Ok, Ehrm. You've digressed from the subject. Let's leave the USA alone for now.

Apologies to ARC and others who share his views, but I'm interested in an opinion from 'the other side'.

PM. Views on these events and(or) Islamic extremism/fundamentalism in general?

Onward Hebdo.

Whats there to talk about, turn on Al-Jazeera if you want to learn about terrorism or extremists, not the bland shit they play here, but the real al jazeera, the one that airs in Lebanon and Syria.

Let's facilitate and diversify.

Edited 1/10/2015 04:30:32

But I spent so long writing my fiery response on the prev. page...

This is what satrists do:

Just as it was getting interesting Julius.

It is not the MIC's and Bakers we must blame for our issues, it is ourselves, we had our chances to stop this

We are in agreement. But judging from the past, I expect no change.

All empires have fallen, but we are not an Empire, America is an ideal

Do you really believe that ?

We are defenders of human rights whether we want to be or not

America is not the last bastion of Freedom. Freedom is a belief that transcends borders and societies. That sort of undertaking is why America is in the situation it is.

Daisuke: Jihad's part of Islam. Though in the 21st century, its conducted in a vile manner. Islam does not condone harming innocents. Heck, in a state of war, Muslims are instructed to not damage property or attack anyone who has surrendered.

Jihad as a teaching has been hijacked. Muslims cannot condone the attack on innocents. Nor is is justifiable to arbitrarily target and attack victims of their choosing. What I do know is that Islam's schools of thought are too divided to address that threat. Saudi, Egyptian and Pakistani schools of thought all differ. Ripe ground for clerics who can twist their words.

One thing is for certain. The true threat is the clerics. Anyone who can convince another to be that cold-blooded, that merciless is truly a danger, to society as a whole.

Amerca will not fall. There is absolutely no way it can happen. There's all this bullshit about the Russians slowly taking over, while they just entered another recession. China's growth is slowing. Indias may be quickening, but it's population will make it impossible to make it surpass 10 trillion within half a century. EUROPE wants nothing to do with us because they're in the shithole themselves, not us. And the US economy is slowly speeding up. By 2020, we could have a boom like that of the 1990s. In Texas and South Dakota, that is already happening (though the latter is only due to fracking). And if the US does go down, it will take most of the world economy with it.

How has this gone from people showing respect to the victims of this tragedy to fucking americans trying to show they got 'dem biggest balls in the free world.

It's sad when americans live up to their egocentric reputation. Not everything is about you.

Russia is still growing, both in population and economy. It's exaggerating to say Russia is taking over, but Russia is doing well. China's growth is slowing, but it's still way more than the US. 10 trillion? That's an awfully big number...of what? Clarify. EU is mediocre, but it's been stagnantly mediocre. And US economy has actually been speeding down since 2010. 2010: 3%; 2011: 2.8%; 2012: 2.6%; 2013: 1.9%. The fracking boom is wasteful and dangerous.

And if the US does go down, it will take most of the world economy with it.

Tshhh... Let me give you a list of the only countries that will have 5% or more of it's economy affected. Mexico, perhaps the rest of Central America, Canada, British Isles, Iceland, Norway, China and, of course, Sierra Leone. And even then, it's less than 10% for most of these, easily replacable. You may try to point out China, but look at this: 20% of the US imports come from China. Less than 10% of Chinese imports come from US. Countries aren't as dependent on US as you think.

The catalyst for the US fall would be China pulling the plug and defaulting for the loans (in which it's entrenched US over 100% in debt). And don't give me that China will suffer as well, China will suffer, but not nearly to the same amount as the US will.

I am simply responding to an earlier post about how America will die out.

Russia is not doing well. Give me proof. China's growth will soon end in the burst of a real estate bubble. 10 trillion USD. And have you even heard of globalization? Most countries will have lost 20% of their income. And the dollar is the main currency of globalization. The US, in fact, has the biggest global economy, and half of China's growth has been due to the US. Not only that, but China and India have very small globalized sections. This means that without the US, globalization will almost entirely die out. That is a fact.

Now that that's cleared up, I am confused why the US doesn't head on attack ISIS, and wipe them out in a week. It's not like we ever need to use our military.

