Understanding the US - Again

The Strategic Issues & International Relations Forum is a venue to discuss issues pertaining to India's security environment, her strategic outlook on global affairs and as well as the effect of international relations in the Indian Subcontinent. We request members to kindly stay within the mandate of this forum and keep their exchanges of views, on a civilised level, however vehemently any disagreement may be felt. All feedback regarding forum usage may be sent to the moderators using the Feedback Form or by clicking the Report Post Icon in any objectionable post for proper action. Please note that the views expressed by the Members and Moderators on these discussion boards are that of the individuals only and do not reflect the official policy or view of the Bharat-Rakshak.com Website. Copyright Violation is strictly prohibited and may result in revocation of your posting rights - please read the FAQ for full details. Users must also abide by the Forum Guidelines at all times.
A_Gupta
BRF Oldie
Posts: 12067
Joined: 23 Oct 2001 11:31
Contact:

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by A_Gupta »

About the only poll of active duty troops that is out there.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pent ... oll-shows/

Image
KJo
BRF Oldie
Posts: 9926
Joined: 05 Oct 2010 02:54

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by KJo »

Approval rates are connected with how good the economy and stock market is. The market has been stagnant for a year now. Job market is good right now from what I hear.
vijayk
BRF Oldie
Posts: 8785
Joined: 22 Jun 1999 11:31

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by vijayk »

As I much as I detest T, stopping loony left now in Congress and later in election may help bury the global terrorist/jihadi left alliance once and for all.
vijayk
BRF Oldie
Posts: 8785
Joined: 22 Jun 1999 11:31

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by vijayk »

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... spartandhp
Rep. Ilhan Omar files for divorce
In the petition Omar is requesting:
[*]Granting a dissolution of the marriage herein;
[*]Granting the parties joint legal and physical custody of their minor children;
[*]Awarding each party such marital property of the parties as the court may deem just and equitable;
[*]Determining child support as will serve the minor children’s best interests;
[*]Denying spousal maintenance to each party; and...
[*]Awarding such other relief as the Court deems just and equitable.

A recent divorce filing by the wife of a political consultant who works with Omar accuses the congresswoman of having an affair with her husband. Beth Mynette, wife of Tim Mynett, says her husband confessed his "devastating and shocking declaration of love" for Omar this past April. Both Tim Mynette and Omar have denied the accusation.
A complaint filed with the FEC says Omar's campaign committee, Ilhan for Congress, reported payments totaling nearly $223,000 to Tim Mynett's consulting firm between August of 2018 and June of 2019. The documents state that another $7,000 was dispersed to Tim Mynette himself. In court documents Mynette's wife alleges that his travel expenses were less about business and more about the affair she says he was having with Omar. "Defendant's more recent travel and long work hours now appear to be more related to his affair with Rep. Omar than his actual work commitments," the documents read
Imagine this was done by a Republican or Trump
saip
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4231
Joined: 17 Jan 2003 12:31
Location: USA

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by saip »

From the above it appears that Ilhan Omar was living out of wedlock with her present husband whom she married only in 2018. Some devout Muslim!
vijayk
BRF Oldie
Posts: 8785
Joined: 22 Jun 1999 11:31

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by vijayk »

https://quillette.com/2019/10/07/oikoph ... lf-hatred/
‘Oikophobia’: Our Western Self-Hatred
They reveal a civilization that has stopped believing in itself, that hates itself, and that is therefore unwilling to defend the values of individual freedom, democracy, and scientific and scholarly skepticism that have been handed down to us since antiquity. We are all familiar with this phenomenon, and every single day brings news stories in which oikophobia is involved. To mention just a couple among literally thousands of clearly oikophobic incidents of recent times: this past July the San Francisco School Board voted to remove a mural of George Washington from one of its public schools because of its purported racism;
How can it have come to such cultural self-hatred? The answer lies in an oft-repeated historical process that takes a society from naïve and self-promoting beginnings to self-contempt and decline.
The simplest way of defining oikophobia is as the opposite extreme of xenophobia. As xenophobia means the fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners, so oikophobia means the fear or hatred of home or one’s own society or civilization, oikos being the ancient Greek word for home, house, household. The term was coined in this sense by British philosopher Roger Scruton in 2004, in his book England and the Need for Nations. He calls oikophobia “the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably ‘ours.’”
The reason why we are experiencing oikophobia in the United States today is that we are in about the same phase of historical development now as England was after World War II, or a little earlier: a great power, but on the decline.
So oikophobia is a natural outgrowth of the way cultures, and certainly Western cultures, develop. It occurred in ancient Greece, in Rome, in the French and British empires, and now in the United States. To give a very brief overview of this development, we may say that in the beginning, a people relatively uncivilized and uncultured, but possessed of great mobility and untested strength, awakens and, as it were, goes to war in service of its deities.
There is finally enough wealth and power for the leisure class, and in many cases for people lower on the social ladder as well, to become more occupied with achieving higher states of wealth and prestige vis-à-vis their countrymen than they are with the health of the community itself.
This is where oikophobia sets in. Diverse interests are created that view each other as greater enemies than they do foreign threats. Since the common civilizational enemy has been successfully repulsed, it can no longer serve as an effective target for and outlet of people’s sense of superiority, and human psychology generally requires an adversary for the purpose of self-identification, and so a new adversary is crafted: other people in the same civilization.
. But once the society has taken off and become affluent, there is greater opportunity to excel and more room, therefore, for people to start criticizing their own culture in an effort to get ahead personally. People are always self-interested, of course, but the gulf between immediate self-interest and the interest of the state is smaller when the state itself is smaller and weaker.
Once we realize that oikophobia is a sort of pathology that develops under distinct socio-historical circumstances and does not involve any particularly interesting independent thought, but rather is more of a knee-jerk reaction, we are better equipped to face it in our everyday lives.
Rony
BRF Oldie
Posts: 3512
Joined: 14 Jul 2006 23:29

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by Rony »

