blast from the past [Archive]

zimv20

Nov 4, 2005, 05:30 PM

war has begun (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=22545)

i read through a good chunk of that thread last night. makes for interesting reading, knowing what we do today. my, how thing's have changed.

and i kept calling people "dude". what's up with that?

pseudobrit

Nov 4, 2005, 05:37 PM

You can just sense that a good portion of those posts were made by men with raging hard-ons.

Oh! They just blew something up! I need a Kleenex!

pseudobrit

Nov 4, 2005, 05:52 PM

Can't resist...

TOLD YOU SO!!

Too bad all the pro-war jockeys gradually made themselves scarce.

I'm sure it's because they all enlisted.

pseudobrit

Nov 4, 2005, 06:02 PM

The worst part of this may prove to be that we have no exit strategy for this conflict. That, if you remember, was faulted as the reason the first Gulf War seemed like half a failure after it was all over.

...

mactastic

Nov 4, 2005, 06:12 PM

Lol... I'll resist the urge to quote some of DHM's posts here. I'm sure he'd be horrified. It truly is amazing how far he's come since then.

IJ Reilly

Nov 4, 2005, 06:18 PM

Now there's a memory flogger. I can't believe I didn't post once in that entire thread. BTW, notice something odd about it? One poster (Stelliform) deleted all of his posts in this thread last October. Based on the parts quoted back, I'd have to guess he was embarrassed. Anybody else?

Thomas Veil

Nov 4, 2005, 06:19 PM

Man, do a lot of us sound dumb in that thread...not comprehending what was really going on.

I'm not pointing to anyone in particular, because there was plenty of naiveté to go around. And I'm not excusing myself, even though I was a non-participant in that thread, because frankly by that point I'd bought many of the pro-war arguments myself. Duh!

Bush himself may be a stupid man, but he's been an incredible education to the rest of us. http://users.adelphia.net/~tjveil/images/yeahright.gif

tristan

Nov 4, 2005, 06:26 PM

I was just getting back into the country after MBA graduation to look for a job. Love that Bush recession, hope it ends some day. Since then I've been unemployed about as often as I'm working, despite my MBA, my certs, experience, etc.

Sure, I supported the Iraq war. I thought it would be a quick war, like Afghanistan. I also thought we'd find WMDs, thanks to Powell and 80% of congress/senate. Then I got to find out that 9/11 was preventable, that we knew all about bin Laden, that there were no WMDs, that an insurgency had showed up in Iraq, that Tenet was a liar, etc. And nobody took any responsibility for the mistakes. Tenet even got a medal. It's like I'm in bizarro world. FYI I came from Singapore, the best run country on earth that handled a SARS outbreak with ease. In this country, we can't deal with a hurricane with a week's warning. And what ever happened to bin Laden? or that guy who mailed out all the Anthrax? Were we supposed to forget all about them?

It's been a pretty lousy almost three years for me and my country. When my wife's ready to move on, I'm out of here and never looking back, besides from the occasional family visit.

3rdpath

Nov 4, 2005, 06:33 PM

man there's a lot of crow to serve-up from that thread.

i didn't post in it either, must've been too depressed...

how i'd love to hear sly/voltron's spin on how things are going now.

Dont Hurt Me

Nov 4, 2005, 06:33 PM

Lol... I'll resist the urge to quote some of DHM's posts here. I'm sure he'd be horrified. It truly is amazing how far he's come since then.
Thank you ,Im scared to go look but who would have ever thought that Bush and the Gang would screw this war up so Bad? who would have thought it would cost us over 300 billion? 2,000 lives 15,000 injured and still be nowhere except we got Saddam. Whatever happened to Taft?

zimv20

Nov 4, 2005, 06:41 PM

who would have ever thought that Bush and the Gang would screw this war up so Bad?
a number of us did. have a look.

zimv20

Nov 4, 2005, 06:42 PM

Based on the parts quoted back, I'd have to guess he was embarrassed. Anybody else?
yeah, i noticed that, too. glad there's a "paper" trail, though.

interesting to see how the marketing of the war took hold. pretty effective.

pseudobrit

Nov 4, 2005, 06:42 PM

Man, do a lot of us sound dumb in that thread...not comprehending what was really going on.

I think there were a small number of us who nailed it dead nuts. At the risk of sounding like a pompous ass, I was bold and still pretty darn close, which is surprising because I was being extremely contrarian and thought I sticking my neck out pretty far. Zim made excellent arguments that messed with the pro-war crowd's heads quite a bit (or would have if they weren't so dense).

