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surveys-at-your-service · 7 years ago

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Survey #165

“if you’re in danger, i’m here to save ya.”

Do you own a water gun? No. What item most embarrasses you to purchase? I wouldn't really know, I haven't bought much for myself... but I suppose probably some kind of sex toy. Favorite thing you’ve ever painted? Two meerkats grooming. It's on a huge thing of burlap. Are there any songs that remind you of your mother? "Wherever I May Roam" by Metallica, because she aaaalways says she wants the lyrics "my body lies, but still I roam" on her urn. I'm making goddamn sure that happens when she passes. Have you ever picked wild flowers? Yes. Have you ever walked through a forest? Yeah. Have you ever seen a mountain in person? Yes. Do you prefer jam or butter on your biscuits? Jam. Have you ever explored somewhere abandoned? Yes, but I wanna do it morrreee! Take my camera with me! This is exactly why I'm getting into exploration channels on YouTube, finding shit like this. I'm addicted to Sam & Colby because of this. Where is the last place you went to as a tourist? Chicago. What country do you most want to travel to? Germany. Do you have a garden? No. Have you ever kept a physical, hand-written journal? Yeah. Have you ever caught a butterfly in your hands? I know I've picked up injured ones as a kid, dunno about otherwise. Are there any interesting landmarks where you live? Not that I can think of. Which fairytale is your favorite? I'mma throw hands if you say Shrek isn't one. Which mythological deity or creature is your favorite? Dragons. Which type of muffin is your favorite? Chocolate chip. What is your favorite shade of blue? Pastel. Do you prefer iced tea or hot tea? Iced coffee or hot coffee? Hate both. Do you like sprinkles on your ice cream? Nooo, not a fan. Honestly, have you ever crashed a party before? No. Do you know how to do the moon walk? No. What is one of your favorite comedy movies? White Chicks. Has anybody ever told you that you have a good singing voice? Yeah. Onion rings or french fries? The latter. I am /picky/ with onion rings, but usually don't like them. Has anybody ever told you that you talk too fast? I've been told so when I'm hyper. Who is the best cook that you know? I don't know. I guess Jason was? His initial career path was chef, and he was in fact great at it. What’s the largest amount that you can juggle at one time? I can't juggle. What was your favorite thing to go on at the playground as a kid? Swing. Do you know how much you weighed at birth? How much? 7-something pounds? When you do a puzzle do you find all the edges first? Do some people not??? (If you sleep with the tv on) what’s usually on tv when you wake up? N/A Who was the last person to ask you to hang out? Did you agree to hang out with them? Colleen, and no. Have you ever had to take a stool or urine test? Why did you have to do this? I've had way too many UTIs because I used to drink literally zero water, so. Before my surgery, they needed a sample too to ensure I wasn't pregnant. Is there a food that you eat basically every day? What food is that? No. Do you have Oovoo? No. Do you know anyone who has ever been in a movie? Who and what movie were they in? What was their part? No. Do you know anyone who has had salmonella? Did you ever have it yourself? What about e coli? No. When was the last time you brought a pet to the vet? What was wrong with it? Last winter when we had to put Cali down. A tumor on her spleen ruptured and filled her body with so much blood that she almost couldn't breathe as her lungs were running out of room to expand. She also had some kind of mass on her liver that was probably causing more issues. Name something that you used to do with your family that you no longer do with them or at all: Trick-or-treating. Who was the last member of your extended family to visit? Where were they visiting from? Grammy and her husband. They were heading back down to Florida. Have you bought any new clothes in the past week? Nope. At what age do you think you’ll be ready to have children? Never. If I wanted kids, mid-20s/late-20s, probably. How many children would you like? Once more, if, two, or even just one. I'd really want my child to have a sibling at least somewhat near in age, but I don't know if I could handle two. Is there anyone in your friendship group that your parents don’t like? Not anymore. Have your grandparents ever asked you about your love/sex life? No. Have you ever been diagnosed with anything unexpected, mental or physical illness? How did you finally find out? Hm... I think everything I've had was at least somewhat expected. Like, I knew something was wrong. The most surprising though was I suppose inactive MRSA after my surgery and the incision re-opened to heal on its own for seven damn months. ACTUALLY, vertigo was random as hell. I started experiencing it and went to the doc. Where do you like to sit when you’re on the computer? In bed. What is the biggest decision you’ve made in the past year? Return back to school. Would you rather hike through the desert, the prairies, the forest, or the tundra? The prairies. If you could reconnect with someone from your past, who would it be and why? Megan. We were absolute best friends, and hopefully she's grown up by now. What movie/show "emotionally scarred" you as a kid? Courage The Cowardly Dog. Watched it anyway lmao. What’s your favorite flavor of jello? Strawberry, probably. Have you ever been thrown out of the movies? No. What would you do if you found out you were moving to Tennessee? I wouldn't complain, Tennessee is beautiful. My brother lives there anyway, and I haven't seen him in years. What does your favorite hair tie/accessory look like? I don't wear any. Do you have a favorite kind of milk? 2%, whole, etc? 2%, maybe. Do you have a favorite drummer? No. Are there any symbols that have personal meaning to you? i.e: dice, a necklace, etc. What are they? Not off the top of my head. What’s the biggest spider you’ve come across? Writing spiders. Have you ever been bitten by anything venomous? No. Do you know anyone who has been knighted? No. Which Mario game would you say is your favorite? That is, if you even like Mario? I've only really played Mario Kart. The others don't interest me. Do you have a deviantART account? Yes. Have you ever had acne? If not, you’re so lucky. I did through puberty, of course. Mine was rough then. It stopped when I was about 19. Now I just have the occasional blemish or two when I'm on my period. Ever walked into a facility of the opposite gender - like restrooms? I did once in elementary school on a work day (teachers come to get shit done; Mom was an assistant teacher) with my friends lol. Ever lost your car in the parking lot? If so, did you use your car alarm to find it again? Don't have my own car. I don't even know if Mom's ever had a car with an alarm. Has there ever been a Christmas where you had to do without gifts-wise? No. Do you type with capital letters and proper punctuation? So this is super weird: It's actually whatever I find aesthetically pleasing wherever it's being written, as well as what "voice" sounds more appropriate??? But I usually write properly. Honestly, do you think that you’re going to be an overprotective parent? Hypothetically once again, I know I would be. The world's evil. What was the last kind of chips you ate? Hot fries. What is one thing that you really wish you could understand, but don’t? Economics so I could actually know how the fuck to handle money. What brings out the worst in you? Treating me like a child that knows nothing. How many friends do you have that don’t smoke? Idk. There's only one friend I see even rarely, and he doesn't though. Doesn’t it drive you nuts when people think they ‘need’ to have a boyfriend/girlfriend? Yes. You need to learn that you're not an unfinished puzzle. You're complete on your own. Some people were really destructive as a child, were you? No. On average, how many songs do you listen to in a day? This greatly varies. Do you ever buy your pet(s) birthday or Christmas presents? Always. Do you think your current relationship will last forever? No exaggeration, no over-optimistic thinking, yes. One thing you promised yourself you’d never do and then did? Attempt suicide. Are you more scared of going to the doctors or dentists? Doctors. Have you ever rolled off your bed in your sleep? No. Who is the most overrated singer? Uhhh. I dunno. Maybe Ed Sheeran. What is your greatest weakness? I guess how insecure I am. Do you have any pets that you had since you were born? No. Favorite undersea creature? Seahorses. Favorite type of chocolate? Milk. What toys did you play with as a child? Plastic animals, Pokemon figures, Barbies or Bratz if Nicole wanted to, stuffed animals... What types of music do you listen to? Loads of different kinds of metal. I'm finding I'm really getting into indie as well. What, without fail, makes you cry? Mark crying for any reason be it sadness or joy I am pathetic. What makes a movie really enjoyable for you? Well thought-out, interesting plots and charismatic characters. Name a game you are really good at. Shadow of the Colossus. The most childish part of your personality? I can occasionally be a bit of a brat if something I'm serious about doesn't go my way oops. What did you last put on a piece of toast? Butter, cinnamon, and sugar. Have you ever witnessed a serious physical fight? No. Do you enjoy corn on the cob? YES, though my lip ring makes it a pain. Have you ever bought alcohol or cigarettes for someone underage? No. If you use Snapchat, have you ever had a screenshot taken of you? N/A When in a waiting room, how do you pass the time? Mess around on my phone. Usually wander through Pinterest. What was the last brutally honest comment you made about someone? I'm not sure. What is your favorite thing to do with just one friend? Go out to eat and talk. Have you ever been kissed under the mistletoe? By who? Jason may have, but I don't remember. Are you prone to paranoia? YUP. Has anyone ever bought you a ring? Mom and Jason. Accidentally dropped the one Mom gave me down the drain semi-recently, then Jason's broke within a few weeks. Kept the jewel for a while but eventually threw it out. What was the most stressful project you had so far while in school? Jesus, when I was still in a game design class and we had to read the most fucking boring book and then do some analysis shit of it. Who in your family are you closest to? Mom. In your opinion, what is the scariest natural disaster? Earthquakes, maybe. Or tornadoes. What time of the day is the best for you? I'm usually in my best mood in the morning. Do you have an electric toothbrush? No. Have you ever had to board up your windows because of a hurricane? No. What do you think about employers checking on personal sites before hiring employees? Sometimes I actually think it's a good idea, other times no??? Like you can get important details of someone by looking at what they post, but at the same time, social media doesn't always portray someone that well. You can get the wrong idea. Have you ever visited anyone in a rehab? No. Ice in your drink: yes or no? No. Do you prefer getting money, gift cards, or an actual gift on your birthday? Money. When was the last time you got a new bed? Is your bed comfy? Long time ago, and I guess. What was the last job you applied for? Ummm I'm not sure. Oh, I think for newborn photography. Do you have any mild food allergies? No. Who was the last person you were with that smelled REALLY good? My younger sis. Last person to make you seriously mad? Colleen. How is your mom? Stressed, always. Do you like going through old photos and recalling memories? Depends on the picture. And time. What movie coming out are you most excited to see? Why? The live-action The Lion King because it's my favorite movie. What song really gets to your heart and inspires you? "Life Won't Wait" by Ozzy. Do you see a lot of stray animals around your home? No. Do you have fireflies around where you live, or do you wish you did? In the area, yes, but we don't really see them in my yard much. Did you used to do Easter egg hunts when you were a child? Yes. Have you ever bought anybody a mug? Omg, I found one that said, "Be nice, I'm in control of your happy pills" in this random store once and I HAD to get it for my psychiatrist. He's not supposed to accept presents, so we just pretended it was from mom lol. He has it on his desk. Do you believe in divorce? In cases such as abuse, infidelity, or other pretty serious issues, yes, but I usually don't advise divorce. Communicate like mature adults and fix what you got married for. Who taught you the most valuable lesson in life and what was that lesson? "Deal with the past or the past deals with you," maybe. My Holly Hill teacher taught me a million lessons that greatly affected my outlook on many components to a healthy life. Have you ever fallen into a hole or crevice whilst hiking? While getting to fishing spots with Dad, my foot may have slipped through rocks or something. Have you ever had a serious conversation with your dad? One that I remember. He took me out to lunch one day when I was still struggling with Jason to just talk to me about relationship stuff. I cherish that memory dearly. In YOUR eyes, which of the three is the most dangerous, and which is the least: Marijuana, Alcohol, Cigarettes? Alcohol, then I'm not sure. Marijuana has a lot of dangers people like to ignore, but then again, it has some health benefits while cigs have none. What is the nerdiest thing that you own? Probably the big Illidan poster I have beside my bed lul. What is the preppiest thing that you own? *shrug* If you are popular, have you ever wondered what it would be like to have no friends? What do you think it might be like? I already just about have none, and it's lonely as fuck. If you are a loner, have you ever wondered what it would be like to be popular? What do you think it might be like? No. I don't seek popularity, just not such a lack of company. Every tattoo has a story behind it; if you have any, what are the stories behind yours? My semicolon butterfly is tribute to both the butterfly and semicolon projects. "Ohana" is obvious. "How rare and beautiful it is to even exists" just speaks deeply to me as someone who wanted to die for years. "Perfectly flawed" also means a lot to me and comes from an Otep song of the same name. "You're awful... I love you!" written in Sara's handwriting I adore because we pretty much call each other evil all the damn time all the while loving each other. :') Who do you know that has a particularly funny or annoying laugh? HA ME I HATE IT. Is there anything you do that is annoying to your friends or family? Oh, I'm sure. I'm told all the time by people to make myself at home when I'm at someone else's house standing like a statue, for one. I do this sooo much, even a bit at my sister's house when it comes to wanting a drink or something. My pacing makes people anxious, I'm told constantly. Sure there's more. What is the most number of sodas that you have drank in one day? I. DON'T WANT. TO KNOW. Until two-three months ago, I lived mostly off soda, and I do NOT know how I didn't gain weight from it. Now I absolutely refuse to go past two, but usually only get one. The idea of drinking as much as I did almost makes me nauseous. Have you ever gone through a period of mass weight-gain/weight-loss? What was that time like for you? Well first Paxil made me gain weight, but I quit it and did WiiFit all summer and lost 40 pounds. I was so proud of myself. Then, I was put on Abilify when I had no need to be, and let's not say how much it made me gain because my then-doctor was a fucking idiot that thought I was doing something terribly wrong and kept me on it, not knowing the side effects. :^) My current psychiatrist was lost entirely as to why I'd been prescribed it, and he immediately connected my weight gain to it because it *murders* metabolism. Was taken off it immediately, boom, started to melt weight with no change to my diet for quite a while. I'm still far from my normal weight. I could write a novel on how this was/is for me, but I'll just say I'm bitter as fuck and ~so~ confident in my shit body. (: If you have one, do you and your significant other have a similar taste in music? Yes. Longest plane ride you’ve ever been on? I'm sure to Michigan, but I don't remember how long it was. I was a kid. Favorite kind of bean? I absolutely loathe beans. I can't even swallow them. If you had to move to another country, where would you move? Canada, realistically. I'd love to live in Germany, but that would be much different from where I am now and would require learning an entire new language. I like Canada anyway. Does it bother you when people call you ‘ma'am’ or 'sir?’ No, it's polite...? Did you partake in senior skip days? Yup. Would you ever consider having an abortion? If my life was endangered, yes, and if - God forbid - I was raped, I possibly would because of how scarring that would be. I've said before I think pregnancy would legitimately be traumatic to me, and if it was because of that, I couldn't even begin to imagine. Have you ever lived in an apartment before? I've told the Jason & co. story before. I also stayed with Colleen for at least a month when I was technically homeless, and she was in an apartment then. Have you ever been questioned by the police? No. Have you ever been to an amusement park out of state? Yeah. Have you ever been responsible for someone’s death? Yeesh, no. Do you know a lot about serial killers? No. Have the police ever been looking for you? HAHAHAHA YES. When I went to the beach one time, my sister, a friend, and I went walking along the shore one night and apparently Mom didn't hear us mention it. Freaked the fuck out and called them to find us. Sorry, Mom. Where do you get most of your accessories from? *shrugs* Maybe HotTopic? Do you know how to shoot a gun and hit a target? No. Are you a good listener? It's complicated. I try very hard to be, but even with people I seriously care about, my mind can wander. But I really try. What was the last bad thing to happen to you? Serious, continuous loneliness. The last good thing to happen to you? I guess finding out I don't have hypoglycemia. Do you think today’s youth is being corrupted/messed up because of TV? It depends on what they watch. Some things they of course shouldn't see, but people tend to take it too far. Have your parents supported every decision you’ve made? I'm sure they haven't. Do you like to listen to rock music/screamo music when you’re angry/upset? Lol did you really just group rock and screamo up???? I'm pretty much always listening to metal or rock. I don't like purely screamo. Are you embarrassed to tell your parents you love them around your friends? Not at all. It bothers me immensely when it does bother people. What’s your favorite sappy/romantic song? Shit, I dunno. I'm a sucker for a lot. Do you know anyone who has changed their first name? Not legally, to my knowledge. Which one of your senses would you be the most devastated to lose? Sight. Hearing almost ties it. Have you ever dated someone who posted a ton of selfies on social media? No, but why does that matter??? Do you know anyone who has been on life support, and survived? I don't think so. Do your parents have a strong relationship together? They're divorced. Mom fucking hates Dad, while he's totally over it. When was the last time you attended a religious service of any sort? Well over a year ago. Do you ever feel like you're sharing too much about yourself online? Eh, nah. Are you on good or bad terms with your most recent ex? Good. What was the last necklace you wore? A spiked choker. Have you ever read any of Charles Darwin's works? No. If there was such a thing as a mental health first aid kit, what would you want to be in it? Oh boy. I'd say it'd be personal to each person. Do you think there are more dimensions than what we're able to perceive? Maybe. What was the last carbonated drink you had? I think Mtn. Dew. Does anyone in your family have schizophrenia? Yes, my half-sister. What light in your house was the last to have a bulb burn out? Living room. Have you ever been fired? If so, did you get unemployment benefits? No. Never really worked long enough to be. Do any of your neighbors have loud children? No. Have you ever been in an abandoned house? No, we were too scared to go past the doorway lol. What's your favorite YouTube channel? UM Markiplier????????????????????? Do you go to church? No. If so, what denomination is it? N/A What is your favorite thing to make wishes on? Just birthday candles. Don't believe that does anything, but. C'mon, you gotta. What is your favorite phase of the moon? Full, duh!! What is your favorite way to get high, if applicable? N/A Which name do you like best: Cora, Flora, Dora, or Laura? Laura. If applicable, what is your favorite version of the Bible to read? N/A Are you contemplating/debating something right now? No. Have you ever had a book completely come unbound from its cover? Childhood books, probs. What design is on your shower curtain? Blue and white waves, I think?? I clearly pay attention to something I see every day. What’s the highest you can count in a different language? To like a million in German. Where would you like to be buried? Cremate me, please. Have you ever seen a ghost orb picture? Quiiite a lot in our old house. Do you think abortion should be illegal? No. Do you know how to double-dutch? I did as a kid. I couldn't jump into it, though.

