# All I want for Christmas is world peace



## Nobodo (Nov 5, 2014)

Yesterday in another thread here a member posted that US president Obama is a **** for not sending troops into Syria to fight ISIS (ISIL). I don't want to start some political battle thread, but do feel the need to wonder. I'm sitting in my recliner a couple of continents and oceans away from where ISIS is performing daily atrocities. When I read a statement like that from somebody living in a very prosperous country only an afternoon's driving distance away from where the terrorists are operating, it really makes me think about the USA in context.

I feel that the public response Obama has taken with ISIS is largely a token response and is much smaller than the response that would have been taken by some past republican presidents, for example. I feel it is inevitable that the US will have soldiers on the ground dying in battles with ISIS. I don't doubt that it is already happening and we just don't yet know.

However I also feel many that other nations of the world expect the taxpayers of the United States to take on 100% of the cost in money and lives lost for way too many problems in the world that need a military response.

The USA does have the largest and most modern fighting force in the world. I am extremely proud of the fact that I spent the first 4 years of my adult life as part of that elite group, and 8 years after that as a reservist. However I am also reminded of the cost of having that military power each time I pay my taxes. I'm reminded of the cost each time I watch the news and see yet another group of coffins draped in U.S. flags being pulled off a military transport plane coming from another continent.

The charter of the United Nations states that the U.N. has primary responsibility for maintenance of international peace and security. There are 193 nations in the U.N. and 15 of the most powerful of those nations form the security council, with 5 of those nations being 'permanent members'. If the security council fails to act on an issue of international peace and security the responsibility is supposed to fall to the general assembly.
I think just about anybody taking an objective look at what actions the U.N. has taken in recent years with regard to terrorism and other matters of international peace and security would agree the U.N. is failing in its primary responsibility to the world's peace and security.
Now here is the real kicker -- how is the U.N. funded? It is funded through annual assessments of how much each of its 193 member nations need to pay. If you look year by year at how much the U.N. assesses each member nation must pay to the U.N. to keep it operating, the USA is charged 25% of the entire cost.
Reference: breakdown of U.N. charges by country -- http://www.un.org/en/ga/contributions/budget.shtml
In recent years the US has refused to pay such exorbitant amounts to the UN as it has become an organization that has lost its original purpose.

So what is the answer? Is it right that the USA needs to bear the burden for fighting terrorism anywhere in the world? That is a huge financial and humanitary burden, and a job that can never be done correctly in the eyes of the entire world. Does the U.N. need to return to the charter goals it was originally designed for in the wake of World War 2?

I certainly don't have an answer to terrorism but do feel it is a global problem needing a global response, and until that starts happening any one-nation response to terrorism is only going to breed more hatred and more terrorism.


----------



## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

Dear Santa,

any chance you can "accidently" drop a few big fk'n bombs off

your sled while flying over terrorist occupations ?

sincerely,


----------



## bigron (Nov 29, 2012)

:yeahthat:


----------



## Tag (Jun 11, 2014)

I just hope if our leaders send our Men and Women to fight and face the ultimate sacrifice it's not just our troops. One of my biggest pet peeves is the news media. If one of our people get killed, the media says X amount of troops killed today. Now for the rest of the news, quarter back stubs finger, what on earth are we going to do for next weeks game. Basketball player can't make it on 3 million a year, please buy their book. We have just received a news flash, owner of football team gets arrested for DUI. Please send your support, he didn't mean to. Soldier needs help from the VA, sorry we need a new stadium.


----------



## Nobodo (Nov 5, 2014)

Tag said:


> I just hope if our leaders send our Men and Women to fight and face the ultimate sacrifice it's not just our troops. One of my biggest pet peeves is the news media. If one of our people get killed, the media says X amount of troops killed today. Now for the rest of the news, quarter back stubs finger, what on earth are we going to do for next weeks game. Basketball player can't make it on 3 million a year, please buy their book. We have just received a news flash, owner of football team gets arrested for DUI. Please send your support, he didn't mean to. Soldier needs help from the VA, sorry we need a new stadium.


Of course if a pro football player volunteers for military duty and then gets killed in action a full investigation has to be made into why it happened, and remains in the news for months, and he gets hailed as a national hero, and several donation fundraisers are held for his family.

But of course that's only theoretical and would never happen in real life.
Oh, wait, I guess it did.


