Tony Blair, the new Churchill?
 

Did you see that speech? My God, he says it as it is!

I love this man...

You GB's are so lucky to have a leader such as this.

NBN

Have to admit hes pretty good. But churchhill? I don't see WW2 coming again.

jag once again demonstrates amazing lack of foresight
 

WW2 is not repeating, it's WW3 this time, dipwad!

See previous thread for explanation.

*slams head into wall*
If you bothered to think for more than a millisecond you would realize what I am trying to say is the way in which this so called 'war' will be fought will be nothing like World War Two with massive mobilizations, a distinctive enemy etc. There are many signs of this already, usually a war stimulates the Economy, this time it has depressed it. Most of the stuff I write like this requires a bit of thought due to a: my terrible articulation and b: thinking as I go along I tend to miss some of the connections which would make it a better explanation. *Points to NBN* this is an example of someone who is incapable of this.

Only for the moment though. From what I recall of the Depression and WW2 history, the US economy was on the mend by the early 40s...WW2 added more fuel. Right now, we're in a slowdown...depending on what happens, we could see the pace pick up. Although, I would rather see our economy rebound in other ways.

I hear stories about life during the war from older members of my family. And while it doesn't sound so bad now, I honestly hope that I do not have to live through a large-scale war during my lifetime.

NBN: You REALLY need a few of those beers Saturday...relax. Have a constructive argument with the guy rather than throwing out names. Jag's pretty smart for being a teenager...and a bad speller. ;)

It tends to boost it because of the industry it needs, turning out millions of bombs, tanks, planes etc requires allot of worked, factories, all good for the economy. Apart form a booming gas-mask industry I cannot see much coming out of this 'war'.

As for living though a full scale war I’d say what we're going to go though will worse - if it happens. I'd rather know that those Nazi bastards in that direction are the enemy that maybe my neighbor is going to strap himself with explosives and run into the local mall. One develops industry, the other makes people scared which is never good for business

Live through this
 

Err, I hope we do live through this one, don't you?

Re: Live through this
 

I think what he meant was "I hope I never have to see one." As in, it doesn't happen while he's alive. That's how I read it. I seriously don't think he meant "Gee, if we have a war, I hope I die!"...

Semantics are silly. And if you were joking, you should have put a smiley at the end to let us know.

Sorry
 

Yes, I was "joking." Sorry I didn't make it more obvious, it's just that a smiley didn't feel like a great idea since the idea is more terrifying than amusing.

The Economist recently asked just this question. Bottom line is that there is no correlations between economic recession and war. Sometimes economic boom happens during or after war. Somtimes economic recession.

What is apparent from history is that freer monetary policy does not cure a recession. Freer monetary policy is believed by many to lessen a recession. Tighter monetary policy has been blamed for increasing the severity of recession. Excessively loose monetary policy has been known to create stagfaltion. Still some even dispute these conclusions. But recessions have little relationships to war or other catastrophic events such as the Kobe earthquake.

Re: Re: Live through this
 

Good read, as that is what I meant. :)

I remember being a 15-year old in January 1991. We had just went through an earthquake scare in St. Louis that December. I'm eating dinner shortly before 6pm Central Time in the middle of January, when Dan Rather announces that Baghdad is being bombed. I had a sense of pride--I was all gung ho about us going in and beating up on the Iraqis. Granted, I'm much better educated now...

But I also remember the fear I had of nuclear war as a child, and the fear of the end-of-the-world as a teenager. I've never lived through a war...and a history book only tells you so much.

I'm really a pacifist at heart. And while all of you and I and 280 million Americans try to go back to normal, I won't deny that I am scared. I don't want to see our country get locked into a lengthy war. I don't want to see our soldiers and innocent civilians die. I don't want people to drop dead in the streets b/c of something they can't see or smell.

Now it's not like I live my whole life in fear over any of this. But it does give me worry...

Re: Re: Re: Live through this
 

Hit the nail right on the motherfuckin' head. I don't live in fear, but it's there in the back of my mind, nagging...

also, since I live in Fairfax and work in Tyson's Corner (not the mall, but right near it)... a nuclear attack on Washington would probably mean a dead dhamsaic. And I'm near 3 major airports. How exciting!

Re: Re: Re: Re: Live through this
 

That used to be a concern in the back of my head when I lived in Washington--I live in the capital of the United States...an easy target for an attack. I used to think the same way when I lived in St. Louis, due to the large presence of McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing's defense arm).

In passing, I do think about if I were still living in Washington. As I mentioned in a previous post, my fiance worked in Alexandria (on N. Beauregard near 395) for a government contractor, previous to our moving here. Many of her coworkers went to the Pentagon on a regular basis (thankfully none of them were injured in the attack there). And I suspect I would not have taken the red line home that day from Bethesda.

One of my employees is also particularly troubled by what is going on on the other side of the world as well. His parents live in Indonesia, and he fears if we shift into full-blown war, his parents will become targets, given that they're American. Indonesia is already enough of a mess, so hopefully President Sukarnoputri will keep the peace over there. I can't blame him though...here he is by himself (granted he's about my age, but still) here in Philadelphia and his parents are a world away.

My ultimate hope is that forces can move in, pull bin Laden, and be done with it. Surely, it's idealistic, but not out of the realm of possibilities.

Its interesting you say that, its like there is two entirely seperate levels to this. One in catching those who did 911. Two, solving the issue in the long term which relaly seems to be getting buggar all attention beyond what they may attack next week.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Live through this
 

The leader in Indonesia is Megawati - a lady.

Taking down bin Laden is not sufficient. It is a distributed operation - not central controlled. Many top people must be taken down to destroy the network. This organization is much like Pablo Escabar's operation - just more international and not at war with the local authorities.