No, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan were entirely unprovoked invasions. Afghanistan repeatedly offered to hand over Binladdin (three times IIRC) if the US would offer some bare minimum of evidence. We didn't bother with any evidence, apparently returning the opium warlords to power was a higher priority than actually bringing Binladdin to "justice".

Wow, so you aren't aware that an unprovoked invasion is a violation of the UN Charter? That torturing prisoners, retaliation against civilians, and destruction of civilian infrastructure are violations of the Geneva Conventions? That unilateral sanctions are violations of **multiple** international accords? That's a truly amazing level of ignorance, come back and we'll talk after you graduate high school.

A friend knew French and Spanish, and tried to learn Portuguese. Confused her completely, and for a week or so she couldn't communicate in any of the three.

Wow, the reality opposition field must be working overtime for you. You really don't remember any of the last 25 years of US international rampage? Invading Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan, drone-murdering an Iranian diplomat while he was in a convoy on the way to meet the Iraqi president, using white phosphorus in Iraq and gassing tunnels in Afghanistan, torture of thousands, starving thousands in Venezuela, etc. etc. ad nausium.

They still hold to international treaties and norms a **FRACK** of a lot more than the US does, we're now considered "agreement incapable" by the international community because of the last quarter century of our behavior. Only Israel is trusted less on the international stage now. I really can't think of a single major international treaty that the US hasn't violated in this century. UN Charter, Geneva Conventions, bio-weapons and chemical weapons treaties, OAS charter, money laundering agreements, you name it. We even ignore the NATO charter when it's inconvenient, we drone-murder diplomats in the countries of our supposed allies, we harbor scores if not hundreds of war criminals, starve tens of thousands to death for not kowtowing to our power, we've become the 'Evil Empire' our politicians so decry. The most depressing thing to me is that this is being done by the generation which once dreamed of a world at peace, and thought it was an achievable goal.

SMDH

Phones can be safely permitted into a restricted facility **IF** there is a way to adequately manage them, the same as laptops. Phones which are added to a good management suite can serve multiple purposes safely, if they're not managed then they can't. Ballmer screwed up by not extending AD, SMS, etc. to the Windows phone and pushing it as a secure solution to corporate communications, but he didn't have the attention span to maintain a low-revenue product long enough for it to seize sufficient market share.

It's an administration issue, they can't control what is done on an iToy because Apple only permits themselves to control their users. There are a number of nice management suites for Android phones (although apparently the one they currently use badly needs an update). Apple of course refuses to provide any such thing, and will sue the pants off anyone else who tries. This is much the same reason why they only occupy a very niche position in the corporate world, there are scores of management suites for Windows and Linux but Macs are essentially unmanageable.

I linked to this earlier in the thread. Russia and China have been proposing since 2008 to prohibit **ALL** weapons in space, and tried to add an amendment to this proposal to change it from exclusively prohibiting nukes to outlawing all weapons. Both efforts have been blocked by the US.

https://apnews.com/article/nuc...

I'd be very surprised if the US doesn't already have a variation on their "smart bullet" technology deployed in space. By targeting just the comms or power of a satellite they can disable it without the horror of a Kessler Syndrome scenario.

Yes, we have since the 1970s, and I'm sure the Russians and the Chinese are aware of it. They may have hoped the US would allow it to pass and then get caught.

He even applies the rule of law to (gasp!) Americans! And professional athletes! Can you believe it? It's inconceivable! /s

So the US vetoed the earlier resolution from Russia and China to prohibit **ALL** weapons in outer space because we are hiding that we already illegally have weapons there? Is that what you're saying?

And notice how the press corpse (spelling deliberate) carefully ignores that.

Then there were the 'suicide nukes', nuclear howitzer "dial-a-yield" shells which at maximum output would leave the crew firing the weapon well within the fallout zone. (Remove the cover and the shock absorbers and you have the legendary "backpack nuke" flogged in the press every few years.) The US produced so many that they lost count, and their production numbers are listed today just as "in the thousands".

Unlike the US and Israel, Russia (and the Soviets before them) do not have a First Strike policy where we can launch for any reason or no reason at all. Russia considers nukes as defensive weapons. This is, incidentally, the policy of every other nuclear power but the US and Israel. We are the mad dogs running rampant, and it's why other countries are **SO** worried when we elect a doddering ancient like Reagan or Biden, or an out-and-out lunatic like Shrub or Rump.

Do you not understand what "last ditch" means? That is the Russian nuclear policy, which was identical to the Soviet position. that nuclear weapons are defensive weapons only. If you read Putin's statements over the years, and they're all helpfully provided (in English) on the Russian government web site, that he's been consistent. Nuclear weapons are only to be used in response to attack by nuclear or other WMD, or the imminent destruction of Russia.