“We have not contained ISIS.”
At least a few people in charge DC are still in touch with reality.
Remember about a month ago, when the POTUS flatly stated that Da’esh, AKA ISIS, had been contained? You know, when he said, “I don’t think they’re gaining strength. What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them”?
You probably also remember what happened a couple of days later. That would be the Da’esh terrorist attacks in Paris, which killed 130 and injured literally hundreds more.
Great “containment”, eh?
Anyone with a clue knew the POTUS was “out to lunch” when he made that statement about Da’esh (AKA “ISIS”). Well, yesterday someone in a position to know flatly contradicted the POTUS. That someone would be the CJCS, Gen Joseph Dunford. This article’s title is a direct quote from his answers to questions posed by members of the House Armes Services Committee yesterday.
Gen Dunford further indicated that while Da’esh may have been tactically contained in selected areas in Syria and Iraq, “strategically they have spread since 2010.” He further indicated that the group now poses a threat well outside of Syria and Iraq – specifically, in Egypt, Nigeria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Jordan.
It’s kinda obvious that Gen Dunford omitted at least one other area where Da’esh poses a threat, too – Europe. Paris rather demonstrated that.
“Contained”? Yeah, right. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t rain wetting the leg of my trousers this time, either. Tell us another one, Mr. President.
Geez. It would be damn nice to see Administration officials – including the POTUS – simply tell us the truth vice trying to peddle blatantly obvious BS. But with this current gang of naive and incompetent fools and tools calling the shots in DC Administration, I won’t hold my breath waiting.
Category: Foreign Policy, Government Incompetence, Terror War
So, if the POTUS was “out to lunch”, does that make the SecState, sKerry, “out to Lurch”?
The Traitor John Kerry has been out to lunch ever since ‘Nam where he “won” (his own words!) three Purple Hearts — one for a piece of frag from his own M79 grenade launcher, one for shrapnel in his ass he got running from his own grenade, and one for wood fragments (aka splinters) removed after small arms fire hit his boat!
And “lost” when he threw them over the White House fence.
It still sticks in my craw how that scumbag decided to play up his RVN service during the 2004 campaign.
Remember when he got to the podium to deliver his acceptance speech at the DNC? He saluted snappily and said, “Reporting for duty!”
I almost threw up when I heard it.
Fucking asshole!
“Shirly” you jest…this administration and the pot us tell the truth? From the line in the movie…..”obama…YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH”
Priorities. The man sees Da’esh as no threat to his person, presidency, or his party so – they are “contained”. That is his definition of “national security” and those are his priorities. He is not dishonest merely misunderstood. By almost everyone.
Since when has B. Hussein 0bama cared about anything other than his next round of golf, fundraiser, vacation or big conference where he does little more than make statements and enjoy every opulent luxury our tax dollars can buy?
Oh..he cares a lot about spending every cent he can get his hands on and bankrupting America…its just that our congress have their heads so far up their respective asses, they can’t hear the cash registers ringing!
Well Americans wanted to feel good about race relations so they voted for a man who had served a whopping four years in the Senate and never authored a single substantive piece of legislation.
The world wanted to reward America for its choice and awarded the President the Nobel Peace Prize before he’d done anything substantive.
Now that we’ve had our little experience with the outcome of feel-good voting instead of electing someone who can do the job I can only hope that we don’t decide it’s high time to have a female president and damn those consequences as well.
On topic it’s one more example of what kind of damage an inexperienced president unaware of his own limitations can do an international scale while in office. We saw this 40 years ago when Carter became president and hosed the international agenda of the nation.
“… and never authored a single substantive piece of legislation.”
When it comes to authoring, his specialty is Autobiographies. He’s already written two of them. That’s got to count for something.
According to some, more studied in the subject than I am, at least one of those “auto”biographies was co-authored/ghost written by Bill Ayers.
Yeah. . .color me surprised, too. (NOT)
Obama has convinced himself the legacy he leaves will surpass any other president.
IMO, it’s up to the historians to write whether or not he was an abject failure or describe him as the kind of success he believes in his mind he is.
HIs legacy will be lower that Millard Filmore’s… and that’s pretty damn low!
Waiting for the resident SJW to appear and correct us in 5… 4… 3…
Sshhhh!
You’d think for all the hype about the “first black president,” they’d have picked an actual black guy.
