[I]t more or less worked... in the very narrow sense of stopping the worst of the Turkish onslaught against the Syrian Kurds for a time. Now there’s a different kind of order in place of the fighting: Syrian Kurdish forces have withdrawn from a chunk of territory near Syria’s border with Turkey; Russia has vowed to help Turkey push them from an area twice as large....By "all believe they agreed to different things," she means all assert something different about what was agreed to. No one is speaking the truth straight from their brain. Anything anyone says is to advance their interests.
[I]t’s only become clearer that each of the key players—the U.S., Turkey, and the Syrian Kurdish leadership—all believe they agreed to different things....
Despite accusations that the United States had abandoned the Kurds, they seemed to have no intention of abandoning the United States....Of course, I don't know what is really happening, but I hope for the best. I hope Trump's decision works out well, and I wonder if Trump's antagonists are hoping it goes badly, hoping Trump fails.
Erdoğan may have received enough guarantees, from enough international backers, to maintain the cease-fire—or whatever it is—for now. He has managed to pull both Russia and the United States into effectively guaranteeing Turkish security along its border with Syria. He has, through three separate incursions into northern Syria since 2016, chopped up a stretch of contiguous Kurdish-held territory they had hoped to keep autonomous....
It was in that context that I undertook the search of the archive discussed in the previous post. How awful it is for Americans to be rooting for the failure of an American military effort because that's how much they hate Trump and want him proved horribly, irrefutably wrong! That made me want to look back at what I'd written when Rush Limbaugh said — on the occasion of Obama's inauguration — "I hope he fails."
ADDED: It wasn't the Atlantic article that got me thinking in these terms this morning. It was this Trump tweet:
Big success on the Turkey/Syria Border. Safe Zone created! Ceasefire has held and combat missions have ended. Kurds are safe and have worked very nicely with us. Captured ISIS prisoners secured. I will be making a statement at 11:00 A.M. from the White House. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2019
Posts
80 comments:
Under Trump, the middle class, overall seemed not only to get Obama’s $2500 in their pockets, but Trump’policies managed to double it somehow.
And I think I’m paying equal or less for gas, even tho my state raised gas taxes. And Trump also EI’d a change to Medicare. I won’t lose my Social Security if I choose to not use Medicare.
Not tired of winning yet!
Althouse>>"and I wonder if Trump's antagonists are hoping it goes badly, hoping Trump fails."
Nothing like a good chuckle to get the day off to a fine start. Thanks, Ann.
I am not hoping that Trump fails but that our national security has not been put at risk by Trump's whim; he didn't notify the pentagon before hand so they could have an orderly withdrawal and secure the ISSIS prisoners--none of that looks good so far.
Can Trump take credit for the cease fire? I think the credit goes to soon-to-be President Pence.
That made me want to look back at what I'd written when Rush Limbaugh said — on the occasion of Obama's inauguration — "I hope he fails."
Limbaugh hoped Obama would fail to implement the "fundamental transformation" that Limbaugh believed would harm America.
This is more straight up hoping for a humanitarian disaster for no reason other than harming Trump.
There is a big difference between what Rush said -- and kept saying around that time -- and the anti-Trump forces today who would happily see people die in order to weaken Trump.
Rush said repeatedly that he hoped Obama's plan for radically changing America would fail. He was speaking of Obama's divisive, toxic agenda, and I think we all see that now.
Rush routinely begins a segment with a controversial statement like that, then unpacks it, to goose and demonstrate the irrationality of the msm's reactions to him. He spooled out that particular meme for that purpose a lot around that time.
I used to underestimate Limbaugh even when I agreed with him. But to be able to construct a sophisticated, satirical 3-hour political show five days a week for decades is no small thing. He's a talented entertainer and about as brillant a media critic as is alive today, bar Mark Steyn, who would hand the crown to Rush, himself. If his politics weren't contrary to the left's he would be recognized as such.
he didn't notify the pentagon before hand so they could have an orderly withdrawal and secure the ISSIS prisoners--none of that looks good so far.
