R_P wrote:
Yeah, perfectly happy was a minor overstatement because lip service condemnation with perhaps a few ineffective sanctions. The main take away is that the US was not doing anything to promote a war in Ukraine and was willing to let the agression slide. Now, you and others are trying to cast USA as aggressors in the region who somehow wanted the war that Russia started. To be fair, though, I don't think there was much the US could have done back then because western Europe wasn't behind any response. 

The Golan article is a total red herring and I have no idea why you think it is relevant. But for the record, I think Israel totally screwed up with Lebanon by screwing Lebanon. Unfortunately the Lebanese government was probably too weak to take on Hamas (or whatever group was there) and left themselves vulnerable. In any case it wasn't really under government control. 

 haresfur wrote:
Perfectly happy. *

The "rules-based order" likes annexations (as long as they're done and subsequently populated by the right people).

 westslope wrote:

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that left-leaning people are as susceptable to Russian talking points as right-leaning people. Look Biden was perfectly happy with the detante of letting Russia anex part of Ukraine and control a big chunk of the rest. He was happy to let Russia do their own internal slide into authoritarianism. From the nearly as far right as the traditional republican side of the democratic party was conserned, it was all tolerable as long as the global economy ticked along.

Hint, ethnic cleanser Joe isn't the one lobbing missiles into appartment buildings to get rid of Ukrainians in their own country. Putin is extending the Soviet strategy of moving Russians into other countries in the "union" as ethnic cleansing of the populations.

 R_P wrote:
Well Uncle Joe "Terrorist" Biden finally accomplished what MAGA Republicans wanted all along.  

Slimy ethnic cleanser Joe is particularly proud of all the dead Ukrainians and he knows the American people are eagerly awaiting more dead Ukrainians.  But as long as enough Russians die, all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.     

Reporter Seymour Hersh on “How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline”: Exclusive TV Interview

Thanks for the reminder, Joe

But when it comes to the escapades of arrogant gringos, no sampling of tales would
be complete without the somewhat unique but revealing story of William Walker,
a filibusterer who made himself president of Nicaragua, carrying south the expansion
that predecessors like Daniel Boone had carried west. Walker is not secret CIA
history. The CIA had yet to exist. During the 1850s Walker may have received
more attention in US newspapers than any US president. On four different days,
the New York Times devoted its entire front page to his antics. That
most people in Central America know his name and virtually nobody in the United
States does is a choice made by the respective educational systems. (...)

Walker got himself the command of a North American force supposedly aiding
one of two warring parties in Nicaragua, but actually doing what Walker chose,
which included capturing the city of Granada, effectively taking charge of the
country, and eventually holding a phony election of himself. Walker got to work
transferring land ownership to gringos, instituting slavery, and making English
an official language. Newspapers in the southern US wrote about Nicaragua as
a future US state. But Walker managed to make an enemy of Vanderbilt, and to
unite Central America as never before, across political divisions and national
borders, against him. Only the US government professed "neutrality."
Defeated, Walker was welcomed back to the United States as a conquering hero.
He tried again in Honduras in 1860 and ended up captured by the British, turned
over to Honduras, and shot by a firing squad. His soldiers were sent back to
the United States where they mostly joined the Confederate Army.

Walker had preached the gospel of war. "They are but drivellers,"
he said, "who speak of establishing fixed relations between the pure white
American race, as it exists in the United States, and the mixed, Hispano-Indian
race, as it exists in Mexico and Central America, without the employment of
force." Walker’s vision was adored and celebrated by US media, not to mention
a Broadway show.

US students are rarely taught how much US imperialism to the South up through
the 1860s was about expanding slavery, or how much it was impeded by the US
racism that did not want non-"white," non-English-speaking people
joining the United States.

José Martí wrote in a Buenos Aires newspaper denouncing the Monroe Doctrine
as hypocrisy and accusing the United States of invoking "freedom
. . . for purposes of depriving other nations of it.. (...)

My beef is with the Insider Trading among Congress members. An abomination that should not be allowed in a so called Democratic Republic. As these *uckers get richer by investing on special information; they are passing these massive tax cuts for themselves.

I am progressive, but still appalled that Nancy Pelosi would not consider a bill to end it throughout her career.  Just before leaving office she became open to the idea. But the clock ran out and now we have a feeding frenzy at the trough of information the rest of us don't have.

Muh soverunty!

 R_P wrote:
He was a coward following orders like a military man even though he was in a stateman position. I'd argue that even if he had still been military, he shouldn' have given that testimony and brought shame on his whole carreer

 R_P wrote:

yup. fucking war criminal.

Time flies

How to make a mushroom cloud out of a molehill balloon.

---

Aiming to Harm Iran and Syria, US Federal Reserve Strangles Iraq’s Economy

 kurtster wrote: Taiwan air drop?

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote: 
China already has us over a barrel with pharmaceuticals.  When you consider what Taiwan is to microchips, they would have a stranglehold on technology in the West. Our chip industry is still several years at least from being functional enough to just fill in the gaps.  China's economy is crumbling.  I'm thinking that Xi is beginning to get desperate.

Putin has got oil and is still selling it keeping his coffers lined in spite of all the blowback.  He has what everyone still needs.  Putin's biggest risk is from the inside, not from us, the West in general.  Same with Xi.  Xi could take Taiwan without much fuss by using a simple naval blockade and starving them into submission.  How would the West deal with a naval blockade without open warfare ?

I'm not going to fret over this much, but I'll be watching it.

 kurtster wrote: I can't see China pulling a stunt like this.
They need us to keep floating their economy with all their exports.
And for now, we need those stupid imports to keep us going.
Without our money... their economy would collapse.

 R_P wrote: 
I saw that.  It was presented that Xi would most likely move on Taiwan right after the 2024 presidential elections in Taiwan and the USA when things are most vulnerable due to the usual chaos that comes with these kinds of elections.  This general is in charge of an airlift division IIRC and has some strategic insight based on that.  The DOD also was quick to say that it does not share his conclusions.

This while we deplete are materiel in Ukraine and our strategic oil reserves.  In addition, our military is more concerned about being woke than combat ready.  We are probably now the least prepared for a major war since the end of Nam.

Sounds too reasonable to ignore to me.  I'm not saying it will happen but to pretend it can't or won't would be foolish.

China could be at war with the United States two years from now, a top Air Force general predicted in a bombastic and unusual memo to troops under his command, asserting a significantly shorter timeline before potential conflict than any other senior U.S. defense official to date.