"They hate us for our airstrikes"

[geggy]

Maher: 'They hate us for our airstrikes'
David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster
Published: Thursday September 18, 2008

During an interview with MSNBC host Rachael Maddow on Wednesday, comedian and political commentator Bill Maher took issue with the infamous George W. Bush assertion that terrorism is somehow caused by a hatred of Americans' freedom.

"They don't hate us for our freedom," said Maher with a laugh. "They hate us for our airstrikes. In Afghanistan, that seems to be the problem. It's that, we keep killing people with our airstrikes, and then those people tend to have a grudge against us, and they will join the Taliban, or be sympathetic to the Taliban."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Maher_They_hate_us_for_our_0918.html

Well that seems to be the plan!

[defaultdotxbe]

whats the conspiracy here?

[geggy]

it appears to me there is a deliberate effort to expand external enemies to stretch out the wars in afghanistan and iraq for maximum revenue and strategic positioning for the next war

[theprestige]

it appears to me there is a deliberate effort to expand external enemies to stretch out the wars in afghanistan and iraq for maximum revenue and strategic positioning for the next war
And all you would need to convince me that such a conspiracy was, in fact, taking place, would be documents outlining and approving such a policy, independently and publically corroborated by testimony of whistleblowers from within the cabal implementing the policy.

Meanwhile, I hope you won't take it personally if I give my own ill-informed, unsupported, totally amateur interpretation of appearances slightly more weight than I give your ill-informed, unsupported, totally amateur interpretation of appearances.

[Comsat Angel]

it appears to me there is a deliberate effort to expand external enemies to stretch out the wars in afghanistan and iraq for maximum revenue and strategic positioning for the next war

:covereyes
Well by your lights, it would be simpler, quicker and more efficient to invade Canada and Mexico, as this would really maximise revenue. In fact why not do that in addition to Iraq and Afghanistan? That would really, really maximise revenues.

[geggy]

And all you would need to convince me that such a conspiracy was, in fact, taking place, would be documents outlining and approving such a policy, independently and publically corroborated by testimony of whistleblowers from within the cabal implementing the policy.

Meanwhile, I hope you won't take it personally if I give my own ill-informed, unsupported, totally amateur interpretation of appearances slightly more weight than I give your ill-informed, unsupported, totally amateur interpretation of appearances.

Let start with..

Whistle-Blowers Often Unheard, Advocate Says

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 14, 2004; Page A29

The federal government is not doing enough to pursue civil servants' claims of waste, fraud and abuse in the federal workplace, a nonprofit employee advocacy group said this week.

Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, pointed to new federal statistics showing that although employee whistle-blower reports have risen in recent years, very few are being referred to agency heads for investigation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30932-2004Oct13?language=printer

A Backlog Of Cases Alleging Fraud
Whistle-Blower Suits Languish at Justice

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 2, 2008; Page A01

More than 900 cases alleging that government contractors and drugmakers have defrauded taxpayers out of billions of dollars are languishing in a backlog that has built up over the past decade because the Justice Department cannot keep pace with the surge in charges brought by whistle-blowers, according to lawyers involved in the disputes.

The issue is drawing renewed interest among lawmakers and nonprofit groups because many of the cases involve the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rising health-care payouts, and privatization of government functions -- all of which offer rich new opportunities to swindle taxpayers.

Since 2001, 300 to 400 civil cases have been filed each year by employees charging that their companies defrauded the government. But under the cumbersome process that governs these cases, Justice Department lawyers must review them under seal, and whistle-blowers routinely wait 14 months or longer just to learn whether the department will get involved. The government rejects about three-quarters of the cases it receives, saying that the vast majority have little merit.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070103071.html?hpid=topnews

James was an ordinary patriotic American. He was born and raised in Enid, Oklahoma and went went to Iraq to work as a KBR truck driver. He looked forward to saving up money -KBR promised a large salary. Yet he was shocked by the excess and waste he saw in Iraq. One example of the waste he saw was this: “A gentlemen in a brand new semi, it wasn't designed for what we needed to use, it was a brand new 18 wheeler, he parked it next to a burn pit, and then ultimately pushed it into the burn pit, next thing I know they’re pouring diesel and everything on it and setting it on fire...”