R/V evidently has sources within the Pentagon besides the NY Times.
The withdrawal looked orderly to me. Not like Saigon in 1975 when Democrats really did abandon an ally.
The Kurds were protected from Saddam and given a chance to organize their own province of Iraq. Their was lots of competition and rivalry among clans that dominate the Kurdish areas. We now know that Obama and Hillary, aided by John McCain were arming the ISIS faction from Libya, hence the ;presence of the US ambassador in Benghazi.
As US troops withdrew, the Kurds demonstrated French-like appreciation for our protection by throwing things at vehicles that were not going to retaliate. Part of the long history of success by the worst ruling class in our history.
Our Beloved Professor Althouse said...
How awful it is for Americans to be rooting for the failure of an American military effort because that's how much they hate Trump
EVEN Snopes admits that Comedian and talk show host Bill Maher said he hopes an economic recession will occur because it's a way to get rid of President Trump."
Of COURSE they're rooting for failure of the American Military because they Hate Trump
They HATE the American Military
They HATE America
They Hate Trump
If every person in America is reduced to rags, and the islamists take over the world...
The Left will be GLAD
Because it will make President Trump look bad, and MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY;
It would mean that every person in American is reduced to rags, and the islamists took over
The same people wetting their pants over Trump pulling a tiny contingent of US forces out of Syria, were oddly silent when Obama abruptly pulled US troops out of Iraq without even attempting to negotiate a SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) with the Iraqi Government.
This created a power vacuum that led directly to the rise of ISIS and the mess we now have in the Middle East.
This is more straight up hoping for a humanitarian disaster for no reason other than harming Trump.
We are not hoping for a humanitarian disaster, we are worried that Trump's actions will result in one. We are basically standing aside while the Turks and Russians implement ethnic cleansing in the border area (which is going to be twice as wide as we thought) between Turkey and Syria.
In the meantime, Trump is turning our military into a mercenary force. If you are rich and willing to pay, like Saudi Arabia, then we will send you all the ground troops you want.
Rush recognized who and what Obama was, a "Progressive" in modern parlance but a Socialist in all but name. Obama had some grand ambitions. He (ultimately) wanted single payer healthcare. He wanted cap and trade and to create 5 million "green" jobs. He wanted to close Guantanamo. He wanted to legalize millions of illegal aliens. Rush Limbaugh believed that all those ideas were horrible and would prove immensely destructive to the United States, so clearly he wanted Obama to fail in implementing them.
Rush wasn't wishing for an economic collapse in the US or for the deaths of American troops or our allies in Syria. But I beleive that many who oppose Trump are secretly wishing for these things. But maybe I'm being too harsh in my "mind reading" of the Trump haters.
Trump has made me seriously question some of my previously held foreign policy beliefs.
I can sympathize with Trump's desire to remove troops form far away places that don't have some clear US interest. I also value the Kurds as allies and don't like seemingly betraying them. But I'm not clear on what Trump's desired outcome is and I don't see much value to this ceasefire, especially given how short-term it is. What is it supposed to accomplish?
All the arguing people have been doing has not helped me figure out what is happening or what should happen. It has not been enlightening. (Of course, in the age of Trump, very little of the arguing is enlightening--it's all just too partisan.)
People ridicule journalism school, but those profs teach you that you don't know what someone believes or thinks, you know only what they tell you he believes or thinks.
Professors of English, however...
I am not hoping that Trump fails but that our national security has not been put at risk by Trump's whim; he didn't notify the pentagon before hand so they could have an orderly withdrawal and secure the ISSIS prisoners--none of that looks good so far.
@roesch, are you lying to us, or to yourself?
Isn’t it amazing how often Trump’s policies aren’t supposed to work, but work out anyway? Almost like he knows something the self-proclaimed elites don’t.
"More or less". From the brief description, that sounds like about as good a result as we could hope for. We are not committed to Kurdish independence. We do want that there should be no mass murder there.