VOV. He never made cit four years in the Senate. And even when he was there he wasn’t there. “Sen. Barack Obama has missed the most votes of any Democratic presidential hopeful in the Senate over the last two months, including a vote on an Iran resolution he has blasted Sen. Hillary Clinton for supporting. The Illinois Democrat has missed nearly 80 percent of all votes since September.” CNN 2 Nov 2007
If I remember right, the asshole was on a senator for about a year and a half, maybe two years!!
General Dunford isn’t a person who minces his words.
I’m sure there are folks at the WH who are reeling about his testimony.
Well at least he spoke up. I hope the “administration” does not invent some dirt and force him into retirement. It’s nice to see that even with the purge of Flag Officers by the administration, they obviously missed one with integrity.
Good ole Fightin’ Joe. I was happy he was selected as CJCS, if not a little surprised after dealing with Dempsey. Us Marines were a little miffed that he wouldn’t stick around as CMC, but he is needed up there on Capitol Hill, someone who will shoot it straight.
My opinion on Gen Dunford was previously neutral (didn’t know anything about him, so was reserving judgement). It’s moderately positive now.
It would be very strongly positive had he mentioned Paris/Western Europe in his list of places where Da’esh now posed a threat. But omitting that might well have been necessary to avoid getting fired.
I was fortunate enough to serve under him in Iraq. I didn’t pull punches then, and was a hardnosed warfighter. He ranks up there near Mattis in terms of Marines love for him.
As one who served with General Dunford with RCT-5 in 2003, all I can say is it seems he hasn’t changed much. He chooses his words carefully and speaks with specificity.
I’d be speculating if I were to suggest why he didn’t bring up the Da’esh threat in Europe.
Screw bodaprez. He’s a lame duck and he’s on his way out. The unfortunate part of his ‘legacy’ is that the generations now coming of age – military age – will be those who suffer for his incompetent and dismissive ‘feel good’ responses to real threats.
If ISIS/Daesh/whatevaah is a bucket of paint and the bucket is spilled, how do you really put the paint back into the bucket?
And do you simply right the bucket, or do you get rid of the bucket and the paint?
Why don’t we focus on that, instead of that jackass in the White House who has left us wide open? Neither Wilson nor Roosevelt wanted to get involved in the world wars that were underway until they were forced to, and practically at gunpoint for Roosevelt.
We and the rest of the civilized world have had more than enough warnings thrown at us.
What the hell does it take to realize that it is US or THEM?
This is guerrilla warfare, just like Vietnam and it cannot be fought as a ‘theater of war’.
Geez, and I thought all those dystopian movies that have been released in the past few years were just the imaginings of someone with a massive case of depression. Except for the early 19th century British invasion, we have not had an outside attack that started a war on this continent. No, I do not count 9/11/01, because that did not generate warfare here IN CONUS. I don’t think anyone is really prepared to deal with that possibility.
Think you forgot one, Ex-PH2:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican%E2%80%93American_War#Outbreak_of_the_War
Not much later than the War of 1812, and whether or not the incident starting the war constituted an “outside attack” could be disputed. But from the US perspective, the event touching off the war was a Mexican invasion of US territory gained on Texas becoming part of the US.
Pancho Villa’s border raids before World War I (particularly the one on Columbus, NM) might also be considered an “outside attack”, though they didn’t result in a general war. It did, however, result in the US Punitive Expedition against Mexico.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Columbus_%281916%29
Well, I thought about that, Hondo, but I still consider it to be mostly a border squabble between the Federales and Panco Villa. And let’s not forget that Pancho was egotistical enough to star in a movie as himself, so that he could do some serious PR (propaganda) with the peones.
And anyway, at one time, Texas almost declared itself an independent nation with the aim of incorporating part of Mexico south of the Rio Grande into its sovereign land holdings.
Now, granted, that was the Napolenic era, when Mexico was part of the land owned by France, but there was still that back-and-forth business about who is who and what belongs to whom.
Maybe if Texas had done the land confiscation, we’d have fewer border issues now.
Um, Ex-PH2 – you might want to read up on the Battle of Columbus. It occurred in 1916, not during either Napoleonic Era (I or III).
Columbus was a direct invasion of US territory by Mexican rebel forces under Villa – presumably to capture supplies and/or funds. Villa’s forces engaged both US civilians and US military forces stationed nearby. A total of 18 US citizens (8 military, 10 civilians) were killed, with another 8 WIA. Mexican forces are estimated to have lost approx 90 KIA or captured.
The US-Mexican war also occurred between Napoleonic Eras.
