Basically, if you were one of the poor, benighted folks of the world and busy choosing between starvation and being shot, 1984 was a very good year. You all remember the massive Live Aid promotion with “Do they know it’s Christmas” coming out in 1984 raising a whole raft of cash for Ethiopian famine relief.
Unfortunately, in the intervening 22 years, the marketing viability for dying brown people has plummeted…
Donor fatigue and disaster oversaturation has set in, in a very big way, numbing the public. And after Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, governments are either overcommitted, or governments have realized that there is absolutely zero percentage for them in stepping in to try to stop the bloodshed. They catch hell domestically (“No Blood For Oil!”, “Wag the Dog!â€Â) or get pictures of the corpses of 19-year-old kids getting dragged through the street. Or even if, against all odds, they manage to put a stop to the bloodshed they don’t get a damn bit of credit for doing so.
What this means is that the marginal value of each life has effectively dropped to zero. Kill 5 people, kill 500, kill 500,000 – it makes no difference – each added fatality has absolutely no policy impact and won’t change the situation one iota. It’s not that there roughly 500,000 (essentially an entire Seattle) have died in Darfur. The horrific thing is that they could kill another 500,000 and nobody will bat an eyelash.
So, how can the dead of Darfur compete with dead soldiers, Afghanis, and Iraqis for media coverage? Well, one thing that has changed a lot since 1984 is the advent of the internet, viral marketing, and meme propagation – the entire dynamic of word-of-mouth propagation.
Two of my friends and I are going to Darfur this Christmas (http://www.christmasindarfur.org/) in order to shoot a film. Since people aren’t going to respond to Yet Another Tear-Jerking Movie about how terrible things are, we’re going to try to connect to the audience by interviewing the people from the US and Europe – folks like you and me and your cousin and your uncle and your sister – who have volunteered for little or no cash to go spend their Christmas away from their families in the middle of some hellhole trying to stem the tide of genocide.
Now, to think that a single film is going to have some sort of world-changing impact is, frankly, absolutely delusional. However, we hope to make use of the new dynamics of media to make something that will help return the spotlight to Darfur, and give those concerned something to nucleate around. But, if you recall the flooding of the Mississippi some 10 years ago, or more recently 9/11, and Katrina, and all the people who dropped everything they were doing, to go help, it’s those countless, nameless individuals who all chipped in to make a difference. And it’s those people we want to reach.
So, in any case, we’ve begged, borrowed, and scraped together enough cash to go, and we’re committed to the trip. However, fighting has started to intensify a bit and is spreading into Chad. War zones are ruinously expensive. Furthermore, they don’t take plastic. So, what that means is that while we can actually get there, the proposition of getting enough security to arrive in a war zone with a lot of camera equipment and cash on hand is going to be an expensive and risky proposition. We are trying to raise enough to move this whole project from the realm of suicidially stupid over to regular, plain old risky. Think of it like raising money for body armor for troops in Iraq, rather than going to the Eastern Congo for birdwatching.
We’re going, and being the selfish bastard I am, not only do I want to make the experience gunshot-wound free, I would also like to make it back with all of our kit and equipment. We’ve gotten a lot of support from people have volunteered to do all of the time-consuming and costly editing, production, post-production, sound, and all of that good stuff to take footage and turn it into a movie. Now we just need to go get the footage.
So, if you can help out with a couple of bucks, click on over to Christmas in Darfur (http://www.christmasindarfur.org/) and hit the PayPal button. For those of you in the DC area and who have the inclination, we’re holding a benefit tonight at Bourbon (2321 18th Street, 6pm – 1 am, which will involve DJ’s, drinking, and things of that sort). In any case, we certainly appreciate any way you can help contribute.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Go to the site. Post it. Link it. Pass it on.
And if you can, please help.
Done. But only because it’s you, BRD. The past 20 years have instilled a profound distrust of tearjerking photojournalism in me. Photography delivers impact, not context, and cinema can take that effect to unholy extremes, in the wrong hands. Like you implied, the shutter-snapping heartwringers never seem to be around to account for themselves, when the people sent to clean up take the brunt of the blowback.
Besides, the Live Aid so&so’s never sent me my T-shirt. Hey, Geldof! Gimme my fookin’ T-shirt!
But, I hope the few coins I tossed your way do some good. I am very pro-proteins-not-getting-killed-in-distant-hellholes.
Hehe BRD,
Are you trying to conflate the Iraq fiasco, that costs us a minimum of $100 billion a year, with our foreign aid spending that helps the world’s poor, which costs us about $2 billion a year?
Get rich…or we’ll kill ya!
That’s your idea of helping, pooflingerboy?
Nameless? I was there both times! Albeit with the National Guard, heh.