Republicans unload on Trump for Syria shift when he needs them most
Lawmakers from both parties denounced the decision to allow Turkey to fight U.S.-allied Kurds.
Trump sought to quell dissent later Monday, tweeting that he was elected to end America’s “endless wars” and threatening Turkey. “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!),” he wrote online.
g.sarkar
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4382
Joined: 09 Jul 2005 12:22
Location: MERCED, California

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by g.sarkar »

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/turkey-mov ... ouse-says/
U.S. withdrawing troops from northern Syria posts, leaving Kurdish allies to face Turkey
OCTOBER 7, 2019
American troops have begun pulling back from positions in northern Syria in line with an order from the White House. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed the move hours after the White House said U.S. forces in northeast Syria would move aside and clear the way for an expected Turkish incursion.
While the U.S. move is a gift to Erdogan's government, it will be seen as a stark betrayal by the Kurds who have fought alongside U.S. forces for years to defeat ISIS. The Kurds, former U.S. officials and even some senior Republican lawmakers warned Monday that the U.S. pullout from the region could give ISIS room to rebuild, and send a message that the U.S. is willing to abandon close allies when the political winds change.
U.S. forces, "having defeated the ISIS territorial 'Caliphate' will no longer be in the immediate area," the White House said in a statement released late Sunday evening. It wasn't clear whether that meant the U.S. would withdraw its roughly 1,000 troops completely from northern Syria.
The U.S. announcement made no mention of the fate of the Kurdish fighters who led the charge to retake the ground ISIS militants had captured in the region. The Kurds have warned for years that if their U.S. allies pulled out, they could be subjected to an onslaught by Turkish forces.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) bore the brunt of the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS militants, and Republicans and Democrats alike have warned that allowing the Turks to attack the militia members would send a troubling message to American allies across the globe.
......
Gautam
Rony
BRF Oldie
Posts: 3512
Joined: 14 Jul 2006 23:29

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by Rony »

Brett McGurk who served in national security positions under Bush, Obama
and Trump

Regarding Syria and Turkey, there is some disinformation out there (including from the POTUS himself), so here is some background on what is admittedly a complex matter with no easy or magic formulas :

First: It was Trump (not Obama) that made the decision to arm the Kurdish component (YPG) of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to take Raqqa, then ISIS’s capital city. He made this decision after his national security team developed options for his review. The SDF suffered thousands of casualties in the Raqqa battle. Not a single American life was lost. Trump later expanded the operation down the ERV. He touts these operations in political rallies but without apparent thought as to who did the fighting and dying. The weapons provided were meager and just enough for the battle against ISIS. (The SDF cleared IEDs by purchasing flocks of sheep.) They were not “paid massive amounts of money and equipment” (as Trump said today). Nearly all stabilization funding came from the Global Coalition.

Second: the United States did not partner with SDF over realistic alternatives. Both Obama and Trump developed and considered options to work with the Turkey-backed opposition, which is unfortunately riddled with extremists, many tied to al Qaeda. Nonetheless, our best military planners spent months with counterparts in Turkey across both administrations. The only available Turkey-approved option in NE Syria would have required tens of thousands of American troops. Two U.S. presidents rejected that option.

Third: United States is not “holding” ISIS detainees in Syria. They are all being held by the SDF, and barely so given meager resources. State and DOD Inspectors General have covered this in depth. Summary here https://media.defense.gov/2019/Aug/06/2 ... ERVIEW.PDF
Turkish entry by force into NE Syria risks fracturing the SDF, pulling its fighters out of former ISIS strongholds, abandoning ISIS prison facilities, and making it impossible for U.S. forces to stay on the ground in small numbers with an acceptable level of risk.

Fourth: It was the Trump administration that dramatically expanded the Syria mission in 2018 beyond ISIS to include staying on the ground until Iran left Syria and the civil war was resolved (meaning many years). Another example of maximalist objectives for a minimalist POTUS. Indeed, the administration expanded the mission and policy aims in Syria while Trump cut U.S. resources by more than 50 percent, leaving our people on the ground scrambling with no backup from the president himself. Misaligned ends/means = policy incoherence & risk. Trump then (twice) abruptly reversed course after 1) a foreign leader call and 2) without consulting his own military advisors. If anyone still believes Trump cares about Syria, they’re mistaken. He doesn’t and his erratic swings heighten risk to our personnel on the ground.

Finally: the U.S. leads a Global coalition that includes over 80 countries and nearly two dozen contributors to the military and/or stabilization mission in Syria. Leading a coalition requires consultation with coalition partners before major decisions are taken. This is elementary. The consequences of such unreliability from the Oval will reverberate well beyond Syria. The value of an American handshake is depreciating. Trump today said we could “crush ISIS again" if it regenerated. With who? What allies would sign up? Who would fight on his assurances?

Bottom line: These are matters of war and peace, life and death. Our military personnel, friends and allies, deserve deliberation and thought before decisions are made (the essence of “command”). Erratic swings favor far more patient adversaries in Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran.
UlanBatori
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14045
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Yahoos vs. Yahoos
Although the Secretary had hoped to move “above the politics and the daily news cycle,” his speech on Monday became lightening rod {sic} for the fervent political activism that has challenged every step of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.
"Despite the obvious dangers of the journey, smugglers have adapted their craft to exploit the weaknesses in our immigration system. Their operations are highly sophisticated—with calculated planning on when and where to cross our borders," he said in his prepared remarks.