Ya’ll are making my brain hurt, ma’am. Here’s a useful timeline:
The Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815 at Waterloo. Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821. Texas became independent of Mexico in 1836. Texas became a state in 1845.
The Mexican War that ended in 1848 wasn’t, if memory serves, actually about Texans trying to take more Mexican territory. It was the result of a long-term dispute over the border. Texas said it was supposed to be along the Rio Grande; Mexicans said it was further north along the Sabine River.
Perry,
You said, “the Mexican War that ended in 1848 wasn’t, if memory serves (me well) …”
Crap, I did not know you were that old!
How are you feeling these day?
Here’s one for you, Master Chief:
When the Mexican War ended in 1848, nobody seemed to think much of the fact that it also ceded control of California. A year later, a guy working on a sawmill digs up some gravel that happens to contain gold nuggets. Kinda makes you wonder just how pissed off the Mexican government might have been along about then doesn’t it?
I wasn’t there at the time; I heard about it later from some claim-jumping polecats up in Calaveras County…
Agreed – with one minor quibble. What I’ve read said that Mexico was claiming the Nueces vice the Sabine as the border. Other than that, dead on target.
The incident that started the war was when the Mexican Army attacked a US garrison across the Rio Grande from Matamoros, near the current location of Brownsville. The US regarded that as an attack by a foreign government on US troops on US soil. That point can be – and has been – disputed.
As an addendum, since Mexico ‘belonged’ to the French, through Napoleon’s campaigns, if the Brits had succeeded with their ‘invasion’, was it actually aimed at taking back a rebellious colony and drafting the locals for the Napoleonic Wars, down in the southwestern part of America?
That’s the cool part about alternative history fiction. You can do a ‘what if’ about that kind of thing. I know that the 52nd Regiment of the British army was twice turned back from going to America by bad weather and went to fight the Frogs instead. But what if they had not been turned back, and had gone to the US to join the other Brit regiments? Would the French/Napoleon have sent part of their army against them and involved Americans in it?
Think about that for a second. All it took was two bad storms instead of fair weather.
I suppose it’s nitpicking to call the Japanese invasion of the Aleutians during WWII part of a major conflict? We sure as hell sent troops there to fight ’em.. Think we sent a few to a few other places, too.
Well, David, she did say “in CONUS”. I believe AK and HI are still considered OCONUS.
As someone who used to live in Alaska, and used to get in arguments with shippers frequently, you have touched a raw nerve Hondo (!).
The way I learned geography, Alaska is on the North American Continent. The “lower 48” are also on the North American Continent. Therefore it follows, to me, that Alaska is properly described as a component of The Continental United States.
However, it is not a component of The Contiguous United States.
// rant off
I will not waste another day arguing with you Hondo. Starting tomorrow. 😉
And another general ends up retiring in 3…2…1…
That or B. Hussein 0bama relieves him like Truman did GEN MacArthur.
Obama made it very clear what he meant by the “contained” comment in his very next sentence.
“What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them. They have not gained ground in Iraq. And in Syria they’ll come in, they’ll leave. But you don’t see this systematic march by ISIL across the terrain. What we have not yet been able to do is to completely decapitate their command and control structures. ”
What he said was accurate. ISIS lost ground over the last year.It is not making sustained advances and is being pushed back across 3 out of 4 fronts.
And it has in the mean time expanded in other areas. Or, as Gen. Dunford put it, “strategically they have spread”. So no, they are not “contained”. The strategic perspective is the determinative one, in the end. Even if you can point to a number, even a succession, of tactical failures by your enemy; if on the strategic plane they continue to expand and succeed over a period of YEARS, then they are winning the war.
But they are contained – to planet Earth.
See, all better now.
He made it clear what he meant when he said “contained”.
Taking his words out of context, leaving out his explanation, and then changing his intended meaning of “contained” after the fact to score political points is bullshit.
His statement was accurate. Still is. Based on what he clearly said he meant.
It was a single comment in a full interview and one phrase of the comment has been taken out of context to feed a bullshit political narrative.
It is nonsense.
TOTALLY WRONG!
The exact opposite is going on!
http://www.ft.com/ig/sites/2014/isis-map/
Are you suggesting that you, Lars, know more than the DOD, CIA and our true allied partners who are providing facts rather than slogans?
False, the link you posted is not only wrong but the map is outdated (despite the updated Nov 2016 tag. The narrative is outdated as well.
ISIS has suffered a net loss of territory in 2015 (about 10%). And it has been essentially halted on 3 out of 4 fronts.
