I’m saying the US fucked up all the way back to the gulf war and prior. Arming one side against the other.
The Iraq war was a total fucking fraud. I was all on board too. Now ISIS comes around (which we created at camp bucca) and we have to deal with that now too.
But we also want to take out Assad. Why? Why the fuck can’t we just leave shit alone? I don’t care IF they ARE gassing people, as you like to point out. It’s not our business.
I thought all Americans already loved war?
They do. That’s why that love must incorporated into @anon50325502’s campaign promises.
Freedom? Fuck that!
Go to war for control of Antarctica? Fuck yeah!
Fair point. I think you’re probably right about the vagueness of Trump with the voters, but it sours on me every time. AOC certainly has more specific views to criticize…I hope that’s plenty to keep her irrelevant
Andrew Yang made that Shapiro kid sound like a college intern. He’s someone that should be propped up to counterbalance the radicals.
I didn’t see that one. I’ll have to look for it.
There’s an interview conducted by Shapiro on youtube I got on my youtube feed.
Just started watching it and realized I had listened to it (I’m just not remembering it that well). As someone who is a conservative, I can say that Yang is probably the only candidate out there on the other side who seems to have any understanding of how things “really work” in the private sector. I think he does bring up some very important points that kind of get glossed over by the uber-conservatives on economic realignment and obsolescence in the workforce. I don’t think these points are being adequately addressed by conservatives in any meaningful way on the whole.
I appreciate that you’re frustrated by the internecine conflict in the region. However, it’s clear that while the US should be rebalancing to Asia to contend with a rising China, there are interests in SW Asia that require continued American attention and resources.
Here’s a question: you’re president on 9/11. Are you not going to war in Afghanistan to combat al Qaida? Do you think international terrorism can be ignored or that a homeland security focus is sufficient?
The short answer is that the US shouldn’t abdicate its responsibilities and unilaterally withdraw from a region in which it has vital strategic and economic interests. The US needs to continue to contain Iran’s hegemonic ambitions, prevent nuclear proliferation, dampen regional rivalries though the pacifying effect of forward deployed military personnel, ensure the free flow of maritime goods, and conduct targeting intelligence and counter terrorism operations to strangle international violent extremist plots in the cradle.
Contrary to the libertarian foreign policy pipe-dream, we can’t afford to “mind our own business”. The international system doesn’t abide by Vegas rules. What happens in SW Asia doesn’t stay in SW Asia. Look at the migrant crisis in Europe and the populist political instability it has wrought there.
The US fucked up the Gulf War? I suppose it should have sat on its hands as Iraq violates one of the core guiding principles of the post war order?
I’m not defending the Iraq War and I’ve addressed Syria ad nauseum.
I don’t agree it’s clear at all. We financially operate at a hilariously garbage ratio of spending to combat these people in a world where our own people can’t even agree on who we need to combat.
Spending money and lives extremely poorly just because people think conceptually there’s something going on worth spending money and (other people’s) lives doesn’t make it smart.
I’m POTUS on 9/11. Chances are I’ll listen to whatever my generals tell me, that’s why they’re there.
That being said, I don’t put the majority of the blame on W, as he wasn’t operating on a history of spending billions and billions to accomplish virtually nothing, but instead was spearheading the effort to build that history.
There’s a sea of middle ground between current day affairs and ignoring intl terrorism.
Do you have massive major issue with literally every single EU country for their extremely lesser reaction to intl terrorism?
So we must continue to spend blood and treasure in the graveyard of empires because Europe can’t control its borders? It was the Europeans who carved up the middle east after WW1 with arbitrary lines in the first place. They made this sectarian mess.
We have to resist Iran because the Sauds spend a bunch on our politicians? The Iranians suck. But they don’t fund Wahabist schools and proselytize even more “martyrs”.
Funding the mujahedeen didn’t work. A “free” Iraq didn’t work. Topling Libya didn’t work.
Nation building… it doesn’t work. Not in South America, not in the Middle East and not in Asia.
This is what I really don’t get. IIRC America spends like a literal 2.5x on the entirety of the EU on defense every year.
I have absolutely no issue with what they spend. My issue is with what we spend.
I do. Thank God I live in the U.S. If I lived in a country that didn’t go to war everywhere, I doubt my penis would even work.
No. We must do that to ensure my erectile health.
Have you read Afgantsy by Rodric Braitwhaite? Besides a detailed and insightful account of the Soviet-Afghan war it lays out the Soviet decision making process based on (well, temporarily) declassified Soviet data. The members of the Politburo, notably Brezhnev and Kosigyn were acutely aware at the time that the invasion of Afghanistan will be the death sentence for the Soviet Union, yet they couldn’t ignore a public appeal for help from o nominally communist regime.
The details of their agonizing decision making are truly fascinating. The lesson of history is simple - never ever invade Afghanistan and if you must then let the Persians do it.
Iran’s ambitions are pretty much unchanged for the last 2500 years. How long is the US supposed to keep them in check?
Selling nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia would be pretty high on my “things to never ever do” list.
Prevent the Saudis and Pakistan from getting their asses kicked? Because the Kurds were brazenly left on their own after bearing the brunt of the fighting against ISIS…
Then invade Saudi Arabia.
That part is absolutely correct.
Europe is controlling it’s borders. My older bro and his fellow servicemen are deployed for weeks on end to keep the migrants from entering the EU. Thanks to efforts of people like him the number of migrants entering is reduced down to a trickle. Most of the stuff that he’s telling me would keep everyone awake at night - namely the fact that migrants are coordinated by Pakistani and Saudi security services.
Take out the fundamentalists and it’s pretty much a western nation with kids too busy partying to go and kill themselves.
That would violate the rule that you don’t invade wealthy nations.
Now. After the huge influx of military aged males claiming asylum. After the populists and anti migrant parties started to gain traction. After the Christmas market attacks, new year’s rapes, Bataclan etc… It’s like closing the gate after all the livestock escaped.
In the last 5 years, 3,6 million women in Iran were fined and even imprisoned for breaking the hijab dress rule. But ignorant leftists in the West will glorify and normalize the hijab.
It was a security decision at the time. While Ze Germans were publicly inviting literally anyone to come over, the best course of action was to ensure that they cross your territory in an organized manner and in the shortest possible time, making sure no one “gets lost” during the crossing. Especially since hundreds of TV and news crews with an agenda were waiting for an incident to vilify a transit country.
Of course, a year later the Germany security officials discreetly suggested that, um well you know, maybe you guys should use any means necessary to stop these migrants because letting in a million military aged males wasn’t the smartest thing to do.
