jts-khorat

Still waiting for the "better" plan instead of platitudes and word fluff. Sanctions, bombings and threats have failed. What I suggested is diplomacy, not committees, but maybe you did not answer specifically to my point. What are the specific actions you would suggest to change something? What is your exact timetable to achieve something meaningful?

That is true; however this extra spending is not just defense against Putin, it doubles also nicely as defense against Trump. I really do not understand Trump's foreign policies: before the Europeans accepted American soldiers on their territory and political influence as a very close ally for a relatively small investment. Now the Europeans spend more money, but instead of buying US weapons, it will be almost exclusively European arms manufacturers profiting. If you count the numbers, in the end it will cost the US more instead of less, while at the same time having lost their influence. And if China is the true target, would Trump not want to have the Europeans on his side, instead of the EU linking up to Silk Road 2.0 (because for trade with the US they have to pay tariffs, while with China they don't)? It does not make any sense at all.

Then maybe go back and read what I wrote. Of course it brought something good. You practiced volitional actions, acting out of proper reasons, loosening the fetters binding you to wordly things, cultivating your Sila (morals). So a lot was gained, and only some (quite smallish) piece of paper invested in the learning process. I call this a good investment for sure. Even for those less inclined to see the spiritual side, it definitely was money well spent on a life lesson: I know people who have lost houses and life savings on qualitatively pretty much the same lesson.

If you start a conversation with a threat (tarriffs in the situation with the EU, outright extortion in the case of Ukraine and bombings in the situation with the Iran), do not expect people to flock to you as friends. If you want to create a beneficial situation to you by brute force instead of persuasion, you better have the might and endurance to see it through. That is why some call it bullying, and when those victims of the mobbing are finally able to smack the bully in the mouth, they are generally the ones cheered in the end. This why the EU has many more sympathies compared to the US (outside of the US), and why there seems to be a sliver of understanding or even support for Iran in light of obviously superior powers ganging up subdue them. Let's not make this a discusison if this is right or wrong (Iran is definitely not right here), but this is what is currently happening due to the inept threats and failed diplomacy in the Middle East.

Even here, (Theravda) Buddhism has something interesting to say. You do meritious deeds not in the expectations of being thanked, or even of making a difference. You do the good deed because you acted in interpretation of the things you knew (she is a poor girl) -- therefore it was the right action -- and therefore it helps you to cultivate your own good volitions and have a better life through it. What the other person makes of it in the end is really not your concern. In a perfect world, they would feel thankful, but it is their decision alone; as it is your decision alone how the perceived rejection (or not) of your action makes you feel in turn -- as you know you did the right thing, it should not be a negative emotion, but move towards equanimity.

You just have described the concept of Kamma in two easy to understand paragraphs. What you infer from it and how you act after this self-reflection is what makes all the difference.

Then you tell me a better way. If bombs cannot reach those locations any more, and -- my base assumptuion -- none of us wishes a nuclear strike annihilating whole countries -- then the only way left is talking. I agree that the position of Iran towards Israel is unacceptable. But we have seen over the last decade, that sanctions and threats have not diminished Iran's way towards nuclear capability. I frankly understand the Iranians in this point. As we have seen with North Korea, a tiny country with starving people has an outsized diplomatic reach globally due to it having 1-5 really weak nukes. Ukraine gave theirs up, look how that went. Having a nuke is the obvious only solution for a smaller country to withstand the pressure of a superpower. This is a conundrum for which I have no good solution. But the Ayatollahs are old, and they have a populace who would rather not live under sanctions. This is the only lever I see, besindes sinply accepting that Iran will have a nuke very very soon.

I personally see no problem if adult people get their kick out of risky behaviour. It is their decision, as long as nobody else is harmed. And I obviously believe, that his family is grieving. But it was his planned decision to jump -- and by extension to put his loved ones through the consequences of his actions. It was a high risk jump from a relatively low building into a tree-lined street with unclear visibility, so my assumption is, that in his community of base jumpers, it is a fitting epitaph (along the lines "he died doing what he loved"). His right to document his actions, in my eyes, trumps the right of his family to not be confronted with his decisions (which I am sure they kew about, this was not his first jump looking at the risk level). Therefore I still see no issue with the video circulating.

