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While it seems like things are really going going poorly, part of that perception might be due to forgetfulness about how bad it was in the past.

Here's an article reporting on a study by Sweden's Stockholm International Peace Research Institute that says that the number of wars has been on a constant decline for quite a while, and that we're at a minimum right now.

"The institute's newly released Yearbook 2006, drawing from data maintained by Sweden's Uppsala University, reports the number of active major armed conflicts worldwide stood at 17 in 2005, the lowest point in a steep slide from a high of 31 in 1991."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/06/28/fewer_wars_but_what_is_a_conflict/

by asdf on Sat Jul 15th, 2006 at 07:36:13 PM EST
Well you forget that many of those confilcts were sponsered by the Soviet Union, which doesn't exist anymore.

The current problems are defineitely the fault of the United States, most notably the cowardace of Colin Powell, who convinced Reagan to let Hizbullah be after they killed all those American (and French)peackeepers and the meddling of Jimmy Carter, who for all intents and purpouses gave the North Koreans the bomb.

by messy on Sun Jul 16th, 2006 at 09:22:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Interesting thoughts you bring up messy.

Don't have time to google this morning.

Perhaps you might just lay out your argument a bit more thoroghly so someone can respond seriously to it.

Course if the post was snarcasm, then I agree totally.

"When the abyss stares at me, it wets its pants." Brian Hopkins

by EricC on Sun Jul 16th, 2006 at 10:40:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Colin Powell can be called many things, but "coward" is not one of them.  A black kid from the South Bronx of the Great Depression whose parents were Jamaican immigrants doesn't become a general in the United States Army by being a coward.  Love him, hate him, or be indifferent to him, -- I'm not a big fan of him after his actions during the run-up to Iraq -- but he's not a coward.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Sun Jul 16th, 2006 at 01:58:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, his record isn't only tained by Iraq 2002-3. There were the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis marched up on the Kuwait-Saudi border, and suppressing the My Lai massacre, and the latter is told to have helped his career rise.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Sun Jul 16th, 2006 at 02:10:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thank you DoDo for your most informative comments.

Doubt that anyone would have known about the history of General Powell if you had not reminded us of it.

Thought DoDos were extinct, but I guess not.

Tis a pity, all in all.

"When the abyss stares at me, it wets its pants." Brian Hopkins

by EricC on Sun Jul 16th, 2006 at 11:09:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"There were the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis marched up on the Kuwait-Saudi border."

Must have been a conspiracy between Hussein and Powell.

Maybe they had little communication devices, eh.?

Tin-foil antennaes, etc?

Had never thought of that.

"When the abyss stares at me, it wets its pants." Brian Hopkins

by EricC on Sun Jul 16th, 2006 at 11:37:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Must have been a conspiracy between Hussein and Powell.

I'm not sure whether I am missing a joke or this is sarcasm stemming from lack of knowledge directed at me; but in case it's the latter, the story I referred to, the second big exposed propaganda lie of the Gulf War (after the babies-thrown-from-incubators stunt of the Kuwaiti ambassadors' daughter). The US convinced the UN SC and Saudi Arabia to consent to the pre-Desert-Storm military buildup after Powell claimed to have satellite photographs of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis marched up on the Kuwait-Saudi border, which he can't show them for security reasons. However, a journalist of the St. Petersburg Times [Florida not Russia!] had the idea to check on the claim with a then publicly awailable Russian Earth-photography satellite -- and it was totally false. Powell later kind-of admitted it.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Mon Jul 17th, 2006 at 03:24:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Some links to articles on the invisible 1990 border massing-up I found with a quick search: The Guardian (2003), Christian Science Monitor (2002), Against Bombing (a conservative anti-Empire site).

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Mon Jul 17th, 2006 at 03:35:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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