Thankfully, the film will enrage the audience, but the most emotionally-moving scene is a truck driver describing an ambush that didn't have to happen because Halliburton knowingly sent his convoy down a road that was off-limits to civilians because of ongoing enemy fire. He listened to his fellow truckers on the radio being murdered; four were needlessly killed. The trucker said, “When people talk about 'oh, they gave their lives' ... I can assure you they did not. They were stolen from them. They were screaming and didn't want to go. And there wasn't anything greater (or) glorious about the whole obscene ordeal. They didn't die, they didn't pass away, they were murdered." That's because, for Halliburton, "as long as the trucks rolled, they got paid" and safety be damned, a former convoy commander told a Senate committee last month when describing the massacre. "[T]here is absolutely no question in my mind [before the massacre] KBR/Halliburton was aware of the hostilities that existed," he said.

http://iraqforsale.org/logsdon.php


Value of ALL Contracts Since Tracking Began on October 30, 2006
$479,962,178,143

http://militaryindustrialcomplex.com

[Sword_Of_Truth]

"They hate us for our airstrikes"

Attention terrorists: only losers hijack other peoples airplanes, winners have air forces.

[theprestige]

geggy, fraud, waste, and abuse are typical of any bureaucracy. War and reconstruction efforts are typically very costly. And it's typical of one of the wealthiest nations in the world to pay really large sums of money for really costly things.

None of this requires the conspiracy you theorize:

it appears to me there is a deliberate effort to expand external enemies to stretch out the wars in afghanistan and iraq for maximum revenue and strategic positioning for the next war

Do you have any documents--memos, war plans, emails, phone records, tape recordings, etc. where this specific policy is described and approved? Do you have any whistleblowers from inside the cabal itself, who were eyewitnesses to the formulation, approval or implementation of this policy, who are willing to publically name names?

Or are you just interpreting the appearance of fraud, waste, and abuse in a government project?

[PhantomWolf]

"They don't hate us for our freedom," said Maher with a laugh. "They hate us for our airstrikes."

So which airstrikes was it that caused the attack on the Kenyan Embassy or the USS Cole?

[Jontg]

Our slow but steady obliteration of all cultures that differ from ours.

[theprestige]

Our slow but steady obliteration of all cultures that differ from ours.
How does that work, exactly? There's hardly a monolithic Our Culture that's out there obliterating Every Other Culture, slowly, steadily, or otherwise.

North America alone has a bewildering proliferation of more-or-less incompatible cultures and subcultures, many of which are constantly at each others throats, and none of which seem to be gaining the upper hand in any substantial way.

Not only that, but while some of these North American cultures and subcultures are constantly accusing each other of trying to obliterate them, hardly ever does the dispute involve carefully-plotted mass slaughter of convenient bystanders irrespective of their cultural affiliation.

Somehow, cultural hegemony doesn't strike me as the cause of the magnitude of the hatred "they" have for "us".

And of course there's a lot implied in your post that I would probably disagree with if you were to spell it out explicitly.

[Bobert]

it appears to me there is a deliberate effort to expand external enemies to stretch out the wars in afghanistan and iraq for maximum revenue and strategic positioning for the next war
What is meant by "maximum revenue"?

[Jontg]

Simple: Western culture is slowly stamping out the values of fundamentalist Islam, and fundamentalist Islam is understandably angry about it.

[Nogbad]

whats the conspiracy here?

He is obviously conspiring to make a topical observation

......the very nerve!

[moon1969]

No they hate USA because USA is trying to get guys like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar. Pakistan will be a failed state and USA and India will help Pakistan. Pakistan and India have the Kashmir Dispute.

[moon1969]

I"m sure that mullah omar and the Taliban would love to get back in power to Kabul. Too bad the majority of Afghanistan hates the Taliban. Still too many pashtons support the Taliban. The point is that during war bad things happend. Just look at Russia and Chechnya.

