Political Discussion Thread

Don’t get me wrong, you’ve got a point Ars, but they didn’t deliberately attempt to target protesters or civilians in general. Even when US troops are discovered to have done anything they tend to wind up prosecuted. There’s certainly a lot of horrific things that particular government was responsible for, but that one not so much.

Now if you want to discuss ignoring civilian casualties from drone bombs, that’s something else… I don’t think we even have a good estimate for how many people were killed that way.

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Wellllllllllllll there’s a big case going around right now where that might not be the case.

And it seems to me like it might be the only case that came forward because people decided to talk about it.

But the president pardoned that dude and he’s on his way to being a fox commentator right now, just like our patriot ollie north!

Now’s the point where I say that absolutely, not all of our armed services are ■■■■■■■■, because obviously… they’re not.

I’m just saying… things happen.

There’s still not!

Happy holidays everyone! We’ve murdered an unnamed number of civilians because we don’t have to count those!

Thanks bush, obama, and trump!

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I will say I’m still disturbed they stopped publishing even the government estimates for such numbers. Even with things like counting all male adults as belligerents, it was at least somewhere to start trying to work out how many were killed.

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Pfft, the governement estimates even under the Obama regime were shady as ■■■■. The idea was “if you got hit by a drone strike, you were probably close enough to get hit by a terrorist, so you were probably a terrorist too”, and even then? No hard numbers.

The main difference I see here, is that Obama didn’t overtly target any members of state, no matter how ■■■■■■ they were because he, and most sane people knew, how bad that would look or turn out, it didn’t matter. Which is horribly ■■■■■■. Especially of me. We shouldn’t look at things in terms like that but… well, as long as we don’t have boots in the ground in danger, it’s a politically advantagous strategy. That’s the point of drones.

The difference is when we use it on a foreign head of state that we know is an ■■■■■■■ because he’s in a “not quite, but almost war zone” we’ve made because of our ■■■■■■ executive rules.

■■■■ I’ll call in @MickityMike here, cause its never something someone should be able to dial in in the night.

It’s crazytown.

But we’re all citizens. So let’s pretend the centrists want power back in congress and not with the executive so they can disavow any hard decision and everything will be fine.

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And also Bush Sr. and Clinton. What’s it say about US foreign policy that all 5 previous presidents have bombed Iraq?

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There’s still something elephants and donkeys can agree on?
Or maybe that there is an unexpected consistency in foreign policy?

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To be fair, neither of them had access to drones, which are even less regulated than…

Well anything.

Edit: FREE MARKET RULES!

/s

Sorry, I’m cheerful toasty tonight now, rather than morbid. Seemed appro.

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“ Beyond the Middle East, more than 200,000 U.S. troops are positioned around the globe, quietly serving — without engaging in combat or suffering any killed-in-action casualties — to safeguard U.S. security and interests by preserving a stable world order. They train and support a network of allied forces, guarantee freedom of navigation for 90% of world commerce, preserve access to energy, allow rapid dispatch of humanitarian aid and, ultimately, prevent the kind of endless wars Americans worry about.”

Does our presence around the world PREVENT major wars, or just delay them? Maybe our military presence stokes fear and military paranoia in some, and complacency and military sloth in others? Cause fo real, I’m about at the point where I want all of them home. Now. Ta-day, junior.

Fortress ‘MERICA. And inside it, an independent enclave of ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ awesome: the Republic of Mickitystan.

IMO, despite considerations of Iran, there’s a huge difference between killing a ranking member of a stateless terror organization and a uniformed officer because of the response that can be brought to bear.

Assassinating the general of a hostile state with a missile, then bragging about it…:


Smh.
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Well, it was nice knowing you all.

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?

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Worry about the damage this has done is reasonable (and honestly, it seems as if as information came out it’s become clear it was even worse than previously known), but Israel has had weapons for decades, and their ambiguous attitude about them is nothing new.

Honestly, I legitimately cannot predict the fallout of this. There’s just… It’s too much. Will it show a sort of international inertia, with the impact limited in scope, or are we going to see something more along the lines of a breakdown on a global scale? Regardless, we’re likely to be dealing with problems from this for a long, long time.

Honestly, now that I’m thinking about it, the damage Trump has done on the international stage reminds me in a way of climate change. The distance and ambiguous nature of the threat makes it easier to dismiss than it deserves.

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I fear at some point there will be literal fallout. There are those within Iran (and elsewhere) committed to the eradication of Israel; who are just as determined to continue existing. This is fundamentally behind a lot of what happens in that part of the world. Throw nukes and religious fanaticism into the mix, and you have a recipe for disaster.

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And the rub to all this is that if, the US does as I wish, and completely withdraws from the Mideast, we can expect - at minimum - an arms race between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This will almost certainly mean a nuclear Saudi Arabia, as why the ■■■■ would they be the only major Mideast power not packing atom bomb heat?

I haven’t even mentioned Israel and Turkey yet… Egypt…

Temet is right that what comes next is impossible to predict.

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So it’s a win for the Iranian government : nothing like an atrocity committed by a foreign entity to galvanize the country and make it forget that it’s broken and corrupt.

That Wag the Dog principle that I applied to Trump, also applies to Rouhani.

Incidentally, I found this rather incredible :

“Shop in the luxurious Jadriyah district…and death to infidels!”

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that’s kinda a strong word…

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Not if you’re Iranian.

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Imagine, if you will, Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan being killed by a Hellfire rocket, going at 230 mph, fired by an Iranian unmanned aircraft a.k.a. Reaper drone. Warning: none.
Preceded by Declaration of War: Nope
Outside of any Warzone and on American soil.

Take a guess which terms and phrases the American press would use…

I’d guess necessary Black Ops to prevent violence would not be up high on the list.

I do like Americans and won’t shed any tears over Suleimani, be sure of that, but the act itself is atrocious.

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