I now strongly believe that Trump will win again in 2020.
Implying I don’t know who the Kurds are. Lmao. Please.
I’m talking about the anti-isis training brigades who immediately turned their weapons over to jihadis.
Portions of FSA routinely joined jihadi groups and became hardline. Either by force or by choice. Completely useless.
From this article
“ The extremist group is growing in part because it has been the most aggressive and successful arm of the rebel force. “From the reports we get from the doctors, most of the injured and dead FSA are Jabhat al-Nusra, due to their courage and [the fact they are] always at the front line,” said a message sent today to the State Department by the moderate Free Syrian Army representatives, warning of the extremists’ rise“
And another …
More…(misleading title)
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/01/07/fsa-leaders-first-interview-with.html
This one is hilarious. Misleading title. From the article:
A Free Syrian Army (FSA) leader, who asked to be referred to as Abu Haneen, said that most members of the FSA have nothing to do with al-Qaeda and hate Wahhabism”
MOST, hate Wahhabism… most. Hahah what a joke.
I wouldn’t characterize this as a “success”.
Many do, myself included.
The man seems immune to anything and everything that would destroy any other politician…and he has to be the luckiest SOB to have ever held the Office.
Only Trump will stop Trump.
Any other American politician. I’m sorry, but this Trump stuff is business as usual for
Central Asia and Africa. Like I said countless times before, it’s just strange seeing such behavior in the US.
After instigating one of Africa’s bloodiest civil wars that killed 1 out of every 17 Liberians, Charles Taylor ran for President under the slogan “He killed my Ma, he killed my Pa, but I will vote for him.” He won in a landslide.
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My true issue with the war is that I don’t believe either administration should have gotten involved. The US should have stayed out of Syria.
Like in Libya and Iraq, we topple a leader then it dissolves into chaos. Why do we get to do that? I just don’t agree, no matter the circumstances.
I also hate Trump for “intervening” when he did. And also basically abandoning the Kurds. Just to be clear, I’m not “siding” with one administration over the other. They are both wrong. Nothing will change my mind on that.
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I dunno, I said basically the same thing about Trump before he decided to stay in the POTUS race and fight for the nomination…
I think he’s going to steal the issues that swing voters are likely to lean a bit more liberal on forcing the eventual DEM nominee to have to campaign further left which will only alienate many. I think he’s able to do this because he’s not a particularly principled candidate in many respects. I honestly think he’s going to push for legalization of marijuana federally as well as pardoning non-violent drug offenders.
From the other side, I’d like to see Andrew Yang get more air time, but I don’t think he’s radical enough to captivate. One move I think Trump would benefit from is to co-opt universal basic income and repackage it under the history of it with Nixon and Friedman.
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My thoughts are that Trump along with the GOP are pathetically far left and the denial of this by his clown car base is laughable.
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My original post clearly referenced the fact that the Obama administration architected and implemented the multilateral campaign against ISIL (Operation Inherent Resolve) and that there wasn’t much deviation once Trump took office. The current administration merely accelerated the campaign and has had some major missteps when it comes to broader American counter terrorism strategy.
I’m not interested in debating parallel CIA and Pentagon operations to arm and train rebel groups with someone who doesn’t have a foundational understanding of the course of the war (not to mention your affection for Assad and Putin’s atrocities and embrace of chemical weapon conspiracies) as evidenced by numerous previous posts.
You believe ISIL should have been left alone? Recall that group originated in Syria and swept into Iraq, creating a terrorist quasi state and taking control of its 2nd largest city. It’s clear to any informed observer that the US had little choice but to become militarily involved.
Us doesn’t remove Sadam, ISIL doesn’t form and get that stronghold. Power vacuums are rarely filled by benevolent forces.
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So much this. Excusing bad decisions because they’re made to attempt to save another bad (and awkwardly, very similar) decision doesn’t make it smart. It makes it extra stupid.
Also because of the whole Einstein’s insanity thing.
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Of course, Iraq was a war of choice and a debacle to boot. But Iraq is not at issue in this debate. I can logically be against the Iraq War but support Inherent Resolve.
Alpha Gunner is arguing that the US shouldn’t have militarily intervened in Syria and Iraq after ISIL metastasized.
The decision to invade Iraq in 2003 is not a fair comparison to the decision to intervene in Iraq & Syria in 2014. I understand the causation, but see my post above.
Okay… now that ISIL is defeated what’s the smart play? How do we deal with Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and all the rest of the ME? Do we remain allies with SA? What have they ever done for us but ease oil prices in the cartel a bit (and train generations of new jihadis)?
Every lever that outsiders pull in the ME has terrible unintended consequences. To the point where if I were setting policy I’d retract and let the Russians, Chinese and Europe keep manipulating the neverending bloodshed to their “advantage”.
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I challenge the entire mentality behind either intervention.
In theory, we are fighting and spending lives and billions for a slew of reasons. Some measurable some not.
In reality, most of those reasons are lodged firmly in the sunk cost fallacy and don’t actually exist, and instead show America fulfilling a pathological need to create power vacuums so that {insert acronym terrorist agency here} can be replaced with {insert acronym terrorist agency here}.
I mean I guess it’s cool that we’re constantly giving Russia and Iran way to spend millions and ‘force’ us to spend billions, but appreciating a good play doesn’t feel as great from this side of the fence. We have done virtually nothing to stop the snowball chain effect of these orgs constantly popping up like whackamole, yet continue to plug away.
Of course you would, Putin. Good try.
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Putin, who do you think you’re fooling by using multiple usernames?
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Could be. But she’s been fairly specific about what she wants. I think part of the appeal of Trump was people didn’t really know what he wanted to minus immigration. He knew more than the generals and had a plan for ISIS. He knew how to fix healthcare to be cheaper and no one would lose coverage.
I’ll campaign my ass off against her. But I don’t think she gets there.
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@H_factor, do you think you could come up with a campaign slogan incorporating not only “Fuck” but also love for wars of aggression/humanitarian aid? You did a great job coming up with @anon50325502’s “Fuck that” slogan, but I need more war.
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