@framer
If your views on intervention have changed, where are the other spots that we should commit troops and treasure in the Middle East? Surely the Northern Part of Syria cannot be the only place, no?
Surely you don't think I have the classified information and expertise to answer this question, right?
"Democrat" is me being snarky about the 2016 Democratic Primary. I joked with the people I did a panel for (mostly Democrats) that the party kinda lost rights to the term Democratic after the super delegate fiasco. You are correct, I should retire it.
I know Limbaugh uses it all the time (funny, I listen to Limbaugh far more than I watch MSNBC).
But seriously, my big thing is that I don't think many, if any of us, on this board have a clear understanding of what exactly is the deal in Northern Syria. I don't really think that the Iraqi Kurds are completely transferable to the Syrian Kurds and that maybe Turkey doesn't have a justifiable beef with members of that community. Is Turkey threatening the Kurds in Iraq? Although the current leadership of Turkey sucks, the issues between these groups spread back way before his rule. I don't know what is real, I can't trust politicians or journalism to get me the straight story without spinning it or serving up someone else's spin because they are ignorant of the situation.
It was leaked by Trump's own aides that he was "rolled by Erdogan" in their phone call earlier this week. Because Trump has a history of this, I'm assuming Turkey probably gave Trump a personal favor. Maybe they'll concoct something against Biden or Warren in exchange for Trump moving our troops out of position so we would be unable to protect the Kurds?
You talk about how it was better when Saddam could suppress the religious crazies and how that was better than what we have today and yet scream about the killing of Kashoggi like it was the worst evil ever perpetrated on Mankind. It was the same thing.
Absolutely not. There's definitely some space between regime change and denying that Saudi Arabia's MBS even had knowledge of Kashoggi's murder. I'd suggest an appropriate response lies in between regime change and denying what our own intelligence services confirmed.
Both are real bad, but our media class treats only Kashoggi as meaningful because he had a byline.
You don't think Trump's response of first denying that MBS knew about it and then demeaning its importance by saying, "Well gee, Saudi Arabia buys a lot of military crap from us. So whatchagonnado" had anything to do with the worldwide outrage over Kashoggi's murder?
Like seriously Donald? At least pretend to care.
Overall I don't think this is a game we are equipped to play. There is nothing about how things run out there that we can even begin to understand with our cultural background. The best thing we could do is achieve energy independence and encourage and reward obvious cultural reforms, without making too many commitments or promises. This is the play ALL of our NATO allies are making, minus the energy independent part. Not one of them is saying ANYTHING about the Kurds or lifting a finger to help. Why do you think that is? Hell Turkey IS a NATo ally, supposedly.
Not to mention the real contest isn't based in an 80's Cold War *** for tat with Russia in the Middle East, it's in Asia, and based on what we have seen in the past few days, China's influence is much more dangerous.
This seriously ignores the past 50 years of American foreign policy. Has it all been glitter and gold? No. But America definitely has tools at its disposal to mold and shape other country's behavior. Look at how the Soviet Union caved to a united west. Why was it such a disappointment when we pulled out of the Paris Agreements? Look at how dozens of African nations work with us to improve education and women's rights in exchange of medicine and business. If America wasn't equipped "to play" (I'm not even sure what that means) why do you think Russia made such an effort to elect Trump over Clinton?
Just look at how Turkey is acting now that America has given Erdogan the green light to massacre the Kurds. They weren't doing that a week ago even without America forcing regime change! Whoa!
Today is showing you a world without American intervention. We’re seeing it raw right now.
America, united with its European allies, is equipped to influence a wide array of issues across the world. We just need to make human rights, democracy, and protecting the environment a priority over enriching one's family and digging up dirt on one's political opponent.
