141–150 of 315 posts
Good. I don't know how much longer Americans are going to buy the boogiemen we keep getting fed. Sovereign nations under the the U.S.' thumb, not being able to control their own destiny only works so long as we're complacent. I sense we're growing tired of war for war's sake, leery of ideological battles built for future blowback down the road. We see enough people profiting from these wars to wonder how much global…
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We see enough people profiting from these wars to wonder how much global conflict is manufactured. I hope we stop buying in. We, the people, are pretty powerless here. Lobbyists and elected officials have too much power and election cycles are too far apart. So even when recent American military action gets relatively low support from Americans [0], neither congress nor the president has any motivation to do anything…
You’ve forgotten how to protest. I recall you guys getting pretty upset over some tea with Britain. Seriously as long as folks are content at home the politicians won’t give a damn about you. Go march in the streets en mass and things will slowly change.
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This is going to be the really unfortunate legacy of Trump: disastrous foreign policy and the loss of soft power. 1. Denial of Russia's meddling in US election because it runs counter to Trump's ego and he had a weird soft spot for autocrats. 2. The baseless termination of the Iran nuclear Accord as essentially a capitulation to Israel and Israeli interests. There was no violation of the agreement. The best the admin…
Not going to war with N. Korea, Russia and Saudi Arabia is a good thing. Trump has lessened tensions, he should get credit for that. As an American, I don't want to fight a war with these countries. I agree with you on Iran for the same reasons though.
- Not giving credibility to the North Korean regime
- When Russia kills dissidents overseas in a pretty public way (eg Polonium-210, nerve agents), annexes a sovereign nation (ie part of the Ukraine) and their meddling leads to giving anti-aircraft systems to rebels who use it to shoot down a passenger plane (ie MH17) then they're treated with sanctions and are ostracized to some degree from the international community. To be fair, a lot of this predated Trump. The MBS-Khashoggi affair should be met with a similar amount of condemnation.
Oh and there's the whole Yemen thing too.
There was a time when Saudi Arabia wielded a lot of power due to their oil output and the West's dependence on it. But those days are gone. The US is now a net oil exporter. There are sources other than OPEC for oil (eg Venezuela, Russia although each of them has their issues now obviously). More to the point, Saudi Arabia needs to sell oil to buy off their own citizens.
Supporting an unpopular autocratic regime is part of why many in the Middle East hate the US.
The real tragedy of the Middle East is that the US caused no end of problems and then picked the wrong side (again and again actually). There's a case to be made than Iran would've made the better ally.
But our hands are tied. Because Israel, basically.
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> As an European, I just don't get the Israeli fixation with Iran, I agree, but let's not forget also the ridiculous fixation of Iran with Israel, which is even more senseless. I do not understand where the Irani animosity towards Israel comes from. Both countries are surrounded by arabs that hate them, wouldn't they all be better of as best buddies?
> I do not understand where the Irani animosity towards Israel comes from. Both countries are surrounded by arabs that hate them, wouldn't they all be better of as best buddies? I have studied this very question previously and it's a bit more complex than that. Iran had a democratically elected government, but in the early 50s, the UK & US orchestrated a coup that ousted that government, since they wanted to national…
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Not going to war with N. Korea, Russia and Saudi Arabia is a good thing. Trump has lessened tensions, he should get credit for that. As an American, I don't want to fight a war with these countries. I agree with you on Iran for the same reasons though.
Who said anything about going to war? That's a false dichotomy. How about just: - Not giving credibility to the North Korean regime - When Russia kills dissidents overseas in a pretty public way (eg Polonium-210, nerve agents), annexes a sovereign nation (ie part of the Ukraine) and their meddling leads to giving anti-aircraft systems to rebels who use it to shoot down a passenger plane (ie MH17) then they're treated…
How about not increasing the risk of war with N. Korea and Russia? It should not be our job to police other countries. We have enough of our own problems to deal with in the US.
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"Iran may have rhetoric, but Iran isn't occupying anyone" Well, Iraq and Syria would be two countries. And if they could, they would be occupying many more. Iran is not some entity trying to protect themselves from invaders, they are a theocratic dictatorship and they want to spread their specific brand of revolution throughout the region and the world. Nukes involve us all so it's less a matter of sovereignty. Nobod…
> Well, Iraq and Syria would be two countries. No, they wouldn't, Iran is in both countries with the explicit permission of the local governments, (like them or not). That's not what occupation means. > And if they could, they would be occupying many more. Given you first statement isn't true, I doubt this one is, beyond the cynical, "who wouldn't"? > Iran is not some entity trying to protect themselves from invaders…
Iran's sponsorship of Hezbollah towards attacking Israel is part of their defence strategy?
Iran's passing of Hadouthi missiles to targeted at cilivian areas in Saudia Arabia is part of their defence strategy.
Yes 'this has been studied' and I'm afraid you're wrong.
Iran is a antagonistic entity, and they want nukes so they can point them at Turkey, Saudi, Israel, Europe and further embolden themselves.
The reason that 'UK/France/Germany' issue is important is because it undermines almost all of the arguments being made here i.e. that 'Iran is sovereign, a victim, and shouldn't be subject to sanctions'.
The fact that 'the entire world' wants to sanction Iran for pursuing nukes fairly points to their bad acting.
The only reason that trade is possibly going to happen - is because of the belief that they are not pursuing nuclear weapons.
And now it wont
It doesnt really matter if you are subscribed to the merit of the US’ claims or not
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??? Your link says in 2013 the U.S. was near its neighbor Canada on per capita carbon emissions. That's still double the EU. But that's also 6 years ago; the gap will have closed somewhat.
And Canada reflects the emission levels of rich Americans. Canada is no roll model on carbon emission.
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> I do not understand where the Irani animosity towards Israel comes from. Both countries are surrounded by arabs that hate them, wouldn't they all be better of as best buddies? I have studied this very question previously and it's a bit more complex than that. Iran had a democratically elected government, but in the early 50s, the UK & US orchestrated a coup that ousted that government, since they wanted to national…
Wanted to say thank you, this explains the situation very well.
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> We, the people, are pretty powerless here. Most US americans have been voting for Democrats or Republicans or not at all for decades. Of course the politics remain the same: Wars and politics that favor the richest. Please, vote for the Green Party or another reasonable party in 2020.
Maybe it's worth it to first reform the political system from a first-past-the-post system to more proportional representation (otherwise, unless I'm mistaken, those votes go pretty much straight to the wastepaper basket (or trash can, in this case)).
It's something to think about if you don't like the candidates the major parties are running and thus assume your vote means nothing.
Search for "Minor party candidates" here for the specifics: https://www.fec.gov/introduction-campaign-finance/understand...