Russia is doing well. The population has been growing since 2010 or so. Russia's economy grew 1% in 2014, it has been speeding down, but it's population and economy are growing, and doing well.

The US, in fact, has the biggest global economy

Depends how you measure it.

I would not say half. It is 4th in terms of where China imports things, and has been for a while. China doesn't need American goods as much as US needs Chinese goods (US's biggest imports are from China). A large part of Chinese economy does depend on exporting to the US, and should the US impose sanctions, that would hurt. But survivable. I'd say around 15-25% of Chinese growth has been due to US economy.

Don't say China has a small global section, China is the globe; a superpower. Most countries depend more heavily on China than the US. Even the EU on average depends more on China. I haven't read about India too much, but there's obvious population growth and somewhat high economy growth. A regional power, it's neighbours are pretty dependent on it (aside from China), and it also exports to the Middle East and Indian Coast Africa. Promising country, though if the US remained at the place it is currently, it would take a while for India to become more powerful.

You say that most countries would lose 20% of their income. I assume you mean exports. US is a big buyer of exports, that is true (and partially why the US is doomed). But to say 20%, that would be false for almost every country except North America and Central America. Look it up.

Remember the Iraqi war? How it was disastrous for one party and bad for another? US is a little bit hesitant this time.

Disastrous because it wasn't just a war, but a game of politics the like we had seen before. If the Us wants to solve the issues surrounding the Middle East, we must do what the Allies did to Germany at the end of the Second world War. Occupy, stay in force (yes that means with guns) and keep the country under military law for as long as it takes to eradicate the extremists. If we need to occupy all of the Middle East to stop it then so be it. But there is no way to end this without going in and killing every single Jihadist. The average Muslim hates them as well, and we have yet to utilize the average Iraqi civilian the way we should. We don't fight wars any more, we haven't declared on in decades, we need a Reagan, someone with a set of balls who will tell the world what it needs to hear, whether it wants to or not.

Je suis Charlie!

I thought it was obvious that it was disastrous for Iraq, just bad for the US. The US occupying Iraq is what is making extremists. Let me put in an American perspective (albeit an unrealistic scenario): If China successfully invaded and "stayed in force", don't you think there would be some American guerilla warfare? Even if it was better off than without Chinese rule (again, unrealistic, but try to imagine)? It would be a birthing ground for American terrorists, American suicide bombers would not be unfathomable. The same thing would happen to the US if it took over China. Or any other country completely "staying in force" in 100% of another country.

Extremism is born out of a lack of hope and/or convincing mufti. Most of the footsoldiers, I'm not talking about the top command, but most of the cannon fodder is born from having no job, starving, in poverty, bullied and no chances of anything getting better, and just deciding to go out with a bang or perhaps doing the long run and joining a terrorist organisation. The Arabic Spring was started because one man, in these very conditions, lighted himself on fire in a market in Tunisia.

The religious part comes from maintaining Islamic culture and keeping it away from external, Christian influence. And "staying in force" generally means that the country has been invaded, the most humiliating form of loss. If any Middle Eastern or majority Islamic country is invaded by a nonislamic majority country, you better watch out for the extremists.

The US, if they're smart at all, will not get heavily involved in the Middle East again. Russia's been keeping neutrality there for a while, just supplying a couple of governments with arms and making a bit of money off of that.

the problem with your theory is that they were doing that before we went over there.

The would is hard to heal, if you close it, it will burst again with even more blood.

I'm saying that the US had a small problem pre-September 11 attacks, and now the problem has only grown because of the very response that the US had. Also, it's possible that the US had some involvement in the September 11 attacks. I remember reading about something in which the US military had plans to stage a Cuban terrorist attack on US ground, then give that as a reason to invade Cuba.

LOL "China is a superpower"? I almost died. What a nationalist you are Xypapy XD.

But anyways, why should the US, occupy Iraq? They should make the extremists GTFO, and leave the Middle East until we run out of oil (20-30 years)

China is more powerful than the US, and has been since 2008 or so. China and US are the superpowers of the today world. It exports way more and has an arguably bigger economy, not to mention the debt weapon.我不是中国人。Also, US is already low on oil (though not empty).

Edited 1/10/2015 23:08:51