#survey #quiz #questions #random

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xtruss · 4 years ago

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“Shameless War Criminal Bloody British Bastard Blair” Lectures the World on Military Strategy, With No Word of the Deceit He Engineered For an Illegal Assault on Iraq 🇮🇶, Syria 🇸🇾 and Afghanistan 🇦🇫

— 6 September, 2021 | RT

Former War Criminal Bloody British British PM Tony Blair sees himself as a colossus on the world stage – climate hero, peace maker and thinker for our times – seemingly unaware that many people view him as a ‘War Criminal’ who deserves to be put on trial and throw him behind bars to “Stay, Rest, Rot and Burn in Hell Forever.”

Since he left high office in 2007, there really is no subject in the world on which Tony Blair is reluctant to express an opinion on, buoyed by an unsinkable self-belief and an apparently total absence of self-awareness.

He’s convinced that a huge appetite exists for his latest musings, that French President Emmanuel Macron is desperate for his help in tackling the radical Islamist problems of the Sahel, that US President Joe Biden lies awake at night asking himself, ‘What would Tony do?’ and that the British public has forgotten he took the country into a catastrophic war against Iraq that both the United Nations and even his own government inquiry determined was illegal.

His acquiescence to US demands for an attack on Saddam Hussein earned Blair the US Medal of Freedom from George Bush and 20 years of opprobrium from the British public, which has only increased as the years have passed on par with his own immense personal wealth. A poll in 2017 found a third of the British public would like to see Blair put on trial as a war criminal.

But that’s not something the ex-PM likes to dwell upon. So his speech to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), almost 20 years to the day since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, made no mention of what followed those unforgettable events: dodgy dossiers, suggestions of bunkers full of weapons of mass destruction or of the purposeful lying to the British people.

Rather than learn any lessons from recent history, like when to wage war, Blair’s appetite is clearly undiminished, as he moaned, “Western societies and their political leaders have become quite understandably, deeply averse to casualties amongst our Armed Forces.” This, in his view, had become, “an overwhelming political constraint to any commitment to Western boots on the ground, except for Special Forces.”

It’s all Biden’s fault apparently. Blair said, “It is clear now – if it wasn't before – that America has decided that for the foreseeable future, it has a very limited appetite for military engagement.”

‘First order security threat’ akin to revolutionary communism: Afghan war didn’t solve radical Islam, Tony Blair says. War Criminal Bloody British Bastard don’t like to talk about “Radical Christians Terrorists, Radical Saffron Hindu Terrorists, Radical God’s Fucked-up People Zionist Cunt Terrorists,” because they can give him a deep f*** and stop paying him to propagate spew filth against Muslims.

Well, yes, Mr. Former Prime Minister, it is true that the Americans have made no secret of the fact that they are sick of fighting ‘forever wars’. But us Brits also do not like to see the lives of young men and women who have signed up to serve their country sacrificed at the altar of political self-aggrandisement. We are now a little less gullible, a little less obliging when it comes to fighting unwinnable, neverending battles and somewhat more suspicious of our glory-seeking political leaders. And that’s all largely down to one person. You.

It’s strange Blair doesn’t acknowledge this. One thing’s certain, he knows his geopolitics; hell, he even has his own eponymous ‘global institute’ packed with researchers, academics and leading experts to tell him what to think and say about the key issues of our time. With one exception. Do. Not. Mention. Iraq.

The exclusion of that country’s name from the conversation is obvious. In looking forward, Blair said that Europe – insisting “for these purposes Britain is part of Europe like it or not” – faced an immediate challenge from the destabilisation of the Sahel and was “already facing the fallout from Libya, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.” Err, by ‘elsewhere in the Middle East’ could Blair possibly mean Iraq? Probably, but let’s not risk spoiling a pleasant chat.

And in the face of that perceived threat, which in the Sahel until now has been largely handled by France, Blair asked, “How do Europe and NATO develop the capability to act when America is unwilling?”