I can honestly say today that very little of what I said back then turned out to be way off base. I think my worst transgression was to presume that Saddam would still be in possession of some old, crusty mothballed chemical shells from the 80s.

Dont Hurt Me

Nov 4, 2005, 06:55 PM

a number of us did. have a look.I did, I was voting republican back then:rolleyes: not anymore after seeing 5 years of Bush and the Republican Gang. If a lot of folks could go back and vote Gore they would. Bush/Cheney are a abomination to this Great Country of ours and every thing it stands for. Little things like Freedom,Liberty,Justice have been replaced with Secret jails, Lots of Spin,Patriot Act, and maneuvering around our own Laws.

zimv20

Nov 4, 2005, 06:55 PM

I think my worst transgression was to presume that Saddam would still be in possession of some old, crusty mothballed chemical shells from the 80s.
that's where i was off-base, too. i thought there'd be something found, and then we'd get to argue if it was significant enough to warrant the invasion. and then i claimed that there's no way the bush administration would let nothing be found (i.e. they'd plant it).

what was most interesting to me, in the re-read, was how people answered my question of what pro-war people thought would constitute bush going too far. in certain ways, a number of those conditions were met.

Dont Hurt Me

Nov 4, 2005, 07:04 PM

We all were fooled by a lack of Cental Intelligence,Lots of Spin by George and Cheney, remember the yellowcake crap, Its clear now they had The Oil & Haliburton agenda. Bush?Cheney dont represent the people they represent some powerful corporations. America is a slow learner but as i have predicted in other threads the they will wake up to where the Republican party is taking this country. Its why we havent let Republicans run everything in 50 years. America is waking up!:) Lets just hope we can repair all this damage this president has created.

mactastic

Nov 4, 2005, 07:18 PM

Lets just hope we can repair all this damage this president has created.
It's going to take one hell of a purple-heart bandaid to fix this booboo...

rdowns

Nov 4, 2005, 07:40 PM

Very interesting read. Did you notice some had gone back and deleted their posts a year or so later?

DHM, I was tempted to post a quote or two from you but I'll refrain. :D

mactastic

Nov 4, 2005, 07:49 PM

Very interesting read. Did you notice some had gone back and deleted their posts a year or so later?Yes, IJ noted that earlier in this thread.

DHM, I was tempted to post a quote or two from you but I'll refrain. :D
Now, now... I've already tormented him enough on that issue. He's made amends.

I wonder about G4Scott though...

Dont Hurt Me

Nov 4, 2005, 07:55 PM

Very interesting read. Did you notice some had gone back and deleted their posts a year or so later?

DHM, I was tempted to post a quote or two from you but I'll refrain. :D
Glad you didnt, cause if you did i might let it slip that you were responsible for me getting a Alienware and not a G5 Powermac:cool: :D

solvs

Nov 4, 2005, 08:00 PM

I came late to the party, but that would have been fun. That was just about the time my best friend was being sent to Quatar and missed the birth of his child. I remember being for the "War on Terrorism", but then we went to Iraq. Didn't make any sense to me at the time. I remember asking people why they supported us going to Iraq, and the answer was always the same... 9/11. When I would point out the obvious, I got a lot of blank stares. I didn't realize it would get this bad though. I can't believe we're still there. It just baffles me.

But hey, Bush only has a ~35% approval rating, so it's not just us.

tristan

Nov 4, 2005, 08:04 PM

Sun Baked

Nov 4, 2005, 08:19 PM

You bastards ...

I told you so -- every pro-Bush statement I said came true.

Er, wait a minute.

I didn't even post there. ;)

mactastic

Nov 4, 2005, 08:23 PM

I think Afghanistan gave many of us false expectations for Iraq. I was overseas when 9/11 happened, and one of my British friends argued that it was foolhardy to go into Afghanistan, and that the Russians had gotten bogged down there for years, and the same thing would happen to us.

I listened to his arguments, but thought that going into afghanistan was something we had to do given 9/11, and was pleasantly surprised when we got out of there pretty quickly and set up a relatively stable government. When the same arguments came up about Iraq, I laughed them off, but in that case, the arguments were valid.
I would argue that Afghanistan would have turned out like Iraq -- or much more similar to the Soviet experience -- had we tried to occupy the country with large numbers of American troops.

I also am reserving judgment on whether Afghanistan should be considered a success yet. The Taliban doesn't seem quite defeated yet, and bin Laden is still on the loose in the region. Women don't seem terribly liberated outside Kabul, and in fact warlords seem to control everything outside the capitol. Opium production is up, and with opium trafficking comes crime.

IJ Reilly

Nov 5, 2005, 02:04 AM

toontra

Nov 5, 2005, 03:59 AM

A few more strolls down memory lane....

