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Total number of comments: 5 (since 2013-11-28 16:38:25)

Richard Parker

Showing comments 5 - 1
Page: 1

  • Glaspie Memo Vindicates Her, Shows Saddam's Thinking
    • richard01 01/04/2011 at 5:52 am with 1 replies

      April Glaspie was had for a sucker, and hung out to dry after she said what she did.
      It has always been my belief that Saddam had very good reasons for attacking and occupying North Kuwait and Bubiyan island, but after the ruling family in Kuwait, the Al-Sabahs, scuttled away to Saudi, the way was open, and he took it, and went all the way. I don't believe he ever made the slightest threat towards Saudi Arabia.
      American Hero, by James Ellroy, put a fictional story behind the facts, but is the best exposition I have seen of what really happened. The book seems to have disappeared altogether.
      This was the first US war where they actually got equity-holders like Saudi to stump up money to pay for it all. It was like a Hollywood producer going around raising money

  • Species Loss Threatens Humankind
    • richard01 11/15/2010 at 5:58 am

      Tsunamis don't cause ocean destruction; they are only very long surface swells. A friend of mine was out surfing in Aragon Bay, Sri Lanka, when the 2004 tsunami passed by. He didn't notice anything at all, until he got ashore, discovered the devastation and found that one of his friends had died.

      Corals go white when they die.

      Sharks are in real danger; I used to buy shark teeth at 10 pesos each for neck charms; but then they were P70 each; this happened within 6 years. The problems are long drift nets and Chinese shark's fin soup (the shark is caught, de-finned, and left, still alive)

  • Lockerbie Bomber released for Sake of BP Libya Drilling Rights
    • Richard01 07/13/2010 at 7:41 am

      Al-Megrahi was probably innocent anyway. The PFLP, on behalf of the Syrian and Iranians dunnit (Iran in revenge for an airliner shot down by the US 'by mistake' a few months earlier). Al-Megrahi saved everbody's bacon by preparing to die at the right moment, so he could be released on 'compassionate grounds'.

      BP, as an international corporation, is totally amoral, and interested in profits alone, but they pay dividends and a little tax, in Britain. Their boys and our Foreign Office fellows probably had more than a few snuggles in each other's pockets before the dirty deal was done.

  • Obama's MacArthur Moment? McChrystal Disses Biden
    • Richard01 06/22/2010 at 7:19 am

      I haven't seen the situation explained quite so well before. Excellent.

  • Petraeus Memo Widens scope of US Military Covert Operations in ME
    • Richard Parker 05/25/2010 at 5:47 am

      Yes; it is too late. I've lived in Lebanon and Jordan, and I know their suspicion of the 'CIA vampire squid'. I had to give up carrying a fake Samsonite briefcase to avoid it.

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