You do note, my link was from AP, and there are lots of credible resources refuting your position. In the end, neither you nor me know the true facts, we are both guessing. I prefer an abundance of caution and persuasion, you obviously want to break a few heads and wish that good reason and sense will come from that. I guess we will need to agree to disagree what is the right -- or even better -- way. We will see pretty soon, who is right, not that there will be any prizes for that.

Just because I read about it in the Israel press, how "effective" they have been, does not make it true. Literally, we heard that there were WMD in Iraq. I do not want to risk either Jerusalem or Teheran becoming a nuclear wasteland, just because we have a crazy American president who is unable to follow decent morals. In my opinion, the only way to hold Iran back from becoming a nuclear state is to convince them that they are better served to not follow this path and become a normal nation state accepting the right of existence of all its neighbors. To note: Israel flying bombing raids into literally all their neighbors makes it difficult to see them having the moral high ground or even any good argument here, and having an American president literally threatening complete obliteration would also not make me think that not having a working deterrent in my own hands would be preferrable to everything else. What is needed here is really difficult diplomacy. Frankly, I think, this was already blown with trashing the JCPOA (and we will need to be living with Iran as a nuclear state on the same level as Israel already is), but I would rather like to be wrong than right here. Because Trump is simply too incompetent for even simple diplomacy.

I did not miss the strikes. What I am saying is, that the Iranians obviously are learning out of their expensive past failures and are setting themselves up in a way that surpasses current conventional capacity of Israel. https://apnews.com/article/iran-nuclear-natanz-uranium-enrichment-underground-project-04dae673fc937af04e62b65dd78db2e0 They are known for a while; it simply takes time to build them. During their last airstrikes, Israel attacked the air defense radar sites around Natanz, while destruction of actual military facilities was reduced to peripheral installations.

As I said, there is known construction of suspected nuclear research facilities in Iran which are literally located under mountains. They are not stupid. So, "bunker-busting" does already not cut it any more. And, of course, literally any state actor -- and Iran is one of the bigger and technically advanced ones -- would be able to create a dirty bomb poisoning a city like Tel Aviv or Jerusalem with the already existing enriched uranium, in case further enrichment capability was destroyed. https://www.aei.org/op-eds/iran-could-build-a-dirty-bomb-today/ Trump exiting the JCPOA literally gave Iran the breather needed to make a nuclear capability unavoidable.

Americans do not need to go very far to find their own technology companies directly supporting the Nazis in germany. Read up on General Motors and Opel, just to get the first whiff of stink (there is much, much more). If you ever believed, you guys were really the "good ones" in the 1930s, think again.

Just think a step further. Bomb them... how? The Iranians are building their centrifuges under mountains by now, so you can only reach them with a (large) nuke. To nuke all of Iran -- it is a really big country -- you will need a good number of bombs, the fallout will devastate Israel in a really bad way. And the Americans nuking another country without prior confrontation will make them worse pariahs than the North Koreans for a 100 years; already they are loosing their friends as it is. The US are reliant on trade, so this will be economic suicide for the US. Literally, besides a land occupation there is no good tool either Israel or the US have. Have a look, how Russia is faring right now and how successful the US was in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan and it tells you, that you either make the Iranians come to the table by their own will, or you have nothing at all to prevent them from having their own bomb sooner or later (many think, they already have).

Which makes them not necessarily more mature. But indeed, the infantilization of youngsters in the west has created many weird circumstances, where people are old enough to vote, drive or become a soldier, but have the emotional maturity and social ability of 12 year olds. I am not sure what is better. Having a stunted childhood as many Thai youth have who need to look after themselves early (especdially those from poor backgrounds), or the padded extended childhood the west now often offers... the brain matures at 25 and we all live longer, so maybe, in balance, we would have the luxury of not rushing to become adults.