enough

dtrouma, have you checked out the Dalai Lama? I don’t know the specifics of Tibetan Buddhism, but as far as World Religious Leaders go, he seems to be the most sensible.

fritzoid- indeed have read his teachings- closest to being Buddhist.

Even with the extreme wisdom of the Dalai Lama, within the “faith” and writings of the Buddha, there is subjugation of women to some extent, and a few “male chauvinist” leanings.

Nobody’s “perfect”, as they say.

But, yes, Buddhism does have better answers, and more open love, instead of domination, subjugation, and fear.

My exposure to the related “martial arts” (which actually stress DEFENSE and mental control, not OFFENSE) started at age 6, several decades before they became “popular” in the U.S. It contributed to why I say I’m “anti-war”, but not a pacifist.

If our “Defense” agencies worked harder at defense, and less toward offense, we’d be much safer.

Thanks for your service Ted!

Wow! They let old man Wells out of the home today. How bout putting your paranoia to good use like putting a stop to Tobacco products? They kill more Americans than Al-Queda ever could dream of. Or those Conservatives who want to put your social security benefits in the hands of wall street tycoons? Or the people who are profiteering off these so called wars that we’re in?

It seems that our fears are largely misplaced.

Amen, d_legendary! Can you imagine what a horror show we would be living in today if Bush had gotten away with his plan to privatize Social Security and put it into the Stock Market back in 2005? We would have senior citizens jumping out of windows like depression-era bankers right about now.

M Henri Day said, less than a minute ago

Humphries, have you ever been to Afghanistan ? I have, and I happen to know that Ted Rall has been there as well. I didn’t kill anybody there, however, and I doubt that Ted did either, so perhaps according to your lights we don’t have the right to speak (or draw or write) about the country….

Henri

Fennec, even though both the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan has - rightly, in my opinion - been compared to that of Vietnam and other countries in Southeast Asia, there do exist certain significant differences between the two regions. Mr Rall’s cartoon specifically referred to the former. Humphries took «never been there, never done that critics, from both sides, who just know how it is» to task, wherefore I found both my question and my comment relevant. As far as I know, neither Humphries or oldlegodad have ever distanced themselves on this forum from what you describe as «what they have [sic !] had to do», but in the event I have missed something, I should be glad to stand corrected….

Henri

I’ve never been there or done that and have only the vaguest, horrific imaginings of how it might be. I don’t want to. But more importantly, I don’t want ANYONE to be there or do that or find out how it is. I don’t want to criticize individual soldiers or groups of them for their actions; I just want them out of Afpakiraq and all the other foreign bases, being here and doing other things and finding out how life in peacetime can be.