comment by Darren The King Fletcher (U10026)
posted 7 minutes ago
I'd be fine with my kids one day going to school and learning Cantonese or Mandarin rather than a silly language like French.
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Robb, the era of cultural hegemony has begun

Seriously though this is a good example of the growing importance of China and this sort of benign influence isn't a bad thing. I guess the problem is which one do you learn?

I worked on a project a few years ago to evaluate some new chinese hardware. A few people from the manufacture came over from China to work with me. A Chinese guy from our company was also put on the project to ease communication. Unfortunately, he spoke mandarin and the other guys spoke Cantonese. Not very helpful

Macca,

"I personally think you just want to believe what you want to believe

You seriosuly think that the Afghan women and children are not now happier under the current regime as opposed to the oppresive Taliban regime, irrespective of what the coalition's motives were?

Correct me if I'm wrong but arn't the Afghan people happy to be shown how to protect themselves from the Taliban regaining control? Arn't the majority of military operations in Afganistan not being predominatly carried out by the Afghans themselves?

Incidentally, what do you think were the US's motives were in Afganistan?"
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Firstly, and let's make this absolutely clear. This has nothing to do with what i "think" or want to "believe". Opinions are useless here. Utterly useless and you won't find me offering one.

If you do some research - and i gave you two possible lines of enquiry - you'll find that Afghanistan has now been largely taken over by the warlords who preceded the Taliban (a period described by human rights groups as being the "blackest in Afghanistan's history". Not to mention living under an occupation from aggressive foreign forces with drones flying around all day and tens of thousands dead. The country is totally war-torn. Oh, and the millions of refugees we've created...

You keep asking what Afghan's think or speculating with what they might be happy about. The reality is, we don't know or care. The opinion of Afghans or what they think is not a US or UK interest. Me and you might be concerned, but we aren't in charge. If we actually believed in democracy or anything resembling democratic principles, we might actually ask them. What we do know is that 1000 Afghan leaders bitterly condemned the invasion and carpet bombing. The RAWA bitterly condemned it and the aid agencies bitterly condemned it. Basically anyone with a care in the world for the impoverished people of Afghanistan, and a distain for US/UK hegemony opposed the invasion. This isn't my opinion. Do the research.

As for the motives... I won't bother writing them out as it's vast but here's a decent starting point. http://www.markcurtis.info/

Right, that link doesn;t directly work. Jut scroll down the page (or read it, if you wish - Mark Curtis is excellent) and find the link called "The reality of Britain's war in Afghan" from 12th Feb 2011.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/M7FIvfx5J10?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sorry if you've seen this already... Bloody brilliant.
can't wait to see what Steven Seagal does?

The reality is, we don't know or care.

..........

You don't know or care.

Please keep that statement as striictly being aimed at yourself, and not everybody else.

Stringer that's incredible.

talk about debate going way off topic! berbaking, do you think the moon landing was a hoax?

You don't know or care.

Please keep that statement as striictly being aimed at yourself, and not everybody else.
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VC, you're an idiot.

Don't quote out of context. It's embarrassing, given the amount of flak you give others for similar practice.

I'll quote the rest, so others don't fall for your idiocy.:

"You keep asking what Afghan's think or speculating with what they might be happy about. The reality is, we don't know or care. The opinion of Afghans or what they think is not a US or UK interest. Me and you might be concerned, but we aren't in charge. If we actually believed in democracy or anything resembling democratic principles, we might actually ask them."

Quite clearly, I'm referring to the Elite classes when I write "we don't know or care". As i make clear two sentences more into the paragraph.

berbaking, do you think the moon landing was a hoax?
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No.

comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 57 seconds ago
You don't know or care.

Please keep that statement as striictly being aimed at yourself, and not everybody else.
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VC, you're an idiot

...............

Whatever.

Joely, sorry I think I hijacked your thread a couple of times bringing up the moon landings and China. Won't do it again

The reality is, we don't know or care

.............

This statement does not speake for everyone.

What part of this don't you understand.

This is still going on?

Berbaking

I'm convinced that VC doesn't actually have an opinion on anything. His sole purpose on here is just to pick arguments with people. Pretty sad really.

He'll take specific sentences out of posts on here and try to make people look bad.

My understanding is that Berbaking was talking about the people that run the states - UK and US - rather than the actual people.

This statement does not speake for everyone.

What part of this don't you understand.

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Did you even read what i wrote? Or are you still selectively quoting out of context?

I'll c & p what i said above:

"You keep asking what Afghan's think or speculating with what they might be happy about. The reality is, we don't know or care. The opinion of Afghans or what they think is not a US or UK interest. Me and you might be concerned, but we aren't in charge. If we actually believed in democracy or anything resembling democratic principles, we might actually ask them."

Quite clearly, I'm referring to the Elite classes when I write "we don't know or care". As i make clear two sentences more into the paragraph, when i write, "Me and you might be concerned, but we aren't in charge".

Not hard now, is it...

My understanding is that Berbaking was talking about the people that run the states - UK and US - rather than the actual people.
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Which i think was obvious from the initial remark, but even clearer given that i clarified it. I've clarified it twice now, we'll see if Mr Razor Tongue gets it third time lucky...

Yeah it was pretty obvious.

Did you even read what i wrote?

...........

Yes, I copied and pasted the exact piece I have issue with. The rest is rambling irrelevence.

What part of that still don't you understand.

My understanding is that Berbaking was talking about the people that run the states - UK and US - rather than the actual people.

..........

Is he qualifeid to talk about them?

Is he qualifeid to talk about them?
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Is a qualification necessary?

Conspiracy or not.

Not.

Are any of us qualified to talk about such things?

I think you're making something out of nothing, VC.

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