The chances for a depression or even a mild recession seem to be getting smaller. Maybe North Korea can hit California with a nuclear missile, but Trump might even find some way of blaming Kim instead of his own failed policies if such a thing happens. Mass shootings are sometimes useful, but the trouble is so many of them are done by Muslims or radical leftists or just plain crazy people. Hurricanes are good, but, despite his failed environmental policies, you can 't count on them happening in the right locations at the right time. Maybe a major new disease like the Spanish flu. Some kind of blight that destroyed GMO crops and triggered a major famine would be good, but I don't see that happening in a timely way before the election.... In any event we need some catastrophic event to forestall Trump's re-election. It's impossible to ponder any event worse than Trump's re-election.
"I wonder if Trump's antagonists are hoping it goes badly, hoping Trump fails."
"I wonder"?
"How awful it is for Americans to be rooting for the failure of an American military effort because that's how much they hate Trump and want him proved horribly, irrefutably wrong!"
Oh, please no -- not that I-can't-believe shtick again. "It's sad! It's terrible!"
"That made me want to look back at what I'd written when Rush Limbaugh said — on the occasion of Obama's inauguration — "I hope he fails."
As Tina T said, Rush was not hoping that American military efforts failed or the economy tanked. He wanted O to fail in carrying out his agenda. That kind of rooting for failure is normal for people who think of politics not as some phony exercise in picking someone "competent" or "serious" but as the pursuit of values by means of specific policies, i.e., most people who make no pretense of "neutrality."
Peace in our time!
1036AMCDT. Last posted comment TT@959AM.
I leave for a couple of days (gorgeous long-overdue brisk fall days!) and come back and--
Trump is still prez.
States with grown-up interests in the GME are managing to handle the situation without American blood.
Narr
Leapfrogging from Monday to this thread, non-stop
I remember how Obama pulled us out of Iraq.
I also remember how Biden and Obama turned the Middle East into a complete dumpster fire.
Slave markets are now open in Libya because of Obama and Clinton.
Obama fucked Syria up. The same people attacking Trump right now in hysterical terms defended when Obama turned Syria into one of the biggest foreign policy failures in history.
These people are all disgusting.
There are at least two parts to a candidate's or president's potential. One is the policy, either as stated or as understood. The other their perceived effectiveness in getting it done.
In the case of Obama, wishing for failure was for the failure of him implementing his stated "fundamental transformation". This is not an un-American wish. People can wish against "fundamental transformation" without any ill will at all for America or its people.
Wishing for, or contributing to, a market crash, an economic disruption, or a military debacle or defeat is not at all comparable.
A common occurrence these days: the establishment's spurious attacks against Rush as being treasonous in his mild commentary, hoping the for the failure of Obama's American transformation, which elicited a moderate response from Althouse, prefigure the immoderate and radical hopes for failure in any and all American endeavor where blame may be laid on Trump (and credit could be gotten by him in success). Want to know what what the resistance will do when back in power? It's everything they accuse Trump of, and worse. There really are radicals afoot, but they're Trump's opposition. Trump is moderate in all but his buffoonish comportment.
Great points about Rush, Tina. I have been listening to him since 1988 and agree totally. He is a national treasure, IMO.
A significant difference from Obama's premature evacuation is that this time there is no vacuum. Syria is not Libya, and Damascus is not Kiev. Also, Turkey will not be carved, Kurdovo will not established, in following another precedent. Pro-Choice is not a choice. They will need to reconcile.
Something going on here, but I don’t get the US politics...
Thinking out loud:
Senate Majority Leader McConnell is talking a resolution to keep US Troops in Syria. Threatening what?
Senate Intel committee seemed to be part of the attempted coup against Trump. Working hand in hand with the cia, fbi, etc.
Sounds like this is about to be revealed by Durham’s investigation.
And a good assumption would be the senate majority leader would know about what the committee was doing.
Perhaps a warning to Trump?
