Good point Billy! They can win the military clash, but loses the occupation. But why?
fulltimestudent
JoinedPosts by fulltimestudent
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18
The Military Failure of the United States of America. Why?
by fulltimestudent inthe usa is undoubtedly the strongest military power in the world, and has often been willing to use that power against other nations, some historians count 187 foreign wars in 200 years, and this youtube video lists the wars the us has fought in the twentieth century, most of which, (in the earliest part of the 20th c) it can be argued, were won by the usa.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q51nfakme-g. this is not an argument about the rightness or wrongness of any war.
the argument is why the mightiest ever military power, a political power that controls overwhelming destructive forces, a power that claims to stand on the side of its god, does not win wars?
have you thought about this question?
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The Military Failure of the United States of America. Why?
by fulltimestudent inthe usa is undoubtedly the strongest military power in the world, and has often been willing to use that power against other nations, some historians count 187 foreign wars in 200 years, and this youtube video lists the wars the us has fought in the twentieth century, most of which, (in the earliest part of the 20th c) it can be argued, were won by the usa.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q51nfakme-g. this is not an argument about the rightness or wrongness of any war.
the argument is why the mightiest ever military power, a political power that controls overwhelming destructive forces, a power that claims to stand on the side of its god, does not win wars?
have you thought about this question?
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fulltimestudent
The USA is undoubtedly the strongest military power in the world, and has often been willing to use that power against other nations, Some historians count 187 foreign wars in 200 years, and this youtube video lists the wars the US has fought in the twentieth Century, most of which, (in the earliest part of the 20th C) it can be argued, were won by the USA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q51NFAkmE-g
This is not an argument about the rightness or wrongness of any war. The argument is why the mightiest ever military power, a political power that controls overwhelming destructive forces, a power that claims to stand on the side of its God, does not win wars?
Have you thought about this question?
In the next couple of years I want to write a paper that show the unintended consequences of the USA's invasion of the Philippines in 1899.*
USS Olympia in the left foreground, leading the U.S. Asiatic Squadron
Stemming from that war, the paper will argue, came a long chain of consequences climaxing with Mao Zedong on the podium of the forbidden city in Beijing, proclaiming the 'People's Republic of China.' An event that had a major consequences in the USA, with the McCarthy purges, and the development of a mindset that seems to have led the USA to be involved in unwinnable wars.
Past that point, I have in mind a second paper that will explore the failure of a west that has become more ideological than Mao's communists (or Joe Stalin's for that matter).
If you have thought about this broader picture, I'd be interested in what you may see as the reasons for this.
Since 1945, despite its overwhelming military technology, The USA has failed to achieve what we may call a solid victory. In both the Korean war and the Vietnam war the best the USA could achieve was a negotiated settlement.
Who can forget the bomb flattened cities of North Korea, but with citizens still willing to fight. Its true that an arrogant Macarthur made a huge strategic mistake by proceeding to the border of North Korea and China, and thus involving China in the war. But the willingness of North Koreans to fight on was remarkable.
And similarly, in Vietnam, more heavily bombed than Germany in WW2,
its country side literally poisoned with Agent Orange, the affects of which are still producing deformed children in Vietnam,
and yet the people continued to fight until the triumphant climax, when Vietnamese tanks broke down the gates of the US Embassy, as its occupants fled in helicopters.
That war in particular led to social division within the USA.
That division is part of the story, but is it a significant part? If it is significant, why have more recent wars not met with significant opposition? And yet, these wars have seen even more spectacular failure. Bush Jnr's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have both failed.
In Iraq (an artificial state organised by the British, so that it was easier to control), the Sunni Muslim support base of Saddam Hussein ( a man who was supported by the USA to fight a proxy war against Iran) re-emerged in a much more dangerous form.
And, in Afghanistan (America's longest war) the Taliban enemy is still gaining control over more areas. There's a map on this link: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/12/taliban-overruns-district-in-southern-afghanistan.php
that shows Taliban held areas (or, where they are strong enough to contest the western established government) . Click on the red areas to see what the Taliban are doing.
