Saw the North Korean launch today

[s_gundam]

Conan did a better job then me:

[OtherDalfite]

Take over, my arse. They can barely hold Iraq; how are they going to occupy a major country?

We aren\'t fighting Iraq in general. We are watching for terrorists. And also camping there for oil.

[Caesar15]

We dont even have troops in iraq

[Kryten]

We aren\'t fighting Iraq in general. We are watching for terrorists. And also camping there for oil.

And you can barely do that, that\'s my point. Look how much it messed up your economy.

[OtherDalfite]

Economy would have been much worse if we hadn\'t. But even now, it\'s getting steadily worse everyday. But I really hope if the US goes into some sort of depression, we don\'t turn to violence to help our country.

[Tiberion]

[mod]You guys have been keeping it civil, don't ruin it now by devolving into "ur country is dum; NO URS" [/mod]

Non-mod comment: I think if you consider it objectively, you\'ll find every nation on the planet has some pretty sad issues and some pretty (unintentionally) funny beliefs or systems.

Why? Because those nations are populated by humans. We\'re far too prone to selfishness and being intolerant of things we don\'t like or understand.

And if your first reaction is 'But my nation...' then you probably ought to look a little closer

[Johno]

OtherDalfite: I don\'t know if the USA COULD take over any other country. More importantly, I don\'t think I\'ll ever find out. And this is the very issue here - what the USA wants is stability so that it can buy the raw materials it needs and sell its products to willing customers.

Now, this is a selfish aim, to be sure. But it\'s easily understood.

And it\'s why North Korea is a problem - whereas it\'s easy to tell what the USA wants, it\'s often very difficult to figure out what North Korea wants.

[Kreuzung]

North Korea is like Iran or Israel - the government provocates any nation in range for some reason even their own people don\'t know...

[Johno]

Iran and Israel are fairly easy to predict too, if you understand Judaism and Shiite Islam.

The North Korean philosophy of Juche is pretty hard to get, and it doesn\'t help you predict what goofy stunt they might pull next . . . .

[Kreuzung]

North Korea is heavily influenced by China AFAIK

[kerbalboy2000]

It looked strangely familiar..

that was funny

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

Iran and Israel are fairly easy to predict too, if you understand Judaism and Shiite Islam.

The North Korean philosophy of Juche is pretty hard to get, and it doesn\'t help you predict what goofy stunt they might pull next . . . .

Why do people think that Israel is bad? Sorry if that is a bad question or something, but as far as I can tell, the only thing to hate them for is the Gaza strip thing that happened a few years back. Its Iran and Iraq that you have to look out for.

[Johno]

Just so you understand: I don\'t in ANY way think that Israel is bad, evil or wrong. I disagree with the way they deal with the very vexing problem of how to deal with the Palestinians - I happen to think a smidge more compassion would solve a lot more problems than they realise - but in any case, an understanding of Judaism (plus how the Jews have seen events of the last couple of centuries) will go a long way towards understanding what direction Israel will go in a given situation. Israel is predictable.

Similarly with Iran - If you understand Shi-ite Islam and where the Iranians have come from, you will understand what they do. The Iranians are predictable as well.

The North Koreans? They seem to do whatever the voices in the Dear Leader\'s head tell them to . . . .