Stay safe, BRD. And for God’s sake, take some Vibromycin with ya.
Rich-to-poor-nation interventions in any form other than military overthrow of the poor countries’ despotic governments function as reign-prolonging subsidies for those countries’ political, military, and business elites. (See here, follow links, learn economics, etc.) External military interventions can be designed to give the same result, but it’s not inevitable, inherent in the act, as it is with “foreign aid.”
Which is why you so often find lefties like monky, principled champions of the downtrodden that they are, cheering so ardently for U.S. military victory abroad and railing against dictator-subsidizing organizations like the UN and [choose your favorite Soros-funded NGO].
…
There goes monkyboy using his crazy metrics again. He will conveniently ignore the west gives more money voluntarily to help the worlds poor than all of his socialist paradises combined, but who the fuck cares? This is about the only thing that matters. Government sanctioned spending.
What a miserable little prick you are to shit on a thread like this.
Don’t get me wrong here, because what you’re doing – attempting to bring something home by changing the situational framework through which a person views a narrative – is not only admirable, it’s true art.
But nobody, nobody, outside of Africa has ever given a fuck about Africa in the history of…well, history.
Crazy metrics. SiT?
BRD is the one who tried to charcterize the Republican’s invasion of Iraq as an attempt to “stop the bloodshed.”
Hehe, Mission Accomplished!
We’ve spent more each year turning Iraq into a hellhole than the U.N. has spent in its entire 50+ year existence…and say what you want, but the U.N. has saved millions of lives.
Except for the underage girls.
In a few days, it will have beeen a year since the Haditha massacre…where is that report?
Could you post an address where I could mail a check after conducting due diligence as to your motives and expectations? Shank is right—Africa is an embarrassing testament to the great American Policy of Piss-Off, You Peons. The continent, it would appear, has nothing of value or interest for us. It is a murky world of otherly-colored people systematically killing one another. Like the Middle East? In operation only; the difference is between a high-rise condo complex and a trailer park.
Africa, it seems to me, only differs in the value of its assets. The people and their land have no value. When have they? That skews our perspective. That is a shame; to simply be born in America means I never have to live in fear of being killed because of my ancestors or my beliefs. We are lazy and blind. May God help you with your noble project; I would give what I can.
And monkyboy, I admire your spunk and share many of your beliefs; you remind me of the hard-headed “opposition” I see when I watch the British Parliament on TV. I just wish we had such a cathartic spirit of exchange here.
Maybe “spunk” was the wrong word.
You and monkybutts beliefs and remarks resemble spunk. Which is fitting, as they are mostly the product of useless mental masturbation.
Anyone who believes that the UN is effective as anything other than cover for all the worlds scumbag governments is engaging in such. Everytime I see a picture or footage of the UN General Assembly I think of the bar scene in Star Wars.
It is a wretched hive of scum and villainry.
Well, there goes my contribution.
shank:
This is untrue. Africa has been a magnet for adventuresome humanitarians for centuries, from the earliest European missionaries to every manner of NGO operative in the past half-century. And there’s been no end of heartbreak connected with the persistent failure to keep Africa hoisted up out of the mire. Have a taste:
“I worry,” she said, voice quavering in the lantern-light, “that the ability for long-range planning just isn’t there yet.”
Two decades of work might amount to nothing. For in Foria, and in much of the Kuronko region [of Sierra Leone] their mission had covered, the increments of progress they’d brought had been largely wiped out during the war: water pipes had been vandalized and left useless; farms had shrunk for lack of seed programs to supplement war-diminished yields; immunization campaigns had been impossible; the birthing kits, with their scissors and plastic mats, had been looted; a little health clinic and dispensary they’d built in Foria was rubble. And now the future, the school, could easily collapse, the project one last sign of futility.
“We need more time, at least another two years.” Mary’s body was so motionless and straight in her rickety chair that I almost didn’t see her tears.
— Daniel Bergner, In the Land of Magic Soldiers: A Story of White and Black in West Africa, 2003
…And why is that?
…and why isn’t it better?
Why is what?
That would be what you might call a mystery. If you’re asking for a book recommendation, this West African academic has some plausible explanations, IMO.
See the post directly above mine, oh wise one. Why the status quo of suffering in such a poor and vulnerable place? Why the misery? Why because it profits someone, and because it doesn’t count, not to you or the dreaded Democrats you so fear. You either walk it or you bail. There are many more of us than you think who have been watching both parties, weighing our alternatives, and (who knew!!) making our own minds up
No, and thanks to this evening’s librarian, the Insanity Inspector, I do not require a book recommendation. But thanks! I’ll file it under “presomething proactive activity” stuff.
