Ser Kheru: Such as the whole "insallah" being pre-islamic.

He was referring to a general cultural belief in the region that what happens, happens. He was referring to scholars who believe it may not have been given a cause (Allah) until Islam but the idea is proposed that the attitude was there.

/the only thing worse than trolls are people with poor reading comprehension or sarcasm detectors that scream troll

Ser Kheru: I am relatively convinced that whole article was a well written troll for the internet. Such as the whole "insallah" being pre-islamic.

Occam's Razor, dude.

Savage illiterates believe stoopid shiat.

CruiserTwelve: Crosshair: Why Arabs Loose Wars (new window)

LOSE ! ! ! It's LOSE not LOOSE ! ! !

/pet peeve

I don't know, the Arabs loose many wars also.

This just in: They're still kicking American butt despite this.

Ser Kheru: I am relatively convinced that whole article was a well written troll for the internet. Such as the whole "insallah" being pre-islamic. What is that based on? The region was largely polytheistic and I've never seen a reputable scholar say anything along that line. And the rest of it just read like some anti-Islam screed written just to point and laugh and go "oh my, look how stupid different people are! haha! They believe stupid things! Thank Goodness we Americans are so much more enlightened!" Blah. Tripe. The whole thing.

Why don't you learn how to read. They said the concept, not the word predat5ed Islam. But if you did read and understand the article you couldn't get your panties in a bunch about someone criticizing religion. BTW, the site is maintained by one of the most respected military commentators alive today.

Ser Kheru: Such as the whole "insallah" being pre-islamic.

I am no scholar, but I would bet real money that the word "Allah" was used as a name for god long before Muhammad was born.

Weaver95: The slow blade penetrates the shield!

the spice must flow


/approves

DamnYankees: Approves.

/obscure?

Anyone say Boxer Rebellion yet?

/Probably... goddamn Fark.

Well, between the Active Denial System that has been nicknamed the "Voice of God" on it's higher settings because it can superheat metal instantly, and the science of HAPTICS which is going to give us solid sound projection(ultrasonics), I'd say the forcefield thing should be any day now. That is, assuming that the HAARP array doesn't split the earth in half or that someone at the LHC doesn't divide by zero while opening a portal to Xen for Gordan Freeman.

Not kidding about the haptics thing though.

I say we encourage these beliefs at all costs.

Samsaran: If you spend anytime at all in any Arab speaking nation you will come to dread those words.

Makes you wonder how much their god must hate it.
Mohammed: "Oh me. I've got a bunch of mumbling idiots that keep expecting ME to fix all their problems. Or at least THIS crop does. I don't know what the hell I did wrong, I remember back in the day. They worked out mathematics, they built beautiful and complex mosques and mahals, they cranked out thousands of copies of the Bible-all the parts. Some of them follow in the tradition, don't think I don't notice the skyscrapers in the desert. That took some serious thought and responsibility. But THIS shiat? What did I do WRONG with these assholes, all they seem to be able to do is buy the cheapest Russian made crap they can lay their hands on, and mumble for my help when it breaks down."
Jesus: "Been there, done that."
Mohammed: "What?"
Jesus: "What, you never heard of the Christian Dark Ages? The Inquisition? Of course, you poor bastard, I got the age of sword, crossbow, and catapult. You got the age of assault rifle and Semtex."
Pops: "You two boys arguing over which of your followers have gotten more out of control, again? Hell. It seems like the only thing both your followers can agree with is that the people that follow your old man directly are idiots."
Jesus: Yeah, well, I never made my followers mutilate their dicks, pop. Seriously. What was with the dick fascination, you couldn't have come up with a tattoo, or something?
Mohammed: HEY! At least my followers don't try to memorialize me as eternally in the greatest pain of my life.
Jesus: Oh yeah, yeah, that's because they aren't allowed to draw or sculpt images of you at all. And pops, what's with the name thing you got going on?
Pops: Oh shut up, already.

Ah, those simple stupid people . . . to believe in such silly things! That article gave me one deep belly laugh!

Now, it's off to buy an American-made car, to turn the economy around so we'll have no more of these pesky-yet-necessary bailouts!

/maybe if I pray at my local house of worship, it will help speed the recovery

I'm wearing my Army issued sunglasses that see through clothing right now so I'm really getting a k....oh, hey grandma, how's it goOHSONOFAbiatch!!!!

It sure is swell to make fun of people for being uninformed when they have been undereducated and isolated from the world by their dictator and way of life. HAHA Man this is hilarious!

"Behold, like a wild ass in the desert, go I forth to my work."

earlm:

Why don't you learn how to read. They said the concept, not the word predat5ed Islam. But if you did read and understand the article you couldn't get your panties in a bunch about someone criticizing religion. BTW, the site is maintained by one of the most respected military commentators alive today.