Blair clearly sees military action as an imperative – I’m not sure everyone else agrees – but he also thinks the capacity of Western policymakers to think strategically needs to be reinvigorated.

“For me, one of the most alarming developments of recent times has been the sense the West lacks the capacity to formulate strategy,” he said. “That its short term political imperatives have squeezed the space for long term thinking.

It is this sense more than anything else which gives our allies anxiety and our opponents a belief our time is over.”

Now the picture is starting to become clearer. While Western governments are distracted from war by the need to focus on rebuilding economies, fighting worldwide health crises and seemingly perpetual election cycles which inhibit their ability to think long-term, they need big thinkers, top-shelf statesmen and global heavy hitters to work out how to bomb the citizens of far-off places into oblivion through drone strikes, how to convince a sceptical public that it’s a good idea to send servicemen and women to their deaths and – most importantly of all – how to create the right PR buzz around those decisions, so that everyone feels comfortable about falling into line.

Those Western governments need men just like Tony Blair. He’s free most afternoons, if you’d like to schedule a Zoom call. Just don’t mention the war (on Iraq).

“War Criminal, Boak Bollocks Bloody British Bastard Tony Blair” calls US Afghanistan withdrawal ‘imbecilic’ – What, then, was the Bush-Blair invasion of 2001?

— Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. His award winning blog can be found at www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. He tweets on politics and world affairs @NeilClark66

— August 22, 2021 | RT

War Criminals Bush and Blair met in Washington to discuss the ongoing operations in Afghanistan, November 7, 2001. © REUTERS/Win McNamee

“Serial Warmonger and War Criminal Bloody British Bastard Tony Blair” has blasted the US decision to pull out from Afghanistan, but history tells us the real madness was invading the unconquerable country in the first place.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair –aka ‘The Blair Creature’– is not a happy bunny this Sunday, folks. He has said that the decision to withdraw western forces from Afghanistan was made “in obedience to an imbecilic slogan about ending the ‘forever wars’.”

What he calls the US’ ‘abandonment’ of Afghanistan was “tragic, dangerous and unnecessary.”

In fact we could say the same about Tony Blair himself – and certainly the wars of choice he promoted.

Imbecilic? That’s the perfect word to describe what happened in October 2001 when Afghanistan was invaded in response, we were told, to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, even though none of the terrorists were Afghan nationals.

Had Blair read just a little bit of history, he would have pursued an exclusively diplomatic path to try and get Osama Bin Laden handed over and not have been so keen to send in the troops.

As I wrote in the Daily Express in 2009 in an article entitled ’Afghanistan: History repeats itself,’ “‘That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history,’ said Aldous Huxley. Nowhere is this more applicable than in the case of the many unsuccessful attempts by foreign powers to conquer Afghanistan.”

I went on: “The mighty forces of the British Empire failed three times between 1839 and 1919. The Soviet Union, which at the time had the largest army in the world, tried in 1979: they too were defeated.”

But in 2001, Blair and the then American President George W. Bush thought they would buck the trend. They could topple the Taliban (which they did) and remake Afghanistan – a deeply conservative and very religious country – in the western secular image. Afghanistan would be transformed from a ‘failed terror state’ into a ‘functioning democracy.’ What folly. What imperial arrogance.

Today, Blair is busily trying to spin the invasion of 2001 as a ‘success.’ But, while some things did improve, 'Operation Enduring Freedom' certainly didn’t bring peace to Afghanistan.

According to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, 579 civilians were killed in aerial operations between January and September 2019. That’s more than double the amount ten years earlier. Nearly 111,000 civilians have been killed or injured in the country since 2009.

Far from bringing stability, the 2001 western military invasion, just like the 2003 invasion of Iraq, was a major cause of instability.

I recall chatting to a friendly Afghan taxi driver a couple of years ago and saying to him how I’d love to visit the country to see its great natural beauty. “Don’t go,” he said. “It‘s far too dangerous. You would be targeted.”

So much for Afghanistan being ‘safe’ post-invasion.

Whenever the US withdrew, we would have had scenes of chaos. But the Americans had to pull-out at some point otherwise its forces would have been in Afghanistan forever. That doesn’t seem to concern ‘The Blair Creature’ too much. ‘Forever wars’ aren’t a great problem to him or indeed the ‘Inside the Tent‘ political and media figures who promote them. They are, though, for the soldiers who die in them, and for their grieving families.

‘But the US and British forces could have stayed in a support role,’ we’re hearing. But, as was pointed out last week, there is a word for countries whose governments only endure because of foreign military support. The word is “colony.”

Blair and his supporters are tacitly admitting that Afghanistan, billed as a ‘sovereign democratic country’, was actually a colony. I thought ‘imperialism’ was supposed to be a bad thing that we’re all supposed to be ashamed of. So why is it ok when it comes to Afghanistan?

Afghanistan is virtually impossible for foreign powers to subjugate. There’s its hostile terrain, its harsh weather, its fiercely independent people who are very brave, very tough and are highly skilled in mountain warfare. But anyone who’d read the history books would have known all this and not intervened in the first place.

Tony Blair, with his Messiah complex, thought he’d be different. He could succeed in Afghanistan where other, lesser mortals had failed. But the ‘new’ neocon empire met with exactly the same result as the old empire did. Wasn’t it ‘imbecilic’ to think it would be any different?

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missgulliverinlilliput · 5 years ago

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Tropes

Action Girl: Princess Cherie. Leia also qualifies for taking out a frickin’ robot (Of course, she had help, but still.).

Adult Fear: Your only daughter is washed overboard in a storm, and finding her seems uncertain.

Anachronism Stew: Both Lilliput and Blefuscu's inspirations range from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, and take from both American and foreign cultures; the fact that both islands are isolated from the rest of the world helps to blend the elements together. Below are examples from the different eras:

Most of the Lilliputians dress like they’re from the Colonial or Revolutionary era, while its royals dress in English Georgian clothing. Blefuscu, on the other hand, resembles a sort of steampunk version of the French Rococo era. Meydan and Cherie are exceptions, the prince garbed in a vaguely Byzantine Empire-like outfit, and the princess dressed like a swashbuckling heroine.

Gabby and her father Gil are dressed in Regency era clothing, while her stepmother Luba has a Gibson Girl hairdo. The Twins are both dressed in clothing that seem to be either from the Victorian era or the Edwardian era.

The three spies dress in vaguely ancient Chinese/Arabian garb.

The various machinery in Lilliput, weaponry included, are basically Lilliputian versions of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions.

Annoying Arrows: The Blefuscu archers hit Leia's arm with several salvos. They do little but cause her discomfort.

Anti-Villain: Emperor Mordechai Avegai, who is a type 3. While he is the one who technically instigated the war in the first place, it's clear that it's more out of his own short sighted ego and temper, rather than death and destruction for an evil cause. And it's clear after the climax that he does wish it didn't come to that, but he hides it in front of his own men to save face.

Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Leia to the Lilliputians, at first anyways. The Steel Titan is a straight example.

Art Shift: Leia and those from the outside world are drawn in a traditional anime style, while the Lilliputians and Blefuscuians are portrayed in a more western-cartoony fashion.

Bag of Kidnapping: When the Blefuscuian spies capture Gabby, they throw a small grain sack over her head, tying the mouth around her waist before carrying her back into their hideout.

Birdcaged: The spies stuff Gabby in such a cage that’s big enough for her to sit in.

Blatant Lies: Gabby tries to impress Leia with highly suspect tales of Gabby's adventures. Leia bemusedly plays along and pretends to be impressed.

Bumbling Dad: Emperor Gue has shades of this.

Cape Swish: Emperor Avegai has a habit of doing this.

Chekhov's Gun: The stolen page from Leia’s magazine.

Colossus Climb: The Lilliputians on Gulliver, and later Cherie and Gabby on the Steel Titan.

Cool Boat: The Swift family’s rented yacht, and the boats seen in the movie itself are nice, too.

Cut the Juice: Gabby pulls the plug on the electro-shock hands of the Steel Titan.

Defiant Captive: See Pity the Kidnapper below.

Disney Death: Princess Cherie, after being flung off of the Steel Titan. Leia sees that she survived, but momentarily keeps it hidden from the warring nations so they can reflect on what their actions had wrought.

Gilligan Cut: The twins attempt to persuade Gabby to take them to Leia.

Gabby: Oh, no. No. Forget it. There's no way I’m showing you that thing! Absolutely no way, and that’s final!

[cut to the three sneaking into the cave where Leia is]

Gender Flip: Gulliver and Gabby are both girls in this version. David and Glory are also replaced by Cherie and Meydan.

Gulliver Tie-Down: Natch for this adaptation.

Hidden Heart of Gold: Avegai is clearly upset that he had such a bad falling out with Gue that it provoked him to declare war, but his pride prompts him to hide his real feelings in front of Elioz, Lioz and Avioz.

Know When to Fold 'Em: A group of Blefuscuian commandos are due to trigger the war on Lilliput, but as soon as they catch sight of Leia, they realize they have no chance of standing up to her, and they flee the area in fear. A non-comedic example also occurs near the end, when Avegai basically calls off the battle when he sees his attempt at killing Leia with the Steel Titan seemingly got his daughter Cherie killed in the process.

Humongous Mecha: The Steel Titan. Of course, this being Lilliput, it is only slightly bigger than Leia.

I'm Okay!: Used when a Lilliputian survives a fall from the awakened Leia. Then he gets squashed under her hand:

Lilliputian: I'm still okay!

Ink-Suit Actor: Probably unintentional, but Gabby’s father is SO Nathan Lane.

Le Parkour: Cherie exercises this skill when scaling the castle to meet with Meydan.

Lilliputians: Of course!

Lovable Coward: Gabby. She'll at least TRY her damnedest when push comes to shove though.

Gue, to an extent. Whenever his subjects are at stake, he'll step up despite his fear.

Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Princess Cherie and Prince Meydan.

Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Lilliputians when Leia awakens and breaks free from her ropes, as well as the Blefuscuians when they first see her.

Once for Yes, Twice for No: The number of times the alarm bell is rung indicates the nature of the emergency. Five rings of the bell indicates that something is going on that has never happened before.

Over-the-Shoulder Carry: Lioz carries a struggling and screaming Gabby like this after the spies throw a sack over her upper torso.

Pity the Kidnapper: When Gabby gets captured by Avegai’s spies, her response is to verbally and physically thrash them and in general going out of her way to make damn sure that they are having just as much of a bad time as she is, even when she’s stuffed in a small cage. By the time they see Leia coming to save her, Lioz remarks:

Lioz: Well, this is the part where we give our hostage up.

Prevent the War: The kingdoms of Lilliput and Blefuscu are on a path to war. Leia must find a way to stop the war before it destroys both countries.

Setting Update

Take That!: A truly spectacular shot towards the Fleischer film, with this film’s genderflipped version of Gabby singing "All’s Well".

"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Given by Leia to the dueling kingdoms after Cherie is apparently killed.

Roofhopping: Cherie engages in this as she breaks into the castle to meet Meydan.