Usually the indigenous “government.” See Zimbabwe.
One country seems to care about Africa these days:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/china_africasummit_page.html
cynn,
Spunk is fine by me
Sure, but why isn’t that an issue? Is the massacre in Africa not important enough? I would say no, because there’s nothing of value there. And doesn’t that attitude belie our “interests” in the Middle East? Just asking.
Oh, I get it. It’s because black people can’t control their own destinies. Brown people can, with our guidance. It’s a matter of degree!
What are you arguing in favor of, exactly, cynn mah boy?
Cynn, you seem to be attacking people who are trying to help, mainly to justify your refusal to pitch in.
In addition, if such rhetorical one-upmanship is truly characteristic of British Parliament, then maybe that sheds some light on some of the lousier aspects of British government, especially if bad-faithed disagreement and contrarianism such as the drive-by pseudo-witticisms monkyboy typically spouts trump actual debate.
Cynn – speak for your $#&* self. I have had my ass out on the line for more $#&* foreigners than I could care to count. Bosniaks, Croats, Afghans, etc. You may be lazy and blind, but I have given great amounts of sweat, tears and a little blood too – to help in the Balkans and Central Asia. Tell my daughter, who I have missed half of her life, that I am lazy and blind.
Monky – I spent time in the monument to UN “lifesaving” – Sarajevo, just down the road from Srbenica, you know.
Bah.
The U.N. feeds the hungry, treats the sick and looks after refugees (many from Iraq and Afghanistan currently), Maj. John…
Bull#$%&, the UN hasn’t done a fraction of the refugee care. UNHCR tries but can’t seem to get very much done – if anything is going to solve those refugee problems it is the Afghans, Paks and Iraqis – with the Iranians trying to squeeze a few refugees out in the meantime.
The UN doesn’t feed anyone – Western nations provide food aid that might get funneled thru the UN, some skimmed, a little diverted and eventually part gets distributed. I thought after the 2004 tsunamis, the “UN is the exmplar of how to give aid” folks would have laid low. I guess not.
Are you saying the U.S. military is the exmplar of how to give aid?
Sorry we blew up your village, kid…have a Twinkie.
Unless you are typing from a NGO outpost in the middle of a refugee camp monkyboy, you should have more respect when talking to those that have and do put themselves on the line for others.
Jerk.
monky, I was TF Eagle’s S-5 in 2004-2005. I did more in that period for the “other” than you will probably do during the rest of your life. That little snark had to be the weakest reply I have ever encountered in a comment thread…you really must be running dry.
Why don’t you find a thread in which to extol French economic performance, or China’s humanitarianism?
Ha. China cares about Africa in the same way you care about your local Shell station.
Except it’s like your gas station attendants were regularly being raped and murdered, and you did everything you could to keep the police from stopping it because that might close the station for a few days.
Are you saying you doled out your own money in Afghanistan, Maj. John?
Or was it from all Americans?
Cynn,
As you click through to the Christmas in Darfur website, on the lower left hand side, there is information about where one can send a check. If you dig into the background there’s not going to be a whole lot there, as the corporate structure was established in this case to provide a legal framework in which we can proceed. As we evolve, there will be more to dig into, but at this point, the legal organization is still wet behind the ears. Given your concerns, I would be more than happy to discuss this with you via comment, e-mail, or over the phone.
As to the broader poo-flinging content (and I’m looking directly at you monkyboy) insofar as I am volunteering to get shot at over Christmas and aspire to comeback with all of the limbs I started this process with, I would appreciate it if you could a) contribute, or b) if you have no interest in helping, at least lay off of those who are trying to help myself and others from coming away from this effort at a significant body part deficit.
BRD
The “read more” link just goes to the comments, BRD.
I’m not sure what you’ll be up to there…are you going to film a movie?
Monkyboy, I’m still working on the posting mechanics, but I’ve cut and pasted such that you can read the entire thing.
And yes – we are going with the intent to get footage.
on talk radio today i heard a muslim woman talk about her book “Now They Call Me Infidel” i think hte book would be interesting and think the readers hear might also.
the governor elect on massachusetts use to work for the clinton DOJ. since the election he has said he has been planning how to carry out his promises during the campaign, so he announced that he wants taxes raised $120,000,000 for 1000 police officers. clinton democrats can’t change just like leopards can’t change its spots. they are still for higher taxes. this states governor elect wouldn’t even mention taxes during the campaign.
I never thought I would say this, but would somebody please ban this worthless piece of shit.
Finally. Have we had enough “in vivo dissection” yet?
Christ almighty, Lord have mercy. What is WRONG with monkyboy?
Seriously. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?