Bush's war has not been the success that the American elite thought that they could win.
Why?
* I will attempt to show that the invasion and colonisation of the Philippines turned the influential Chinese politician Dr. Sun Yatsen against the USA. (He actually attempted to supply the Filipino freedom fighters with weapons). He later sought help from the Communist Comintern and allowed the then small number of communists in the recently formed CPC to have a dual membership in his KMT party. The communists apparently (I still have to research this part of the story) made very rapid progress in China. Sun's successor, Chiang Kai Shek, opposed the Communists and set in train a series of events that led to the civil war of the late 1940's from which, the communists emerged as the victors. The communist victory was achieved by making alliances with a broad alliance of people who saw the CPC as the best hope for China. The CPC of the time was a party consisting of both dogmatic marxists and a more pragmatic strain of Chinese nationalists who were rationalists. The pragmatists eventually won control of the party (actually before Mao's death). Mao contested their control of the party with his Red Guards. What has emerged is a very pragmatic China that is willing to experiment.
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Science makes Sex Better - The Next Generation Condoms
by fulltimestudent in'like you're touching someone covered in a lubricant': next generation condoms.
the melbourne age - december 09, 2015. better than nature - i cant wait ....
read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/brain-scans-test-pleasure-attributes-of-nextgen-condom-20151209-glj7aw.html#ixzz3trlg56vl.
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fulltimestudent
'Like you're touching someone covered in a lubricant': next generation condoms
The Melbourne Age - December 09, 2015
Better than nature - I cant wait .... !!!!!
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A Seal Ring bearing King Hezekiah's found in Jerusalem excavation, with ankh symbol and winged sun
by fulltimestudent infrom a story in the jewish press:.
quote: "the city of david excavations of the jerusalem hebrew university on mount ophel, at the foot of the southern wall of the temple mount compound, have yielded a sensational discovery: a seal (bulla) with the name of king hezekiah (727-698 bce).".
"king hezekiahs bulla was discovered in a garbage heap that was dumped during or shortly after hezekiahs time, from a royal building that was used to store food.
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fulltimestudent
From a story in The Jewish Press:
Quote: "The City of David excavations of the Jerusalem Hebrew University on Mount Ophel, at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple Mount compound, have yielded a sensational discovery: a seal (bulla) with the name of King Hezekiah (727-698 BCE)."
"King Hezekiah’s bulla was discovered in a garbage heap that was dumped during or shortly after Hezekiah’s time, from a royal building that was used to store food. This building is part of a series of buildings, including a gate and towers, which were built in the second half of the tenth century BCE (the time of King Solomon), as part of the Ophel fortifications of the new government complex that connected the city of David with the Temple Mount."
"The Hezekiah seal bears the inscription: “Hezekiah (son) Ahaz King of Judea,” with an emblem of the sun emblem with tilted down wings and two icons of the Ankh (symbol of life)."
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Too Much Discontent in the Congregation Part 3
by Simon Templar innow, 80-85 years later, we are still here.
if i was to do the counsel with a brother who had this much experience, i would have just thanked him for doing the talk, and marked him good on the point.
this is a good way to get money though.
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fulltimestudent
Esse quam videri: Sorry but it doesn't look like much of a paradise to me.
Nope?
Have you a rigid idea of what a paradise should look like?
Why should paradise look like your idea of paradise?
Is paradise a place or a feeling?
If its a feeling, what sort of feelings should you have for it to be classed as paradise?
Go take this intellectual journey to paradise and find out what a paradise is really like?
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So my best friend was reinstated last night
by LexIsFree inso my best friend, who also happens to be my brother-in-law, was reinstated last night.
i had an idea he was trying to make his way back to the cult since i had been texting and calling him for about 2, 3 months now and no response.
i wasn't shocked when he text me this morning to tell me the news.