Grand, he can be a good military commentator and still be a racist jerk. And I understand that he meant the concept and not the word but I still stand by my skepticism. Saying that the concept is pre-Islamic is still not something that I feel can be supported. You can make the claim that all religions have to a greater or lesser degree the idea of a divine will but that is not the same as the predestination-esque concept he is trying to conjure up.

Though to a degree you are right that I get my panties in a knot when people bash religions but that is because it is rare to find someone making educated criticisms. This guy, a good military commentator or not, did not make a quality argument against Islam.

So, yeah. That's all I have to say. This is Fark, not exactly a bastion of religious tolerance so I'm not going any further in this pool.

Fano: DamnYankees: Approves.

/obscure?

Boxer rebellion?

Damn right Boxer Rebellion...

My Grand-daddy was a Horse-Marine...

/Actually, a Navy Chief in WWII, but I sang that cadence so many times I almost believe it.

Well, their point is: The Americans got it way better than our god-forsaken hell-hole of a region that we live in.

Spade: 2004 called and wants it's TOE back.

Well, it would be nice if I could get my MTOE updated to reflect current doctrine and conflicts. My boss wants us all to be armed with both carbines and pistols, while the MTOE says rifles. And higher HQ will probably spend the carbine money on a different unit. I can understand my guys having carbines given their duty location, other equipment, and likelihood of long range combat, while the other unit which will probably get them really could use the longer range accuracy of full barreled rifles with pistols as a backup for use in close quarters. But of course, equipment procurement is not about what would actually make tactical sense, but instead on what looks cool and who is the big boss's favorite. As it is, my unit has been short on rifles and all other MTOE prescribed equipment for the last three years, the entire time since the unit was created.

I want sunglasses that can see through clothing.

Weaver95: The slow blade penetrates the shield!

the spice must flow
Well played, Trebek.

Samsaran: Lots of simple people believe strange things:

The CIA invented crack cocaine to keep the black man down.


This might not be technically true, but the consensus is that the CIA at least distributed crack throughout the ghettos.

Samsaran: Lots of simple people believe strange things:

The CIA invented AIDS to keep the black man down.

The CIA invented crack cocaine to keep the black man down.

There is salt peter in Churches Fried Chicken to keep blacks from reproducing.

Kool Cigarettes are marketed to blacks as part of a KKK conspiracy to give blacks cancer.

Cleopatra was black.

The Sphinx was modeled after a black man so white people shot the nose off to hide this fact.

A Sky Wizard made the Earth and Universes with magic.

In a hundred years, Bush will be regarded as one of our greatest presidents.

etc., etc.

Samsaran: Joce678: This just in: They're still kicking American butt despite this.

No, they are killing each other. They don't fight Americans. They prefer to target schools, cafes, hotels, police stations, Shiite holy places, private homes and crowded shopping bazaars.

Why? Because they are cowards.

So, I assume the 4000 dead and 30,000 wounded US troops all fell victim to friendly fire, or something?

Surely they must believe our evil leader has a shoe shield around his head!

Yoyo:
You're not looking at big enough bullets. 155mm rounds can be seen in flight like watching a golf ball being hit off of a tee.

.

Correct.

You can see them as they go away from you.

You can also hear them as they fly over you.

Former ATC.

Yoyo: Spade: 2004 called and wants it's TOE back.

Well, it would be nice if I could get my MTOE updated to reflect current doctrine and conflicts. My boss wants us all to be armed with both carbines and pistols, while the MTOE says rifles. And higher HQ will probably spend the carbine money on a different unit. I can understand my guys having carbines given their duty location, other equipment, and likelihood of long range combat, while the other unit which will probably get them really could use the longer range accuracy of full barreled rifles with pistols as a backup for use in close quarters. But of course, equipment procurement is not about what would actually make tactical sense, but instead on what looks cool and who is the big boss's favorite. As it is, my unit has been short on rifles and all other MTOE prescribed equipment for the last three years, the entire time since the unit was created.

tell me about it, we didnt have enough 240 golfs to mount on vehicles, every other one had a saw or just an m16 up there. you ever try stopping a vehicle with .223 rounds? didnt work to well.

A lot of people believe in crazy shiat

/shall we start a Jeebus thread?

Dufus: Perhaps they have found out about the military version of These (pop) I want me some of them.

Hmmm... strangely, no sample video on the site...

Saborlas: And yet they've still managed to fight us to a standstill.

Fighters, from a dozen different foreign nations, are resisting the occupation, yes. But to claim they have fought the U.S to a standstill is rather silly. The are resisting an occupation after we already successfully invaded by obliterating the national military in a matter of days.

