Iraq: Al Qaeda's Vietnam!

Dixie a prediction is an opinion of what the future will hold.

I just think the Iraq war has inflicted a great attrition on alQaeda, and eventually, they will have to come to the same realization as America did in Vietnam, that it's just not worth the lives lost.

How is such a statement not a prediction? All predictions are opinions because opinions are statements that cannot be factually verified.
 
Prakosh said:
Dixie is so full of shit that his posts shouldn't even be read without a roll of toilet paper by your computer. Has anyone here read Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American (1955) about the CIAs involvement in Vietnam in the early 1950s when many Americans do not even realize that America was already conducting covert actions designed to destabilize that government in order to give us a reason to be militarily invoved there? To move quickly to Iraq does anyone here know what the "DB/Anabasis" covert operation plan was or what it called for? Does anyone here believe for a minute that there isn't something like this already in operation inside Iran right now? For those who still believe even one sentence a day from this administration, you really owe it to yourself to stop drinking the damn Kool-Aid and begin to educate yourself independently and thoughtfully about what is going on, who the main characters are, and why the same people who generated and ran the Iran-Contra operation and the years of instability, brutality, torture, death and destruction all over Central American during the 80s are all over Iraq!!!! In fact, as one agent has noted regarding the Iraq destabilization program, "We were doing things in this program that we hadn't done since Casey"!!!!
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Great book... I read it about 7 years ago, it was also made into a VERY good movie that tracks the book very closly.
 
IHateGovernment said:
Dixie a prediction is an opinion of what the future will hold.

I just think the Iraq war has inflicted a great attrition on alQaeda, and eventually, they will have to come to the same realization as America did in Vietnam, that it's just not worth the lives lost.

How is such a statement not a prediction? All predictions are opinions because opinions are statements that cannot be factually verified.
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If you persue this line of confrontation with Dixie you will soon be ignored.
 
Dixie, an “opinion” about the course of future events IS a prediction.

You said Zarqawi’s death would be the “end of al qaeda in iraq” and cause the “demise of the insurgency”.

That’s a prediction.
 
Jarod said:
If you persue this line of confrontation with Dixie you will soon be ignored.
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It's too bad Dixie for got who left Vietnam and who stayed. It is also too bad that he thinks that al Qaeda is America in his scenario. Poor Dixie he has everything backwards. It is America that is getting worn down and it is America that will eventually be forced to leave, beucase they can't sustain the increasing death toll, the emergence of atrocities, and the undermining of the belief that we are somehow doing something good for the country of Iraq by precipitating and engaging in the complete and total destruction of what remains of the entire country and its population. When I see pictures of Ramadi and other areas, it reminds me of that timeless quotation, said without a hint of irony, by the Sargeant in Vietnam. "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."
 
Dixie said:
I guess you people don't know the difference between a prediction and a statement of opinion. You can beat me over the head with my own opinions all day, I don't mind it a bit, but let's please be honest enough to admit the difference between an opinion and a prediction.


I'm not "predicting" anything here, I just think the Iraq war has inflicted a great attrition on alQaeda, and eventually, they will have to come to the same realization as America did in Vietnam, that it's just not worth the lives lost. I don't think my opinion is unreasonable, other than the argument that alQaeda doesn't have the same regard for life as Americans, but humanity is present in all humans, it's a human trait, and eventually, unless these people are non-human, humanity will kick in, and they will be compelled to stop the endless dying for no apparent reason. Iraq is a dead-end street for alQaeda, they will not win that war, and it doesn't even matter now if the US does pull out of Iraq completely, they still can't win, the anti-radical element inside Iraq is too powerful.
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The only thing I disagree with you on is the humanity of the al quada types. They don't have any. Don't decieve yourself that they do. Ah'malittlehitler in iran said himself he would be willing to sacrafice half of iran to destory Israel and the US. None of them care one bit about humanity.

If it becomes obvious to al quada they can't win they will simply pull back, regroup and start again in another location.
 
Looked for that quote he didn't say destroy America just Israel.

I had to go through some real goofy blogs and message boards before I found a semi-reputable source as well.
 
IHateGovernment said:
Dixie a prediction is an opinion of what the future will hold.

I just think the Iraq war has inflicted a great attrition on alQaeda, and eventually, they will have to come to the same realization as America did in Vietnam, that it's just not worth the lives lost.

How is such a statement not a prediction? All predictions are opinions because opinions are statements that cannot be factually verified.
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Well, that is fine and dandy, if that's how you want to perceive what I said. I believe there is a distinction between an opinion and a prediction, otherwise, we wouldn't need two different words, and Bill O'Reilly would have a crystal ball and dress like a gypsy.

Opinions are not always statements that can't be factually verified, sometimes the factual verification is what validates an opinion. Uninformed opinion or speculation, is not factually verified, but then again, speculation is prediction too, according to you. We could have saved a hell of a lot of room in the dictionary, if only we had consulted pinheads first!
 
Gaffer said:
The only thing I disagree with you on is the humanity of the al quada types. They don't have any. Don't decieve yourself that they do. Ah'malittlehitler in iran said himself he would be willing to sacrafice half of iran to destory Israel and the US. None of them care one bit about humanity.

