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ObjectivismOnline ForumThe British Marines experience their first major defeat in the war to liberate Iraq. Better luck next time guys. I thought they trained for this sort of thing.
Also, here is a touching story about the Iraq man who tipped U.S. Marines to the location of American POW Jessica Lynch.
(Thanks to the GMU Oist Club)
Turns out that those missiles the Iraqi’s are blaming for the civilian deaths are actually failed Iraq air-defense missiles. The question I have is, are the peaceniks going to aknowledge that this is just another (perhaps intentional) play by Saddam to tug at the world’s heartstrings? I sure as hell know the Arab media wouldn’t admit it if the Iraq military itself admitted to it..
UPI: A Moroccan publication accused the government Monday of providing unusual assistance to U.S. troops fighting in Iraq by offering them 2,000 monkeys trained in detonating land mines.
The weekly al-Usbu’ al-Siyassi reported that Morocco offered the U.S. forces a large number of monkeys, some from Morocco’s Atlas Mountains and others imported, to use them for detonating land mines planted by the Iraqis.
The publication quoted a highly-informed source as saying, “that is not a scientific illusion but a well-known military tactic.”
Check out the shirts I designed for the pro-war rally Sunday: http://www.cafeshops.com/defendamerica
this is kinda cute: 
MSNBC: “K-Dog, a bottle-nose dolphin belonging to Commander Task Unit trains with Sgt. Andrew Garrett in the Arabian Gulf. These units are working to ensure shipping lanes are clear of mines for humanitarian relief.”
One more good read: Questions for the peaceniks.
(This is in reply to Circumstantial evidence.)
Greetings,
Far be it from me to attack an argument for a war with Iraq, but your piece did not use the terms “theory,” “evidence,” and most importantly, “belief” properly. The proper approach to determining facts, whether it is the theory of evolution or Saddam’s possession of WMD’s is to apply the scientific process in order to reach conclusions — not relying on “faith” or “refusing to believe” something.
In general, the proper method of reaching conclusions is by induction — making observations about a large number of instances (concrete examples) and then forming a hypothesis (abstract idea) based on those observations. Based on the hypothesis, we make predictions about what the concretes should be, and once again apply that hypothesis to numerous concretes. If the predictions hold, one formulates a theory, if not, one tries another hypothesis. Given enough correct hypotheses, one forms a scientific model, and if the model is supported by a significant body of evidence, one forms a scientific theory.
Why do I bring this up? Well, the fact is that the great majority of people do not understand how this process works, and do not apply it to the various junk-science out there today. Take the common phrase regarding evolution: “it’s only a theory.” Well, so are the facts that the earth is round, revolves around the sun, and that volcanoes are not caused by angry gods. Like all knowledge, these facts are conclusions reached by forming conclusions (theories) based on observations. The distinction between facts and theories is important to recognize. As Stephen J. Gould explains: “facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world’s data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don’t go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them.”
This fact has important implications for some of the “pseudo-sciences” out there, like creationism and environmentalism. The difference between these pseudo-scientists and real scientists is that they pervert the scientific method by rejecting the need for evidence. No argument will sway their position because their beliefs rest on faith, not evidence. For creationists, the Bible is the absolute authority, and all scientific evidence to contrary is rejected or ignored. For environmentalists, their interpretation of what is bad for man (technology) is an absolute — ignoring that it is in fact often the lack thereof that causes more suffering. Because no amount of evidence will convince someone who holds his beliefs on faith, we can reject their claims as soundly (and on the same basis) as the flat-earthers.
Please consider this next time you say “It’s only a theory!”
Sincerely,
–David Veksler
From MSNBC: “The Iraqi government is upset about foreign reporting of an anti-government demonstration outside the Iraqi Information Ministry in Baghdad earlier this week, said Eason Jordan, CNN president of newsgathering.”
Demonstrations??? But I thought the vote was 100% Mr Hussein? Why would anyone want to protest?? Oh well, the’ve probably been shot by the time I write this. I’ll be waiting for any liberals who care about about “human rights” to bring this up next time they talk about Iraq….
Meanwhile: “Iraqi officials claimed CNN fabricated a report that government authorities had fired one or more guns into the air to disperse demonstrators earlier this week. Jordan said CNN had footage of the gunplay.”
Anybody seen this footage (or any other protests) in the news? It’s nice to hear so much about how the citizens of Iraq love their leader, but even this was mentioned only in passing in another article…
In other Axis news, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein won re-election for another six years by – get this – 100%. No, not 99.7% like last time, a full 11,445,638 to ZERO vote of the ENTIRE ELECTORATE. Never mind that there are active Kurdish rebel movements in the country, and many remote areas are not accessible or under Iraq’s control — apparently they put down their arms and came to vote in “loving support” of their glorious leader.
ABC news suggests ordinary Iraqis are pleased as well:
“This referendum and the 100 percent shows that all Iraqis are ready to defend their country and their leader,” said Khaled Yusef, hopping up and down among a cluster of men dancing on a street corner.
Who woulda thunk it? (Oh, I guess the fact that Hussein was the only guy in the ballot and anyone voting against him was unceremoniously shot kinda helped. ya think?)
Oh well, who are we to question another culture or infringe in Saddam’s divine right to terrorize his slav, err “citizens” as he wishes? After all, it’s a “democracy”.
If you read my blog from August, you’d know that I suspected that some of that expertise the U.S. is putting into building North Korea a nuclear reactor might not just be used for peaceful purposes. Not surprisingly, N. Korea just admitted to having an active nuclear weapons development program, rejected its previous anti-nuclear agreement, and refused to allow any inspections. Oh, and when the U.S. envoy asked about its programs, it accused our diplomats of “threatening remarks.”
So, not only are we sending Korean troops millions in food every year, but we are even teaching them to build nukes!
Whatever happened to the “Axis of Evil”? And how does the fact that Korea may have an advanced nuclear weapons program affect our stance towards Iraq? I’m not sure, but if there is anything to be learned, it is that you shouldn’t provide weapons and military training to wacko fundamentalists, such as we did for Afghanistan, military intelligence and support for dictators (as we did got Iraq in its war against Iran) and nuclear plants and other aid for the “Axis of Evil” – such as we are doing now for North Korea.
Really people, this isn’t rocket science.
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