The goal of occupation is somewhat different than conquest. If our goal was simply to completely annihilate the country we could do that without even landing a ground force. It could be done by sea and air. The casualty ratio would be a million to 1, literally. (Fortunately, U.S leaders aren't quite so crazed as to order such a thing.)

As it is, an occupation does require a ground force. And unfortunately they do manage to kill some U.S soldiers. So far, in the entire five years, the combined resistance forces have killed about as many soldiers as we have traffic fatalities in average month on U.S streets.

The foreign fighters are having a lot more success at killing Iraqi civilians in open air markets and schools, than Americans soldiers. That seems to be their specialty.

They also believed that Saddam owned a blue stone that made him immortal. Didn't work out that well.

They took that away from him before hanging, I'm sure.

Samsaran: The war in Iraq is "illegal".

I would say this one is true.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq was overwhelmingly opposed by world opinion, including the U.N. security council, from the very start. Some nations considered it premature. Others considered it grossly unjustified. It is very difficult, if not completely impossible, to paint as a self-defensive measure.

You'll forgive me, subtard, if I don't take too seriously your jab at conspiracy theorists when your ammo consists of a right-wing conspiracy theory site laced with anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Just imagine how crazy the stories will be that the North Koreans believe if/when they get free of dear leader.

Not surprising.

How many folks here think Palin is the anti-christ?

No need to respond. You already have in every thread about her.

Samsaran: If you spend anytime at all in any Arab speaking nation you will come to dread those words.

Westerner: "I'm paying $600.00 a night for this room when are we going to get hot water"? Arab (shrugging): "inshallah". Westerner: "Arrrrrghhhhhhh!"

Haha, cracking up. Same reason nobody there obeys traffic signals, wear seat belts or pays attention to expiration dates.

Oh, and it should be pointed out for the benefit of anyone who read this filth and believed that fear-mongering infowar techs only worked on the unwashed masses, that we fully believed the Russians had tank divisions coming out of their proverbial assholes in numbers far in excess of our ability to counter if they decided to invade Europe. You need look no further than any article written about the commies during the Cold War to see how frightened we were of an enemy with, as we found out after the wall came down, absolutely no ability to make war.

serial_crusher: Don't they have vests you can stick ice tubes in to cool yourself down for a while, swap out the tubes when one melts? A vet told me something along those lines once..

My unit had them for our Hazmat missions but we never wore them under our regular uniform. My humvee had nice AC. The vests just had a simple pouch that you could drop the ice packets in.

Nocens: Not surprising.

How many folks here think Palin is the anti-christ?

No need to respond. You already have in every thread about her.

Funny, that's the first I've heard of it. If Palin is the Best Satan can do he's a total farktard.

Man On Pink Corner: <shrug> Americans believe that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

Epic win, Thread over.

Ser Kheru: earlm:

Why don't you learn how to read. They said the concept, not the word predat5ed Islam. But if you did read and understand the article you couldn't get your panties in a bunch about someone criticizing religion. BTW, the site is maintained by one of the most respected military commentators alive today.

Grand, he can be a good military commentator and still be a racist jerk. And I understand that he meant the concept and not the word but I still stand by my skepticism. Saying that the concept is pre-Islamic is still not something that I feel can be supported. You can make the claim that all religions have to a greater or lesser degree the idea of a divine will but that is not the same as the predestination-esque concept he is trying to conjure up.

Though to a degree you are right that I get my panties in a knot when people bash religions but that is because it is rare to find someone making educated criticisms. This guy, a good military commentator or not, did not make a quality argument against Islam.

So, yeah. That's all I have to say. This is Fark, not exactly a bastion of religious tolerance so I'm not going any further in this pool.

Factual statements about non-Western culture = racism in the minds of PC morons.

Nocens: Not surprising.

How many folks here think Palin is the anti-christ?

No need to respond. You already have in every thread about her.

I'm sure if there were such a thing as an anti-christ he/she would be smart. Smart enough to battle a so-called God or maybe even
Katie Couric!

Speaking of fairy tales: The US believes that Iraq has WMD's, that their economy is going to recover, and that Obama will save them, etc.

Samsaran: Bad_Seed: So, I assume the 4000 dead and 30,000 wounded US troops all fell victim to friendly fire, or something?

Well, they don't have the stomach to fight us, that doesn't mean we don't go after THEM. There was some nasty fighting with the Baathist bastards around Basra and Fajulla. Occasionally we have to root them out of their hiding places in civilian areas and the cowardly bastards routinely detonate IEDs in civilian areas as a convoy passes or lob the occasional mortar shell into a crowded shopping bazaar and kill a few of our guys.

But a pitched battle with coalition forces? Nope. They do not have the cajones for that after seeing what happened to the Republican Guard during the war.

Actually most of those deaths were caused by IEDs and insurgent attacks. Relatively few were during US offensives like Fallujah.