Rivergang

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Posts by Rivergang

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  18

  Catholicism and Orthodoxy- 2000 yrs of experience

  by Powermetal4ever in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  alright this has been in my brain lately: both catholic church and the orthodox church has been around for about 2000 years, shouldn't they know how to practice christendom correctly by now?

  jw hasn't even been around for 200 years and yet they say they do it right.

  so silly of them.

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  Rivergang

  In the late 15th Century, when Catholic missionaries from Portugal arrived in India to convert the "heathen", they found a well-established Christian community already there. Local tradition had it that this had been founded by St Thomas the Apostle, possibly as early as 52 AD.

  Also, that term "Orthodox" is a rather general term which covers quite a spectrum of different churches, including the likes of the Egyptian Coptic Church and the Ethiopian Coptic Church. Established in Alexandria - and claiming the year in 33 AD as its founding date - the Egyptian Coptic Church is certainly one of the oldest Christian churches in the world. With such a diverse mix of churches under the general classification of "Orthodox", it almost goes without saying that they don't always agree with one another! Which shades further doubt on the idea that there ever was such a thing as a "Pure Church".
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  31

  Since You Have Left The Religion Are You Happier?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i realize that some activist exjws really don’t seem to be happy in life.

  they finally got away from the organization and yet seem still negatively connected to it.

  some exjws are always upset because of what the “truth “ did to their lives, which is understandable.

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  Rivergang

  Don’t mean to come over as a smart-@$$, but I would put that question in the category of a “No-Brainer”!
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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

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  Rivergang

  Afghanistan is impossible to rule but easy to overthrow the government.

  That sums the whole situation up perfectly!

  
  
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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

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  Rivergang

  Further to the post by Anony Mous, you have to wonder about the effectiveness of aerial bombardment. It would seem that it has seldom lived up to the expectations of the air commanders.

  Between the two world wars, there were those who thought that aerial bombardment was going to win wars all on its own, thus making all the world's navies and ground forces obsolete (e.g. Giulio Douhet's 1921 work The Command of the Air). In reality, though, carpet bombing of population centres (such as London in 1940) failed to collapse civilian morale - possibly even causing it to stiffen. Also, despite an intensive bombing campaign by the air forces of Britain and the USA, German production of armaments actually kept on increasing during the years 1942-1944.

  That aerial bombardment during the Vietnam War was largely ineffective was certainly not due to lack of quantity!

  Between 1964 and 1975, US and Allied air forces expended 7.5 million tons of high explosive ordinance on Indochina. This was more than twice the total amount (3.5 million tons) of bombs that the Allies dropped on the Axis countries (both in Europe and in Asia) in all of WWII. In Laos, this effort failed to cut the infamous "Ho Chi Minh Trail", and in Cambodia, it made what was already a difficult situation much worse. (In Vietnam, it would seem to have been very much a blunt instrument - most notable for inflicting horrendous casualties on civilians)

  Altogether, yet another case of unrealistic expectations being made of aerial bombardment.
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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

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  Rivergang

  While guerrilla warfare certainly played a role in Vietnam, the Viet Minh / Viet Cong / NVA had more at their disposal that just small arms. Where it counted, Communist forces had firepower aplenty, with which in the year 1954 they blasted the French army into surrender at a place called Dien Bien Phu.

  Dien Bien Phu French Defeat in Vietnam. - YouTube

  Some 15 years later, American forces met a similar situation at an outpost called Khe Sanh.

  Battlefield Vietnam - Siege At Khe Sanh - YouTube

  During that best-forgotten war in South East Asia, the United States and its allies were not defeated by just the AK-47 alone. (In fact, amongst the Australian forces deployed there, most of the casualties were inflicted by landmines and booby traps).
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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

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  Rivergang

  Just in monetary terms alone, the position of the United States and its allies always was untenable. The war cost some two trillion dollars, and Taliban lost between 51,000 and 84,000 fighters.

  i.e. it cost between $24 million and $39 million just to kill one Taliban fighter - each and every one of whom could quickly be replaced.

  As Kipling so aptly noted even back in his time "The odds are on the cheaper man".
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  42

  More lies from fake news.

  by mickbobcat in

  1. social
  2. current

  news is broadcasting that death valley is getting close to breaking a record.

  the highest air temp recorded is 134 but that was in 1913 way before the huge spike in co2.

  now its 130 and its the end of the world.

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  Rivergang

  New Zealand sits astride the junction of two of the earth’s major continental plates, and is geologically young. The effect of this, though, is the opposite of what has been suggested.

  Rather than slowly sinking into the South Pacific Ocean, the South Island at least is still being pushed upwards by the interaction of those two continental plates, along what is known as “The Alpine Fault” (which slices the island in half on an oblique line running north east-south west). Not exactly rocket science, I recall this from Grade 10 Geography.

  The Buller River is not the only issue, either. Similar problems are being experienced all along that section of coastline, well out of the way of the Buller or any other river.

  What may or may not be happening in Africa has little bearing on this one.
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  42

  More lies from fake news.

  by mickbobcat in

  1. social
  2. current

  news is broadcasting that death valley is getting close to breaking a record.

  the highest air temp recorded is 134 but that was in 1913 way before the huge spike in co2.

  now its 130 and its the end of the world.

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  Rivergang

  sea levels are in actual fact rising a millimeter or so per year in the northern hemisphere and not at all in the southern hemisphere.

  It might not be a good idea to suggest this to the residents of a New Zealand community called Carters Beach (on its South Island's West Coast).

  They might rather strongly disagree with you!

  https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/west-coast/101149344/storm-accelerates-coastal-erosion-at-carters-beach
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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

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  Rivergang

  To quote the late Sir Winston Churchill:

  "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it".
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  34

  20 Years Occupying Afghanistan, Nothing Achieved

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so the occupation of afghanistan is coming to an end and, as predicted, they achieved absolutely nothing in that 20 years apart from:.

  the death of 2,300+ service personnel and tens of thousands more seriously maimed or injured.. handing $billions or even $trillions of taxpayer dollars to defence contractors (so the military industrial complex wins, even if the military doesn't have a clear victory).. has this lengthy but short-term military occupation really changed anything in the country?

  it doesn't appear so.. i said at the time that the us wouldn't have the staying power to enact real change.

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  Rivergang

  The following link makes comment (amongst other things) of just how even the terrain of Afghanistan works against an invader. Alexander the Great is said to have lost more soldiers just crossing Afghanistan from south to north than he ever lost in any battle that he fought.

  His Afghanistan campaign also saw the beginning of the physical and moral degradation of the young king.

  https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2015/11/11/alexander-the-great-in-afghanistan/