----------



## flipgun (Nov 14, 2012)

It is just as easy to wish for another's sanity as their death.


----------



## Crimson Owl (Jun 29, 2014)

I say if people want a voice in the un in. They cough up the dough like we do. Im sick of us buying and giving everyone everything.


----------



## zippo (Jul 9, 2014)

I see what you are saying yet i still think that the US goverment should take more action in the situation, my post was just my opinion and i didnt speak about syria, i spoke about the general situation with isis. My point of view is much diffrent then your point of view, as here we are used to the soldiers dying and to funding a war, the US is already bombing isis and beleive that is not enough, i wouldnt give a damn if the US goverment would have decided not to take any action with isis, but they decided to take action and that action shouldnt end with bombing.


----------



## Nobodo (Nov 5, 2014)

Neighbor 'alpha' defends his home like a fortress.
Armed to the teeth, alpha defends his home against invasion.

One night alpha heard the screams of his next door neighbor, bravo. A street gang had invaded bravo's home, and alpha could hear the screams of his neighbor's family being raped, tortured, and murdered.
Alpha felt happy that he had his own home well secured, but didn't help bravo.

The street gang quickly learned they could do the same to many other houses in the same neighborhood, and nobody would lift a finger to do anything about it. The gang's numbers and power grew quickly with the wealth gained from its plunders, and the gang found it very easy to recruit new members due to its success.

Alpha heard all the destruction the street gang created in his neighborhood, but felt safe in his home fortress so did nothing as the street gang grew. Soon the gang coordinated attacks in other neighborhoods and issued threats against homes throughout the entire city from their home base in alpha's neighborhood. The charlie, delta, and echo households were all taken by the gang, and those who managed to flee the houses with their lives had to camp out in the yards of other neighbors.

Before long the members of households throughout the city tried to get the city-wide council of households to address the issue. One member from each household in the entire city was a member of the council, but alas so many households were just like alpha that the council could never agree on how all the households could work together to free all homes from the terror of the gang.

Yankee was the strongest among all the households. Even though yankee was on the opposite side of the city from alpha's neighborhood, yankee tried the hardest to get the council of households to agree that all households had to work together to expel the gang from alpha's neighborhood and to set a precedent to make it much harder for gangs to take root in the future. Failing in that, yankee felt an obligation as the strongest household to do something about the gang.

The members of the yankee household knew the best way to get the gangs out of the houses they invaded was to barge directly into the houses and retake the houses by force, wiping out the gang while also losing plenty of yankee faily lives and the lives of many of the gang's prisoners. If the yankee household had the help of some other homes that might have been their approach. Instead forced to act alone, the yankees created a perimeter around the houses invaded by the gang, trying to prevent the gang from taking new houses and slowly wear the gang down through attrition. Some of the invaded homes were freed but progress came slowly, all the while the yankee household tried to get other houses to join the battle but was left with the task and its massive expense all alone.

Alpha looked out his window and could see there were far less gang members on the streets than there were before, and even that what's left of delta's family was able to move back into their house across the street. Members of the yankee household could be seen in the street, but less gang members. Alpha then looked again at the house next door, and saw that bravo's house was still filled with gang members and the remaining bravo family members were being held prisoner. Alpha shook his head and cussed at the yankee family for not storming the bravo house, then did another check around his own house to make sure he still had plenty of firepower and strong enough locks to feel confident the gang would not attack the alpha home.

Alpha retired to his bullet-proof den, turned on the tv, and saw a meeting of the city-wide council of households. A man addressed the council, saying all the houses in the entire city needed to work together to fight the gangs, the battle will only move someplace else if it is always left up to just one household. "Its not my problem" alpha said angrily, then quickly flipped the channels around and finally! A basketball tournament. That's more like it! Just one final check of the security cameras and he's settled for the night.


----------



## Tentacle Toast (Jan 17, 2013)

I think the US should pull completely out of that entire region. Let em' all do what they've gotta do, atrocities be damned. There's nothing we can do that isn't going to draw scorn from someone, so you know what? Fuck em'. Let em' all kill each other. No more wasted tax dollars going to the deaths of our troops & reputations, & no more "aide" going to countries claiming to be allies, but are no better than the "terrorists" themselves. We're hated no matter what we do...we might as well earn it focusing on the home front.


----------



## flipgun (Nov 14, 2012)

World Peace through American conquest. Let's stop kidding ourselves . :soapbox:


----------