Royals Who Actually Do Something: Emperor Gue, despite not being as strong as Emperor Avegai and acting humble, still has enough determination to protect his kingdom by going to battle with a sword in hand.

Retraux: Much of the movie's style harkens back to classic animated films. Gabby herself is drawn to resemble old timey cartoon characters, with squash-and-stretch and bouncy movements.

Scenery Porn: The background and layout work are very well done.

Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: The Blefuscuians when they first see Leia.

Shaming the Mob: Leia in the film's ending. She sees early on that Cherie has survived but she still lets them think that she died in order to show them the consequences of war and give them above mentioned "The Reason You Suck" Speech where she calls them out on their pettiness and their readiness to fight.

Silly Reason for War: Just like in the original, Avegai declares war on Gue over which end of an egg should be broken. When Cherie and Meydan tell Leia what's going on, she notes with irony how ridiculous the whole quarrel is.

Star-Crossed Lovers: Cherie and Meydan.

Terrible Trio: Avegai's spies, Elioz, Lioz and Avioz respectively.

This Means War!: What the offscreen argument between Gue and Avegai literally amounts to.

Wall Crawl: Cherie when climbing the side of the palace to see Meydan.

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tokensfortalkers · 5 years ago

Photo

Sweet, deep. A travel-y sort of game. Reminiscent of Outer Wilds. Or your first couple hours in a new city.

I enjoyed imagining the scents were actually different fonts that my character would pen or else different colour palettes they'd make or different wood carvings.

Play it. Treat another's life as you would a national park Cherish joy in sharing them.

Playthrough+roleplay of Scents and Semiosis

The casket is deliberately not organized in any particular way.

a lavender jade vial marred by many small abrasions

Tangled cinnamon tangled with woody fennel; silver moss. It instantly recalls an autumn night in Inverness, writing notes on the Theriac D'Andromachus of Moyse Charas, with a bottle of fernet waiting as reward.

A researcher in a faraway land working for a means to a hobby of scents, fact finding keeps me in and the smells get them out often enough. There's something about the scent of a place. If i linger in an area too long, i lose myself in distraction and morose waste. The smell of mixed story balances me, zeros me, chemically. If my life were otherwise, i'd be pills in a cup and programs on a schedule -- a peaceful way for some, and paraplegic for where I become me.

moss feels like holistic approaches

a bottle of Lebanese porcelain with a heart-and-eye design

Topnotes of intoxicating huisache and cubeb; heart of incandescent dittany of Crete and old paper; three kinds of rose, and a spray of cow parsnip. Fionn Girdford-Stanley smelled of it in her elegant townhouse in Köln when last you met in person.

Chronicling is not a simple -- and not a complex -- job. It is a listably relateable place of set a mind to task. I was visiting Fi to borrow a book when the day took a sudden turn and i was kept for dinner as the family-getogether i had stumbled into whirled around me through a single soul that warped its decades by horcruxzing its beastial heart into the dozen loves that become it to me. As charades would prove -- i could not hope to so deeply blend with others -- being one of 2 in a bloodline still alive. But it is always a gift to know it orbits me and prays me visit.

old paper feels like fear of missing out

a cameo glass bottle with a label that has been water-stained and is now illegible

Arcane cinnamon basil, heart of cinchona and pinot noir; base notes of luminous gaiac and salt. A gift from Auritenzo, who was your guide to the Purple Tower.

I grab my effects where i find them and when the need arrives. There is very little to stop the scents from make and though they may sit up assembled, their work is as mine and one word at a time like that. Once -- and as yet only once -- i was required to visit the museum of erotic nonfiction a place on private land and accessible only by a two days' hike to the top of a colossus' lost shoulder. Those i meet and those i devour inspire this hobby and the work it helps develop: the communication it curates destrains and the needs fall easily from the occasion into the occassed.

gaiac feels like shameful familiarity

a miniature jar that used to contain vodka

Syrian cinnamon, golden hyacinth, warm cajuput, juicy sassafras and burdock. You made it for a student.

Sem was a beauty of mind. And so suffered for it. Where i come upon this scent, and where it nests in me -- and where the nest lays its memories twigbare -- is in a fourth floor dorm kitchen with the cracks of pool balls of an adjoining common room as cracks of poorly-vented lightning. Holding hands and mixing the scents with one hand each and free became a therapy, a chocolate. There was not much my scents at the time could do for them. It was the following august when they self-concluded, drowning themself with scroll paper.

cajuput is suggestive of fundamental empathy

a lavender jade flask marred by many small abrasions

Blood balsam, vegetal honeysuckle, thyme, silver orchid, and the barest hint of polished brass. From an autumn when thyme was in vogue.

Where i visit the space center after the eruption and destruction of the more immediate hope is how i come upon a grieving machinist and find in them my first love for the healing to find in scents. We shared a rock with our sit in a field kept for the opposite of sports shouldering a four-foot-square grave marker with a list of names of those whose sky burial be conducted live. The machinist and i spend a day with my drawers, cells and set and i flick leaves from the wooden box on my back to show them the sayonce in thyme.

thyme feels like mutual metamorphosis

Breathe. Remember. Back to the casket:

a heroic woman's figure

Galbanum aligns with opalescent massoia bark; base notes of devotional oakmoss and betel. You first smelled it on an olive-skinned girl at Fatemeh Mohammadi's wedding fete (you are reminded of drinking mimosas on the patio).

She who would later make me my boots was just a dancing smile at a chance collection; her scent only just as wandered as she. We laugh to my socks -- which i later that week would self-learn to patch -- and measured my hell and my arch and damning both. There is still no other hand to have found itself so at home with that most intricate of extremities of me. Her touch the atmosphere filling me with breath enough through a next of years in never finding a blessed encounter in the wilds of an entire city.

galbanum is suggestive of obsession

an aluminium flacon with a wax seal

Brisk bergamot, white pepper, bitter rue. Paul Salmore smelled of it when first you made love on that day in that synagogue in Taizz.

At times, a scent is captured only in recollection: a second passover, another fist, a fortunate double exposure, an unbudding tryst bemoaning the souler in a make of passion's purpose. The sweat wicked from that abstruse pelvis settling into my seat of lace warms me yet and finds my face in an arch of beam with an arm on chest and another outstretched beseaching achor and finding antipodal a pew in purchase made for worship.

rue is suggestive of dangerous patience

Part of you; not all of you. Let's see what else:

a silver vial, vaguely resembling a star

Sleek sweet pea, ozone, flawless añejo tequila, plum, chestnuts and crystalline musk. You designed this to scent a pair of hand-tooled boots, with a French heel, that you wore at the Milan Festival of Puzzles (recall: the nicest bathroom you have ever made out in).

Where the boots arrive is with a friend, presenting them and speaking quick of its incorrect and first address as his. He scuttles off, is short and yet his smell spirals, deepens and i bet myself him back if I should wait. And i do wait, in one arm akimbo, cradling the boxed boots, the other arm a serif S of me with elbow to frame and fist clumping hair airing neck in a place that couldn't be as hot as i remember. And my courier is a minute late to return when i'd thought, but then they are through my hold and we make an us an fresh through evening sharing inauspicious, unknown theys to form a them that holds a he-me I in a branch so thin its the opposite of stormproofed and, needs sunk as sure as teeth, just as elegant.

chestnuts could mean sincere decisions

Life's what you choose for now.

Click one:

moss holistic approaches old paper fear of missing out gaiac shameful familiarity thyme mutual metamorphosis chestnuts sincere decisions cajuput fundamental empathy galbanum obsession rue dangerous patience

Click another:

Therefore:

Yes:

...

Now:

Moss, gaiac and rue; a summering of cajuput and thyme; old paper, a wintering of chestnuts and galbanum. I made this scent after exploring my casket in a holistic attempt with dangerous patience to empathise with an obsession while my shameful familiarity with a fear of missing out experienced a mutual metamorphosis to lay before me my sincere decision.

#microgame #game design #actual play #itchio #if

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a-god-in-ruins-rises · 5 years ago

Note

28, 35, 64

28: Weirdest food you’ve eaten?

idk. unfortunately i haven’t had much opportunity to try really weird foods, though i’d like to. i guess “weirdest” is subjective too. i like giblets. i know a lot of people who find that weird. my family thinks chicharrones are weird. i’ve eaten crickets. seasoned ones. but nothing really too out there i don’t think.

35: Favourite colour?

black or white or blue or purple or red.

64: Name one unpopular opinion you hold.

oh i have many. i could give some of my unpopular opinions that are unpopular to the general public but that’s too easy and not very fun because they’re not really controversial to my followers. but i do also have some unpopular opinions that are unpopular in these parts.

like....america is good, industrial revolution is good, french revolution is good, globalism isn’t inherently bad, balkanization is bad, christianity is bad, having sex isn’t bad, the human body isn’t bad, government is good, taxation isn’t theft, monarchism is bad, regicide is good, conservatives/trads/reactionaries are repugnant, not everything that happens in the world is a conspiracy, science is good actually, space exploration is good actually, cops aren’t our enemy, libertarians are repugnant, technology is good, civilization is good, neo-luddism/anprim is stupid, the union forever, “the new colossus” is actually a good poem and while i don’t think that it is a binding document that should decide national policy we should strive to embody the spirit of it to whatever extent is reasonable and not self-destructive, neoclassicism is tired, irony is lame, nihilism is lame, climate change is real, public education is good, the enlightenment was good, republicanism is good, robots/AI/automation is good, etc, etc, etc. i can keep going.