"With the overwhelming number of arrivals, DHS facilities at the border were overcrowded, resulting in very difficult humanitarian conditions. In some sectors, 50% of our agents were redirected to processing and care for migrants, leaving key areas of the border undermanned and necessitating the closing of checkpoints," McAleenan planed to say.
"By drowning out the Secretary’s remarks, the protesters deprived immigration attorneys, service providers, journalists, advocates, business leaders, law students, and many others in the public who were in the audience from hearing his point of view and engaging in a meaningful dialogue,” Seele said.
holding up banners that read "stand with immigrants" and "hate is not normal."
"When our immigrants are under attack what do we do?" some of the protesters chanted.
"Stand up fight back," others chanted back.
"When children are under attack, what do we do?" some shouted.
"Stand up fight back," others repeated.
One of the protesters, a member of the liberal activist group Credo Action, later blamed the organizers for giving McAleenan a stage to argue for the administration’s hard-line immigration policies.
"No Trump henchmen should be given a platform to spread hatred or defend the racist, xenophobic policies put into place by Donald Trump and Stephen Miller," said Credo Action campaign director Nicole Regalado. "Institutions that elevate the architects and enforcers of Trump's hate and normalize that cruelty can expect to hear from us."
OTOH, exactly how do citizens make their concerns heard - and thoughtfully and fairly considered - today?
g.sarkar
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4382
Joined: 09 Jul 2005 12:22
Location: MERCED, California

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by g.sarkar »

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syri ... SKBN1WL0IS
Trump threatens Turkey with 'extremely decimated economy' over Syria
Humeyra Pamuk, Daren Butler, OCTOBER 6, 2019

WASHINGTON/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Monday launched a harsh attack on NATO ally Turkey, threatening to destroy its economy if Ankara takes a planned military strike in Syria too far even though the U.S. leader himself has opened the door for a Turkish incursion.
Trump said he would “totally destroy and obliterate” Turkey’s economy if it took action in Syria that he considered “off-limits” following his decision on Sunday to pull out U.S. forces from northeastern Syria.
The U.S. withdrawal will leave Kurdish-led forces in Syria that have long allied with Washington vulnerable to a planned incursion by the Turkish military which brands them terrorists.Trump’s stern words seemed to be aimed at placating critics who accused him of abandoning the Syrian Kurds by pulling out U.S. forces. Leaders from both parties and both houses of Congress joined in the criticism, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Trump’s fellow Republican.
.....
Gautam
KLNMurthy
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4826
Joined: 17 Aug 2005 13:06

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by KLNMurthy »

vijayk wrote:https://quillette.com/2019/10/07/oikoph ... lf-hatred/
‘Oikophobia’: Our Western Self-Hatred
They reveal a civilization that has stopped believing in itself, that hates itself, and that is therefore unwilling to defend the values of individual freedom, democracy, and scientific and scholarly skepticism that have been handed down to us since antiquity. We are all familiar with this phenomenon, and every single day brings news stories in which oikophobia is involved. To mention just a couple among literally thousands of clearly oikophobic incidents of recent times: this past July the San Francisco School Board voted to remove a mural of George Washington from one of its public schools because of its purported racism;
How can it have come to such cultural self-hatred? The answer lies in an oft-repeated historical process that takes a society from naïve and self-promoting beginnings to self-contempt and decline.
The simplest way of defining oikophobia is as the opposite extreme of xenophobia. As xenophobia means the fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners, so oikophobia means the fear or hatred of home or one’s own society or civilization, oikos being the ancient Greek word for home, house, household. The term was coined in this sense by British philosopher Roger Scruton in 2004, in his book England and the Need for Nations. He calls oikophobia “the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably ‘ours.’”
The reason why we are experiencing oikophobia in the United States today is that we are in about the same phase of historical development now as England was after World War II, or a little earlier: a great power, but on the decline.
So oikophobia is a natural outgrowth of the way cultures, and certainly Western cultures, develop. It occurred in ancient Greece, in Rome, in the French and British empires, and now in the United States. To give a very brief overview of this development, we may say that in the beginning, a people relatively uncivilized and uncultured, but possessed of great mobility and untested strength, awakens and, as it were, goes to war in service of its deities.
There is finally enough wealth and power for the leisure class, and in many cases for people lower on the social ladder as well, to become more occupied with achieving higher states of wealth and prestige vis-à-vis their countrymen than they are with the health of the community itself.
This is where oikophobia sets in. Diverse interests are created that view each other as greater enemies than they do foreign threats. Since the common civilizational enemy has been successfully repulsed, it can no longer serve as an effective target for and outlet of people’s sense of superiority, and human psychology generally requires an adversary for the purpose of self-identification, and so a new adversary is crafted: other people in the same civilization.
. But once the society has taken off and become affluent, there is greater opportunity to excel and more room, therefore, for people to start criticizing their own culture in an effort to get ahead personally. People are always self-interested, of course, but the gulf between immediate self-interest and the interest of the state is smaller when the state itself is smaller and weaker.
Once we realize that oikophobia is a sort of pathology that develops under distinct socio-historical circumstances and does not involve any particularly interesting independent thought, but rather is more of a knee-jerk reaction, we are better equipped to face it in our everyday lives.
They infected us with the virus. Now they are infected. Mogambo khush with schadenfreude.
vera_k
BRF Oldie
Posts: 3986
Joined: 20 Nov 2006 13:45

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by vera_k »

Elizabeth Warren as president would be ‘more extreme’ on China than Trump
With Trump, Cramer said, Chinese officials have room to negotiate, so long as a deal is made.

However, that would be a different story for Warren, said Cramer, adding she wouldn’t agree to talks with China because they “don’t believe in” religious freedom or global warming.
anmol
BRFite
Posts: 1922
Joined: 05 May 2009 17:39

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by anmol »

Nonsense. Elizabeth Warren is a fresh new Hillary. She is the establishment choice, but establishment knows they have to pretend to not like her in order to convince Bernie or Bust people.

Other tactics they are using :-

1. You are sexist if you are still supporting Sanders and not Warren.



2. Women are not corrupt!

anmol
BRFite
Posts: 1922
Joined: 05 May 2009 17:39

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by anmol »

The IBD/TIPP poll, which has correctly predicted the last four presidential elections, was the only national poll to predict Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton in a four-way matchup. Its final pre-election numbers placed him two points above Clinton.