Talk about kneejerk trotskyites…
Either you have something helpful, insightful, genuinely critical to say, or you shut the fuck up, monky. Do you understand? You can be banned from the site.
TW: modern69. I’ll let you guess the implications!
The one thing I do have to grudgingly respect about monky, is he doesn’t pretend to care about the lives of our Soldiers, or Iraqi’s, or make any bullshit pleas about right and wrong. Is is all about the money to monky, he is pissed off purely because not enough tax dollars are being spent on him.
He is at least honest about his greed and lust, if nothing else.
Agreed. Most of us have empowered the little poo flinger and have given him exactly what he wants. He has no interest in engaging in the kind of dialogue that will produce something akin to intellectual discussion. Everything is either Iraq, Afganistan or China. Most of his sources are either specious or don’t back up his points.
This is an exercise in futility and his comments to Major John are an abomination. Ban him or ignore him but either way stop empowering him.
One thing I can say that I do miss about Actus is that while he had a ferocious tendency to elide and elude, he had the good grace not to be a total pain in the ass like this.
Yeesh, and I was concerned that my first comment, up top there, was going to be a party pooper!
Nah, don’t ban monkyboy. Let his words sit there, in eternal digital preservation. There may come a time when he’ll be embarrassed to see them, and thus make his way back to the family of Western civiliation.
And do go slip BRD a ten-spot or so. Better that one of us go and sleuth things out there, than Darfur become yet another occasion for progressive self-congratulation, with bupkis in the way of actual results.
cynn:
It’s rarely a good idea to turn your nose up at a chance to learn something.
Just goes to show what William F. Buckley once said: Libs are forever calling for the airing of other views, but are then shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.
Jeff,
Can’t you ban Monkyboy? He is really and truly a vile beast.
Yes. When it is allowed to do its job, the US military gives the most valuable aid one can deliver: freedom. Freedom from the Nazis (millions were freed in western Europe), freedom from the Japanese Imperialists (millions freed in Indochina), freedom from the USSR (millions freed in central Europe), freedom from the Chinese Commies in NK (millions freed in South Korea), freedom from NV commies (millions freed in South Vietnam until the Democrats in Congress condemned them all to slavery and/or death), freedom from Saddam Hussein, (millions freed first in Kuwait and then Iraq), freedom from the Taliban (millions freed in Afghanistan) etc.
Sure, there are problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, but if the Iraqis and the Afghanis want to slaughter each other over religious differences, that is hardly the fault of the US military. Nor is it the fault of the military that the politicians now impose rules of engagement that hand a huge advantage to the terrorists.
Natural disasters? The US Navy delivered more aid to the tsunami victims in the first week of the disaster than all the UN and NGO’s put together. Katrina? The National Guard and Coast Guard rescued people while local politicians bitched and complained.
Is the military perfect? No, in any organization of millions of people, you will find some bad ones, but for the most part they are caught and punished. Sure, sometimes mistakes are made. The only people that don’t make mistakes are people who do nothing.
So go ahead monkeyboy, stand on the sidelines and spit some more of your venomous half-truths, smears, lies and distortions on the US military. You are nothing but a parrot that has been taught to regurgitate vile, noxious and disgusting slime on cue. You don’t deserve to exist on the same planet with the men and women of the US military.
Here’s my problem with all that “STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR!” hysteria: Just how, exactly, do you plan on doing that?
The leaders in the Sudan don’t want any interference, which should be obvious, because that would get in the way of their genocide. Africa in general has been hostile to any help from the US that they weren’t in direct control of, and gosh, we’ve seen how well they deal with our help before haven’t we? How much food was left to rot at the docks in Ethiopia because of corrupt assholes in charge? Between power-hungry warlords, tribal warfare, corrupt dictators, and Islamofacism running rampant, all the money in the world wouldn’t amount to a squirt of piss in terms of helping the people currently being murdered and terrorized in Darfur unless there is somebody else to administer it.
So what are people willing to do? Because let me give you a very frank assessment of what it would take to protect those 500,000 people in Darfur: The 1st Cavalry Division. Or perhaps the 101st Airborne. Nothing short of a full-out military invasion will stop the genocide, because you have one side willing to do anything in order to kill the other side, and all the hand-wringing in the world won’t stop them. We’ve already tried saying “please” for the past decade. That worked so well in Rwanda, didn’t it? Gosh, I get that fuzzy feeling when I think of all those UN “peacekeepers” who weren’t allowed to do ONE FUCKING THING but watch as people were slaughtered. Yeah, great track record the UN has, doesn’t it? You can’t talk to the idiots in charge of the Sudan because they don’t give a shit about your opinion or your thoughts. Words won’t do jack shit. What action are you willing to support in order to prevent more people from dying? Are you willing to see video of our troops shooting African warlords and their gangs of thugs in order to protect the refugees?