#crunchy-faggot-4

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soccernetghana · 5 years ago

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All hail Yahaya Mohammed, the enigmatic journeyman turning lemons into lemonade

[caption id="attachment_754873" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Hat-trick hero Yahaya Mohammed.[/caption] At age 31, most footballers will be considering life after retirement; but that is not the case for Yahaya Mohammed. He’s still going strong. Not much has changed, perhaps just his hairdo, from the boy who burst onto the scenes and could do everything, literally. He could strike a ball so well from any distance as though his feet were made of steel, could finish off chances with the finesse and arrogance a striker can only admire and could tackle so hard with little or no respect to aesthetics, like an old-school defender and a no-nonsense defensive midfielder. It’s not by design, it’s credit to his mercurial character to see his career evolve from a limited centre-back to a defensive midfielder and now a target-man upfront leading the charge. Like a warrior, brazen, intimidating and imposing, Yahaya has had a career soaked in controversies and niggling injuries, that have punctuated his development. For what is worth, Yahaya’s disciplinary record has been a blight on his career and notably his off-the-field antics and shenanigans have derailed what could have been a fascinating career for the all-round colossus. “I don’t think anyone can question his potential and abilities on the field. But Yahaya has disciplinary issues which must be worked on,” Wilfred Osei Parma (Director of Tema Youth), explaining why his outfit decided against re-signing the exuberant and cocky Yahaya Mohammed who had scored 9 goals in 11 matches while on loan at Amidaus Professional in 2012. ''Why do you think Kotoko will send him out on loan when they know he’s a good player? There are certain things about the player that many people do not know. He needs to work on some of his deficiencies and I believe the sky will be the limit for him,'' he added. [caption id="attachment_774175" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Yahaya Mohammed talking to GPL Express host Juliet Bawuah[/caption] Courted at an early age in Tema, while playing for colt’s club – Great Ambassadors, Yahaya Mohammed’s stature and versatility set him apart from the rest. Built to last and lasting to endure all adversities, the Terminator as he’s affectionately known, looked raw but showed enough grit and graft for his talents and abilities to woo Wilfred Osei Kwaku Parma, an ace football administrator and owner of Tema Youth (a lower division side). He saw a bright prospect through chaos – one which could not be overlooked. The Terminator joined Tema Youth as a prospect at 17 years in 2006. Yahaya impressed national team handlers and was part of the U20 team that participated in the prestigious Toulon tournament in 2007. Then, a tough-tackling defender, he earned himself a renewable loan move to French side OGC Nice after the tournament, but things took an unexpected turn. Yahaya started well with the reserve team but suffered a broken foot that kept him out for majority of the time. The deal was mutually terminated and young Yahaya had to return. He returned to the Tema-based club and later joined Berekum Chelsea before joining Real Tamale United (and a brief loan to Wa All Stars). While at Chelsea he had an unsuccessful trial at SuperSport United in South Africa. A career breakthrough beckoned when he joined the biggest team in the land and former African champions, Kumasi Asante Kotoko. Yahaya Mohammed who had now evolved from a center-back to a midfield bulwark helped the Porcupines win their 21st league title in 2011/12. [caption id="attachment_754758" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Yahaya Mohammed got a hat-trick on the first day[/caption] The following season, in a rather bizarre twist, Yahaya Mohammed was deemed surplus to requirements and was loaned out to Amidaus Professionals. It was posited that, some management members of the club at the time were fed up with Yahaya’s constant bickering, demanding an improved contract and quoting exorbitant fees. This was perceived as destructive to the Porcupines. Rivals, Hearts of Oak and AshantiGold expressed their interest in signing him, but the Porcupines decided against such move knowing his untapped quality. Amazingly, Yahaya’s loan to league debutants Amidaus, soared his stock more than anything. He was made captain and became the club’s talisman. He was fully transitioned from a midfielder to a striker and Yahaya seized the opportunity with both hands, scoring 11 goals in 15 matches. After the successful loan, the terminator couldn’t hide his joy as he returned to Kotoko. ''I left Kotoko last season with pains because I felt I still had enough to offer the club,” Yahaya told the club's official website. ''Thankfully the opportunity has come again and I am going to utilize it judiciously and do more than what I did with Amidaus Professionals this season.'' [caption id="attachment_289341" align="aligncenter" width="530"] Yahaya Mohammed[/caption] His return to Kotoko was shrouded in controversies as the player agreed a pre-contract with Libyan side Al-Ittihad while still contracted to Kotoko. The club was appalled and disappointed, slapping him with an indefinite ban, but he was finally allowed to move on loan when a consensus was reached. It was the latest episode of a career riddled with multiple controversies. The deal didn’t go as expected. Yahaya Mohammed left the Libyan club after they failed to pay his salary for about five months and returned to Kotoko. The Porcupines, who had had enough and could not agree new terms, later released him. Like a chess player, he made his next move. He joined Aduana Stars, scoring 11 goals after the first half of the season and ending with 15 goals in 27 matches, losing out on the top-scorer gong to Liberty Professionals’ Latif Blessing by just 2 goals. He tried another switch to second-tier Mexican side Murciélagos FC but that didn’t work out well. He joined Tanzanian side Azzam FC, but again the move hit a snag when his contract was mutually terminated soon afterward -- for failing to live up to his price tag. Yahaya returned to Aduana where he has seen some level of consistency in his game, perhaps what he needed most when his burgeoning career kicked off few years ago. Just maybe, a case of too little, too late for the Terminator. With just two weeks to his 32nd birthday, the Terminator looks sharper and evergreen than ever before. Yahaya, who had scored 8 goals in his last 15 topflight matches before the start of the season, has found a new lease and look much settled than ever before. He feels at home in Aduana. [caption id="attachment_349130" align="aligncenter" width="530"] Aduana Stars forward Yahaya Mohammed[/caption] The fans revere him, and he continues to repay their faith in him. Over the weekend, in a keenly contested potential title decider with Medeama, it took a late free-kick goal from the Terminator to win it for Aduana Stars, while he got the consolation goal in his side’s 3-1 defeat to Ebusua Dwarfs in midweek. He is defying age and the constraints it comes with. He has only gotten better, like an old wine. He is leading the topscorers’ chart with 8 goals in 8 matches, while providing one assist. Yahaya is bent on leading his charges to another league trophy – the team revolves around his charisma. When Yahaya is happy, everyone is and importantly, the team wins. Many have wondered what kind of player he could have blossomed to become if some of the decisions he took early in his career could be reversed. Well, we’ll never get to see that player, but one thing we’re sure is that, Yahaya has set out to rewrite his own history in his thirties and there’s no stopping – all we can do, like the Aduana fans, is to enjoy his form while it lasts. By Owusu Ansah Doe [email protected] source: https://ghanasoccernet.com/

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williamneillson · 6 years ago

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Firefighters had a secret weapon when Notre Dame caught fire: a robot named ‘Colossus’

French officials say a robot named Colossus played a crucial role in saving the Notre Dame from complete destruction. The robot is part of a new wave of firefighting machines that are being used to keep people out of harms way when fires break out. Firefighters had a secret weapon when Notre Dame caught fire: a robot named ‘Colossus’ syndicated from https://instarify.wordpress.com/

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friend-clarity · 7 years ago

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The History of Jihad from Muhammad to Isis

Robert Spencer's new must-read book.

Here's the general idea. Islam emerged approximately 1,400 years ago. Its origins are obscure and disputed. One thing is certain. Arab conquerors, exploiting weaknesses in the aging and warring Roman and Persian Empires, burst out of the Arabian peninsula and, with unprecedented speed, conquered territories from Spain to India. They eventually claimed that their sacred texts, the Koran, hadith, and example of Muhammad, informed and sanctified their warfare. Their sacred texts told these warriors, in explicit terms, to brutalize non-Muslims. Brutalizing methods included decapitation, dismemberment, and the placement of decapitated heads between the corpse's feet. These are all traditional methods of dehumanization and desecration. Sanctioned and modeled tactics also included rape, sex slavery, torture, totalitarian rule, crucifixion, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Muslims were ordered to make war in perpetuity until everyone on earth was a Muslim. Non-Muslims' rights were rigidly curtailed. Fighting and dying in battle was the very best thing that any Muslim could do, and it guaranteed the warrior bliss in paradise. Every good thing in life owed its existence to warfare. "Paradise lies under the shade of swords."

For the past 1,400 years, continuously, without pause, in every century and, eventually, reaching every inhabited continent, Muslims have obeyed these verses.

July 20, 2018, Danusha V. Goska

Friend, this is what you need to do. Go to your favorite brick-and-mortar store, or your favorite online site, and purchase a copy of Robert Spencer's, "The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS." Producing this book was a tremendous act of courage by Spencer and Bombardier Books. The same opponents of Western Civilization who rioted over the Danish Muhammad cartoons, who slaughtered the team at French humor magazine Charlie Hebdo, who murdered 37 innocent Turks at the Sivas Massacre, and who stabbed and shot the Japanese and Italian translators, and the Norwegian publisher, of Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" – those same dark forces want to riot and stab and bomb and slaughter over the words on these pages. Spencer and Bombardier deserve at the very least your investment in its full purchase price.

Jihad is a sword over your head. You may have been lulled into thinking that your odds are good. After all, there are seven billion people on earth. Compared to that number, the victims of terror attacks make up a negligible fraction. That calculation provides a false sense of security. Dr. Graham Allison, the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard Kennedy School writes that, "on the current path, nuclear terrorism is inevitable … we would likely see terrorists succeed in their aspirations for an 'American Hiroshima.'"

Even if we are lucky enough to avoid nuclear war, jihad remains as a cultural, not merely a military, struggle. Jihad's victories are won not just on the battlefield, but in American textbooks. Indeed, as the South Park controversydemonstrated, jihad is victorious in deciding when Americans are allowed to laugh. Jihad is aimed even at your right to say the word "jihad," and, accurately, to define it. "While serving as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, John Brennan declared, '…jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering men, women and children." Brennan's definition is BS. You deserve, you need, to know the truth. Jihad is a weapon aimed at you – at your freedoms, your sense of beauty, your relationships, your understanding of your own history and your intellectual honesty. "You" includes everybody. Yes, Muslims, I am talking to you. Jihad has been used, and is being used, as a tool for some Muslims to decide that other Muslims are not Muslim enough. Iran characterized the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war as a jihad. That war killed and injured hundreds of thousands of Muslims. More recently, ISIS justified its genocide of Shia Muslims as jihad.

The book's contents are grim, repugnant, and terrifying. I want you to finish, as well as begin this book, so I will be so bold as to offer advice. Read quickly. Power through. Don't pause. You won't remember the name of every killer, torturer, rapist and thief. That's okay. Get the general idea.

For the past 1,400 years, continuously, without pause, in every century and, eventually, reaching every inhabited continent, Muslims have obeyed these verses. Any given jihad might look something like this. Invaders arrived. They identified themselves as jihadis. They identified their victims, Muslims or not, as infidels. The invaders massacred civilians. They erected mountains of decapitated heads, or they used heads to terrorize their opponents, shooting them from catapults, for example. They took sex slaves. Slaves were so plentiful that slave prices plummeted. Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Hindu, houses of worship were ransacked of their jewels and precious metals. Booty was divided up lavishly among the suddenly enriched jihadis. The wrecked remains of the house of worship were pulverized and the rubble and dust was spread on the road leading to the mosque, so that Muslims could feel, with their every step, their superiority over the highest aspirations of those they humiliated.

Jews and Christians were taxed and forced to wear a distinguishing mark on their clothing, perhaps in the shape of a monkey or pig. They were denied the right to repair their houses of worship, or to ring bells, or to speak of their faith in public. Pagans, including Hindus, were simply massacred. Those who did not massacre enough Pagans were threatened and reminded that to live by their scripture and their prophet's example, they must kill as many as possible, as ruthlessly as possible. Conquerors insisted on sexual access to the prettiest princess, even if only to humiliate her, by, for example, forcing her to work as a household servant while naked. In other cases, the most handsome boy might be demanded for the conqueror's pleasure.

