Obama Administration to ask for $1 billion in debt relief for Egypt

Works for me. We can close bases in Germany, Bulgaria, Italy, Japan, Guam, and others as well.

 

Yes

 

well then, I think we have struck a compromise. I can live with that. No aid, no presence. If we need oil that badly, we can always save travel costs and invade Canada.

 

I actually had a dream a few nights/weeks ago that we actually were close to declaring war over Canada because of an oil pipeline from Alaska they would not allow.

 

Can't talk about dreams on this site. I learned the hard way.

 

Just don't tell about dreams about other members Trivia Man.

 

Vols can't lose in dreams

 

How are you equating aid to commercial purchases of oil by companies like Exxon, Mobile, etc?

 

It varies so much by individual, city, and region. There are places I couldn't go without seriously risking bad things. There were other places where I might as well have been in Lisbon or Madrid.

There are certain contexts that change things as well. Certain subjects and the like.

If you walked through the ME wearing an American flag t shirt and blue jeans, trouble would find you like sharks find a bleeding swimmer. But there are still a lot of other less dangerous fish in the sea.

I don't have the view that we "deserve" or have invited the trouble we get. Bu some of these people feel our society is a threat to their world view and way of life. And they are right, we are. We stand for equality, liberty, free markets and the end of social/religious taboos being any more significant than an eye roll or under the breath muttering. The US is a living organism with tendrils all around the globe. It and its citizens are always doing good, bad, and indifferent activities for all sorts of reasons and motivations. Yet, we are viewed as a monolith.

 

I didn't mean to. I was just attempting a joke.

 

this is the ostrich response to reality. The ME is effectively cave people being whipped into a frenzy because we aren't. You don't have to like it and you can make excuses until you're blue in the face, but it won't change that this is just international class warfare being fueled by the despots in the ME bent on retaining power.

You can hold out hope all you'd like, but calling it anything else is just academic blather.

 

Anything that isn't an absurd reduction is academic blather. Got it.

 

Not trying to oversimplify the situation but last time I checked we're in debt up to our eyeballs as it is. Why would/should we be considering loaning money we don't have to another country?

 

I see your point. Just to clatify, we already loaned it and he wants to say, "Nevermind, don't worry about paying us back".

 

Gotcha, either way the point still stands.

 

Excellent question. Politicians would tell us that national funds/debt are different than personal ones.


I could see forgiving interest, but the loan itself...

 

Sounds good to me. Why we throw money at a bunch of people who think we are jerks anyway is beyond me.

 

If Israel starts a war, I can understand this.

 

Not a member of the royals or related. His father was the chief contractor for the royals and became a close, personal friend of the king. His children went to school with some royals.

UBL's story is a bit weird though because he was raised separately from a lot of the family.

 

"starts a war." Kind of subjective.