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=20971

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=21187

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=21702

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=22229

(This last one is probably my favorite.)

As a contributor to some of those, three things spring to mind:

1 What a complete jerk-off macfan was/is! I'd like to think I was partly responsible for his demise by engaging him in his own pedantic crap for long enough to make him retire from exhaustion!

2 How DEPRESSING that whole period was. I remember the feelings now after reading some of these - it was like watching some giant catastrophic accident happening in slow motion (and your screams couldn't be heard!).

3 WE WERE RIGHT! Well, 95% right anyway :D

zimv20

Nov 5, 2005, 04:21 AM

3 WE WERE RIGHT!
small consolation. i'd love to have been wrong.

Sun Baked

Nov 5, 2005, 04:31 AM

>zimv20

Exactly, what will being right buy you ...

You have a current President, that soiled the office by failing to garner worldwide support before going in and made the Oval Office look like a monkey sprayed feces on its walls.

Will the next guy or gal be able to fix things?

Or have to live with the stink until we get someone capable of cleaning up the mess. :(

pseudobrit

Nov 5, 2005, 06:04 AM

Look at the lineup of those banging the wardrums who are (were) denouncing Saddam's torture.

My head is going to explode from an irony overdose.

Thomas Veil

Nov 5, 2005, 06:34 AM

A few more strolls down memory lane....

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=20971

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=21187

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=21702

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=22229

(This last one is probably my favorite.):p I'm scrolling through all these and going, "Where was I during this debate?" and then realizing, "Oh yeah, I didn't join until 2004." :rolleyes:

I guess all I can say was that, having heard both sides of the "WMD" argument, I was very suspicious of Bush's claims. What finally convinced me to go along with this charade was Colin Powell's appearance before the U.N. After all, I might not trust Bush, but Powell was a man of integrity, right?

I am bitterly disappointed in that man...especially how he continues to defend the administration in interviews. I mean, that "loyal soldier" crap only goes so far.

rdowns

Nov 5, 2005, 09:17 AM

Glad you didnt, cause if you did i might let it slip that you were responsible for me getting a Alienware and not a G5 Powermac:cool: :D

Now you've done it. Out of the goodness of my heart, I make copies of an article from MacAddict and mail it you and you blame me because you bought an AlienWare.

To call anyone a idiot who has been a governer and won the the office of the Presidency of the United States is very sad reflection on you Taft. I know you disagree but that doesnt make you right. Any man that can be a governer and president has allready proven many things and being a idiot is not one of them.

Dont Hurt Me

Nov 5, 2005, 09:33 AM

Blame you not, I thank you very much because it helped me decide in getting one and its been a pretty awesome machine. Big & bad and laughs at anything i throw at it. I had ordered a dual G5 but apple kept putting back its ship date and that gave me more time to do research. That was Cool of you Rdowns.
Back on topic though it seems that many things werent known or kept hidden from the American people so George could go get his Saddam. I think if everyone knew what we now know we would have have said No to George's Spin or perhaps i should say to Cheneys spin. 911 did not = Iraq and yet even today i heard a caller on cnn talk as if Iraq caused 911. All George had to do was repeat it over and over and that he did.

Roger1

Nov 5, 2005, 09:50 AM

Argh. I gotta quit reading those old forums. They're starting to upset me. All over again. :mad:

mactastic

Nov 5, 2005, 10:41 AM

I am so sick of Bush having to put up with the left-wing, tree-hugging, fema-nazi's in the media!
Oddly prescient of BTTM about FEMA, no? :p

vniow

Nov 5, 2005, 09:35 PM

Who can ever forget this classic?

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=23053

blackfox

Nov 7, 2005, 10:38 AM

mmm...interesting reminder zim, thanks.

I am not sure if I was posting here back then, I may have just missed the "Golden Age" of the PF...(I didn't read all 11+ pages).

This reminds me of looking through the pile of NYTs I saved - at least two from every week from 1/2003 to 1/2005.

I am not sure that many of us, even those who expected loosely what has happened, would've imagined it could have become this bad.

Mind-boggling. Boggle on.

srobert

Nov 7, 2005, 01:13 PM

Who can ever forget this classic?

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=23053

My favourite although unrelated old threads are:

- These iPod things are dommed, It will never sell. One example (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=513&highlight=ipod+flop)
- There's no way they'll ever be able to fit a 17" LCD on that iMac (Lamp)
- There's no way they'll ever be able to fit a 20" LCD on that iMac (Lamp)

(Sorry, to lazy to find example threads for the iMac displays) ^_^