[Nacirema]

"On Feb. 13, 2003, a plane carrying three U.S. military contractors crash-landed in rebel territory in southern Colombia. The survivors — Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes — were taken hostage by fierce Marxist guerrillas the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, better known by the Spanish acronym FARC. The initial rescue operation fell apart. Instead of finding the contractors, two companies of Colombian soldiers stumbled upon a buried rebel cache of $20 million, then deserted and splurged their newfound fortune on booze, sex and flat-screen televisions. The forgotten hostages spent the next five years in captivity."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0...80,00.html

[MiXX]

Yeah, this was a really interesting event. I remember it all over The News. The next biggest rescue from FARC similar to this was Ingrid Betancourt, a senator who made her way into Colombian politics by distributing condoms! Only in Colombia!

[Nacirema]

Haha only in Colombia.

But you know, I could see the guys I trained in the Iraqi Army doing the same thing.

In fact, lol I could see some people in my old platoon in the U.S. Army doing the same thing, if they could have gotten away with it.

[MiXX]

Actually the 3 contractors in the story you posted were rescued in the same operation known as 'Operation Jaque'.

Ingrid is actually a total bitch! It is known by the American military contractors captured, that the whole time in captivity she demanded better treatment than the Americans, and demanded not to be in the same jail cell as them.

Ingrid told a guard that the military contractors were actually CIA agents with embedded tracking chips and should be watched closely. She hoped this would give her more personal space in he cell and more food.

The book written by the former prisoner, Keith Stansell: "Out of Captivity". Telling an interesting tale you did not hear about on CNN or local Colombia stations.

What a cunt! And France calls her the "daughter of France"

I forgot to mention, lots of French dudes in Colombia - usually working up a get rich quick scheme involving shady real estate investments in Colombia.

[College Game]

I think that if you were in her position you would have done the same thing. In that sort of context, being held prisoner for what 6, 7 years, most people lose some sort of moral compass; for a few extreme examples see Ellie Wieslel or Primo Levi. Anyways, Ingrid was a (reluctantly) leftist politician, who was opposed to the US presence in the southern frontiers of Colombia. These guys were not military men, they worked for Northrop, I private military contracting firm, like Blackwater (read mercenaries) spraying coca crops with chemicals that seriously f*cked up some childrens' nervous systems and skin. Moreover they were certainly CIA sources, as in the CIA would continually tap them for information. So like the majority of Colombians, and Latin Americans for that matter, in her mind she probably thought f*ck these gringo mercenaries f*cking up Latin America, if I push them down in this shit hole of a prison camp I will. And to think the number of people who have been killed in Colombia by american trained military men, paramilitary groups, US military hardware, and North America's excessive demand for cocaine, and the like, the taking of three mercenaries as prisoner is a small price to pay.

[MiXX]

Actually, Ingrid was a bitch way before being captured, and was known to have an I'm better than you attitude. Recently, she was at a book signing in France, and she was overheard screaming to one if her bodyguards telling him that he should be kissing her ass for his job, and ranting all the time.

She won less than 1% of votes during her presidential campaign.

Ask any Colombian how they see her, and they will gladly tell you that she is not an example of ending corruption, it's because of people like her that corruption exists.


I agree that under life or death circumstances, there is no telling what one is capable of. I'd believe that true of her if it wasn't for her already bad reputation way before and after captivity.

[Nacirema]

Yea, U.S. drug policies are all fucked up and it feels at this point, in face of all the evidence we have, that the laws are designed to keep certain people in business.

The "war on drugs".

People put smack into their arms to make the pain go away, they call it drug abuse...its illegal. It is drug use.

People put liquer in their gut to make the pain go away, they call it alcohol abuse...its legal. It is drug use.

Something doesnt add up, logically.

[Kona]

(02-18-2010 06:13 PM)Nacirema Wrote:  

Something doesnt add up, logically.

Nacirema,

Did you go to Afghanistan?

If so, did you notice anything funny about US drug policies over there?

I thought about the nice guys in the Afghan Army when I read that article.

Aloha!

[Nacirema]

No I never was in Afghanistan, just Iraq. I have plenty of friends involved in that though.

As far a drug policies, the problem is that if we criminalize it in the States and criminalize it abroad, it still happens anyway.

So what do we get?

We get funding for groups like the FARC, because the elected government cant be seen having anything to do with drugs, at least not out in the open.