I don’t get why all of a sudden the huge interest in the welfare of the Kurds by some gop. My guess is they see it as a safe way to attack Trump.
So Trump is removing this as an issue.
Hat tip to conservative treehouse for Senate politics.
r/v: "he didn't notify the pentagon before hand so they could have an orderly withdrawal and secure the ISSIS prisoners--none of that looks good so far."
More lefty lies.
Trump had ordered the Pentagon in 2017 to begin preparations for leaving Syria and the obama holdover leadership there that has only known GWOT activities for 30 years did not take any steps in that direction. At all.
Trump has been telling them for almost 3 years this was coming and to prepare.
These made up complaints about Trump acting precipitously are the same type of BS complaints that we see in Britain where the Remainers keep arguing that Brexit cannot go forward without significant additional time to review Brexit plans that have been spoken about for 3 and half years.
It's all lies at this point from lefties on every continent.
I am bit heartened to see that the Pentagon is now seriously working on withdrawal plans from Afghanistan in case the President orders a withdrawal. Not because I hope we withdraw (I'm more or less neutral on the proposition at this point), but because it shows that at the working level, the bureaucracy is realising that they can't just ignore what the President does.
We've had years now of lackwit senior bureaucrats boasting about how it was so easy to block the President -- that he had the attention span of a gnat, that you could just steal papers off his desk or ignore his orders and he'd forget about them -- only to have Trump pull the rug out from under them by going ahead and doing what he said he would do anyway. We saw that with the steel and aluminium tariffs. And I think we saw it again just now with Syria.
You'd have thought after the steel tariffs that people would have recognised that anonymous NYT op-ed writer was a delusional buffoon, but no. A lot of people inside and outside the government have uncritically accepted this bullshit narrative about how easy it is to lead the President by the nose. The working level people may finally have realised that their bosses aren't able to overrule the President, and have just been living out a sad fantasy of control for the past two years. Unfortunately for them, they can't just bring the administration down by having the Army Minister resign.
Can Trump take credit for the cease fire? I think the credit goes to soon-to-be President Pence.
Don't you mean President Hillary?
It's just as sensical and much funnier.
What is most magical is how Trump has turned every single lefty/dem into a Neocon, which explains why all the Neocons are now vocally supporting democrats.
Congrats lefties! You can have all the Bill Kristols and Max Boots that you'd like.
Bon apetite! (As Pierre Delecto might say)
I am not hoping that Trump fails but that our national security has not been put at risk by Trump's whim; he didn't notify the pentagon before hand so they could have an orderly withdrawal and secure the ISSIS prisoners--none of that looks good so far.
Pray tell where this "insider" information comes from. It sounds like the usual WaPo and NYT propaganda.
It's the first I heard that Americans were guarding ISIS prisoners.
I think now might be a good time to issue Hunter Biden a waiver so that he can go to Syria and bravely and courageously defend the Kurds against the looming peace.....
LOL
"The right plan and then we (the US) will only win."
--DJT
Wow. No wonder the deep state and military industrial complex hates Trump so much. There is no way policies like that can lead to lucrative lobbying contracts and open-ended military contracts.
Freder Frederson said...
This is more straight up hoping for a humanitarian disaster for no reason other than harming Trump.
We are not hoping for a humanitarian disaster, we are worried that Trump's actions will result in one.
The Yazidi's were wiped out because of Obama's actions. Thousands of women were sold as sex slaves. The men were all killed.
It was easy to predict what would happen if Obama carried out his foreign policy goals.
Then it happened.
You people on the left are directly responsible for the slave markets that are active in Libya right now.
You Freder.
You support slavery.
You and R/V and Left Bank.
You.
Re: Ray - SoCal:
I don’t get why all of a sudden the huge interest in the welfare of the Kurds by some gop. My guess is they see it as a safe way to attack Trump.