So what’s your solution? Worthless parasites like monkeyshit don’t have any, all they want to do is fling poo and insult people. Cynn, what’s your solution? Beg everyone to be nice? Tell them to all get along for a while? BRD, as much as I admire what you’re doing, what’s your solution? Anyone? Because I wasn’t joking earlier. If you want to stop the genocide, you’re going to have to put boots on the ground. You’re going to need a military, OUR military, between the murderers and the victims. That is the only thing that will stop the genocide right now. And in order to stop the genocide, you’re going to end up with a shooting war between that military and the murdering fuckwits who have been doing the genocide. Are you willing to support that? Are you willing to send Major John on his umpteenth deployment? Are you willing to send ME on depoyment in order to stop the murder and rape and torture? If not, then you had better come up with a better solution that isn’t made up of pipe dreams and wishfull thinking.
Dave,
On the one hand, the mechanics are, until there are enough words floating about, a moot point. But on the other hand, faith without acts is meaningless, and the question of “Ok, boss, you’ve got our attention – now what?” is kind of the fundamental question anything like this will have to address.
We’ve been giving some very serious thought to the very same kind of questions you raise, and at the risk of sounding like I’m dodging, I think there are some possibilities out there, but those are also things that we’ll be looking into before and while we’re there. I will be happy to discuss them once we get back, but up until then, I would prefer to be a bit circumspect.
BRD
Raging Dave
I agree with what you have written, but take it easy on BRD.
The ugly little truth that no one likes to talk about is the projection of power as it suits the interests of the U.S. People of monkyboy’s ilk would like us to live by a fuzzy utopian ideal that misery trumps interest. They are, after all, the misery mongers. Darfur is a living horror but, truth be told, we have no compelling national interest to put our soldiers in harms way beyond purely humanitarian concerns. Some would say that that is enough but those are probably the same people who wanted us out od Somalia after Blackhawk and who had hamstrung the troops with unrealistic rules of engagement and inadequate force and equipment. human itarian concerns were ultimately trumped by the death nof brave soldiers and the perception that the effort was “unwinnable.” (sound familiar?) No doubt our simian friend would like to try and make the same argument about Iraq and Afganistan, but that comparison is intellectually bankrupt.
The bottom line is that I admire people who put themselves in harm’s way to at least explore the possibility of solutions, but I fear that Dave has called the situation correctly.
Don’t call me heartless for stating the absolute truth, even if that truth is self serving and horrible.
Just a few points…
The U.N. has a rather small budget.
The U.S. military spends the total annual budget of the U.N. in about a day.
What may look like a good short term solution to a problem frequently causes a bigger problem in the long run.
Many of the problems we face today in Afghanistan, Iraq and yes, even Darfur, are partly the result of military “solutions” carried out by the U.S. in the past…
We get it, monky, you hate America. Now move along.
BRD – I enjoy the post, but I’d like to clear up one small point. The whole donor fatigue concept is a myth.
BJTexas, Dave,
From my experience, the first element of getting any sort of policy change implemented is shapiing the debate and affecting the language that surrounds an issue. Without that bit, the rest of the process is usually DOA. So, the first thing is to incrementally move things forward in putting this on the agenda.
BRD
BRD, don’t misunderstand me. I think what you are doing is worthy and rightieous. The African situation as a whole is so bad that it’s very difficult to wrap one’s mind around it. Even Bono recognizes that more money isn’t the answer because there’s precious little accountability. I will contribute to your trip and wish you Godspeed.
BTW: Did anybody pick up that chimp-anus is saying that the UN is ineffective because… wait for it… they don’t have enough money! Cue the laugh track.
The ‘Laughter’ and ‘Applause’ signs are currently down for main-tenants. Sorry for the ink-convenience.
-The menagement (a trois)
Certainly with monkybot and the trollettes serenading this site with songs in the key of ignorance, the laugh sign is probably shot.
monky,
Yes, I gave my own money in Afghanistan (example: I paid the solatia for a widow of a truck driver killed in Gholam-ali by a rocket fired by the HIG. She had six children to care for…) Also, my father sent me lots of medical equipment, to the extent that I think he spent his entire discretionary income some months ordering it.
What have you done?
I don’t like the fact that you make me seem like I have to boast of what I have done, monky. I think I will refrain from mentioning more of the private things I did to help – you make me appear the Pharasee.
But I do still have to ask, what have you done, for anyone?
Major John:
I can tell you what he’s done: **jack shit**
Most of the chimp-anus’ stuff is so stupid that I just get a good laugh. There is nothing laughable in the way he shows his total disrespect for you, your experience and the military. It is disrespect built on a big, stinking pile of arrogance and cluelessness.
