Pentagon Launches Operation ‘Guardian of Prosperity’ to Protect Red Sea from Houthi Attacks

The Bahai's have suffered varying degrees of discrimination. The Iranian constitution protects religious practices of its Zoroastrian, Christian, Jewish as well as Sunni minorities but does not offer the same protections to Bahais.

 

yeah that’s why the Baha’i would appreciate freedom of religion, being the second largest religion in Iran. Instead Iran confiscates their homes.



And as for children, they aren’t prosecuted for crimes perhaps because they are too bust working or getting married.

 

I'm not here to dispute more or less factual reports like the ones you posted.

 

This was in 2003... my first tour. It was live broadcast TV. It was a local broadcast. I'm sure internet broadcasts today are much more controlled.

 

Ultimately, you can claim whatever fantastic and outrageously ridiculous thing that enters your mind. But either you are lying or someone played a trick on you...anyway, enough of your derailment.

 

Yeah... believing one's own eyes is so unreliable... LOLOL

 

those expensive missiles should be used to hit the source of those drones.

 

Frankly I'd never heard of Christians United for Israel until you posted it. But it doesn't matter to my point. Jewish influence on the Democratic Party is waning, and Jewish influence in the Republican Party is largely irrelevant. So the long term trend is for US national security policy to care less and less as time goes by about Israel. Eventually we will have a generation that views them as "colonizers" assume the levers of power.

Of course that's for later. Right now things are quite different.

 

Well if you think that it is rather pointless in arguing.

 

And I have no interest in the mystical, and regard the world we live in and human's place in it based on a confluence of culture and biology.

Of course even in the West, my view is probably a minority position.

 

Do you think the lefties really believe the US wasn't defeated in Afghanistan? The US hasn't had a real victory since WW2. Even now Biden's coalition in the Red Sea isn't fooling anyone. What good is a big stick if you aren't willing to use it. Under Biden the American military has a become a joke. Why is Biden so afraid of Iran? The Coalition warships should be hitting targets in Yemen, not just shooting down cheap drones with expensive missiles. How stupid is that?!

 

The US government spends large amounts of money to keep the Suez Canal safe for commercial vessels. What is the end game if only cheap drones are being shot down and not using expensive missiles to take out the sources of those drones? This strategy could go on for a very long time. Israel is not going to bow down to Biden who has shown to be a weak Commander In Chief.

 

You believe the material world is all there is to this world. The material world is inherently impermanent. None of it lasts. Most of what you value a flash in the pan. Moreover, even a scientist would admit: most of the universe (95%) is not part of the material world and its rules.
https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/
Dark Energy, Dark Matter
What Is Dark Energy?

 

Every audit ever conducted of the Pentagon shows gazillions missing and unaccounted before. In the summer of 2001 Congress knew that $2.3 trillion was missing, and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia was trying to find it. Sadly, all the casualties at the Pentagon on 911 were those accountants. And of course the records they were examining.

 

I think there are several members here who appear to belong to the group.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christians_United_for_Israel

 

Well the person I was responding to I don't think was a lefty; more of a neocon. They usually just move on from one defeat after another, never looking back.

 

The material world, or the world we can perceive, may not be all there is, but it's more than we can handle right now. We should work on understanding that first.

 

Yes, I agree, but IMO part of understanding it is not getting so attached to it that we lose sight of the fact that there is more. If we lose sight of the latter, we will eventually undermine every cultural mechanism that exists and has arisen to prevent us from turning into beasts, ready to devour one another in a mad rush where everything ultimately becomes about self-gratification.

But to your point about biology and culture being what you value: Evolution is the key force in all of this material world, from the physical, to the biological, to the social, to the cultural, and to the spiritual. Our job is to make sure the baton is moved forward, not backwards, and for us to not compromise things that have permanence (the truth) for things that don't (material advantage).
---------------------------------
Below I am merely trying to get you better acquainted with the East, if you show such interest...

I have quoted the 13th century Persian mystic poet Rumi before -- and the good and bad thing about these mystics is that you can read whatever you want in their verse. Each generation's job is to read into it their best interpretation --the one that helps the forces of good (truth) prevail over the forces of evil (falsehood).
“I died as mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was human,
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die human,
To soar with angels blessed above.
And when I sacrifice my angel soul
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
As a human, I will die once more,
Reborn, I will with the angels soar.
And when I let my angel body go,
I shall be more than mortal mind can know.”

In prose, the 13th century Persian scholar, astronomer, philosopher, ...theologian, Tusi, puts it this way:

Tusi also explains how humans evolved ...:
"Such humans...live in the Western Sudan and other distant corners of the world. They are close to animals by their habits, deeds and behavior. [...] The human has features that distinguish him from other creatures, but he has other features that unite him with the animal world, vegetable kingdom or even with the inanimate bodies. [...] Before [the creation of humans], all differences between organisms were of the natural origin. The next step will be associated with spiritual perfection, will, observation and knowledge. [...] All these facts prove that the human being is placed on the middle step of the evolutionary stairway. According to his inherent nature, the human is related to the lower beings, and only with the help of his will can he reach the higher development level."

 

That does NOT mean what you (and others) think it means

 

I personally do not know any Conservatives who think Afghanistan went well.

 

It didn't go well. But that DOES not mean it was a crushing defeat either.

 

All things to consider, but far far outside the boundaries of this thread.

 

I find it hard to view it any other way than a crushing defeat. How was it not?

 

We didn't lose that many soldiers and we killed lots of Afghans

 

Oh boy.

Well that shows you are not the least bit qualified to even be in this conversation. Have a wonderful Christmas.