If there was a library, no matter how ancient and revered, it was despoiled. Legend depicts Caliph Omar justified his burning of the books, to heat bathwater, of the library of Alexandria. "The books will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous." No one knows if Omar said this, but we do know that both Muslims and non-Muslims believed it, which suggests that enough jihadis behaved like this that it was plausible. Indeed, the same story is told, about the same caliph, regarding the destruction of Persian libraries. It is true that Saladin's son attempted to bring down Egypt's pyramids, because they are un-Islamic. And Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr did order the removal of the nose of the Sphynx. The remains of the Colossus of Rhodes, that had survived hundreds of years of Christianity, succumbed to Islamic invaders, who sold them as scrap metal. A Muslim ordered that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, site of Jesus' entombment, be razed to bedrock. Hagia Sophia, a millennia-old Christian church, was desecrated and used as a mosque. Countless Hindu temples faced the same fate. Ctesiphon, one of the largest cities in the world, with a mixed population of Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians, became a ghost town all but overnight. Muslim conquerors used its bricks to construct their edifices. Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan provided unimaginable booty to divinely sanctioned plunderers. The territory, as of the 21st century, has never come close to its former glory. Formerly wealthy Afghanistan and Pakistan are today among the countries whose own citizens most long to escape.

This process, or something very like this process, didn't happen once or twice. It didn't just happen during Islam's first hundred or two hundred years. Jihads like this happened over and over. Indeed, biographies of Muhammad describe him as a warrior and raider of caravans who massacred and tortured captives, took sex slaves, and ordered his men to rape captives even in front of their still-living husbands. Across the globe, in a multitude of tongues, jihadis cite the same Koran verses and hadith to sanctify their behavior. Tamerlane, "The Sword of Islam," who is estimated to have killed five percent of the world's population, cited jihad verses. As did the Barbary Pirates who enslaved Americans, and as did Osama bin Laden.

The cultural, as well as the biological, genocide aspect of jihad is also not of the distant past. In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini's right hand man, Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, wanted to bulldoze the tomb of Persian emperor Cyrus the Great, the tomb of Iran's national poet, Ferdowsi, and Persepolis, the 2,500 year old royal Persian city. In 2001, the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas, the largest standing Buddha carvings in the world. In 2012 and 2013, jihadis from the Ansar Dine destroyed ancient Muslim shrines and library manuscripts in Timbuktu, Mali. In 2016, ISIS took time out from the murder, torture, and sexual enslavement of human beings to destroy culture, including two-millennia-old Roman structures at Palmyra. Again, these Pagan structures survived hundreds of years of a Christian Middle East. It took devout Muslims to bring them down.

Spencer's book will dispel pernicious, politically motivated canards, including the following: that there was a Golden Age when Islam was peaceful and tolerant and Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, and Hindus lived happy, productive, free lives under its protection; that Islamic terror is a relatively recent innovation, born, in various versions, with the state of Israel, or with Western colonial incursion; that the primary translation of "jihad" should be "peaceful struggle for noble, personal goals;" that the Crusades were an offensive action, or that they started the conflict between Islam and the West, or that their goal was forced conversion of Muslims; that jihad can be "fixed" through actions by non-Muslims. "If only we had a Palestinian state … If only those Hindus were not so fanatical and nationalistic … If only American films did not depict terrorists as Muslims … If only American school children were forced to recite the shahada … If only Americans were not so xenophobic, white supremacist, Christian fascist … If only we keep Tommy Robinson in solitary confinement a bit longer." None of these will ever end jihad.

Critics will bash this necessary book, if they pay any attention to it at all, by insisting that Robert Spencer is an unreliable narrator. It's not Spencer's words that inevitably paint jihad as one of the most lurid, destructive, and grotesque forces in human history. It is Muslim chroniclers and conquerors themselves. Spencer quotes contemporaneous, canonical sources. Muslim chroniclers boast with pride of their string of unprecedented atrocities. "I bring you slaughter," Muhammad said. "I have been made victorious through terror … the treasures of the world were put in my hand," Muhammad bragged, distinguishing himself from previous Jewish and Christian prophets and saints who were, in Muhammad's estimation, longwinded, but not booty-rich warlords like him. Spencer also quotes non-Muslim eyewitnesses, and books published by the university presses of Princeton, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Georgetown, Fairleigh Dickinson, NYU, Crete, the Universities of Pennsylvania and California, and the State University of New York. Indeed, Spencer does not pretend that he is saying anything new or innovative. Rather, he is merely performing the excellent service of providing a reader-friendly outline of 1,400 years of jihad.

Another possible detraction. "Yes, but, if someone published a history of the colonization of the Americas, that would make for very tough reading." No doubt.

First, committing atrocities is a violation of, not obedience to, Biblical mandates. Conversion by force is almost unknown in Judaism, and there is no Old Testament verse that commands Jews to conquer the world or to force Gentiles to become Jews. As early as the fourth century, when, after three centuries of Pagan Roman persecution, Christianity was beginning to gain worldly power, Saint Augustine wrestled with the concept of "just war." Augustine asked, and attempted to answer, when and how is it consistent with Christian belief to take up arms.

When Christians do take up arms wrongly, they violate the example of Christianity's founder, Jesus Christ. Jesus did not make war; he practiced peace. Jesus did not rape captives; he uplifted women, including the most stigmatized: the ritually unclean woman with a hemorrhage, a woman who had been possessed, and the sinful woman taken in adultery. Jesus did not raid caravans and steal their contents; he said "Render unto Cesar what is Cesar's." Jesus did not torture anyone; Jesus healed. Jesus did not practice ethnic cleansing; he and his followers interacted respectfully with their fellow Jews, Roman Pagans, and Africans. Christian scriptures do not recommend murder, rape, theft, or war.

Indeed, Christianity, with lightning speed, with its emphasis on a loving God's relationship to each human, whom he made in his image, became a support for oppressed peoples. Our Lady of Guadalupe was one such support. She is said to have appeared to an Aztec and to have reassured him that Christ's love and promises extended to all people, not just conquistadors. Just so, the Abolitionist Movement was informed by the Biblical narrative of "let my people go."

Second, accounts of Western Christians' misdeeds are plentiful and well-known. These accounts first appear, invariably, at the same time as Western Christians' misdeeds. This is the case because the Judeo-Christian tradition demands self-examination and public confession when one has failed to live up to Biblical ideals. Witness Psalms 32 and 51. King David engineered the death of his rival, Uriah. David begs for forgiveness, and vows to change. God forgives David, but David suffers horribly as the result of his crime. Witness Bartolome de las Casas, a Dominican friar, who recorded, and acted on, crimes committed by conquistadors.

When Christians engage in destructive behaviors, they critique themselves or they are critiqued by others. Indeed, in "The History of Jihad," Robert Spencer himself is quite open about, and critical of, atrocities committed by Crusaders. There are Western scholars whose careers were founded on, or advanced by, their muckraking, exposing the dark side of Western Civilization. Adam Hochschild, the white, male son of a Jewish father and a Christian mother, won numerous awards for "King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa" about a previously little-discussed atrocity. Taylor Branch, a white man from Atlanta in the American South, won a Pulitzer Prize, a National Humanities Medal, and a MacArthur Genius Award. He wrote a massive, three-volume biography of Dr. Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Struggle. John Cornwell, a former Catholic seminarian, won fame with his controversial book, "Hitler's Pope." When Cornwell's many critics found inaccuracies in his work, they did not riot or kill; they wrote and published.

Where are the analogous practitioners of confession, redemption, and repair in the Muslim world? Where were they a thousand years ago? Bartolome de las Casas did not have a voice only. He also had ears willing to hear his words. Inspired by this one friar, Pope Paul III issued a papal bull, Sublimis Dei, insisting on the full humanity of the newly discovered Indians. Can anyone imagine a Muslim de las Casas having a chat with Muhammad, arguing for the full humanity of the kuffar?

Where are the contemporary Muslim historians exposing the brutal history of jihad? Where are their prestigious prizes, university chairs and awards? Where are the passionate Muslim authors dedicating their lives to robbed, enslaved, raped, and murdered kuffars' long-since-evaporated tears? Where are the affirmative action programs for descendants of the Muslim slave trade? Where are the reparations for the Christians Slavs whose Muslims overlords kidnapped their daughters for sex slave markets, their sons for slave armies? Eastern Europe, historians say, is poorer than Western Europe to this day at least partly because Eastern Europe had to devote so much energy to fighting off jihad. Eastern Europeans provided a bulwark that allowed Western Europe to flourish. Where is Eastern Europe's apology? All of these acts of contrition on the part of Muslims exist in the same imaginary dimension where "jihad" means "befriending Christians."

Consider what happens even to the most circumspect of social critics in the Muslim world. Bassem Yousef is often dubbed "the Egyptian Jon Stewart." Youssef's audience and influence dwarfed Stewart's. Youssef's TV program made gentle fun of anti-democratic trends in the Middle East. The powers-that-be, with the participation of average Egyptians, destroyed him. He lives in exile in the US. Consider Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel-Prize-winning novelist in "modern, secular" Turkey. Pamuk merely mentioned the Armenian genocide. Pamuk was criminally charged. His countrymen burned his books. Consider the stabbings, hacking to death with machetes, and other murders of proponents of secular government in contemporary Bangladesh. Consider the fate of Raif Badawi, a Saudi man sentenced to ten years in prison and a thousand lashes because, in his blog, he dared to say things like this, "What increases my pain is the Islamist chauvinist arrogance which claims that innocent blood, shed by barbarian, brutal minds under the slogan 'Allahu Akbar,' means nothing."

In place of the self-examination and self-correction typical of Judeo-Christian cultures, too many apologists have tried not to confront jihad, but merely to redefine it. CAIR has money and power. It could put those resources to use exposing and rejecting violent jihad. Instead, CAIR made a tawdry attempt to pimp "jihad" as a synonym for "calisthenics" and "making friends with Christians." CAIR was topped by the BBC, who dubbed their TV show "My Jihad," "a tender and funny love story." I'm sure viewers can't wait to see the BBC romantic comedy, "My Holocaust."

One must remind those relativists who wish to relative-ize away 1,400 years of jihad, that, yes, all humans, regardless of ethnicity or religion, do destructive things. Motivations include mental illness, fear, and greed for resources, power, or glory. We can't eliminate greed, fear, or psychopathology, but we can tame them with civilized advances like the Geneva Convention, diplomacy, and forensic psychiatry. The concept of jihad adds to an already overburdened humanity another, completely unnecessary, and diabolically seductive reason to kill and destroy. Shahids, or those who die in jihad, are promised the highest paradise, multiple heavenly virgins, and the opportunity to intercede on behalf of, and be granted divine favors for, seventy relatives.

The final nail in the relativist coffin on jihad: the chroniclers Spencer quotes were themselves not sheltered innocents. These people had seen conflict. The Roman and Persian Empires waged war for seven hundred years, on the same territory jihadis first invaded. Both non-Muslim victims and Muslim chroniclers announce that jihadis fought ruthlessly, destroyed totally, and obeyed no previous military convention.

Thought police censors will claim, with zero evidence, that Spencer's book is anti-Muslim. Repeat this as many times as necessary: Muslims are themselves victims of jihad. Muslims are killed. Muslim culture is destroyed. This Muslim-on-Muslim death and destruction is not new. Spencer's book begins with the bloodbath that was proto-Islam. One Arab warlord after another decided that he had a monopoly on Islam, and decided that his neighboring tribe was deviant. Slaughter ensued, all in the name of jihad. The killing was shockingly intimate. Muawiyah, founder of the Umayyad dynasty, Muhammad's brother-in-law and distant cousin, murdered Aisha, Muhammad's widow. One of the oldest copies of the Koran is said to be stained with the blood of Uthman, the very caliph who first called for the Koran to be compiled. His blood was shed by his fellow Muslims.