I think a lot of GOP have been very pro-Kurd for a long time. Kurds were a critical piece of our network of alliances in post-war Iraq, for example. I think John McCain was strongly in favour of working with them in the past, too. I don't think this is new -- what's new is Trump's willingness to basically just cut them off now that we've mostly achieved our common objective. It's certainly not the worst betrayal in American foreign policy (my vote goes for selling the Poles into Soviet slavery in WW2) but I think it's pretty bad. "Perfidious Albion," and all that. Or Schwarzenberg's comment about how Austria will astonish the world through her "grossartige Undankbarkeit."
This seems like a useless thought experiment. Better to just try to figure out what's happening with Turkey and the Kurds.
Francisco D: "It's the first I heard that Americans were guarding ISIS prisoners."
Thousands of them. All from the lefties beloved Europe.
Trump has been pressuring the lefties beloved EU to take their terrorist fighters back or take control of their incarceration.
Our "good allies" refused and refused and refused and refused...until Trump shoved it down their throats and just late last week the EU nations agreed to take over responsibility for their home-grown terrorists.
Trump has completely pulled the mask off establishment/deep state fecklessness and outright alliance with the dems and global interests to hollow out America and raid its coffers.
readering: "This seems like a useless thought experiment. Better to just try to figure out what's happening with Turkey and the Kurds."
Looks like someone is going to be weeks and weeks behind the power curve on ANOTHER issue....again.
Field Marshall Freder: "We are not hoping for a humanitarian disaster, we are worried that Trump's actions will result in one."
There are open air slave markets in Libya due to the obama/biden/hillary decisions in that nation.
Not to mention that islamic supremacists are running the nation.
That's what the dems brought to Libya.
Maybe its time for some of you dems to criticize those democrat actions which have directly resulted in thousands upon thousands being forced into slavery.
But then again, since when do democrats complain about slavery? (for obvious reasons)
- Pro-post birth abortion
- Pro-open air slave markets
- Pro-destruction of borders
- Pro-MS13
The 2020 Democrats
useful references
http://energy-cg.com/MiddleEast/Syria/Syria%20Oil%20and%20Gas%20Overview.html#Syrian%20Oil%20and%20Gas%20Overview%20Map%20
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7601325/German-chancellor-Angela-Merkel-backs-plan-safe-zone-Syria.html
The Atlantic, begrudgingly: give peace a chance.
There are open air slave markets in Libya due to the obama/biden/hillary decisions in that nation.
Blood+ for oil.
i did not know this - did you blog this?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-surprises-biden-with-medal-of-freedom/2017/01/12/31aa24a0-d90c-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html
Trump ends the 10-year long "Obama 30 Day Excursion" into Syria conflict.
Gee, I hope it wasn't rushed or anything.
FYI, looks like the dems are starting to have second thoughts about the electability of Li'l Tomahawk.
You might even say the dems, by dangling the possibility of nomination to Li'l Tomahawk and then yanking it away suddenly (according to polls), are "indian givers" of sorts.
Couldn't happen to a nicer fake indian if you ask me.
Nobel Peace Prize for Trump and Erdogan!
Hey, at least they did something -- I'm still not sure what Obama did to earn the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. .
Peace out
readering said...
This seems like a useless thought experiment. Better to just try to figure out what's happening with Turkey and the Kurds.
Thinking is anathema to the left.
The Yazidi's are sure glad you are so supportive of the Kurds and you suddenly give a fuck about any of this.
We know you only care about this because it is a weapon against Trump and you want power over us.
You are terrible people.
Seriously you are utterly debased.
"We are not hoping for a humanitarian disaster,"
Good to see you're finally on board with the boarder wall.
" we are worried that Trump's actions will result in one."
Since he's bringing our troops home and he can't be held responsible for natural disasters, I think you'll agree the possibility gets smaller all the time.
General Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Kurds thanks Trump and gets in on the Nobel prize too!
As I said at the time, this move by Trump essentially ends the civil war in Syria.
To many, this is deeply disturbing. Especially when you consider why the Syria civil war began, and what it's objective was.
Everyone remembers why the Syrian civil war began, and what the objective was, right?