Image
Image
kit
BRF Oldie
Posts: 6278
Joined: 13 Jul 2006 18:16

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by kit »

anmol wrote:Nonsense. Elizabeth Warren is a fresh new Hillary. She is the establishment choice, but establishment knows they have to pretend to not like her in order to convince Bernie or Bust people.
2. Women are not corrupt!
:((

seriously the people who even entertain such an idea should go and have a cake and don't eat it !!!

And to top it do they think men are rank idiots ?!! :shock:

At the risk of being sexist, i will say women should be nowhere near to power, i know some are leader material but the vast majority are just not. Not every day a Margaret Thatcher or an Indira Gandhi comes along and they are just as if not more corrupt than men.
Last edited by kit on 08 Oct 2019 16:08, edited 1 time in total.
kit
BRF Oldie
Posts: 6278
Joined: 13 Jul 2006 18:16

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by kit »

vera_k wrote:Elizabeth Warren as president would be ‘more extreme’ on China than Trump
With Trump, Cramer said, Chinese officials have room to negotiate, so long as a deal is made.

However, that would be a different story for Warren, said Cramer, adding she wouldn’t agree to talks with China because they “don’t believe in” religious freedom or global warming.
yeah right, just wait till she gets to be "president"
anmol
BRFite
Posts: 1922
Joined: 05 May 2009 17:39

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by anmol »

There is no need to wait:
ricky_v
BRFite
Posts: 1144
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by ricky_v »

kit wrote:
At the risk of being sexist, i will say women should be no way near to power, i know some are leader material but the vast majority are just not. Not every day a Margaret Thatcher or an Indira Gandhi comes along and they are just as if not more corrupt than men.
And that is the hammer resounding on the nail, women and their enablers and christianity are the twin pillars of the western destruction, aided by a very keen Jewish community. These undermine the structure in different ways but are complimentary in their service, with the end result that we have at present with the energies of the society concentrated on an egalitarian growth no matter the inferiority complex that is a trait of a matriarchal society, and the staple of born again christianity.
UlanBatori
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14045
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Todin being Vidyarambham, I have already leaned a new word!
OINKOPHILIA: Love for Pakistanis By Pakistanis, Of Pakistanis.
Cannot be into phobias on this auspicious din.
Kati
BRFite
Posts: 1850
Joined: 27 Jun 1999 11:31
Location: The planet Earth

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by Kati »

Let's see how this family tension gets settled.

Johnson urges US to give up diplomat's wife over fatal crash
AFP AFP 18 hours ago
Reactions Reblog on Tumblr Share Tweet Email
London (AFP) - Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the United States on Monday to reconsider granting immunity to a diplomat's wife suspected of killing a teenager in a British road crash.

Johnson said he was prepared to intervene with President Donald Trump to secure the woman's return to Britain to face investigation over the death of 19-year-old Harry Dunn.

"I do not think that it can be right to use the process of diplomatic immunity for this type of purpose," the prime minister told reporters on a visit to a hospital.

"I hope that Anne Sacoolas will come back and will engage properly with the processes of law as they are carried out in this country."

Dunn was killed on August 27 when his motorbike collided with a car near a Royal Air Force base in Northamptonshire in central England, which is used by the US military as a communications hub.

He was hit by a Volvo SUV travelling in the opposite direction, police said, adding only that they were treating an unnamed 42-year-old US woman as a suspect.

The US Embassy in London last weekend confirmed the vehicle had been driven by the wife of one of its diplomats, who had now left the country.

On the question of lifting diplomatic immunity, the mission said it was "rarely waived".

The embassy was in "close contact" with UK officials. But it said it "will not comment on the identity of the driver".

Media identified her husband as Jonathan Sacoolas, who worked at RAF Croughton, near the town of Brackley, which is home to the 422nd Air Base Group.

- 'Immunity is rarely waived' -

In a statement, Northamptonshire Police said the driver had initially "engaged fully" with their investigation and said she had no plans to leave Britain, but had now left.

"If we can't resolve it then of course I will be raising it myself personally with the White House," Johnson said.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has raised the case with US ambassador Woody Johnson and also brought it up in a call Monday with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Raab "reiterated his disappointment with the US decision and urged them to reconsider," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Northamptonshire police said they were working through "diplomatic channels" to try to contact their suspect, who was never arrested.

The victim's mother, Charlotte Charles, said they needed to know who killed their son to start the grieving process.

"We just don't understand how you can just get on a plane and leave behind the devastation she has without even speaking to us or facing us, or an apology of any kind," she said.

Charles added: "She's got to be suffering as well -- she's a mum.

"Without knowing who this person is properly, we can't begin to try and start our grieving process."

In a statement received by AFP on Sunday, the US embassy in London offered condolences to the victim's family.

"Any questions regarding a waiver of the immunity with regard to our diplomats and their family members overseas in a case like this receive intense attention at senior levels," it said.

"(They) are considered carefully given the global impact such decisions carry; immunity is rarely waived."
Najunamar
BRFite
Posts: 433
Joined: 28 Dec 2007 16:40
Location: USA

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by Najunamar »

KLNMurthyji, so true about the self-loathing. But here at least the slave traders' and the imperialist looters' descendants have something to be ashamed about so poetic justice indeed.

UBji, the Oinkophile definition should be duly added to BRF lexicon and widely circulated and cited. :rotfl:
Kati
BRFite
Posts: 1850
Joined: 27 Jun 1999 11:31
Location: The planet Earth

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by Kati »

Suit says feds using immigration marriage interviews as trap
Associated Press REGINA GARCIA CANO,Associated Press 8 hours ago

In a photo taken June 21, 2019, Alyse Sanchez and her husband, Elmer Sanchez, pose for The Associated Press in Sandy Spring, Md. The Sanchezes and five other couples have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Maryland arguing U.S. immigration authorities are luring couples to marriage interviews only to detain the immigrant spouses. (AP Photo/Regina Garcia Cano)
BALTIMORE (AP) — Alyse and Elmer Sanchez were thrilled when they survived their "green card" interview, a crucial step in obtaining lawful status in the United States. She texted her family from the immigration office as relief washed over her: The officer had agreed that their marriage is legitimate.

