One is different than the other. While not a death penalty supporter, I wouldn’t characterize it as state sponsored terrorism. The Oklahoma case is heartbreaking but bound to happen more frequently until they can get a drug to replace sodium thiopental that works as well. That said, not sure what this has to do with ISIL.
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Flagged for making me feel bad about myself by calling me a bad word.
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And, as I’ve been screaming into the void for 20 years now, we picked the wrong side in the middle east. We should have been nurturing and supporting democratic change and political growth in Iran and shoved the Saudis off into a ditch. The Saudis have a fundamentally broken view of the world and are propped up by an especially barbaric strain of Islamic thought, riding on top of a vast xenophobic tribal system, crowned by a corrupt ruling class that makes Midas look charitable. Hopefully we can figure out how, but we need to change dance partners here. Iran is the way out, not Saudi Arabia.
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Our picking the wrong side dates back to 1953 when the CIA staged a coup to put the deposed Shah back into power.
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I don’t think the purpose of the death penalty is to instill terror. If it is it’s not working. Maybe it’s like boiling a frog.
We might agree on the death penalty and militia movement but I don’t think those issues need to be considered when developing a grand strategy to deal with the most pressing problem of the moment which is Islamic State terrorism in Iraq and Syria.
Hard to nurture democratic change in Iran when the CIA and MI6 toppled a democratically-elected Mosaddegh because he, gasp, nationalized the Iranian oil industry.
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So you disapprove of our involvement in WWII then?
GTK
This is a decades long investment that will never pay off for the US. We need to get the entire region involved. Not just the regulars (most of whom are as responsible as we are for letting it get to this point), the Persians as well. They have a lot of stake in the future of Iraq and its time we stopped doing their work for them (even if unwittingly). Iran can’t possibly be comfortable with their spread in power. Get the Iranians involved in fighting this menace directly. They’re going to have more influence in Iraq after the fact anyway, how about they earn it (seeing that the Iranian soldiers are no better than the US soldiers when it comes to fucking up relations might be useful as well).
I know everyone will say our allies in the region will be upset. So what? When are they not?
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Moral equivalency will eventually be the death of us all.
In addition to seeing someone providing humanitarian aid in a video, we can also expect each and every news outlet to trot out their buddies, the various warmongers (McCain, Graham, etc. or right-wing pundits like Krystal and Will) with little if any representation from moderates just to hype war possibilities. With relatively little time given to the Obama administration unless it is just to attack a representative. This is quite likely the scenario for this coming Sunday.
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No it isn’t. The purpose of the Death Penalty is to punish a murderer for their crimes. You may not agree with the death penalty but its purpose is not to terrorize people. If you believe that than you may be hopelessly loss in your own delusions.
BTW, I oppose the death penalty and I can see the difference between the two.
In 1967. That’s close to 50 years ago. For comparison, 1992 was 47 years after the end of World War II, a brutal war of near extermination. We were close allies with Germany, Japan and Italy by then and had been for a generation. The Shah was overthrown in 1979 and, by now, we need to get over the hostage crisis. It’s holding back the interests of our country to continue to hold a grudge over something fairly awful, but on a geopolicial level, miniscule. The Soviets shot down a KAL flight with a US Congressman on board and we didn’t so much as withdraw our ambassador. Geopolitics is about moving forward, not love and cookies.
Guess you haven’t read the playbook. Capital punishment is alleged to be a deterrent, not a punishment.
Eustace was referring to the 1953 coup in Iran, not the Shah’s overthrow in 1979.
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Our problem is we picked sides, when neither side is any better than the other.
I thought it was trans fats that would be the death of us all.
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The entire point of ISIL’s action is to provoke a stupid and disproportionate response.
When we imagine that their behavior is somehow totally apart from what we are capable of and have indeed actually done in our own history, we make it easier to engage in responses that are stupid and disproportionate — to do precisely what ISIL is trying to get us to do.
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I’ll just accept that you’ve been right for 20 years. Iran could sort that mess in Iraq AND Syria in short order but Saudi Arabia would never allow that to happen.
Capital Punishment is first a foremost a punishment. Can it also have a deterrent affect, maybe but that has nothing to do with the murderer receiving his/her punishment.
Any punishment can also have a deterrent affect, but that is not its primary purpose.
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Did WWII start when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor? Might there have been a broader strategic picture? Maybe a bit more going on? Or perhaps you were thinking of the Tonkin Gulf incident. In any case, the US has not over the last couple of decades been known for its abiding concern for the lives of journalists.