If it becomes obvious to al quada they can't win they will simply pull back, regroup and start again in another location.
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I don't know if you know anything about wars of attrition but for dedicated fighters, especially indigenous fighters, it never quite seems to become obvious that they can't win, see Vietnam War...

But on another front you never answered these questions from yesterday.

"Here's a couple (OK three) questions for you Gaffer: How many CIA agents (give or take a few) are currently operating in Iraq? What was Valerie Plame's early job at the CIA? What is the largest building of it's kind anywhere in the world and why is it being built in Baghdad?"

I was wondering why not???????
 
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Well, that is fine and dandy, if that's how you want to perceive what I said. I believe there is a distinction between an opinion and a prediction, otherwise, we wouldn't need two different words, and Bill O'Reilly would have a crystal ball and dress like a gypsy.

I think you are confusing prediction and prophecy. Dixie you are well aware that English has the most words within it and that it has great specificity. A prediction is a kind of opinion. Taste, surmisements, speculation etc. are all kinds of opinions. You are aware of subsets within language right?

Opinions are not always statements that can't be factually verified, sometimes the factual verification is what validates an opinion.

I was wrong to say cannot. I should have said are not. An opinion can become fact but it is not fact until verified. So opinion includes unverified facts yes.

but then again, speculation is prediction too, according to you.

Actually prediction is a subset of speculation. Speculation can be offering opinions on current or past issues.

It is speculation that the Republicans will retain Congress.
It is prediction that the Republicans will retain Congress.

It is speculation that George Bush cheated in the 2004 elections.
It is not prediction that George Bush cheated in the 2004 elections.

We could have saved a hell of a lot of room in the dictionary, if only we had consulted pinheads first!

Don't be an ass. If your view as correct there would be no such thing as a thesaurus since all words have a unique and special meaning in which there is no overlap.
 
I've been crunching some numbers on the Iraq war lately, and I derived a startling conclusion. This war in Iraq, is al Qaeda's Vietnam.

can you post those numbers you were crunching?

I'm not saying I don't believe you, or that you didn't crunch numbers. But, you also said you and your buddies dressed up as Osama Bin Ladin's and infilitrated an anti-war protest march. And that you spent time in Iraq dodging roadside bombs.

In the world of Dixie, it's hard to tell what is reality, and what is made up tall-tales,
 
IHateGovernment said:
It is speculation that the Republicans will retain Congress.
It is prediction that the Republicans will retain Congress.
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Of course the main difference in these kinds of statements and what they mean is the intentionality of the speaker. In other words if I say "The Republicans will retain Congress," am I making a prediction or am I merely speculating? Many times we cannot accurately gauge the meaning or intention of the speaker. Hence, the intentional fallacy.
 
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prophecy is a subset of prediction which is a subset of speculation which is a subset of opinion which is a subset of thought.
 
A prediction is a kind of opinion.

I agree with this, but it doesn't mean every opinion is a prediction, or that opinions and predictions are the same thing. I don't make predictions, I'm not Sister Soljah, I can't see into the future and predict a damn thing... I do have opinions, and I do express them, if you want to assume they are predictions, that is done of your own volition, not because I articulated a prediction.

I also realize my opinions are controversial, and pinheads don't like to hear me express them, mostly because they have a hard time countering them, so they have crafted this neat little English language trick of calling my opinions "predictions" and acting like I have a poor track record in prophecy. That's fine, I can live with it, just as long as we recognize what it's about.
 
I agree with this, but it doesn't mean every opinion is a prediction, or that opinions and predictions are the same thing. I don't make predictions, I'm not Sister Soljah, I can't see into the future and predict a damn thing... I do have opinions, and I do express them, if you want to assume they are predictions, that is done of your own volition, not because I articulated a prediction.


Dixie when you offer an opinion about a future event that is a prediction.
If I say that I will get a raise this year that is a prediction because I am offering an opinion about what will happen in the future. You talking about sister Soljah is more in the realm of prophecy or prognostication.

I also realize my opinions are controversial, and pinheads don't like to hear me express them, mostly because they have a hard time countering them, so they have crafted this neat little English language trick of calling my opinions "predictions" and acting like I have a poor track record in prophecy. That's fine, I can live with it, just as long as we recognize what it's about.

I don't care about your prediction Dixie you may be right but I don't think there is enough evidence to make a statement like that. Personally I don't think it is likely because the Vietnam analogy is more apropos if we were comparing democratic entities in which subordinates can put pressure on the leadership to change tactics. This is why the US pulled out of Vietnam but the Al-Queda leadership doesn't have to contend with this problem.

If I were to later bring up your earlier prediction it would not be to say: "Ah ha Dixie's ability to commune with the spirits is faulty and he is no prophet." I would say it is another example of how you misinterpreted the current data you have available and made a faulty conclusion.

However if you want to call it opinion and not prediction thats fine. It won't make a difference later because the main reason things like this are referenced later is to provide an example of bad analysis of current data to make an extrapolation.

This will be brought up as grounds to say why any future extrapolations to be made will not have a track record of proving to be accurate to support such an assertion.
 
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