We get funding for the Taliban and AQ, because the elected government cant be seen having anything to do with drugs, at least not out in the open.

It really only leads to MORE, not less instability in the long run. As long as there is a demand in the States, which obvioulsy isnt going away, there will always be a supply somewhere else. That leaves our governments 2 choices.

We can harness this fact of life, regulate it, tax it and let it legitmitly better the standard of living for people in lousy situtions. This will also REALLY cut off the funding for violent groups that feed off of it.

Or

We can pretend we can iradicate it (yea right) and keep wasting. Wasting what? Wasting treasure, wasting oppertunities for development in the places where we instead cut the only viable resource they have, wasting lives on an idea that is really only intesifying these groups.

As long as drugs are illegal and the U.S. keeps trying to stomp out the plants that grow them, the criminal and ideological groups will be okay. Groups that want to fuck society up way worse than anything the U.S. can do on its own will keep growning because of the U.S. policies. Why? Funding from the sale of "illicit drugs".

Thats my idea about the "war on drugs".

How the fuck can you wage war on an object that some people want?

And don't get me started on the "War on Terror".

How the fuck can you wage a war on a method of getting ones way politically?


And no I don't do recreational drugs, I think its mostly a waste of time and money.

And yes, I have traded plenty of shots with Al Qaeda, I would gladly put 2 in all of their heads.


The point isnt that these drugs and AQ are good, the point is that our policies towards both issues suck.

[MiXX]

(02-18-2010 11:25 PM)Nacirema Wrote:  

No I never was in Afghanistan, just Iraq. I have plenty of friends involved in that though.

As far a drug policies, the problem is that if we criminalize it in the States and criminalize it abroad, it still happens anyway.

So what do we get?

We get funding for groups like the FARC, because the elected government cant be seen having anything to do with drugs, at least not out in the open.

We get funding for the Taliban and AQ, because the elected government cant be seen having anything to do with drugs, at least not out in the open.

It really only leads to MORE, not less instability in the long run. As long as there is a demand in the States, which obvioulsy isnt going away, there will always be a supply somewhere else. That leaves our governments 2 choices.

We can harness this fact of life, regulate it, tax it and let it legitmitly better the standard of living for people in lousy situtions. This will also REALLY cut off the funding for violent groups that feed off of it.

Or

We can pretend we can iradicate it (yea right) and keep wasting. Wasting what? Wasting treasure, wasting oppertunities for development in the places where we instead cut the only viable resource they have, wasting lives on an idea that is really only intesifying these groups.

As long as drugs are illegal and the U.S. keeps trying to stomp out the plants that grow them, the criminal and ideological groups will be okay. Groups that want to fuck society up way worse than anything the U.S. can do on its own will keep growning because of the U.S. policies. Why? Funding from the sale of "illicit drugs".

Thats my idea about the "war on drugs".

How the fuck can you wage war on an object that some people want?

And don't get me started on the "War on Terror".

How the fuck can you wage a war on a method of getting ones way politically?


And no I don't do recreational drugs, I think its mostly a waste of time and money.

And yes, I have traded plenty of shots with Al Qaeda, I would gladly put 2 in all of their heads.


The point isnt that these drugs and AQ are good, the point is that our policies towards both issues suck.

Dang Yo! I'd love to sit down and pick your brain for an hour! I love this shit (political debates, not drugs)! Right next to banging women!

[Giovonny]

They don't tell you about this shit at Harvard Business School.

This is stuff you can only learn "in the trenches".

[MiXX]

The recently released FARC hostage, Keith Stansell, does a really good report on the FARC empire in his 1700+ days in captivity. I recommend anyone traveling to Colombia get their hands on that book - incredible survival story! Funny how he describes the feared FARC soldiers we've all come to respect as enemies to watch out for as "sugar smacking, lollipop sucking teenagers" The avg age of FARC guerrilla foot soldier is 16! Not to mention 95% of FARC guerrillas barely have an elementary school education above 2nd grade, most can't even read.

See what makes the FARC so dangerous? What happens when you give a 15 year old without a pot to piss in, and the competence of 6 year old an Ak-47? Their lack of competence makes them an incredibly dangerous terrorist group. Similar to the teenage, incompetent kid soldiers you see in terrorist groups in Africa.

The book is available on kindle too.

BTW, Roosh I need your books on Kindle edition! Much easier for me to carry/read while travelling the world.