"General Abdi also promised to investigate efforts of Burisma Group to take control of the oil in Syria...."
Hey, at least they did something -- I'm still not sure what Obama did to earn the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. .
He Won the Nobel Peace Prize for sounding like a preacher while reading the teleprompter.
Al Gore won his for predicting there would be no more snow after 2010.
This seems like a useless thought experiment. Better to just try to figure out what's happening with Turkey and the Kurds.
Yes. Time will tell.
In the past, we figured it out only after we wasted the lives of our service men and women as well as taxpayer dollars.
The Mideast is a dangerous place because you never know when your "ally" will stab you in the back. I am not accusing the Kurds, but there are a tangled web of alliances and agendas that we rarely figure out before taking a big hit.
Bay Area Guy: "General Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Kurds thanks Trump and gets in on the Nobel prize too!"
Leftists declare General Mazloum Abdi to be a Russian Agent, or at the very least a "bot".
>worst betrayal in American foreign policy
My vote goes to repatriating people to the Eastern Block after WW2, to certain death.
Second would be to the US POW's left behind in Vietnam. I'm amazed at who has blocked further investigation into this...
https://thedefensepost.com/2019/10/01/turkey-operation-syria-erdogan-security-zone/
this is a very good background article written just before the Turkish invasion. The factors that are seldom heard about in the news today include the millions of Syrian refugees being supported in Turkey and Erdogan's frustration with that. There were negotiations before the invasion, with Kurds agreeing to a 5 to 14 km buffer zone and Turkey demanding 30km. Turkey has made incursions before into Syria over this issue.
The major question IMO is whether Trump could have prevented the Turkish invasion. He has brokered a ceasefire. Now we will see about the claim of ethnic cleansing as well as the repatriation of the Syrian refugees.
It's certainly not the worst betrayal in American foreign policy (my vote goes for selling the Poles into Soviet slavery in WW2) but I think it's pretty bad.
No, that would be Vietnam. As Trump said, "We did not promise to protect them for the rest of their lives."
As for "selling the Poles" what did we have to do with that ? World War III?
From Rasmussen today:
“It is time for us to get out of these ridiculous endless wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers home. We will fight where it is to our benefit, and only fight to win.”
55% of Democratic Likely Voters agree. We did not name the quote source.
and I wonder if Trump's antagonists are hoping it goes badly, hoping Trump fails.
Well, they could always run some fake news footage of a gun range in Kentucky if it starts to turn in Trump's favor.
I am not hoping that Trump fails but that our national security has not been put at risk by Trump's whim; he didn't notify the pentagon before hand so they could have an orderly withdrawal and secure the ISSIS prisoners--none of that looks good so far.
10/23/19, 9:48 AM
Why don't the Turks, Kurds, or Russians simply kill all those prisoners? Burning captives alive, stoning women. torturing and slaughtering thousands. What is your legitimate argument for keeping these savages alive?
There is a vast distinction between a general statement by a political commentator, “I hope he fails,” and a concerted, seditious effort, including star chamber proceeding, by the opposing, losing party, a majority of the media, and government employees violating the law to disclose classified information for political or financial gain to promote the failure.
Re: Michael K:
As for "selling the Poles" what did we have to do with that ? World War III?
Soviets could not have fought the war on the Eastern Front without copious material and technological support from the United States. While we weren't complete idiots -- we withheld some advanced designs from them -- I'm not aware that we exercised our leverage to extract any guarantees regarding the freedom of any of the countries that ended up under the Communist yoke.
Could we have secured the freedom of the Poles? Eh, maybe not: the Soviets were quite aggressive in 1939 and 1940 about annexing neighbouring countries (the Baltic republics, Transdnistria) and ginning up false flag attacks to justify wars of conquest (Finland, although that didn't go particularly well for them), or just invading neighbouring countries because it was convenient (uh, Poland), so the idea that they'd have to give up any of their conquered territories would have been a bitter pill to swallow. They certainly wouldn't have yielded the eastern half of Poland, which they had anschlussed to the Ukraine.
