I love these kinds of photos…:D:D
We just went thru a heat wave a couple of weeks ago, and today seems like it’s back again for the rest of the week so that’s refreshing!
I’m sure everyone’s seen this one by now too…lol…too funny!
How can anyone look at that and not laugh?! 
How bout this one? 
I loved the polar bear picture so much I had to find and upload one of my most favorite animal pictures.
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These pics always brings tears to me eyes, whenever i doubdt the pressence of US and UK forces in Irak and Afghanistan I just look here and remember what we are doing.
The Butterfly Nebula photographed by the recently-refurbished Hubble Space Telescope. (See links below the photo.)
For a Space.com article on the “new” Hubble, see: ‘Extraordinary results’ expected from Hubble - Space.com- msnbc.com
For more pictures from Hubble, click on: New Hubble pictures - Picture Stories- msnbc.com
Please tell me how that image explains what the US is doing in Iraq?
The rest of your country would probably also like to know…
I understand and completely support the Afghanistan part, but as we all know the so called “intelligence” allowing the oil baron, sorry I mean Bush Junior, to invade Iraq was false.
This is an image I used as wallpaper for a while. I find it very beautiful but it was a bit dark to work well as a wallpaper.
The false intelligence you refer to was vetted by every important intelligence service on the planet, and deemed to be credible by all of them.
It has been convincingly confirmed that Saddam Hussein desperately wanted WMD and was actively working to build and/or acquire WMD. To the extent that the intelligence regarding Iraqi WMD was “false”, that falsification was perpetrated by Saddam, himself: he deliberately and systematically convinced the world, including his own General Staff, that he already had WMD and would not hesitate to use those weapons.
I get a little tired of hearing non-Americans criticize the country that has done far more than its fair share of the military heavy-lifting, going all the way back to the First World War. America has run up a huge debt, largely because the world expects us to be global peace-keepers and policemen.
We could use a break from those incredibly expensive chores. Maybe its time to let Sweden do all that.
Clint
p.s. - geopolitics on a more primitive level: Saddam Hussein attempted the assassination of George H.W. Bush (Sr.)
George W. Bush (Jr.) took him out. — That sort of vengeance is well-understood in the Middle East.
I guess we must live on different planets then because here in Sweden and I dare say most of Europe we don’t quite recognize that description.
Perhaps you remember that Germany for instance was strongly against invading Iraq? I guess their intelligence must have been better than yours?
I’m not so sure that the world “expects” the US to be world police, that’s something that the US has been doing without being asked to. Funny how that policing is mostly done in areas where there’s something to gain for the US corporate elite…
As for Sweden we have always stood for trying to resolve conflicts without violence. It’s easy to forget, but the fact is that the US attacked the sovereign nation Iraq.
Oh and by the way, thanks to your war on Iraq, we are now the western country that has received the most Iraqi refugees. So we have done much more than our fair share in something we didn’t cause. I’d love nothing better than to ship them all over to you and hear some Swedish spoken in the streets again…
Iraq had done nothing that, according to international laws, allowed US military aggression against them. Which is why the UN refused to support the attack.
I didn’t like Saddam any better than you, but it leaves a very bitter taste when the “world police” also plays the judge, jury and executioner part.
Let’s not even start discussing things such as Blackwater…
I love the US but I’m not going to let that blind me to when wrongful things are done.
I don’t want to turn this thread off track more than I already did - I respect you much to much Clint!
i guess the Poles & Czechs did…
FYI:
Just a quick cut & paste from today’s news.
"Poles and Czechs voiced deep concern Friday at President Barack Obama�s decision to scrap a Bush-era missile defense shield planned for their countries.
�Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back,� the Polish tabloid Fakt declared on its front page.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski said he was concerned that Obama�s new strategy leaves Poland in a dangerous �gray zone� between Western Europe and the old Soviet sphere."
Yeah, I guess you’re right.
If only we Americans had learned to just sit here between the two big oceans, and stay out of world affairs, we wouldn’t have caused so many of the world’s problems.
Then you wouldn’t have those pesky Iraqis running around in your Swedish streets.
Of course, you still wouldn’t be hearing Swedish spoken in your streets — it would be German.
But, you could live with that, because America wouldn’t be doing anything to annoy you!
You seem to delight in taking every opportunity to poke your finger in America’s eye. Where is that coming from?
Do you have any idea how offensive it is to Americans for you to use our remembrance of 9/11 to sneer at the way we have conducted the War on Terror?
Maybe the next attack on civilization by the Islamo-Fascists will occur in Stockholm — three thousand innocent Swedes killed, and hundreds of billions of kronor in property damage.
If that were to happen, I think you would sneer less at American efforts to stamp out this menace.
If it weren’t for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor you would happily have let us learn to speak German… After the first WW you didn’t really want to clean up a second mess in Europe and I certainly don’t blame you!
I don’t think it needs to be said that we’re all extremely grateful that the Japs forced you into the war.
Like I said, I don’t want this thread to go bad. Everybody, I included of course, is all for fighting the assholes that caused 9/11.
All I’m saying is that it’s difficult to see how any of that relates to Iraq. These concerns were voiced by many sources before the invasion as you know and it turned out to be right - Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 and nor were there any weapons of mass destruction.
3000 innocent Americans died on 9/11, how many innocent Iraqis do you think have died since the US invasion? Answer, so far somewhere around 100.000
To paraphrase you: But, you could live with that, because America thought they had good reason to invade Iraq!
Clint, haven’t you ever questioned why Bush Jr so badly wanted to invade Iraq of all places? Wouldn’t those forces have been better used in Afghanistan where Osama is/was said to be hiding?
And to d-pip: that has less to do with world policing than with the old Cold War memories. Though I agree that a NATO missile shield would be a good idea as Russia is once again starting to make super power claims.
Clint, don’t say I’m sneering at 9/11, I’m not and that’s just cheap of you. I wasn’t joking in my earlier post. I do love America! I’m sure you love Sweden too, right?
I’m not going to respond to more posts on this. We obviously disagree on the Iraq invasion issue and that’s fine. We don’t disagree on the greatness of America though - we completely agree there Clint! Don’t think anything else.
like these two:
Nice photos.