He’s demonstrated that he has no respect for the military and sees all of you as a barbarian horde randomly blasting civilians to kingdom come. He sees the money spent on heroes who defend our freedoms as “welfare” and, ultimately wasted while he indulges in bug eyed fantasies of chinese troops in shipping containers. He can’t even suffer the opportunity to learn something from someone who has actually been in country because he has all of the info he needs. He is worse than than a traitor and a despicable human being who is so ignorant that he is ignorant of his ignorance.
As I have said before, he’s not worth the mud stuck in your boots. He wouldn’t know real personal sacrifice if it threw him off a building. He is nothing. **end of story**
Good God, I just clicked on the solatia link! What a moving account, just heartbreaking.
Monkeyboy, if you have an ounce of humanity in your fur lined carcass you will click on that link, read the description, read what you wrote to Major John and then offer a heartfelt apology for being a premier horse’s ass.
Do you have it in you, monkeyboy, to be a human being first or are you always going to be the snark? It’s up to you but I don’t have any hopes for anything that resembles personal humanity out of you.
Because, if you don’t, you are one despicable MF.
Matches their authority. And ability. And credibility. Imagine how great ZERO budget would be! So, your point, monkypunk?
Cool. I wish it were
sixforth-nine times that because we’d be done forty-nine times faster. Government solving problems = throwing money at stuff, that being your implication. So what exactly is your fucking point, monkydonk?PERFECT definition of Socialism. Thanks, waxboy! Looking forward to all your help reducing the numbers of crack babies next year’s Democrat legislation produces.
Sure thing, monkyspank. And you’re the expert on first effects. How’s that Socialist reform agenda coming?
Not happening. Leftism is a mental disorder, perfectly inverting all normal human principles.
Sorry, 6Gun, but that ain’t gonna fly in this case.
I’m pretty passionate about what I believe and occasionally it gets the best of me. I’m more than happy to mea culpa when I’m wrong or go too far. I have liberal friends (one of them is one of my best friends) and we go at it pretty good. What seperates us is that political principle does not equate to our humanity and we end up liking each other in the end.
I’m friggin’ pissed about chimp-anus making this comment:
He is in effect saying that Major John’s mission was worthless if he wasn’t using his own money? Then John has to embarrass himself by showing that, indeed, he had used his own money for a mission that puts him in danger and keeps him away from his family for months at a time.
This crosses the line from political backbiting to dispicable, sewer dwelling inhumanity. That little asshat should be banned for that right there and, yes, he owes Major John an apology for pooh-poohing the real, human sacrifices that miltary people make every stinkin’ day.
But, then again, he hates our military and the people serve. Apologise to Major John or ban his furry ass.
I didn’t say Maj. John’s mission was worthless, BJ, just expensive.
At $20 billion a year, Afghanistan is costing U.S. taxpayers 10 times the total annual budget of the U.N.
For Maj. John to badmouth the U.N. for what the achieve around the world on their rather tiny budget is quite arrogant…an attitude that explains why Afghanistan and Iraq are fiascos now.
Reminds me of apartheid, in that it takes a long time for change to occur. First steps in a process are often missteps and have to be tweaked and repeated until enough momentum is developed to carry it to the next step. IMO.
Monkyshit has exceeded his shelf life.
He is now just rotting, stinking waste.
I agree, it’s time to ban the miserable fuck.
Monkyboy,
Well, you are now engaged with conversations with people, like Major John, who are out there doing their damndest with their own time, money, blood, and sweat – so would it kill you to say “Thanks”?
Perfection is not an attribute belonging to humans. Perfection just ain’t going to happen. So we muddle through, day by day, doing the best we know how with the tools we’re given. A little compassion to a guy who will end up going to the far ends of the earth – again – and who will do the best he can when he gets on the ground.
BRD
I agree, BRD,
But a little compassion for the U.N. troops who are doing the same thing as Maj. John on a much smaller budget is in order, too:
http://tinyurl.com/yg3776
I was not taking issue with the mission, just the attitude…for someone in the U.S. military to bad mouth these people is an embarrassment to all Americans…
Hey – how about this – we split the difference.
Everyone can agree that I am a wonderful and noble person and will hop on over to drop a few bucks in the body armor collection fund.
BRD, I just sent some shekels your way. It’s a good cause, and certainly more effective than waiting for the United Nations to take decisive action.
An unintended benefit of this is being able to sneer at monkyboy for being a do-nothing, poo-flinging, self-centered, whinging, unhinged, hate filled moonbat, instead of actually working to achieve what he claims to be noble goals.
End the war! Defund the U.N.!