But as far as I'm aware, we didn't even try to protect Poland (or the rest of Eastern Europe) while we still had leverage. Should we have withheld some aid from the Soviets to extract their agreement to respect the independence of "liberated" countries? Obviously, brute realpolitik said otherwise: the only reason the UK and later the US allied with the Soviet beast at all was because we had a common enemy and no shared borders, and . . . well, that was a pretty compelling reason. We went to war for ourselves, not to free the world. But if we're talking about desert, Poland contributed significantly to the Allied war effort even after they were carved up by the Nazis and the Soviets. I forget the exact figure, but they supplied something like a million men to the Allied effort, cracked the early versions of Enigma, etc. And they got fifty years of bondage in exchange.
"he didn't notify the pentagon before hand so they could ...”
Leak, #RESIST, and undermine the policy by any means necessary.
Fixed it for you.
" (my vote goes for selling the Poles into Soviet slavery in WW2) “
That was bad, I guess, that we didn’t immediately start fighting, with the Germans probably, the Russians and continue WWII.
The EU has been destabilized and will probably now split due to Obama’s interventions in Syria and Libya, and tens of thousands of refugees have drowned fleeing those wars.
If you are looking for a huge betrayal, you need look no further than our deposing Khaddaffy, when he had agreed to give up his nukes, so now why would anybody believe us again? and the girls now being sold in open air markets in Libya, we did right by them!
Also it was a pretty serious betrayal of the people of Syria to fund a civil war there, creating millions of refugees. Syria, like Iraq, has been a Russian client forever. Any effort to change that is just the third Iraq War.
The more I think about it, the more I wonder just how much true expertise the Deep State “experts” really have. So far they’ve been wildly wrong about the impact of Trump’s economic policies, they’ve been wrong about Syria (even General Mattis, apparently!), they’re waaaaay off the mark on support for impeachment and only the limousine liberals and ignorant college students are for open borders. I arrived in the Washington area in 1969, and often when I met senior government experts I came away unimpressed by them. Certainly I was not as impressed with them as they were with themselves.
Bay Area Guy said...
"Nobel Peace Prize for Trump and Erdogan! Hey, at least they did something -- I'm still not sure what Obama did to earn the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009."
Mr. Obama, do the right thing — give YOUR prize to DJT so that he can redistribute it to Erdogan. Who knows, your gift might even be the thing that averts Armageddon and secures peace and stability in the middle east . More importantly, doing it would make you look good.
Not like Saigon in 1975 when Democrats really did abandon an ally.
Gee, Michael K (who spent the whole of the Vietnam War in the National Guard beating up hippies here at home. Hey it was a dirty job, someone had to do it. I kid, I bet you were too chicken to even beat up hippies), I forget, who exactly was president in 1975? Probably that pussy Jimmy Carter.
It was easy to predict what would happen if Obama carried out his foreign policy goals.
Apparently, you have you confused me with someone who agreed with Obama's foreign policy decisions. Unlike you, I can and do criticize and even condemn, actions by people who I voted for, when I disagree with them.
For the record, I think that Obama's foreign policy was hopelessly confused, and at times bordered on criminal. But not nearly as bad as the clusterfuck (and depending on what happens on the Turkey/Syria border over the next few months, rising to the level of multiple war crimes) Trump has created.
But perhaps the worst thing Trump has done is declared loud and clear that the U.S. military is now a mercenary force that will fight for the highest bidder.
Soviets could not have fought the war on the Eastern Front without copious material and technological support from the United States.
