Fear and Silence in Bangladesh as Militants Target Intellectuals

[bryant.coleman]

The Saudis, especially in the 80s, are/were nothing but the trained poodles of western intelligence.
They would never even sneeze without the OK from Washington/London/Paris/Berlin/Tel Aviv.
The radicalization of formerly secular countries is part of their divide and rule "strategy of tension."

I used to think that the Arabs were idiots, who just love to waste their petrodollars on low quality weapons and whores. But time has proven me wrong. Although they were subservient to the Americans for many decades, now slowly they are asserting their dominance. They know that the American corporations will collapse without the OPEC oil. Now it is the Americans, who have been relegated to the level of poodles.

[iCEBREAKER]

The Saudis, especially in the 80s, are/were nothing but the trained poodles of western intelligence.
They would never even sneeze without the OK from Washington/London/Paris/Berlin/Tel Aviv.
The radicalization of formerly secular countries is part of their divide and rule "strategy of tension."

I used to think that the Arabs were idiots, who just love to waste their petrodollars on low quality weapons and whores. But time has proven me wrong. Although they were subservient to the Americans for many decades, now slowly they are asserting their dominance. They know that the American corporations will collapse without the OPEC oil. Now it is the Americans, who have been relegated to the level of poodles.

Sure, that's what exactly what they want you and (more importantly) the rest of the world to think.

"Appear weak when you are strong."  -Sun Tzu

SA and the other petro-kingdoms are paper statelets.

NATO can flip a switch and change the regimes in Riyadh, etc. within 24 hours.

NATO and Russia have all the nukes; good luck "asserting dominance" without MIRV-tipped SLBM.

All the Sheik's stacks of fiat and gold and army toys are worthless without NATO's strategic umbrella.

NATO's petro-fiat hegemony will end eventually.  But until then...



Power flows from the launch tube of a sub. 

[BADecker]

Converting to Christianity DOES solve all our problems.

Simply saying that you have converted to Christianity, or saying it and then following something else, isn't converting to Christianity.

Salvation is based on one deed, if you can call it that. Salvation is believing that Jesus took all the punishment for all your sins and mistakes that you made as you live your whole life in the sight of God.

This life is relatively short. Most of us in this forum can imagine what it would be like to live in health from now on... no end.

There will be a resurrection from death, and there will follow it a judgment before God. Depending on a persons faith in Jesus in this life, it will have already been decided whether he/she will spend eternity in glory with God, or in the eternal dying that it takes for the soul to truly die.

Becoming a Christian in truth or in name doesn't stop one from making more trouble for himself in this short life.

Religion used to be a short-cut solution to all problems of this world.
Do X because it is god's will.
Unfortunately, it is the cause of problems in the 21st century.
The world will be a better place if there are no religions (Christianity included).

Not all religions have a god, at least not formally. Not all people of theistic religions believe that there is a god, and not all people of atheistic religions believe there is no god.

There is nothing in the universe that suggests God does not exist. In fact, the existence of the universe in its present state of the complexity, suggests highly that God does exist.

The religion of science - where some people believe that the unproven theories about universe development without God - is just like any other religion. People have a handful of facts or witness reports, and they have turned it into something in their minds that is not necessarily true, and in the face of other religions, absolutely is not true.

The world absolutely would not be a better place without religion, because the only way this could happen, would be if people were not people. If people were not people, who knows what they would be? But they certainly wouldn't have done the great works of the past - archaeological constructions of ancient peoples, and advanced thinking such as calculus.

One of the things people would not be able to do if they didn't have religion is, people wouldn't be able to think about such complex thoughts like, Would the world be a better place without religion?