Immediately upon Muhammad's death, Khalid ibn Al Walid waged war on anyone in Arabia who wasn't in line with emergent Islamic orthodoxy. He was called "the drawn sword of Allah," "the friend of death," and his motto was, "We love death more than you love life." Khalid betrayed and killed his fellow Muslim Malik, put his head in a cooking pot, and raped his wife Layla "like a donkey." "I love the battlefield more than I love my wedding night with a beautiful woman," he said. Khalid had had many "wives." Normal people love life more than they love death, and normal people enjoy making love more than they enjoy killing other human beings. Indeed, the Koran itself, in verse 2:216 says that though Islam "prescribes" fighting" "fighting is hateful" to Muslims. A book exposing jihad is a gift to Muslims as much as it is a gift to the rest of us.

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millermartin · 8 years ago

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How far did technology determine the outcome of twentieth century conflicts in Europe? Answer with reference to at least two of the following: First World War, Second World War and Cold War.

This essay will examine the level of importance that technology had in determining the outcome of the twentieth century conflicts in Europe. The conflicts this essay will focus upon are the First and Second World War; both hot conflicts. This means that both included combat action. Technologies used during the conflicts were numerous and included the arms race; which brought the conflict of the First World War into a modern conflict due to its “use of modern weaponry”, and the use of chemical warfare, although this essay will focus upon medicine alongside technologies; penicillin, an antibiotic drug used in the Second World War, and shellshock, a neurological illness first recognised in the First World War (Mombauer, 2013, p96). Alongside these are the technologies of intelligence and radar. These topics can be considered as significant contributors of the conflicts chosen. Technology was only one of the causal factors which determined the conflicts outcome in Europe. The others could include the role of women; due to their holding of the home front and gaining the vote due to the First World War’s lost generation, the politics; such as the change and overpowering nature of ideologies, and finally the economics of war; the ability to produce weapons at a faster rate than the enemy. However, with the exception of intelligence machinery, all technology used during the conflicts were produced previous to the events. This demonstrates how military strategies must be considered highly central, as it was the way in which these technologies were used which determined the outcomes of the conflict.

Medical treatment can be considered as determining the outcome of the First World War as the war acknowledged new psychological illnesses such as shellshock. The British Army alone had to deal with “80,000 cases of shellshock” (Bourke, 2011). Shellshock was the largest pathological encounter during the First World War; Horne states it was first recognised in 1915 as, “the symptom produced by the explosion of a large shell” (Horne, 2012). This reveals how the impact of shells and loud explosions caused psychological illnesses, and not just physical wounds. Horne validates this through the harsh outcome of the shells impact, as they produced “a variety of neurological and psychic troubles despite the absence of any apparent physical wound” (Horne, 2012). This signifies how psychological conditions was a conflicts outcome since new artillery weapons, such as shells and mines, were introduced into combat; a “terrifying features of modern warfare” (Chickering, Showalter, Van de Ver, 2013, p193). The weaponry which caused shellshock demonstrates how the First World War determined the development of the understanding towards psychological illnesses, as it put pressure on the need for improvement.

The technological treatment for ‘curing’ shellshock was by electricity. One example of this was the ‘Kaufman Cure,’ where patients were given “electric shocks and told ‘you will heal’ until the patient ‘agreed’ to become healthy” (Brunton, 2013, p120). Shellshock patients presented themselves as broken men, portraying traits of women. The film ‘War Neuroses: Netley Hospital’ demonstrates the broken state which shellshock developed (Netley Hospital, 1917). The brutal treatment was accepted within the medical profession, especially by “the British and French psychiatrists;” due to its attempt to reassert ‘male mannerism’ (Brunton, 2013, p120). Horne proves that the practitioners used electric shocks “to ‘provoke’ or ‘trigger’ a reaction that would alter the patient’s state of mind;” showing how the practitioners believed that the brutal treatment would ‘reassert masculinity’ (Horne, 2012). Horne’s perception of female traits as being “hysterical psychosis;” other traits included “‘depression’, ‘amnesia’, and ‘delirium’” (Horne, 2012). These establish shellshock causing the destruction of the patient’s masculinity. However, electricity was not a new form of treatment, as Horne signifies that it “had been used to treat mentally traumatised patients since the end of the nineteenth century” (Horne, 2012). The treatment for shellshock resulted in the war’s outcome as it allowed for patient’s to be treated for an otherwise unknown illness, therefore allowing for more patients recovery, as the Netley footage presents.

The medical breakthrough of penicillin demonstrates how technologies affected the outcome of the Second World War. Penicillin helped prevent the spreading of diseases and infections. Henceforth the innovation of penicillin resulted in the successful treatment of the wounded soldiers, allowed soldiers to return to the front. Hereafter, the use of penicillin reduced the death rate of soldiers dramatically. Brunton demonstrates how “penicillin cured a much wider range of diseases and infections with fewer side effects” (Brunton, 2013, p130-1). This shows its importance during the conflict, as it establishes how penicillin was valuable in determining the conflicts outcome due to its production of healthier soldiers. Dawson and Coulson estimate that “another twelve to fifteen percent of wounded allied soldiers would have died without penicillin to fight their infection” (Dawson, Coulson, 1996, p158). Neuschul takes this evidence further by highlighting how “only three percent of Second World War wounded died;” a fact that was due to the “advances in medical care” (Neuschul, 2013, p131). Neuschul signals the implication which penicillin had on determining a positive outcome for soldiers. Therefore, healthier soldiers were maintained due to such a small percentage dying of infection. Neuschul understands how the lives of soldiers were saved from “the horrors of gangrene and other bacterial diseases that were rampart during previous conflicts”; indicating how penicillin determined the outcome of many lives of soldiers during the Second World War (Brunton, 2013, p131). Neuschul’s evidence highlights how penicillin changed the outcome of the conflict in relation to soldier’s lives, as bacterial diseases were no longer considered a major threat to the wounded.

Hereafter, the production of penicillin is a noteworthy benefactor towards determining the outcome of the Second World War. Dawson and Coulson state that “by June 1944 there was enough penicillin to treat all the casualties suffered on D-day,” specifying that the vast production of penicillin was realised as imperative in saving lives, especially after planned strategy pushed in combat (Dawson, Coulson, 1996, p158). Originally, the production of penicillin was “geared to the war effort: companies aimed to produce enough of the drug for the armed forces during war time” (Brunton, 2013, p128). This strongly implies that penicillin had an impact in determining the conflicts outcome. Brunton validates that many of the production companies saw the principle of penicillin use both within conflict and post war. Henceforth, the drug was further produced for the use of the general public due to the success rate during the conflict of the Second World War; a significant conflicts outcome. An example of the prominence attached to penicillin production is that of Therapeutic Research Council. Brunton examines this evidence as a way in which the medical teams wanted to “pool their limited research resources in developing new drugs” (Brunton, 2013, p128). This suggests the effort that production companies went to in order to improve the development of research departments within the medical field. Finally, Brunton validates penicillin as a contributing factor in the renovation of post war, as medicine became adapted to the production of antibiotics (Brunton, 2013, p135). This is due to the fact that the success of penicillin during the war led to the production of penicillin for the use of the general public.

A secret technology of the Second World War determined its outcome: the enigma machine, which was a technology used to determine intelligence from the enemy. Clayton suggests that enigma was to be kept secret as it was of “overriding imperative to prevent the enemy from learning that his messages were being read” (Clayton, 2011, p329). Roberts’ states the enigma machine ‘Colossus’ (Copeland, 2010) was “so secret that its existence was not acknowledged until thirty years after the war” (Roberts, 1967, p446). This demonstrates how Colossus’ secrecy was paramount to its success, as intelligence was the knowledge of the enemies’ movements and convalesces. Warner justifies how Ultra; the intelligence gained by Enigma, “was not made public until 1974,” an example of how technology did determine the conflict’s outcome as it enables the allied soldiers to gain information given out by the enemy, without the enemy knowing. The decoding technique of Cryptanalysis was how enigma messages were broken down in order to create links which could occur over different messages. Gill defines this as “a pain staking examination of all the interpreted messages in search for patterns” in order to break the code” (Gill, 2003, 92). Henceforth, once this code was deciphered, the power was in the allied hands; a fact which reasserts that the technology of enigma helped to determine a successful outcome of the conflict for the allied forces.

The creation of enigma, originally started by the Germans who deciphered messages from the start of the war of the Royal Navy, was supreme to the revolution within intelligence (Mackie, 2013, p123). The Germans, without allied enigma, may have foreseen a different outcome of the Second World War. However, Mackie states how “the introduction of a new version of Enigma in February 1942 spelled disaster” for the Germans, and determine an allied victory (Mackie, 2013, p123). The Enigma machine was an important part of the allied armoury due to its capability to locate enemy submarines (Pugh, 1997, p298). The conflict had developed into a technological weapon which determined the outcome of the Second World War.

Mackie determines that the Second World War “accelerated scientific and technological advances” that was highlighted by the use of enigma within combat (Mackie, 2013, p97). Roberts agrees, stating that the development of the enigma machine and deciphering messages “launched the electronic and information technology revolution in which we are still living in” (Roberts, 1967, p446). This demonstrates the importance of these developments in the determining of the conflicts outcome. Roberts places the development of the enigma ‘colossus’ machine as demonstrating “a radical break with the improvements in mechanical calculating machines”, as the development of enigma placed technological development on a different course post war (Roberts, 1967, p446). Both Gill and Warner determine how the information was given out to the relevant parties involved by the “operational intelligence centres” who were “responsible for assessing all the available intelligence” (Gill, 2003, p92). Warner also clarifies that the information would be passed on to the relevant parties (Warner, 1998, p64). This highlights the course in which the enigma messages were passed on, and demonstrates how separate sections were assigned roles in order to maintain accuracy. The workings of the intelligence centres demonstrate how important the enigma machine was in battle to locate items of importance.

The main contributors of enigma coding and the deciphering of German messages were based at Bletchley Park. Mackie determined that they “achieved a breakthrough in late 1942” as the messages were being decoded immediately. The enigma machine was not a new invention as it was developed during the interwar years. However, the conflict established a need for this technology. The outcome of the conflict was rapid technological development initiated by the huge impact made by Enigma. One contribution which Bletchley made was its ability to intercept German GE7 electronic torpedoes (Gunton, 2003, p80). This was important as combat locations were paramount in determining the strategies put in place by the allies. Gill agrees, stating how the “sole purpose was to break German military codes” (Gill, 2003, p91). This demonstrates the importance of the Enigma technology in creating success within the conflicts, especially at sea.