Um, Professor, the map shows it was updated Nov. 16, 2015. Time travel isn’t real… except for posers.
typo.
zero credibility
My God Lars,
How is it possible that you, at such a young age with limited skills, experience and wisdom as compared to the TAH general population, can know so much about so many topics, disciplines and subject matters?
Please tell me, please.
Thanks you,
MCPO
My God Lars,
How is it possible that you, at such a young age with limited skills, experience and wisdom as compared to the TAH general population, can know so much about so many topics, disciplines and subject matters?
Please tell me, please.
Cough, cough, cough, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris
oh, excuse me, cough, cough.
I know so much because I go to Bezerkley and my profs tell me every day that I am a real deal social justice warrior and a special snowflake!!!
No, excuse me while I study for my final exam for my “Famous Black Prezidents” Class (that’s HIST 666 in the course catalog).
Oh, yeah – for the record, Carplardass, you cannot change the meaning of a word to suit your political narrative, no matter how much you may want to. ‘Contain’ means ‘held in place’, which ISIS/Daesh is not.
See my comment below.
You’re not real bright, you know.
Ah Lars, wrong again. I just doubled checked and the map and all references are completely updated and the last graphical annotation matches date stamp.
But what do I know …
Oh, I see! Someone who actually HAS contact with the agencies mentioned is dead wrong, but someone who gets his stuff from media news, preferably whatever drools over bodaprez, knows more than anyone else.
Well, despite the ‘knowledge’ of the troutsniffing dweeb, ISIS/Daesh has a plan to engulf the northern half of Africe, most of the Indian subcontinent, eastward into China, and large parts of Europe and eastern Europe that border the Mediterranean.
Their map was published this year in August.
It does not take SECRET knowledge to read a map, nor does it take anything but a reality clue to understand that their plans for expansion are going forward, regardless of ANY current setbacks. They DO NOT CARE how many bodies lie in their wake, whether they are loyalists or the opposition. They WILL succeed unless they are completely stopped, which is not going to happen without a real shooting war, which is unlikely at this point.
They are buried everywhere in every general population, including here in this country. They rely on malcontents in every society to do their dirty work for them, as witnessed in Paris on 11/13 and last night in Turkey when a pipe bomb blew up in a subway. They can go into ANY open arena full of people, like a football stadium or a shopping mall, and create enormous destruction in a heartbeat. And those who do these things do so because they know they will die in the process. And it WILL come here. Count on it.
Anyone who is as out of touch with reality as the trout-sniffing carp needs to get some professional help, and quickly, too.
The article is wrong. It is a half assed lazy blurb on a map that was first put up in 2014.
And it is not sourced from any intelligence agency.
UNKLASSERFRIED:
Well Lars, perhaps you should ‘understand before being understood’ and ‘know your company before attempting to teach them’.
Use see Lars I know what I am talking about!
Let’s take a look at a graphic that has been used by several news outlets just this pass week along with GEN Flynn’s assessment:
http://www.businessinsider.com/france-has-joined-air-strikes-against-isis-over-syria-2015-9
Or better yet, how about a comment from a buddy of mine, “ISIS is not contained, they are widening their span of control in Iraq, Syria and directly influencing hostile activities around the globe”.
SO, if the source is not from an IA you don’t use it?
NEWSFLASH
Most open sources (with respect to the subjects at hand) are developed by private intelligence and analysis companies and organizations, think tanks, universities and the media itself. All of which may have access to shared information.
The DNI is not in the business of providing graphics to the media.
But, again, what do I know …
And you, of course, know more about it than anyone else in the entire world, even though you have no connections with anyone in that field.
Great! No one will follow you anywhere, fool, because you will get people killed.
STFU
The map I’m referring to is not the map at the posted link.
It is a map that was released to the media, as part of the PR campaign, BY ISIS/DAESH IN AUGUST 2015.
Got that part? It is their plan for territorial acquisition by 2020. Territory does NOT have to mean political boundaries, if a population has been overwhelmed from within.
What part of that is so hard for you to understand?
Seriously, are you really that dense?
Hondo, I respectfully have to disagree with you on one matter. POTUS is not, was not, “out to lunch”. He was dissembling. He was lying. That is what he does.
Medic09: Momma raised me to be polite. It’s theoretically possible he was merely “misinformed” vice lying.
“That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
Or conflating other memories from his days as an intercity community organizer in the greater Chicago environs.
Bullshit.