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fulltimestudent
the only reason it matters, is that, being imbued with blind mindless faith, he now feels impelled to shun you, because he probably believes that his love for you is so great, that he must save you through his emotional blackmail.
There is nothing else to do, but to go out and make new friends. I was 60 when I was cut off, after a few months reconciling falsehood to reality, I went out and found new friends. Sadly (grin) I'm now at the age when friends of a similar age start to pop off, so I have to keep up this process of making new friends.
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Why didn't Jehovah know the flood wouldn't work?
by OverlappingGeneralizations inthis has been something that is bugging me lately-.
jehovah is all knowing.
he knows that to do away with evil, he has to do away with satan.
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fulltimestudent
DesirousOfChange: How did I really believe all this bullshit?
A question I also often ask.
And sadly, its is not just the 'believing' bit, but the way we based our lives on this myth. I can recall my former wife being absolutely terrified that the demons were attacking her through a valuable ring that some relative had given her. I'm sure that many others will recall the years (late 1950s or 1960s) when a certain booklet warned the idiotic (include me in that) witnesses that the demons could even be in the bed you slept on.
OF course, its not just the witnesses (witlessnes) that are so superstitious. Millions and millions of Americans fervently believe this rubbish.
I googled Satan and the nephilim - here's just a sample of the idiocy that come up:
Bloodlines of the Nephilim - A Biblical Study | Beginning ...
beginningandend.com › Aliens/NephilimAug 26, 2012 - As more God-fearing sons began to populate the Earth, Satan instituted his Nephilim plan into action. By corrupting the seed of the woman, ...Satan, "ha-satan," Lucifer, and the Nephilim
theisticsatanism.com › ... › Biblegod's finitude, henotheism, & the DevilSatan, "ha-satan," Lucifer, and the Nephilim. Should the topic of Satan happen to come up in your discussions with Christians, here are some references that ...Nephilim, Aliens and Satan's angels have a common ...
www.thepropheticyears.com/.../nephilim-aliens-and-satans-angels-have-a...Dec 1, 2009 - Nephilim, Aliens and Satan's angels have a common connection in end time prophetic events. Expect what happen in the days of Noah to ...My Theory of the Nephilim - Stargods
Now satan orders his fallen angels to come down to earth to mate with the women. This was ... When the flood came the Nephilim giants were killed off the earth.Nephilim Among Us Today: Satan's Throne Is Ready--Obama
beforeitsnews.com/.../nephilim-among-us-today-satans-throne-is-ready-o...Mar 23, 2014 - Nephilim Among Us Today: Satan's Throne Is Ready–Obama, Freemasons, Secret Luciferian Architecture, and the Coming Satanic Empire!Could The Anti Christ Be A Nephilim, fathered by a Fallen ...
I think the Anti Christ will be a Nephilim an angel-human hybrid. And whereas ... Satanwill indeed have sex with a human woman and have a child. This was ...The Difference between Aliens, Demons and Fallen Angels
Most people are familiar with the rebellion of Satan wanting to be like God and wanting to be worshipped as .... The antichrist will be Satan's seed--a Nephilim.Who Rules The World? - Part 3 - Rense
Although the Bible introduces Lucifer as Satan when he seduces Eve in the Garden .....Only Satan himself, his embodied `Nephilim`[12], the Watchers and their ...The Nephilim - Praesidium of Warriors of St. Michael
pwsm-ri.org/Demonology/The-Nephilim.htmlFr. Jack Ashcraft in his booklet: “Fallen Angels And Nephilim” includes this. “For of the ... Lucifer/Satan was over all the fallen angels and was extremely powerful.Searches related to satan and the nephilim
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An intellectual feast - A Conference in honour of Prof Samuel N.C.Lieu on his Retirement-Don't read if you don't like ideas
by fulltimestudent ini've been invited to attend this conference (limited attendance) and consider it an exciting privilege.
maybe for many it would be too boring, as a poster said on one of my threads, (my paraphrase) " who cares about the past?".
but, if i started my adult life as a brainwashed slave to yhwh/jesus (and, don't give me any shit about jw's ignoring jesus), i am finishing it as a (somewhat-grin) enlightened man who just may have some understanding of the development of world thought.