[theprestige]

Simple: Western culture is slowly stamping out the values of fundamentalist Islam, and fundamentalist Islam is understandably angry about it.
Is this the same Western culture that is slowly adopting the values of fundmentalist Islam, along with the values of Japanese popular culture, and the values of African tribal culture, etc? Is this the same Western culture that is clearly not monolithic, but rather extremely fractured and eclectic? I don't even share the same culture and values as half the people in my neighborhood--whose culture, exactly, is doing the "stamping out" of fundamentalist Islam?

And how, exactly is this "stamping out" being accomplished? Last I checked, madrassas were still alive and well all over the world, and people everywhere are all largely free to compare and contrast cultural values and choose for themselves which ones they will embrace. Or maybe I'm missing the legions of Western Thought Police that have thrown up an iron curtain around the Middle East, instituted a massive propaganda campaign, and "disappeared" anybody who spoke of cultural alternatives. Do you have any evidence of that? Because that would definitely be a conspiracy of epic proportions.

[yodaluver28]

Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other Islamic fundamentalists have become increasingly unpopular in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan and alot of people in those countries see them as their greatest threat because they antagonized the US into attacking them.

Some of these countries might remain on this course, hopefully, but the fundamentalists are digging in their heels, still have alot of support, and won't go quickly or quietly.

[defaultdotxbe]

“A gentlemen in a brand new semi, it wasn't designed for what we needed to use, it was a brand new 18 wheeler, he parked it next to a burn pit, and then ultimately pushed it into the burn pit, next thing I know they’re pouring diesel and everything on it and setting it on fire...”
how is this maximizing anyones revenue?

[Jontg]

We're liberating our women, practicing heathen religions, eating pork, and spreading the above notions all over the world. There's a freaking GAP in Kabul and McDonalds(es?) in every corner of the middle east. We depose leaders who won't give us oil and install bloodthirsty despots in their place--and when they try to cut us off, we suddenly remember that genocide is a Very Bad Thing and depose them. We trample over everybody with different values because a) we can and b) they're just stupid foreigners who don't know what's best for them; the only reason most people don't complain is because most of the cultures that haven't integrated into Western civilization yet are known primarily for sexism, violence, and extreme religious mania. It's not I don't take issue with stuffing women into burlap sacks and atrocities that almost rival Christianity at its worst, it's just that charging in and forcing them to stop without actually showing them the error of their ways only engenders anger and resentment.

[Pardalis]

What percentage of geggy's posts consist of his own words?

2, 3%? I say 5% tops.

[Travis]

So which airstrikes was it that caused the attack on the Kenyan Embassy or the USS Cole?

Clearly Fundamentalist Islam is capable of seeing the future!:eek:


As for this supposed conspiracy........alert me when we invent a completely sanitized means of war that never ever kills the innocent.

[HereticHulk]

Simple: Western culture is slowly stamping out the values of fundamentalist Islam, and fundamentalist Islam is understandably angry about it.


Clearly the opposite is happening. We are creating MORE fundamentalist Islam and they are bleeding us dry. As planned. (http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/index.html)

[Travis]

Clearly the opposite is happening. We are creating MORE fundamentalist Islam and they are bleeding us dry. As planned. (http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/index.html)

Your plan for a completely sanitized means of fighting dangerous Islamic Radicals that never ever kills the innocent is?

[Oliver]

Clearly Fundamentalist Islam is capable of seeing the future!:eek:


Nope. Clearly the Fundamentalist Worldpolice isn't capable to look into the past.

[gumboot]

we keep killing people with our airstrikes, and then those people tend to have a grudge against us


Those people tend to be dead. How do the dead have a grudge?

I think you've been watching too many Japanese horror films.

[Travis]

Nope. Clearly the Fundamentalist Worldpolice isn't capable to look into the past.

Do the Neutral Secular World Police also have this problem?

[SatansMaleVoiceChoir]

They hate us for our airstrikes, but they stay for the anti-personnel mines.

[Loss Leader]

it appears to me there is a deliberate effort to expand external enemies to stretch out the wars in afghanistan and iraq for maximum revenue and strategic positioning for the next war



Ah, there it is. I was a little worried about you, geggy. Your OP was just repetition of an article. In that way, it was factually true. Bill Mahr did say those things. But then, the conclusion you draw from it is just absolutely wrong. So, your streak remains unbroken ... just barely.

Interpret a news story correctly to stop the count.