What he said was factually correct. ISIS has lost ground in 2015 and his statement made it clear that he was talking about territorial gains when he said “contained”.
While the attacks in Paris were attributed to ISIS the attackers were all French and EU citizens. To claim the attacks in Paris show the President was lying when he said ISIS territorial gains have been contained is bullshit.
ISIS did not take paris. They made no territorial gains in Paris.
This fucking “president was wrong/lying when he said ISIS is contained” narrative complete political bullshit.
You have to be a soft fucking mind to buy into it.
I’m going to go out on a limb here when I state two things: first, Obama doesn’t need you to try to rationalize his bullshit; second, he could blow a goat on the South Lawn and you’d still try to make excuses for him.
Stop. You’re only hurting what little credibility you have left.
Can you engage in any debate sans ad hominem attacks? When you do so, it reeks of personal insecurity.
Gee whiz, nobody but the carp has engaged in personal insults at other commenters this morning.
I wonder why that might be.
His man-crush object and hero figure has been demonstrated to have feet of clay, Ex-PH2. That is, the POTUS has been shown here to be either mendacious or clueless. He’s hurt by that fact, so he’s now lashing out at anyone who brings up the matter.
I am tired of the constant political rhetoric and lies coming out of the right.
It is a propaganda machine and it is such a damn echo chamber that a significant percentage of our country is hopelessly mired in a manufactured belief system full of complete bullshit.
The GoP has been lying to themselves so much they are no longer capable of functioning.
It is why the GoP frontrunner is a fascist moron like Trump and a nutcase like Carson is politically relevant and the best you could hope for to oppose Clinton is Rubio, who, like Clinton is completely bought and paid for by banking/financial sectors.
It is depressing because we NEED a functioning right wing in our country to bring balance to the political process.
We also need real solutions to the issues we face and not the idiocratic fascism Trump spouts.
And the Left is not?
Wow! I did not know that propaganda belonged to only ONE political venue. As I recall, the Soviet Union in its heyday had a propaganda machine, a daily newspaper with the masthead “PRAVDA” on the front and subsequent pages.
And considering that the USSR was a communist government, I would have to say that its propaganda was LEFTIST IN TOTO.
Pravda was to the USSR Communist Party like the mainstream media is to the DNC today, I’m sure that’ll send a tingle up somebody’s leg! 😀
Give me a fucking break. Your excuse for the bullshit right wing propaganda machine in the US is that the Soviets did it?
Fucking moronic.
And the soviets were not left wing. They were autocratic and authoritarian. neo-feudalist and steeped in classically right wing ideologies.
The “leftist” ideas that helped inspire the revolution did not survive long after.
I and I’m sure that others here seriously think you need to go out and get yourself some fresh air Lars, maybe that might help you stop obsessing yourself with other peoples’ opinions. Just sayin’ and trying to help… 😀
Oh. My. God. The disconnect from the reality of the Cold War has finally set in.
All those editorials and articles in newspapers and magazines about ‘better dead than Red’ must have been invented out of thin air.
Happy to disappoint you, carp, but the Soviets WERE lefties, just like you. You’d like them. They’d agree with everything you say.
I’m thinking that a certain frequent commenter would have been of the “better Red than dead” persuasion, Ex-PH2.
Takes all kinds, I guess. Still, IMO Zapata’s famous quote about dying and living seems the better choice.
I agree. In an effort to remain pertinent to this thread I avoided topics from the post-WWII and 1950s eras, because they are really off-topic.
STFU
Hey, Air Cav! Get in line ahead of me, willya?
I have to ass the SOB’s faggy name now, lest I upset folks who think I am directing it at them. Soooooooooooooo, STFU, Lars.
Know where the d is on the keyboard? Right next to the S. So, I have to be clear: STFU, Lars.
Sorry, that was a pretty off topic rant.
I find myself defending Obama on this forum a lot. Mostly because too much of what is said about him is bullshit. It is not even close to real. He is to blame for damn near everything going on in the world according to the comments on this forum.
It is aggravating. The constant attacks on Obama and the mental gymnastic that are displayed to blame him for every damn thing that happens mindless, pointless, bullshit.
I am not particularly happy with him as a president, he is merely above average as a president and has been a huge a disappointment to me with respect to his domestic policies.
But most of what is going on internationally is not attributable to Obama. It was not caused by him and there is no unilateral solution he could possibly have implemented to solve them. In fact there is no coalition solution to these issues. They are beyond the scope of power and influence a single administration.