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fulltimestudent
styng: Do you think you could provide me with more info about what happened, including the program of the second day as I would be really interested to hear more.
OK- here goes!
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Friday 27 November
10.00-10.30 LYNDON ARDEN-WONG (Macquarie University)
Manichaean architecture and the Eastern Uighur
Khaganate
Chair: Gunner Mikkelsen
Lyndon is interested in the archaeology of the Steppe people and in this paper looked at certain sites and what we can learn from the remains of certain sites that he has been visiting and has worked on. These remains tell us who may have been the main influences via the architectural details that have been found. To generalise, I think that the influences may have been mixed. As you would expect, the further east you go, the more likely to find Chinese influence and so on.
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10.30-11.15 ROSS BURNS (Macquarie University)
The Lost Monuments of Syria—The path of destruction
at Palmyra and Aleppo
Chair: Peter Edwell
I intend to post later on Professor Burn's talk.
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11.15-12.00 BRONWEN NEIL (Australian Catholic University)
Studying dream interpretation from early Christianity to
early Islam
Chair: Paul McKechnie.
Bronwen spoke about the use of dream manuals which offered some common definitions to explain dreams and their use in both early Christianity and early Islam. and later medieval dream literature. Interesting topic from the viewpoint that the dreams/visions of certain people are still considered by some to be authorative.
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12.00-13.00 Lunch
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13.00-14.00 ROGER SCOTT (University of Melbourne)
Malalas and Justinian’s New Age
Chair: Danijel Dzino
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14.00-15.00 JANE CHAPMAN (University of Lincoln)
Continuities in Anzac tradition from Gallipoli to 1931:
the ‘Aussie’
Chair: Martina Möllering
Jane Chapman's contribution can hardly be called Ancient History. But one of Sam Lieu's interests was the archaeology of Gallipoli and the failed invasion of what is now Turkey by Allied forces during WW1. Jane discussed the war-time (and post-war) influence of so-called 'trench' newspapers. These often had what you could call a 'morale' building function during the war.
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15.00 Concluding words
MARTINA MÖLLERING, FOA Executive Dean
MALCOLM CHOAT, ACRC Director
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Jane Chapman's contribution can hardly be called Ancient History. But one of Sam Lieu's interests was the archaeology of Gallipoli and the failed invasion of what is now Turkey by Allied forces during WW1. Jane discussed the war-time (and post-war) influence of so-called 'trench' newspapers. These often had what you could call a 'morale' building function during the war.
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An intellectual feast - A Conference in honour of Prof Samuel N.C.Lieu on his Retirement-Don't read if you don't like ideas
by fulltimestudent ini've been invited to attend this conference (limited attendance) and consider it an exciting privilege.
maybe for many it would be too boring, as a poster said on one of my threads, (my paraphrase) " who cares about the past?".
but, if i started my adult life as a brainwashed slave to yhwh/jesus (and, don't give me any shit about jw's ignoring jesus), i am finishing it as a (somewhat-grin) enlightened man who just may have some understanding of the development of world thought.
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fulltimestudent
Half banana: FTS, enjoy your conference. Hearing the serious thinkers in the field of late classical knowledge is a joy. I heard a lecture last week from the academic Karen Armstrong, (she is extremely well informed and assiduous in presenting an accurate picture but still, I believe, leans towards a deist interpretation).
Thnx for your good wishes! Many of the academics that I have come to know reasonably well, are believers. But their beliefs may not conform to orthodoxy.
Perhaps there are more books about YHWH/Jesus than any other topic, but (aside from the true believers) there are many,many differing views about the development of belief in this deity.
HB: I agree heartily on the matter of JW mistrust of proper disinterested scholars, they are the ones at the coal-face of reality not "Bible scholars" who have only one object in mind.