Moments later, Elmer was in shackles, detained pending deportation to his native Honduras, leaving her alone with their two little boys.

"We feel it was a trap, a trick, to get us there," Alyse said.

The Sanchezes have joined five other couples in a class action accusing federal agents of luring families to marriage interviews in Baltimore, only to detain the immigrant spouse for deportation.

Federal regulations allow U.S. citizens like Alyse to try to legalize the status of spouses like Elmer, who has been living in the country illegally. Thousands of families are doing it: Records show the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 23,253 provisional unlawful presence waivers, the final documents spouses, children or parents of citizens need before leaving the country and applying to rejoin their families legally.

But the American Civil Liberties Union says a growing number of officers have "cruelly twisted" the rules by detaining immigrant spouses following marriage interviews. The ACLU is pursuing a similar complaint in Massachusetts and says dozens of detentions also have happened at field offices in New York, Virginia, Florida, Illinois and California.

The Maryland case is assigned to U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel, who already reversed the deportation of a Chinese man detained after a successful marriage interview in Baltimore. Ruling just before Wanrong Lin landed in Shanghai last November, Hazel said the government can't use the process "as a honeypot to trap undocumented immigrants who seek to take advantage of its protections."

Alyse told The Associated Press her family's life "just seemed so perfect."

She and Elmer, now 31 and 41, began dating in 2013, after he learned she was selling her car and showed up at her door. He bought it, and they married that year. They have two sons, 4 and 2, and live in the Washington suburb of Kensington, Maryland, where he owns a home-remodeling company. She works at a veterinary clinic in nearby Sandy Spring.

"Everyone has their ups and downs in their relationships, but ours has been pretty smooth," she said. "... He's been there for every important event in my life. He's been the most important event in my life."

Court records show Elmer had been ordered in absentia to be deported in September 2005, after missing an immigration hearing he said he was never notified of. After consulting with lawyers, Alyse submitted paperwork to get her husband a green card in September 2018. Their notice for the May 7 appointment said the required interview was "solely to confirm the bona fides of the couple's marriage," according to the lawsuit.

Obama-era regulations provide for this, even for people with deportation orders. The months-long process typically requires couples to demonstrate the legitimacy of their marriage as part of the first step. If the couples pass the interview and earn other approvals, immigrant spouses eventually must travel abroad for a visa interview at a U.S. consulate. Only if they receive a visa can they return to the U.S. legally.

It's unclear how many individuals have successfully become permanent U.S. residents through the process. It facilitates a proper record for families with mixed citizenship, and it's meant "to avoid the grievous consequences of forcing a spouse or parent to leave" the U.S. for years while trying to build a lawful immigration case from their home countries, the ACLU says.

Now, the plaintiffs say, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is unlawfully using the process as bait. ACLU of Maryland attorney Nick Steiner said it began in 2017 and seems to happen randomly nationwide.

"Previous practice would allow immigration lawyers to bring their clients to their interviews without fear of arrest because there was an understanding that they were trying to receive Green Cards, notwithstanding the removal orders, and there's also longstanding guidance that USCIS should be following, that prohibits arrests at interviews," he said in an email.

The Homeland Security agencies — through Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Shawn Neudauer and Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Jane Cowley — said they don't comment on pending litigation. But depositions and emails released in the Massachusetts case suggest federal officials were coordinating to target immigrant spouses at their marriage interviews.

"In my opinion, it makes sense for us to arrest aliens with final removal orders as they represent the end of the line in the removal process," wrote Andrew Graham, a Boston-based ICE officer. "They are typically the easiest to remove, they have the shortest average length of stay, and at the end of the day we are in the removal business and it's our job to locate and arrest them."

The government in its response to the complaint filed in Maryland argued the case should be dismissed because the court lacks jurisdiction and the plaintiffs' "claims are not likely to be successful." It also argued Elmer was "personally served" with a notice for his deportation hearing and that it showed a date, time and place.

The Sanchezes were nervous but hopeful as they told their interviewer how they met and answered questions. At the officer's request, Alyse spoke with her husband in Spanish, on camera. The interviewer confirmed their bona fides — Alyse would get the formal approval in the mail the next day — but said his supervisor "had to come and authenticate the case," according to the lawsuit.

Alyse was told to leave the room. Minutes later, their lawyer told her Elmer had been detained, leaving her sobbing in the hallway.

Six chaotic weeks followed. Elmer was shuffled around detention facilities while Alyse sought counseling and tried to console their 4-year-old, who constantly asked about his dad.

Their attempt to reopen Elmer's case was denied June 3. He began to lose hope in a Louisiana detention center.

"The treatment is so bad that they know that you cannot last there for a long time," he said. "The food is very bad, the light, the icy air. It's like a psychological war that you are put in so that you sign your deportation."

Elmer was released June 19 after the ACLU sought an emergency order to prevent imminent deportation.

Elmer was released June 19 after the ACLU sought an emergency order to prevent imminent deportation.
UlanBatori
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14045
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by UlanBatori »

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/08/politics/nancy-pelosi-letter-impeachment/index.html
The latest standoff between House Democrats and the Trump administration over the testimony of State Department officials has the White House questioning in a new letter sent Tuesday why the House is not voting to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry.
The White House and its Republican congressional allies have argued that such a vote is necessary, and President Donald Trump's lawyers told House Democrats in the letter that the President and his administration won't cooperate in the ongoing impeachment inquiry, arguing the proceedings amount to an illegitimate effort to overturn the 2016 election results. The lengthy letter all but dares House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a formal vote opening an impeachment inquiry into Trump, though it does not explicitly call on her to do so.
But Pelosi has said that Democrats don't need to take a vote and has shown little interest in doing so after she announced last month the House would open an impeachment inquiry, accusing the White House of trying to play politics and arguing that House rules don't require a vote.
The reasons Pelosi is not planning a vote are both practical and political: Taking the step of passing a formal impeachment inquiry resolution is a complicated and time-consuming endeavor that has political downsides, from drafting the exact language of the resolution, to holding a complicated floor debate and to putting some members in a tough spot.