Hasn’t anybody dissed UN troops, monky. (At least, not ‘til I got in the act.) But as long as you’re trying to cover your contemptible ass by changing the subject, you wouldn’t by any chance mean these United Nations troops, by any chance?
I’ll bet the Guatemalans are pretty straight arrows. But the overall record of UN troops is lousy. The French and (Spanish?) in Lebanon, for instance, who are simply standing by while Hezb’Allah is rearmed, better, by Syria and Iran.
Plus it’s all one budget, anyway. If you don’t think Uncle Sam’s going to pick up the tab you haven’t been paying attention. So we don’t run most of it by you so you can take credit—and, of course, skim a bit for your trouble. My heart bleeds.
Regards,
Ric
This; deep outrage, and offense, because someone dared to insult the UNs military, from someone that never misses an opportunity to insult the American military.
I’d question its patriotism, if I thought it had any.
Monky, I’ve been where the mass graves were made while “UN Troops” stood and did naught – and in the Dutch Army’s case, helped the Serbs commit genocide of the Muslim Bosniaks.
You proclaim UN sancitity and forget Rwanda? Congo? I don’t know where you get this piety toward UN forces.
As for other efforts – the UNHCR tries – but doesn’t solve much very often. The UN officials I have dealt with were interested, ala tsunami relief, in finding office space, access to the AFFES PX, etc…
And you still haven’t told us anything you have done to help anyone. I begin to suspect it hasn’t been much.
And to the angry commenters – don’t worry about monky being too insulting. I have had really bad people (the Taliban, the HIG) try to kill me. A few poorly reasoned comments on a blog aren’t really all that upsetting. Don’t make much more of the simian than he is – not much.
Thanks for the information and ideas. Will definitely follow up. Best of luck, and sorry for any hostile political posturing.
It is not an embarassment to this American, and you can Fuck Right Off you worthless chickenshit sonovabitch. You want to be embarassed by your own ignorance, that is fine with me, but you don’t speak for any Americans I know, and you damn sure don’t speak for me.
And the mass graves of Iraqi and Afghani civilians that thought the U.S. military was going to protect them, Maj. John?
Could the U.N. done a worse job than your comrades there?
I don’t think so…
monky, you have really run off the rails. You blame the cop for the murderer’s victim? You rail against the fireman for the action of an arsonist?
We are actually fighting back against the people who blow up the innocent, burn schools and such. The UN does nothing, anywhere, to take up to anyone’s defense… The last time the “UN” took up arms and actually fought to effect was Korea – and we did 90%+ of the heavy lifting.
UNPROFOR, UNOFIL, …
We are actually fighting back against the people who blow up the innocent…
Cold comfort for the dead and their families, Maj. John.
You guys also have racked up quite a few civilians yourselves…
Do you really think Iraq and Afghanistan have turned out better than most U.N. missions?
Yup, I hope so…terrorists are civilians.
At least for the purposes of Pentagon press releases, lee.
Who says things have changed since Vietnam?
Are you trying to say terrorists aren’t civilians?
Lee,
Are you one of those people who think all of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims are legitimate targets for the U.S. military?
Nope.
I’m one of those people that think our military is the good guys, and go to extradinary lenghts to advoid killing non-combatants.
By the way, all bullshit aside, what do you think the US should do in Darfur?
And please, control your impulse to go off on a tangent about Iraq, Afganistan, and the money being spent there. (Somehow, I don’t think you will be able to answer that question without a tangent of some sort.)
Monkyboy,
First off, I have to congratulate you on turning a discussion on my ability to prevent fatal wound trauma into a theological discussion.
But past that I don’t know, off hand, what citizenship you hold, or where you live. The reason I raise the point is to ascertain what your realm of experience has been with regards to folks on the front line (howsoever described).
I have to give folks like Major John a huge amount of credit for signing up for this kind of disaster year in and year out. However, the people who blow my mind are the young (and, I suppose, according to your worldview, deceived) folks who go out, a volunteer to have their lives truncated half a century too early, simply for a moral cause.
While I do admit an aversion to your rhetorical tools and the stylistic voice that seems to animate them, I am more bothered by the fact that you seem to cling to some theoretical, hypermoralistic worldview that is more interested in ideological purity than saving lives.
I would be quite happy to be wrong in my assessment of your behavior, but your commentary makes it rather difficult to do so.
BRD
Yes. Nuke them all. Now you can go feel morally superior to all us genocide-disguised-as-giving-a-shit-about-the-downtrodden proponents.
An E-1 in any branch of the service does more for mankind in 24 hours than you have accomplished in your whole, apparently miserable, life, monky.