I wasn't thinking only of Jws. Perhaps most 'true believers' distrust scholarship, and will accept biblical statements as 'truth' as evidence of their 'faith.'
HB: To understand the true birth of christianity demands a knowledge of contemporary life and thought which involves knowledge of the many sects and pagan beliefs. Manicheanism was an important ingredient as was the big cover-up you mentioned once Roman Christianity had gained ascendancy.
I agree.
HB: Have you early textual references for this ?
I suggest to you that its a matter of the starting point and the evidence for that starting point.
If you see Judaism, the context for early Christianity as a unified, structured, coherent organisation (like a modern church organisation) - then you will likely also believe that early Christianity was a similar highly structured and organised social group.
But were they? More, were the predecessors of the Judaism of early Christianity, also coherent organisations? Did everybody that lived in first temple Israel believe the same things?
Did the peasant farmers have the same beliefs as the elites? Did the political elite (Military and its organisation and the King and his court administration) have the same beliefs as the religious elite (the priests who may have been factionalised) at lest on occasion?
During the so-called Babylonian captivity, did the peasants etc, that stayed behind have the same beliefs as the elites who were taken to Babylon?
We find some evidence that during the exile, the Jews absorbed some Zoroastrian beliefs like 'dualism' and that likely the Jews who remained behind in Babylon and never returned to second temple Judaism (in Jerusalem) moved on a somewhat different doctrinal trajectory to those who did return.
If you start to question some of the 'accepted' views of the development of second temple Judaism, you may easily understand why Josephus could argue for three somewhat different (but related) religious groups (doctrinally) in saying that they were the Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes. A close reading of the translated Dead Sea Scrolls indicates quite distinct differences when compared to the Pharisees, who were distinct again from the Sadducees. Were there still other groups? We dont know for sure, but can suspect that there were. It's often that Jews in Jesus time were expecting the Messiah. Who were these people? Were they organised? Were did they live? Did they talk to each other? If so, how? Did they meet in little groups? Were they connected in some way, outside of a shared belief?
And in regard to these Messiah expectant Jews, did they all accept Jesus as the Messiah? What about those who had heard about the Messiah figure described in the Books of Enoch? And how did all these interact with the Essenes and any other group?
Similarly, what about the early Christians? The WTS pictures them as a united organisation, but they may not have been so united, but rather existed as distinct groups but sharing a common (but not neccesarily identical) belief in Jesus. We can trace differences between Paul's group and James' group. How distinctly were they organised? Some scholars suggest that the people addressed in the John letters were another distinct group. Since the various books of the NT were not united into one canon for a few hundred years, there is really little evidence that all these groups of believers in Jesus shared more than a common belief in Jesus.
Why not start somewhere there and using google scholar ( a search engine that focuses on scholarly research, see what you can find. If you live near a university you may be able to access the library for a fee. (Sydney uni charges $40 for 6 months). You are likely able to download for free many scholarly essays on topics of interest.
Hoping that helps you on your way.
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An intellectual feast - A Conference in honour of Prof Samuel N.C.Lieu on his Retirement-Don't read if you don't like ideas
by fulltimestudent ini've been invited to attend this conference (limited attendance) and consider it an exciting privilege.
maybe for many it would be too boring, as a poster said on one of my threads, (my paraphrase) " who cares about the past?".
but, if i started my adult life as a brainwashed slave to yhwh/jesus (and, don't give me any shit about jw's ignoring jesus), i am finishing it as a (somewhat-grin) enlightened man who just may have some understanding of the development of world thought.
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fulltimestudent
Hi styng, nice to meet a fellow xjw that studied at macquarie.
I think this function started as a staff thingie (I'm not staff - but got an invite because I'm sort of a barnacle on the place). I wanted to advertise it on my Asian history FB page, but was asked not to, because they could not accommodate more than 50.
As for the friday program, I shall post tomorrow, as I feel mentally buggered today - after spending the day helping a friend write a sort of academic resume.
Thnx for making yourself known.