Moreover, having a vote on an impeachment inquiry resolution would give Republicans an opening to argue they should have subpoena power like in past impeachment proceedings, something that Democrats would almost certainly never allow.]Interesting situation: Elephants demanding imbeachment vote: donkeys demurring.
UlanBatori
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14045
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Its getting better: Comrade Putin is not sitting idle..
Edward Snowden revealed then-Vice President Joe Biden and then-Secretary of State John Kerry pressured countries that protect whistleblowers and asylum seekers to deny him entrance. In an interview with MSNBC's Brian Williams, Snowden said he applied for asylum to countries such as allies France and Germany but every time it got pulled.

It was never my intention to end up in Russia.

I was going to Latin America and my final destination was hopefully going to be Ecuador. I applied for asylum in 27 different countries around the world. Places like France and Germany, places like Norway, that I felt the U.S. government and the American public could be comfortable, that was fine for a whistleblower to be in, and yet every time one of these governments got close to opening their doors, the phone would ring in their foreign ministries and on the other end of the line would be a very senior American official.

It was one of two people. Then-Secretary of State John Kerry or then vice president Joe Biden. And they would say, look, we don't know what the law is, we don't care if you can do this or not, we understand that protecting whistleblowers is a matter of human rights and you could do this if you want to. But if you protect this man, if you let this guy out of Russia, there will be consequences. We're not going to say what they're going to be, but there will be a response.

I continue, to this day, to say, look, if the United States government, if these countries, are willing to open the door, that is not a hostile act. That is the act of a friend. If anything, if the United States continue is so concerned about Russia, right, shouldn't they be happy for me to leave? And yet we see they're trying so hard to prevent me from leaving. I would ask you, why is that?
UlanBatori
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14045
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Trump: Everybody Involved In Kavanaugh Story At 'New York Times' Must Resign, Destroyed Old Gray Lady's "Virtue"

At a campaign rally Monday night, President Donald Trump denounced 'The New York Times' for a recent controversial report on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Trump accused reporters of destroying the Old Gray Lady's "virtue" and ruining her reputation. President Trump campaigns in Rio...
Rony
BRF Oldie
Posts: 3512
Joined: 14 Jul 2006 23:29

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by Rony »

Alabama capital elects first black mayor in its 200-year history
Alabama’s capital, a city once known as the cradle of the Confederacy and later the birthplace of the civil rights movement, elected its first African American mayor Tuesday.
Probate Judge Steven Reed, 45, defeated businessman David Woods by a decisive margin. Reed won about 67% of the vote in Tuesday’s mayoral runoff, according to unofficial returns.
Reed was already the first black probate judge elected in Montgomery County and was one of the first to issue marriage licenses to gay couples in the state. His father, Joe Reed, is the longtime leader of the black caucus of the Alabama Democratic Party.
Montgomery, a city of about 200,000 people, is about 60% black and has been losing population for years. Issues in the race included tackling crime, which Woods said was his top priority during a debate.
UlanBatori
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14045
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Rony
BRF Oldie
Posts: 3512
Joined: 14 Jul 2006 23:29

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by Rony »

These numbers reflect a shift against him among Independents and Republicans. His position with them will not be helped by his decision to abandon Kurds and a debacle in Syria.

Trump’s GOP Allies Are Livid at His Inaction on Turkey

Why Trump’s Evangelical Allies Are Enraged Over His Betrayal of the Kurds

Fox News Poll: Record support for Trump impeachment

Image
g.sarkar
BRF Oldie
Posts: 4382
Joined: 09 Jul 2005 12:22
Location: MERCED, California

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by g.sarkar »

Slightly old. I do not know if this topic was covered:
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/a ... 2019-10-07
Afghan Taliban releases 3 Indian engineers post talks with US
The Afghan Taliban have confirmed that it has freed at least three Indian hostages in exchange for the release of at least 11 Taliban members including important leaders.
Hamza Ameer, Islamabad, October 7, 2019
HIGHLIGHTS
Afghan Taliban have confirmed that it has freed at least three Indian hostages
The prisoner swap was done in the early hours of Sunday
The release of Indian prisoners is being confirmed by the Afghan Taliban
The ice-breaking meeting between Afghan Taliban and US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad in Islamabad finally showed results after a prisoner swap agreement was compiled with the release of at least three Indian engineers under Taliban custody since 2018.
The Afghan Taliban have confirmed that it has freed at least three Indian hostages in exchange for the release of at least 11 Taliban members including important leaders. The freed Afghan Taliban includes prominent leaders Sheikh Abdul Rahim and Maulvi Abdur Rashid.
Both these Taliban leaders have served as governors of Kunar and Nimroz provinces during the Taliban administration before the US-led intervention in 2001.
......
Gautam
UlanBatori
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14045
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by UlanBatori »

On College Admissions Scandal.
Trouble with the story is that it does not mention whether the "bribe-paid" recruit ever played on the varsity team.
It does say that the "ignored talent" player has not managed so far to "walk on" to his varsity team. Instead he is having a good college existence. Tennis is an individual sport: I wonder why he cannot attract talent scouts if he can beat everyone around.
A_Gupta
BRF Oldie
Posts: 12067
Joined: 23 Oct 2001 11:31
Contact:

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by A_Gupta »

UlanBatori wrote:On College Admissions Scandal.
Trouble with the story is that it does not mention whether the "bribe-paid" recruit ever played on the varsity team.
It does say that the "ignored talent" player has not managed so far to "walk on" to his varsity team. Instead he is having a good college existence. Tennis is an individual sport: I wonder why he cannot attract talent scouts if he can beat everyone around.
Division I, II, III are not well-explained in the article, I guess. There are tiers of athletic talent. Also "Grant has not played tennis for Georgetown, nor even been listed on its roster."
Rony
BRF Oldie
Posts: 3512
Joined: 14 Jul 2006 23:29

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by Rony »


There are so many of you who I've met in Iowa and New Hampshire who have expressed to me how frustrated you are that the DNC and corporate media are essentially trying to usurp your role as voters in choosing who our Democratic nominee will be.