We could, as a nation, develop a political consensus on dealing with some of these problems, but instead we are having an asinine debate about whether the president was “lying” when he said ISIS territorial gains are “contained”.
It is stupid. It is bullshit political propaganda fed into the blogosphere for purely partisan political reasons that have nothing to do with the interests of our nation. One in the right wing blog space it is mindlessly regurgitated.
And this kind of bullshit has been non-stop for the entire Obama administration. One bullshit attack after another to the point where it is impossible for any GoP politician to work with the administration to solve any issue without losing support.
Fucking idiotic.
And I blame the morons believing this stupid bullshit propaganda.
YOU are the one, Taylor, who says in your previous comment that a GOPer is ‘bought and paid for’ – Rubio, I believe – when he is trying to make a liaison between both parties. Those were YOUR words, not anyone else’s.
Your comments are just as nasty as anyone else’s, and frequently worse when you are proven wrong.
Either take responsibility for what YOU say, or drop it altogether.
And Clinton. Read again. Both are bought and paid for by finance.
Which is the last thing we need for the next 4-8 years.
STFU, Lars.
Read my comment again. I only referred to ONE person.
YOU referred to two, and said that they are exactly the same when they are not.
Lars, do you compose that yourself or is it a cut & paste from the HuffyPoo?
Have a coffee and vote as close to a Reagan conservative as you can, you will be fine!
STOP ATTACKING MY PREEZY!!!!! LEAVE HIM ALONE SO I CAN GO WATCH “THE CRYING GAME” WITH MY BESTIES AND ANALYZE IT FOR MY TRANSGENDERED LEBANESE WOMYNS STUDIES CLASS!!!
You only like that movie because the TG guy lets his whacker hang out in plain sight.
Hang on a moment, here.
“Above average” as President? Barack Hussein Obama?
On what scale????? Unless, of course, you refer to the scale of breaking down American society and rebuilding it in a socialist image … in which case I’d agree.
But on the scale of what he is SUPPOSED to do, he’s a flaming failure. Carter … Grant … hell, even Fillmore are better.
It’s interesting, or rather not, that you fail to mention Cruz. God knows what flaws you presume he has, but lack of intelligence cannot be one of them. You might ask yourself why someone like Trump, who at the very least cannot be bought, is leading thanks mainly to the support of working class males.
Note: the Donald is not my guy, but I don’t blame his supporters for looking for someone who the donor class can’t control given recent political history.
Also, despite your claim on another thread to have rejected economic determinism, I note that you almost never speak out against the socialist foolishness of Bernie. I’m sure you’ll be along shortly to rationalize that.
I did not mention Cruz because he is fourth, though rising.
I am not sure who scarier; Cruz or Trump, or who crazier; Carson or Cruz.
Fortunately, Cruz in unelectable.
STFU, Lars.
I’m sure you are scared of Cruz-that gives me a warm, happy feeling all over.
Cruz = unelectable per the trout-sniffer. Oh, gee, just for that, I might vote for him in the primaries if he stays in the race.
I think if we stop beating on Lars with a verbal stick, he’ll quit snapping at us. I have noticed that an awful lot of comments are more about attacking Lars and less about attacking what he says.
Perhaps. But then, my guess is that he’d scream “Winning!”, then merely go back to pontificating and/or talking “at” others here vice engaging in adult, give-and-take logical discussion.
Until I see a change in behavior on his part away from being a smug, conceited horse’s ass – along with a willingness on his part to actually, you know, do a bit of homework before running his yap to make sure he’s not spouting nonsense – I think he deserves the grief he’s getting.
I agree, I have never really given him a hard time, but I do call him out when he is wrong.
Oh and he is a ‘conversational narcissist’.
He frequently brings those responses on himself, PN. He does not like it when people don’t just take his word for something or when they have an opposing viewpoint. He doesn’t want to ‘debate’ anything. He wants to be the Only One.
And, also, he keeps saying that ‘I’m done’ and then reappears, looking for attention. He’s addicted to it.
I just think it’s possible to tell someone they’re wrong, or you think they’re wrong, without insulting them personally. We ran off Rockclimbing Joe doing that, and he wasn’t a bad man, he was just a hopeless idealist. God knows, as many times as I’ve been wrong on here, if I’d been talked to by the folks here the way Lars is, I’d be a smoking spot on the pavement by now.