Radar was one of the technologies which determined the outcome of the Second World War. Initially, an anti-submarine device, such as ASDIC, which was developed by the British in 1944, was deployed to locate submarines (Mackie, 2013, p121). Hereafter this device made the battle of the Atlantic successful for the allies. Sommerville illustrated that ASDIC was effective in its use of anti-submarine sonar, as it “used sound pulses to find the range and bearing of a target” (Sommerville, 2008, p129). This illustrates the new technology of radar determining the location of hostile submarines was a new technique of fighting.

The development of radar responded to the need for a new type of defence during the conflict. Roberts states that radar came into use in the 1940’s, an “effective air defence of Great Britain” (Roberts, 1967, p391). Sommerville illustrates the radars used, such as the “carrier USS coupon in 1943, SC, SG and SK radar aerials” (Sommerville, 2003, p128). This validates the significance of radars as the multiple radars deployed on the shipping allowed accuracy; highly important during conflict. Another example of accuracy in technology which the allied forces had was the British Type 271, which “could detect a target as small as a submarine periscope” (Sommerville, 2003, p129). This shows that the accuracy of convoy locations was paramount in the success of combat, as there was no longer an element of surprise; which was prevalent in previous conflicts. Similarly to this, Warner uses the example of the British “H25 radar, which was devastatingly effective against U-boats”; to demonstrate how radar technology was a key contributing factor which helped the allied forces to win the war at sea (Warner, 1988, p205). Other radar types included “microwave radar, improved sonar, multiple depth charges, magnetic detectors and sono-radio buoys” (Warner, 1988, p171). These all exhibit the development of what was recognised as an important piece of equipment during the conflict. These radar devices determined the outcome of war as it created advantages to the allies whom could know the movements of the enemy at sea and in the air.

Another advantage which the allied forces held was their development of radar stations alongside the coastlines. These radar stations were able to detect enemy advances of “incoming bombers when they were as much as forty miles from the coast” (Pugh, 1997, p295). Pugh recognises the accuracy of the radar stations in determining oncoming aircraft, allowing the distance to be acknowledged, which stimulated a reaction from allied forces. Technology was shaped in order to help the war effort. Warner explains how in late 1940 these stations allowed “diminishing number of pilots in the RAF to intercept large forces of German bombers” (Warner, 1988, p87). Hereby this signifies how these stations were important in determining the conflict’s outcome, as stopping the bombers from reaching the country enabled the British to remain in control of their country. Sommerville justifies that the radar was a significant factor of the battle at sea it located hostile equipment even during bad vision, such as at night (Sommerville, 2003, p129). This shows how significant the radar technology was, as it allowed battles to continue even in bad weather conditions, which in previous conflicts would have affected vision.

Strategies justify how technology is only one contributing factor towards the outcomes of the conflicts. Strategies such as the way in which battles commenced, and how the weaponry was used determined the outcomes of conflict. Mackie states that “success was sometimes achieved against the odds; choices made by leaders mattered” (Mackie, 2013, p103). Strategies can be defined as an action in order to achieve a goal. Pugh demonstrates how, within the First World War, the strategy of blockades was paramount, with “the Royal Navy [applying] an economic blockade upon central powers” (Pugh, 1997, p265). This strategy was in order to try to starve the Germans of resources in order to inflict surrender. The Donitz 1942 analysis states how the naval Second World War strategies consisted of four elements: to out build Germany, the avoidance of German shipping, to defend the allied countries against German attacks, and to attack German submarines (Mackie, 2013, p122). Eventually, these strategies incorporated the use of technology in order to push against the enemy and become victorious in the conflict. Pugh points to another strategy used, that of strategic bombing. This developed into “the war in the air, like the war on the ground degenerated to a war of attrition”, meaning that the allied forces strategically wanted to bombard Germany into surrendering (Pugh, 1997, p297).

The significance of the strategies was vital in determining the outcome of the conflicts. Imlay states how short term military mistakes remain widely debated (Mackie, 2013, p111). This is due to the fact that some strategies were not successful, such as the French “Maginot Line of fortification” which was a “defence line along the Franco-German border” (Mackie, 2013, p105). This reliance did not allow the French to foresee the dangers of other tactics than the one they anticipated from the Germans. The tactic which the French intended to pursue was the “use of superior firepower in carefully controlled bataille conduit” as demonstrates on Map 9.1 (Mackie, 2013, pp.105-6). The counter strategy of the Germans is also highlighted on this map, the Sichelschnitt, which wished to “cut off the northern allied armies” (Mackie, 2013, p106). These demonstrate how obtaining a successful strategy was paramount in determining the conflict’s outcome.

In conclusion, technology was only one factor in determining the outcome of the First and Second World War with other establishing contributing factors including strategies of the forces. Strategies, alongside the arms race, allowed the allied countries to be victorious and overpower the Entente. Medicine; both the production of penicillin and the technologies to cure illnesses such as shellshock determined the outcome for the soldiers at war, not only as a means to cure but enabling the belief that many would be returned home in the same state as when they left. This increased morale of both the soldiers and families back home as it enforced a belief that illnesses could be cured. The most powerful and successful technology, which continued into the post war period, was the use of radar and intelligence deciphering. This impacted heavily on the safety and security of the post war period. As a result, technology can be considered as a dominant factor of the First and Second World War due to its developments and continuation after the conflicts. One however, must consider the significance that these technologies were developed previous of the First World War or during the interwar years, therefore they cannot be considered a wartime innovation. Technologies are of a considerable importance in determining the outcome of the wars. However, one can understand that without the strategies of combat, these technologies would be irrelevant.

REFERENCE LIST

Brunton, D., Mackie, R. (2013) Unit 9 Fighting the War: Resources, Technology and Medicine in European Conflict 1933-1945, The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Brunton, D., Mombauer, A. (2013) Unit 3 Experiences of War, 1914-1918 in National Europe 1914-1933, The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Clayton, T. (2011) Sea Wolves, The extraordinary story of Britainic WW2 Submarines, Little Brown Book Group, London.

Coulson, I., Dawson, I. (1996) Medicine and Health through time, Hodder Murray, London.

Freedman. LD (2013) The Cambridge History of War. Vol. 4. War and the Modern World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Gill, S. (2003) Blood in the Sea HMS Dunedin and the Enigma Code, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.

Gunton, M. (2003) Dive Dive Dive Submarines at War, Constable, London.

Horne J. (ED) (2012) Companion To World War I, Oxford, Blackwell-Wiley.

Pugh, M. (1997) A companion to Modern European History 1871-1945, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford

Roberts, J.M (1967) Europe 1880-1945 Third Edition, Pearson Education Limited, Harlow.

Sommerville, D. (2008), The Complete Illustrated History of World War II with more than 500 Evocative Photographs, Maps and Battle Plans, Lorenz Books, London

Warner, P. (1988) World War Two – The Untold Story, Cassell Military Paperbacks, London.

Bourke, J. (2011) http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/shellshock_01.shtml -

General Report on Tunny; Crown copyright, National Archives Image Library, Kew, Reproduced from Copeland B.J Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Codebreaking Computers (2010) Oxford, Oxford University Press (http://www.colossus-computer.com/colossus1.html#section10)

Loughran, T, (2015) review of Masculinity, Shell shock, and Emotional Survival in the First World War, (Review no. 944) http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/944

War Neuroses: Netley Hospital (1917), pt 1 of 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL5noVCpVKw

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nofomoartworld · 8 years ago

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Hyperallergic: Gilded Age Statues Return to the Manhattan Bridge, Now with Kinetic Illumination

Brian Tolle’s “Miss Manhattan” and “Miss Brooklyn” on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

More than 50 years since they were removed at the behest of New York’s “master builder” Robert Moses, two allegorical statues of “Miss Brooklyn” and “Miss Manhattan” have returned to the entrance of the Manhattan Bridge. Located at the intersection of the Flatbush Avenue Extension and Tillary Street in Downtown Brooklyn, the once-lost ladies are part of a new permanent sculpture by Brian Tolle. However, they’re not quite as statically regal as when they debuted in November of 1916; now they are spinning slowly on an over 24-foot-tall pedestal, colored the same low blue as the steel on the bridge. And at night, they’re lit from within, the illumination giving their cast white acrylic bodies a bright glow.

A video posted by NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs (@nyculture) on Dec 27, 2016 at 5:40pm PST

The commission from the Percent for Art and New York City Economic Development Corporation was unveiled in December. The work follows public projects from Tolle like the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City, although this sculpture is definitely a bit more on the whimsical site, and perhaps a tad cheesy, with its kinetic motion. The casting also doesn’t have the shadowy detail of the 20-ton granite originals, which are now outside the Brooklyn Museum. Nevertheless, it does add some much-needed visual play to this chaotic gateway to Brooklyn, where streams of traffic move relentlessly in either direction.

Daniel Chester French’s “Miss Manhattan” at the Brooklyn Museum

“Birds Eye View of the Manhattan Bridge Approach, Brooklyn, N.Y.” (courtesy Brooklyn Museum Libraries. Special Collections). The statues are visible at the end of the bridge.

It wasn’t always so hectic here. The originals, by the famed Daniel Chester French who is best-known for his Abraham Lincoln colossus presiding over the Lincoln Memorial, were situated in a broad plaza. While not quite as elegant as the arch and colonnade on the Manhattan side (which still stands), the plaza was part of the “City Beautiful” movement that treated infrastructure like art. In a 1915 story in the New York Times ahead of their installation, it was noted that the statues were “to produce an impression of strength and dignity.”

On one side of the plaza, “Miss Manhattan” sat with her chin raised, a symbolic chest of wealth beneath one foot. A proud peacock stood at her left, and a classical sculpted torso at her right, an anchor behind her back suggesting waterfront commerce. “Miss Brooklyn,” meanwhile, was softer, her neck tilted, a child reading at her feet near a burst of foliage, a church in miniature on the opposite side, and laurels resting on her head. French is said to have used Audrey Munson as the model for both. As previously covered on Hyperallergic, Munson was a popular Gilded Age model, nicknamed the “American Venus,” who also appears in Adolph Alexander Weinman’s “Descending Night,” and Alexander Stirling Calder’s “Star Maiden.” She later fell into obscurity and died nearly forgotten in a mental institution in 1996.

By 1961, the fate of the two Manhattan Bridge sculptures was in limbo. A New York Times article proclaimed : “Progress Taking a Sledge to Bridge Art Here,” citing Robert Moses’s application for the destruction of this “ornamental and architectural masonry.” Yet they found a new home at the Brooklyn Museum, installed there in 1964 on eight-foot stone pedestals. While Moses saw the statues as obstructions, Tolle’s giant beacon is safely above the cars. Pedestrians can view the work from the sidewalk or traffic median, and drivers will see it at a distance, the ghostly pair twisting gently as if responding to the ebb and flow of traffic below.

Daniel Chester French’s “Miss Brooklyn” at the Brooklyn Museum

Brian Tolle’s “Miss Manhattan” and “Miss Brooklyn” on Flatbush Avenue

Brian Tolle’s “Miss Manhattan” and “Miss Brooklyn” are installed at Flatbush Avenue Extension and Tillary Street, Downtown Brooklyn.

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