In Any War Between The Civilized Man ....

[Ben Kenobi]

Nothing says "liberation" like having most of your land taken from you and populated by foreign settlers! Maybe we're doing the whole war in Afghanistan wrong and should be selling huge tracts of land to American corporations and letting them take responsibility for suppressing insurgents in the area.

Please show me where there is an american colony in the Middle east.

[giblets]

Irrelevant that the British were the ones who created an independent, self-governing arab state in the Levant? I say not. It completely destroys your argument of 'imperialism'. If the British were motivated by Imperialism, why is it that they did more in 25 years than the Turks did in 500?

Great, they let some of the Arabs keep some of the land. That's truly noble. Boy don't the Palestinians look stupid for not rejoicing in the glory of Jordanian freedom.

[giblets]

Please show me where there is an american colony in the Middle east.

Changing the subject? There is a crucial distinction between the 21st century United States and the 20th century British Empire.

[Ben Kenobi]

Secondly, maybe Britain shouldn't have made an alliance with Russia, the enemy of Germany and the Ottoman Empire! Britain was just asking for it!

Why did Turkey get itself involved in a war that did not involve them? They wanted to regain territory in the Balkans that they had just recently lost. Again, had they chosen to stay out of the conflict - do you believe that the British would have sailed all the way from England just to take a piece out of them while they were fighting in the fields of Flanders?

[Ben Kenobi]

Great, they let some of the Arabs keep some of the land. That's truly noble. Boy don't the Palestinians look stupid for not rejoicing in the glory of Jordanian freedom.

They wanted the whole turkey so they tried to steal the Jewish piece. The Jews kicked their ass. They don't like that the Jews got a piece that's almost as big as theirs. So, they fought a war, and they lost. Had they not fought the war, they would have a bigger piece than they have now.

If you're going to be a bully and pick on someone smaller - and you get hilariously owned, thems the breaks.

[DinoDoc]

What right does Europe have to divide the world up and say who gets what?

Vae victis?

[Aeson]

I notice you sectioned out my comments on the economic development and the fact that employment is higher in Israel than in the surrounding area. Simply put - Israel offers more opportunities to muslims than muslim countries.

I was making fun of how you were claiming that increased population is a metric for "doing better", and then in the same breath crediting Jews for that "doing better". If you were an honest person, or one with a decent sense of humor, you would have noted the absurdity of the wording of your statements.

If you're going to bother to rebut my statement with strawmen, can you at least put a little bit of effort? This is boring.

It's not a strawman. It's a perfectly reasonable (and hilarious) retort to specific logical absurdities you included in your post.

[Aeson]

I notice you sectioned out my comments on the economic development and the fact that employment is higher in Israel than in the surrounding area. Simply put - Israel offers more opportunities to muslims than muslim countries.

I was making fun of how you were claiming that increased population is a metric for "doing better", and then in the same breath crediting Jews for that "doing better". If you were an honest person, or one with a decent sense of humor, you would have noted the absurdity of the wording of your statements.

If you're going to bother to rebut my statement with strawmen, can you at least put a little bit of effort? This is boring.

It's not a strawman. It's a perfectly reasonable (and hilarious) retort to specific logical absurdities you included in your post.

[Ben Kenobi]

Changing the subject? There is a crucial distinction between the 21st century United States and the 20th century British Empire.

You mentioned that the Americans should consider creating a colony of Americans in Afghanistan to act as a permanent American colony. Again, I could just as easily ask - where is the British colony in the middle east? Did the British create a state of just British people to serve as a permanent colony?

No.

What they did do, was take over the area under the mandate after the Treaty of Sevres and the dissolution of the Ottomans. Then they partitioned it into various states - some Arab, some not so Arab. Then - they left and they gave these states back to the people so that they could govern it. People, who previously hadn't had self government, ever.

If freeing arabs from an empire is 'taking their land away from them', then we need more of it.

[giblets]

You mentioned that the Americans should consider creating a colony of Americans in Afghanistan to act as a permanent American colony. Again, I could just as easily ask - where is the British colony in the middle east? Did the British create a state of just British people to serve as a permanent colony?

No.

What they did do, was take over the area under the mandate after the Treaty of Sevres and the dissolution of the Ottomans. Then they partitioned it into various states - some Arab, some not so Arab. Then - they left and they gave these states back to the people so that they could govern it. People, who previously hadn't had self government, ever.

If freeing arabs from an empire is 'taking their land away from them', then we need more of it.

You can't seem to grasp the concept that the Israelis were European colonists and that the whole area used to be Arab.

[Aeson]

Governments totally can rewrite the past. Iran is making a bold initiative to undo the horrors of the Holocaust.

(USCIS can only change whether you loved your significant other in the past or not. They actually will "lock in" your place of birth and past residence as they require proof they will keep on record of those things.)

[Ben Kenobi]

It's not a strawman. It's a perfectly reasonable (and hilarious) retort to specific logical absurdities you included in your post.

since his only metric for "better"

Protip - if you're using words like 'only' and 'always', chances are you're employing the rhetorical device of a strawman. Perhaps you find it amusing - I personally find it boring.

I never made the claim that 'population is the only metric for doing better.' I'd like it if you would quote my entire statement which included, "Jews be rich yo." Clearly I believe that population isn't the only metric - economic development is important.

If you find the statement "Jews be rich, yo" as offensive to your delicate sensibilities, then don't bother quoting me.

[Ben Kenobi]

You can't seem to grasp the concept that the Israelis were European colonists and that the whole area used to be Arab.

The Jews were european colonists? Or were they returning to their ancestral homeland? Where did the Jews originate, Gribbler? Is the Levant the same as Arabia?

[Al B. Sure!]

Ben would support South African apartheid on the basis of the outcome of the Anglo-Zulu War.

[giblets]

If you're claiming a presence in the area 2000 years ago gives someone a right to take the land you look even more ridiculous than the people who want to take the land away because of what happened 60 years ago. Human rights includes not getting evicted from the land where you were born and live because someone else wanted to own it.