I share your concerns, and I'm sure that all our supporters throughout the country do as well.

The 2016 Democratic Primary election was rigged by the DNC and their partners in the corporate media against Bernie Sanders.

In this 2020 election, the DNC and corporate media are rigging the election again, but this time against the American people in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada.

They are attempting to replace the roles of voters in the early states, using polling and other arbitrary methods which are not transparent or democratic, and holding so-called debates which are not debates at all but rather commercialized reality television meant to entertain, not inform or enlighten.

In short, the DNC and corporate media are trying to hijack the entire election process.
UlanBatori
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14045
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Sounds like Trump, hain? I tell you: Ideal ticket is DT-TG.
Rony
BRF Oldie
Posts: 3512
Joined: 14 Jul 2006 23:29

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by Rony »

Andrew Yang and the Political Narratives of Asian-Americans
But Yang, a forty-four-year-old entrepreneur and the American-born son of immigrants from Taiwan, seemed happy to serve as the human emissary of a thought experiment: the “Freedom Dividend,” his market-tested rebrand of universal basic income. In Yang’s plan, every American citizen would be given a thousand dollars a month with no conditions. He has described it as a necessary and humane response to a future in which up to a third of the jobs that Americans have now will be “automated away.” The money would allow people a measure of mobility, or a safety cushion, or even, he has suggested, the opportunity to pursue whatever makes them truly happy. Yang has been giving a Freedom Dividend to families in New Hampshire, Iowa, and Florida; he recently announced plans to provide it to ten other American families.
In interviews with other Asian-Americans, Yang has talked about the struggle of figuring out his identity. But when Yang has brought up his identity in front of whiter crowds, it has often been in jest. By the spring, he was repeating a popular line: “the opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math.” (math has become one of the Yang campaign’s slogans—a backronym for “Make America Think Harder.”) He joked about his fondness for tests. At a Democratic debate in September, he quipped, “I am Asian, so I know a lot of doctors.” Shortly afterward, talking to voters about his U.B.I. proposal, he said, “Many of you think this is impossible, that the Asian man is talking magic.” At the end of an NPR Politics podcast, Yang signed off with the normal pleasantries you expect from an interviewee: “Thank you, such a pleasure.” The host replied, lightheartedly, “You did not make it sound like it was a pleasure.” Yang quickly attributed her inability to read his emotions to his “Asian stoicism,” and made a crack about the “unwelcoming” look of his resting face.
Initially, he was regarded as a fringe figure—at best, thanks to his online Yang Gang, “the Internet’s favorite candidate.” In the course of a year, he has become one of the most prominent Asian-American political figures in U.S. history. Last week, his campaign announced that it had raised ten million dollars in the year’s third quarter, nearly twice what the campaign had raised, in total, before the quarter began. His campaign manager told the Times that the haul insured Yang “will have the funding to compete and outperform expectations through Super Tuesday and beyond.” His background and viewpoints will, presumably, begin to receive greater scrutiny from the press and prospective voters. In the meantime, though, he has offered a case study in the assumptions that people make about Asian-Americans, and the accommodations that Asian-Americans sometimes make when telling their stories.
Asians built informal political networks in this country as early as the eighteen-forties, but they weren’t allowed to participate in electoral politics until a century later, when Chinese-Americans were granted citizenship and suffrage in a gesture of wartime amity. In 1952, the McCarran-Walter Act allowed for the naturalization of other Asian-Americans. During the decades that followed, the personal stories of Asian-American elected officials had to fit neatly within the narrative of the American Dream, accentuating achievements over obstacles.
Yang believes that “normal people,” whose jobs will soon be replaceable by “a widget, software program, or robot,” don’t ultimately care that much about the culture wars. His theory of winning national elections depends on the idea that many of the white voters who were drawn to Trump’s racist message, which scapegoats immigrants as the problem with America, are not only anxious about the economy but seeking a sense of purpose. Perhaps, he suggests, a bit of financial flexibility is what they need to figure out what that purpose is. These voters, Yang seems to assume, are the last constituency that would want a crash course on the nuances of Taiwanese-American heritage. (Earlier this year, a nineteen-year-old Yang supporter—and self-identified “young white man”—told my colleague Emily Witt that one of the things he liked about Yang is that “he isn’t afraid to speak his mind, like making the Asian-man jokes,” and added that Yang being “against identity politics . . . means a lot to me.”)
For some progressive Asian-Americans, many of whom were already rankled by the jokes about math and doctors and tests—stereotypes that have been linked to mental-health struggles among Asian-Americans—Yang’s approach to Gillis made it clear that he was willing to sacrifice elements of his own community in order to court a certain group of white voters. Last week, Yang sat down with Asian-American writers, media members, and activists in Los Angeles for a conversation about, among other things, the ways that he has addressed stereotypes in his campaign. The columnist Frank Shyong attended the gathering, and wrote about it for the Los Angeles Times. “As an Asian-American outsider presidential candidate, he believes he has to make as wide an appeal as possible—even if that means cracking the occasional joke about being Asian,” Shyong wrote, paraphrasing Yang. During a discussion of that meeting on the podcast “Model Majority,” the co-host Tony Nagatani wondered if Yang’s humor might be a conscious attempt to court the part of Trump’s base that delights in his one-liners and punch lines. Social consequences aside, it was still “a successful tactic to get press.”
Embracing stereotypes makes Yang a troubling symbol for Asian-American progressives; it has also made him a surprisingly effective politician.
UlanBatori
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14045
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Smart guy. Whats he doing in a POTUS-race?
Rony
BRF Oldie
Posts: 3512
Joined: 14 Jul 2006 23:29

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by Rony »

Double faced crooked Lindsey Graham thought he was talking to the Turkish defense minister. It was actually Russian pranksters :rotfl: . Graham called the Kurds a threat to Turkey contradicting what he has said publicly in recent days and mentioned Trump's personal interest in a Turkish bank case. Lots of juicy details.