Now tell me the story again of how great the UN does its job. Please feel free to reference the oil for food program. I’ll also add that once again–you’re WRONG–the UN budget is approximately $20 billion. But don’t let facts get in the way.
Idiot.
I don’t know about “hypermoral,” BRD.
About 150,000 people die worldwide every single day.
Many of them are quite young and could have been saved if they had had access to things we take for granted such as clean drinking water, basic medical care, mosquito netting, etc.
The money wealthy countries spend to try and save a few fashionable unfortunates could be used to save millions of lives each year if that money was spent in a more rational and effective way…but it isn’t.
And I doubt it ever will be.
Can we agree that anyone who works to help out the poorer residents of Earth are the “good guys” and drop the holier-than-thou attitude?
Pot.
Kettle.
Idiot.
Come on Monky,
I answered your question, are you going to answer mine?
What should the U.S. do about Darfur, lee?
Supply food, water and medical care to the refugees, supply our chunk of the funds to the U.N. peacekeepers, and hope for the best…
Monky:
You are the only one who would attempt to create a “personal” affront for someone criticizing ther UN. Of course, none of that had any bearing on my demand of you, since I was talking about something very specific that had nothing to do with the UN.
You still owe Major John a personal apology for the “use your own money” crack. We’ll all continue to criticise the despicable group of money grubbing hacks that comprise the UN. If you take that personally, then get bent.
OH, BTW, the vast majority of peacekeeper costs are born by the countries that contribute the troops, idiot. Now apologise to the guy who has done more for foreign civilians in one day than you’ve done in your entire miserable life.
One more thing: You can just assumje in advance that the next time you hijack a thread to toot China’a horn, don’t bother using China Daily, the government mouthpiece, as a source.
Try something else but be sure to read it through as you have diustrssing tendency, when you venture away from censored communist rags, to miss vital facts.
No, they aren’t necessarily good guys, particularly not when they are enemies of the only economic/political system that can create wealth and thereby reduce poverty: namely, capitalism and limited government based on individual rights.
The great majority of your so-called good guys are active opponents of capitalism and are doing everything in their power to promote statism in some form or another. So while they may be anxious to pass out emergency food supplies and send relief missions to poor countries, or otherwise assume the mantle of nobility by practicing charity with other people’s money, they are equally busy promoting forms of government guaranteed to keep those people in poverty.
Anyone truly interested in eliminating poverty would make a brief historical review of the performance of the world’s various economic systems and see that only capitalism and limited government permits man to produce what his survival requires and lift himself out of poverty.
This review of the different systems would reveal that America’s so-called “poor”—whose chief health problem, incidentally, is obesity—are vastly better off than most of the “undeveloped†world’s population.
The last 60 years has produced vast and overwhelming evidence that statism—be it in the form of communism, socialism, fascism or any similar variant—produces nothing but human misery and poverty. The record could not be clearer. Those who still promote statism, therefore, obviously are not interested in relieving poverty.
BRD – Don’t get me wrong, I respect what you’re doing. And I hope to hell that people like you can find some sort of solution to the problem. God knows that kool-aid guzzling idiots like monkeyshit don’t have any answers. I’m just rather pessimistic about the whole thing.
Here’s my big fear, seeing as how I might have a stake in it: Should we send military troops in to stop the genocide, I worry that our gutless, worthless “leaders” in Congress will refuse to allow the military to do what needs to be done. Our troops can only be effective when they’re allowed to do their jobs, otherwise they are just targets, and the Dimocrats aren’t exactly known for letting the troops do their job. Sending the 82nd into Darfur but not letting them kill any attackers will end in another debacle.
Personally, if we’re sent in and allowed to protect the refugees by any means necessary, then I’m all for it. But if we’re just going to be another feel-good “Ooo, look at what we’re doing” kind of bullshit measure, I’m against it.
Time to hang it up on this thread I guess. We have wandered far from the original intent – which was to talk with BRD about his most worthy project.
score another hijack for monky – who still won’t answer any questions – ie. what has he/she/it done for anyone.
Good luck, BRD, and keep us informed. And remember the Vibromycin.
BRD:
I wish you all the best in your endeavor and look forward to seeing your film. I’ve linked your site to a friend of mine’s daughter, who is a student at U of MD and very much involved in African issues. She’ll pass it around the campus for you. Godspeed.
Major John: Yup, I officially give up. There is no conversing with someone who can’t separate his humanity from his ideology. Chimp-anus is so wrapped up in his nether world of pointless proclamations, half-truths, utopian idealism and America as the root of all evil that even the simplest requests to be a human being and know when you have unfairly insulted someone is met with more sniping and excuses.
Godspeed to you, Major, in all of your endeavors great and small, with thanks for your service and your willingness to speak out and educate.