The first half of your statement (although you forget to credit the Brits with their lend lease contributions, which hurt them much more than our aid to the USSR hurt us) is correct, the second is complete bullshit. The Soviets had superior weapons to us (especially in tanks, the excellent Christie suspension system they used, even though invented by an American, was rejected by our army) mostly up and down the line (I'll grant you our .50 caliber machine gun and M1 were superior to anything any other army had). And while lend lease armored vehicles probably did save the Soviet's ass in 1942, after that the Soviets were out producing us and the British combined in tanks and artillery (our artillery was as good as theirs, not so much our tanks). The Soviets also made the wise decision to skip strategic bombing and concentrate on tactical air support. I will grant you that our shipments of non-combat vehicles (especially 2.5 ton trucks) and supplies (Spam, yum) were vital to the Soviet war effort (I think even Stalin grudgingly admitted that).
Why don't the Turks, Kurds, or Russians simply kill all those prisoners? Burning captives alive, stoning women. torturing and slaughtering thousands. What is your legitimate argument for keeping these savages alive?
Because we are not savages?
Balfegor,
I'm confused by your reference to 1939 and 1940 in relation to Transnistria. Wiki says "In 1792, the region became part of the Russian Empire" and that certainly matches my vague recollection of my feeble knowledge of history in that part of the world.
Why don't the Turks, Kurds, or Russians simply kill all those prisoners? Burning captives alive, stoning women. torturing and slaughtering thousands. What is your legitimate argument for keeping these savages alive?
Because we are not savages?
Oh, ok. You changed my mind.
Return the murderers, rapists, torturers to Europe where they may continue on with their peaceful, productive pre-terroristic lives.
I mistakenly thought the concern was Trump was allowing these prisoners to escape and resume their blood thirsty hobbies.
For the record, I think that Obama's foreign policy was hopelessly confused, and at times bordered on criminal. But not nearly as bad as the clusterfuck (and depending on what happens on the Turkey/Syria border over the next few months, rising to the level of multiple war crimes) Trump has created.
How soon we forget what Obama did in Libya.
https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/over-1000-refugees-have-drowned-mediterranean-2019
Still drowning this year... Slave markets still open in Libya. You can even blame Brexit on the waves and waves of refugees that Obama created.
4 September 2015, 19:28 UTC
Refugees in the region
More than 4 million refugees from Syria (95%) are in just five countries Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt:
Lebanon hosts approximately 1.2 million refugees from Syria which amounts to around one in five people in the country
Jordan hosts about 650,000 refugees from Syria, which amounts to about 10% of the population
Turkey hosts 1.9 million refugees from Syria, more than any other country worldwide
Iraq where 3 million people have been internally displaced in the last 18 months hosts 249,463 refugees from Syria
Egypt hosts 132,375 refugees from Syria. - Amnesty International
Maybe Freder can explain why we were pouring weapons into a civil war in Syria. Other than Sydney Blumenthal, while in the pay of the Clinton Foundation, convinced Hillary it was a good idea.
We are not savages.... LOL. Maybe you could head down to the River Styx and ask the shades of those refugees from the “shit show” as Obama called Hillary’s little adventure in Libya.
Eager for rehab, high fives, and welcome backs.
Islamic State’s TikTok Posts Include Beheading Videos
Georgia Wells
3 minutes
Islamic State militants, who have been posting propaganda videos to TikTok, the social-media network known for lighthearted content popular with teenagers, have also been posting execution and torture videos to the site.
The videos, identified by social-media intelligence company Storyful, show balaclava-wearing militants grabbing captives, pushing them to the ground and beheading them with machetes. In another video, an assailant fires a gun at people at close range. The video is edited to show a burst of colorful confetti fly across the screen.
the back story is Erdogan and the emir of Qatar and the Saudis all supported islamist militias, many of them were the proxies in this most recent conflict, the free Syrian umbrella, the northern storm, that sold james foley to Islamic state,
Freder: "Unlike you, I can and do criticize and even condemn, actions by people who I voted for, when I disagree with them."
Years after the fact so who cares?
I'll bet you're also suddenly outraged by Joe Bidens "lynching" comments from 1998.
LOL
Obama did not fail, with assistance from Hillary Clinton, politicians and elites of Europe, and the international spy "community," and the usual financiers, to restore slavery to the Barbary Coast. Success!
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