Last edited by uziq (2019-10-03 14:39:13)
Last edited by uziq (2019-10-07 11:51:12)
Last edited by Dilbert_X (2019-10-08 01:24:17)
Last edited by uziq (2019-10-08 02:04:48)
For all his strong points the way the withdrawal from Iraq was handled was a massive foreign policy failure on his part. I also wasn't a fan of the expansion of the drone war in the Afghan-Pakistani border region, or the huge influx of private contractors to mask troop draw-downs. Though I'm sure the latter two policies resulted from his disinterest in these issues and creativity on the part of Generals. He hadn't spoken to McChrystal once during his year-long tenure as ISAF commander which is pretty telling.SuperJail Warden wrote:
Obama was in all seriousness the best post Cold War president we have had. He didn't preside over a recession and start decades of middle eastern wars like H.W. Bush. He didn't have the scandals of Clinton or dismantle the social safety net like Bill C. did. He didn't start two failed wars like G.W.B. or start the worse recession in the last 80 years.
Last edited by Larssen (2019-10-10 03:30:51)
1. The agreement to remove troops from Afghanistan was made by Bush. Obama followed through with it and something like 75% of Americans agreed with it. Even after ISIS took over northern Iraq most Americans supported the 2011 pullout.Larssen wrote:
For all his strong points the way the withdrawal from Iraq was handled was a massive foreign policy failure on his part. I also wasn't a fan of the expansion of the drone war in the Afghan-Pakistani border region, or the huge influx of private contractors to mask troop draw-downs. Though I'm sure the latter two policies resulted from his disinterest in these issues and creativity on the part of Generals. He hadn't spoken to McChrystal once during his year-long tenure as ISAF commander which is pretty telling.SuperJail Warden wrote:
Obama was in all seriousness the best post Cold War president we have had. He didn't preside over a recession and start decades of middle eastern wars like H.W. Bush. He didn't have the scandals of Clinton or dismantle the social safety net like Bill C. did. He didn't start two failed wars like G.W.B. or start the worse recession in the last 80 years.
disclaimer: mcchrystal is a moron but that isn't relevant to the point. Actually it would've made Obama's involvement more pertinent.
As for the situation with the Kurds, their relationship with Turkey/NATO/the West/the US has always been... very complicated. There are various Kurdish factions and not all of them enjoy our support. Western countries have always tried to carefully navigate this terrain without compromising the relationship with Turkey too much. However, the Kurds have been instrumental allies through several decades of conflicts in the Middle East and broadly enjoyed some sort of protection from Turkish/Iranian/Iraqi/Syrian aggression because of their cooperation with the West. That relationship goes back at least thirty if not forty+ years. Positive relations with the UK go back as far as world war 1.
Trump has effectively pulled the rug out from under the Kurds through his withdrawal and the damage that is now done to that relationship is irreparable. It's absolutely shocking. His statement today that the Kurds 'didn't help in Normandy' is fucking incredible. On the flipside though, European countries again sit by meekly as a foreign policy disaster unfolds, unable to really do anything because of their free-riding on American military capabilities and internal factionalism preventing the possibility of any meaningful interventionism outside of the EU's borders.
Its OK to use any means to counter evil, including evil.uziq wrote:
it's still a source of endless amazement to me how much political and conspiratorial capital trump followers got out of hillary's email server, and then trump literally had money being funnelled to his campaign covertly and illegally by people called 'lev' and 'igor'.
but remember crooked hillary guys!
Fake News! Trump never met these guys and doesn't know them.uziq wrote:
it's still a source of endless amazement to me how much political and conspiratorial capital trump followers got out of hillary's email server, and then trump literally had money being funnelled to his campaign covertly and illegally by people called 'lev' and 'igor'.
but remember crooked hillary guys!