PN. There are assholes in the world, just as there are fat wise and stupid people, good and evil people. Lars just happens to be one of the assholes. There is no sense pretending otherwise or harboring hope that he might ‘see the light.’ He is here not as a member of the Veteran community but as an lefty agitator. I see nothing whatsoever redeeming about him. He’s just an asshole.
“I see nothing whatsoever redeeming about him.”
I give him 10 points for using “neo-feudalist” in a sentence. That was awesome.
PN, with respect. According to Lars, at any given time we are either a bunch of rascists, idiots, fucktards, climate deniers, theocrats, traitors, sociopaths, etc. I could go on …
Commissar is reaping what he has sown. And this theocrat thanks God for the bountiful harvest. Amen.
You forgot the part, GDC, about how all the Baby Boomers are a bunch of thieves who stole trillions from the Millennials. I’d be ashamed, but I’m actually thinking of buying a new big-ass gas-guzzler truck to haul all that cash around. Maybe use it to go hunt a few Spotted Owl…
You don’t act like a horse’s ass, PN. So you don’t get treated like one.
I have to agree with 2/17 Air Cav and GDContractor.
A number of us tried to point out to Taylor – at first, reasonably politely – that he was logically wrong and/or factually incorrect in some of his comments here. What resulted was his trotting out the “I’m Lars the Infallible; I go to Berkeley; I’m superior” persona and attitude.
When those challenging him wouldn’t “roll over”, those challenging him immediately became fools, idiots, a-holes, f**kwits, and a host of other insulting terms. That still happens at the drop of a hat whenever he’s challenged.
Bluntly: the lad has a personality that could p!ss off a fence post. He acts smug and superior – and IMO has little to no justification for doing so. I doubt he’s among the 20 or 30 most intelligent people who comment here regularly. And that’s before decrementing his “smarts score” for lack of common sense.
In short: if someone acts like a conceited ass, they deserve to be treated like one. At TAH, that’s pretty much guaranteed and should be expected.
PN, I get told I’m wrong a lot. I don’t throw fits over it or squawk like a spoiled brat. Hondo does it to me all the time. No big deal.
Taylor said over year ago that he tried to ‘school’ the peeps at the DU on how wrong they were and was booted out for it.
You weren’t here 3 years ago when someone named Insipid hijacked every thread with cut & paste junk that changed the subject, until he was barred for doing that.
What GDC says is accurate, with the addition that any reasoning person will allow a differing point of view without taking it personally and changing the subject or refusing to answer reasonable questions. Taylor has taken every opposition to his views as a personal affront. He says ‘I’m done, not coming back’ and then comes right back.
I used to know someone like that when I was finishing my degree. He’d sit at the table where my friends and I were studying and quizzing each other, and drag our attention away from our studies to himself.
Taylor has been told to go start his own blog. He doesn’t want to. No instant attention. And he is definitely an attention addict. Eventually, he’ll find his way out the door on his own. That’s better than banning him, unless he starts mimicking Insipid.
“This fucking president was wrong/lying when he said ISIS is contained.”
There, fixed it for you.
STFU
Last time I checked, Taylor – the purpose of a suicide raid isn’t to acquire territory. That’s true for raids in general; they’re conducted to inflict damage on the enemy, not capture territory.
Your “ISIS did not take paris (sic)” comment is thus irrelevant. Much like Japan’s kamikaze campaign during World War II, the Paris attacks’ purpose was never taking territory. Rather, it was designed to inflict damage on Da’esh’s enemy – both in terms of physical damage and damage to Western morale. Period.
Failing to grasp that fact demonstrates a relatively poor grasp of military strategy and tactics. And I also find the fact that you’re still using the term “ISIS” – which Islamic terrorists affiliated with that vile group prefer – rather than the term “Da’esh” (which they detest) telling.
OK, Hondo, if you’re going to invoke the Japanese pilots of WWII, people frequently mistake kamikaze for suicide, which it isn’t. That would be hara-kiri. Kamikaze means ‘west wind’, so-titled because when the Japanese fleet attacked Pearl Harbor, they came from the western direction.
I remember another source saying it meant “Divine or Spirit Wind” , I’ll look it up and try to link to it later.
I heard it meant ‘west wind’, which is why I used that term. It might be the others, too.
From Wikipedia, which in this case appears well sourced and matches what I’ve read elsewhere:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze#Background
Good call, Hondo. Seppuchu was also the term used to describe the Japanese Ritual Suicide like many Japanese Imperial Army Officers committed after Japan’s surrender.