Lindsey Graham dishes on Trump in hoax calls with Russians
So when he received a call from a man he thought was Turkey’s minister of defense earlier in August, it didn’t strike him as unusual. “Thank you so much for calling me, Mr. Minister,” Graham said. “I want to make this a win-win, if we can.”

But it wasn’t the Turkish defense minister at all. Instead, it was Alexey Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, Russian pranksters with suspected ties to the country’s intelligence services who go by “Lexus and Vovan.” The duo have become notorious in recent years for their cold calls to unwitting, high-profile Western politicians, including Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, leading some to suspect that they’ve had help from the Kremlin, according to The Guardian. (A Schiff spokesman said at the time that the House Intelligence Committee “informed appropriate law enforcement and security personnel of the conversation.”)

Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Graham, confirmed the call’s authenticity to POLITICO. “We have been successful in stopping many efforts to prank Senator Graham and the office, but this one slipped through the cracks,” he said. “They got him.”

The substance of Graham’s conversation with Stolyarov, who was posing as Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, is newly relevant in light of the South Carolina senator’s push for sanctions on Turkey as punishment for their offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria. Graham labeled the Kurds a “threat” to Turkey in the call, seemingly contradicting what he has said publicly in recent days.

Graham also mentions Trump’s personal interest in a “Turkish bank case” in the call that appears to refer to a U.S. case involving Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader and client of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Trump had asked then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017 to help persuade the Justice Department to drop the Zarrab case.
In the call, Graham was primarily concerned with getting Turkey back into the F-35 program and urging the “defense minister” to refrain from using Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft weapon system, which was fully delivered to Turkey last month in defiance of requests from the U.S. and NATO.

But Graham also expressed sympathy for Turkey’s “Kurdish problem” and described the Kurds as a “threat.” Those private comments appear to contradict his public statements this week, in which he criticized Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syria because it’s “wrong to abandon the Kurds, who have been strong allies against” the Islamic State.

“Your YPG Kurdish problem is a big problem,” Graham told the pranksters. He was referring to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, a group that began fighting ISIS as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces in 2015—with support from the U.S.—but is considered a terrorist group by Turkey because of its push to establish an autonomous state for the Kurds on the Turkish-Syrian border.

“I told President Trump that Obama made a huge mistake in relying on the YPG Kurds,” Graham continued. “Everything I worried about has come true, and now we have to make sure Turkey is protected from this threat in Syria. I’m sympathetic to the YPG problem, and so is the president, quite frankly.”
The pranksters managed to get Graham on the phone again a few days after the first call. In the second call, Graham says he met with Trump to discuss what the “defense minister” had told him. “We want a better relationship with Turkey. That’s exactly what he wants,” Graham said, referring to Trump and again urging Turkey to rethink the S-400 purchase.

Graham then raised an issue that’s been top of mind for Erdogan for years—the U.S. case involving Zarrab, who was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to 32 months in prison stemming partly from bribes he paid to Turkish bank officers.

“And this case involving the Turkish bank, he’s very sensitive to that,” Graham said of Trump. “The president wants to be helpful, within the limits of his power.”
UlanBatori
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14045
Joined: 11 Aug 2016 06:14

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by UlanBatori »

Comrade Vlad seems to have an army of ppl who REALLY study every Yoo Ess entity. This was a super effort!
A_Gupta
BRF Oldie
Posts: 12067
Joined: 23 Oct 2001 11:31
Contact:

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by A_Gupta »

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/11/politics ... index.html
Pentagon announces new troop deployments to Saudi Arabia
Washington (CNN)The Pentagon will deploy about 1,500 extra troops to Saudi Arabia in answer to requests by the leading US military commander in the Middle East and, in part, because the US Navy is unable to send a relief aircraft carrier to deter potential Iranian aggression, multiple US officials tell CNN.

The move to bolster troops in the Middle East comes as President Donald Trump's decision to pull back US military forces from northeastern Syria has prompted bipartisan criticism from lawmakers who say the President has given Turkey an opening to attack US Kurdish allies who helped in the fight against ISIS.

The Pentagon said Friday that the deployment to Saudi Arabia will include two fighter squadrons, one air expeditionary win, two Patriot batteries and one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

...
...
"Secretary Esper informed Saudi Crown Prince and Minister of Defense Muhammad bin Salman this morning of the additional troop deployment to assure and enhance the defense of Saudi Arabia," Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathon Hoffman said in a statement Friday. "Taken together with other deployments, this constitutes an additional 3,000 forces that have been extended or authorized within the last month."

The US has increased the deployment of forces in the region by 14,000 since May.
A_Gupta
BRF Oldie
Posts: 12067
Joined: 23 Oct 2001 11:31
Contact:

Re: Understanding the US - Again

Post by A_Gupta »

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opin ... udi-arabia
Trump's absurd hypocrisy: Abandon the Kurds, send troops to Saudi Arabia
On the one hand, Trump says America shouldn't be involved in complex foreign struggles far off American shores. Trump argues that years of Turkish-Kurdish sectarian animosity can never be resolved by America. Just for a second, let's say that's true. How on Earth does Trump explain why he is sending 2,000 more personnel to defend Saudi Arabia against Iran? After all, while the roots of Saudi-Iranian animosity are also sectarian in nature, they are also far older than Kurdish-Turkish animosity! It's not even close: Saudi-Iranian animosity reaches back 1,339 years to the Battle of Karbala.

Trump says it's not America's place to use military force to temper two adversaries engaged in a decades long conflict. But in the very same week, Trump then says it's America's responsibility to send thousands more in troops to defend an ally against an adversary it has struggled with for more than a millennium!

This is absurd hypocrisy. But it's also morally absurd.
Post Reply