From Stinkapedia –
Lars = Stinky Wind.
We didn’t get to the basis for mixing up the two terms, which was that the Zero pilots knew they might not have enough fuel to get back to their fleet. Rather than just ditch in the Pacific and hope for pickup, they did whatever it took to take their enemy with them, including ramming into ships with their planes.
Hondo, you’re going to have to ask PN for a twitch for my nose. I’m starting to paw the ground and snort.
All STFUs are directed at one commenter and one commenter only. I’ve truly had it with that stinkin’ SOB. Ignoring him doesn’t help. Showing him–repeatedly–where he is screwed up doesn’t help. He can’t be shamed or embarrassed. So, it’s just STFU for him, every time I see one of his comments. If he ever posts one that is a single line, w/o a run-on sentence, I’ll read it. Otherwise, there is no point in it for me.
Oh, I was sent an article by a photographer with the Air Cav in Vietnam. If you want to read it, I’ll forward it to Jonn for you.
Ex-Thanks for thinking of me, but a fellow I knew for years with was an Army photograpgher whose best work came from ‘the birds.’
Guys,
Lars is dominating and hijacking the discussion again.
Yep, and it is getting damned old. If I want to read Dim/Obama talking points, I’ll go to a Dim site. I don’t give a shit what Lars has to say but I am damned tired of having to wade through his bullshit to read the views of TAH people that I care about. You can’t track those because Lars has a zillion posts on every subject that pushed other commentators off the “Recent Comments” thingy in minutes.
If we can’t ban him can we reduce the number of comments he can make a day? 0 would be a nice number but 1 will do.
sj. I can’t see how to get rid of him. I tried to ignore him but he is everywhere–except the heart and soul of this place: stolen valor, military heroes, and the Fallen. Have you noticed that? In other words, wherever he can’t post his progressive/commie/marxist bullshit, he’s not to be found. There’s nothing left for me than to cuss him.
Actually, there is one way to get rid of him. If you can offer a cogent argument to Jonn on why Lars should be moderated, Jonn may block him. Otherwise…we get to deal with him like every other poster on here.
Agree. And it’s not my place to do anything but go color and ignore him. It’s Jonn’s playpen and I’m grateful that he lets me participate. I enjoyed TAH much more before his spamming.
Don’t forget soon will be the day of Festivus. On that day we get to redress our grievances with the platoon sergeant. No pillow fight this year however.
Do what I do, call him out each time he is factually incorrect.
Dealing with facts is much more differenter than dealing in ideas!
Yeah, calling him out on facts just makes him go dark for just a little while, or blame his disability. Then, he’s back, on another subject playing the smartest man in the room. He’s an asshole. Someday he might discover heterosexual sex and post less frequently here as a result. I’d even chip in to buy him a hooker, if that would hasten the process.
In closing I would just like to say that you seem like too nice a guy, Master Chief.
Eh, GFY!
Ha!
Of course, he is, Master Chief. How else does he get attention?
But we could go back to discussing how to get people in this country to truly understand the threat to their freedom, couldn’t we? All of us, except that flyswatter, know that Daesh is a threat because its member engage in random and terrifying attacks with no warning. Hence, the 2001 attacks before Daesh or ISIS or Al Qaeda or whatever even were part of public awareness. The fact that these are random attacks instead of a unified front appears to separate the central part of Daesh, its imams, from the actual attacks. They can claim the Paris attacks last month and the attack on the Turkish subway last night, but there is no set armed conflict involved. That makes it harder to pin them down. I don’t think they were ever engage as a unified front. Infiltration is much easier and less obvious to ordinary people.
‘were ever engage’ s/b ‘WILL ever engage’. Sorry, my bad.
He is smart, we just need to re-direct and harness his abilities for the good of the order.
I’ll accept your “smart” assessment because I respect you. But. Hondo is smart. Hondo isn’t an asshole. I have several smart lib friends that I respect and enjoy being with. They are not assholes. Taylor is an asshole. I’ve known smart people that could not pour piss out of a boot.
And to revise and extend my remarks: Taylor, like his idol, Obama, are both arrogant assholes. Both think they know everything and us peons are goobers. Thus my loathing of both of them. <<<>>>
All I’ll write on the matter about Lars is we’ve all known people like him. I suspect he’s the way he is because he was trained by people who thought they were superior to others. We all know he’s not the smartest man in the room. Ignore him and maybe he’ll eventually get the message. Otherwise, he’ll just keep up his nonsense.