Comments on: Pre-emptive strike.

By: ER

ER — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 12:31:44 +0000

I feel better already.

There is much truth in what you say. Unfortunately, politics, both
domestic and international, depends as much on short term impressions as on long term results. If things go bad for us in Syria in the short term, it will be progressive policies and personalities which will be blamed by the forces of reaction; and the reactionaries will be spared the need to suggest any policies or solutions themselves.

On the other hand, if history shows the Russians and Iranians repeating our mistakes and suffering the same setbacks we did, bogging them down forever in the quagmire of Middle Eastern religious fanaticism, no one will remember who it was that got us out just in time.

By: BuckGalaxy

BuckGalaxy — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 08:14:35 +0000

We don’t have a big land army sitting in Syria like we would if a republican were president. Let’s get real here. We didn’t “lose Syria.” It was never ours. Syria was a Ruskie and Iranian ally for decades. Now the Ruskies are sending there own people into that terrorist clusterfuck! There are NO GOOD GUYS in Syria. This will not end well for the Ruskies, and even if it did, it would be better than it ending well for ISIS. Let them have at it, as they said.

By: bowser

bowser — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 15:46:21 +0000

Yeah, but, no one is shooting back. No fog.

By: ER

ER — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 04:08:06 +0000

He’s a Russian and Iranian ally, and their goal is to keep him in power. Our goals only overlap with ISIS. A similar situation has arisen with Turkey. Our most effective ally, the Kurds, are practically at war with Turkey. If we can’t keep the Kurds and Turks off each other’s backs, we certainly can’t expect to be telling the Russians what to do, against their own interests, and threatening them with force when we were the first to intervene would be the height of hypocrisy. We have treaty obligations with Iraq and Afghanistan, so we have little choice but to help them with ISIS and the Taliban. We should disentangle ourselves from everywhere else.

If you take a map of the Middle East and draw red lines between all the countries who are enemies, and blue lines between all those who are allies, you can see we can’t do anything there without pissing off several of our own friends. We really do need to get out of there.

The Russians can at least say they were invited.

By: ER

ER — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 03:50:07 +0000

In fact, they happen with nauseating frequency. Sometimes we bomb our own troops. You can reduce the frequency of such errors by training, proper procedures, etc, but they cannot be eliminated.

Once you decide to fight a war with modern weapons, there will be confusion and error no matter how conscientious and competent you are. And there will be cover-ups of the screw-ups.

By: mcfly

mcfly — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 01:41:26 +0000

I’d like to see an end to America wagging a finger in Russia’s face. We don’t have the moral authority.

By: mcfly

mcfly — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 01:33:27 +0000

Horrific…humanitarian workers, patients and children

By: bowser

bowser — Sat, 03 Oct 2015 21:56:06 +0000

“JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Twelve Doctors Without Borders staff along with seven patients, including three children, were killed after an apparent U.S. airstrike hit the international charity’s hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz.”
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/16-dead-after-charity-hospital-hit-apparent-u-s-airstrike-n438001

This just pisses me off.

By: ER

ER — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 00:33:23 +0000

But the superpowers seem as incapable of learning from their own mistakes as they are of learning from each other’s mistakes.

The Russians will take over from the US as the major mover and shaker in the middle east. And I suspect they will also take over as the new Great Satan.

By: bowser

bowser — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:56:07 +0000

First, the US has no business over there. It’s not going to “win”. It cannot fight the kind of war that is being fought.

Most Americans have become used to the idea that if our carriers or ground troops can get someplace they have the right to impose American commercial interests upon the populations. As evidence one only has to look at the genocides in which the US hasn’t demonstrated an interest.

When our involvement is no-win for the American people and being fought only for the benefit of the Halliburtons and the weapons manufacturers it’s best to reconsider. Let the Russians do it. Let them sow the death and destruction and let them reap the hate.

The US has not demonstrated an interest in limiting collateral damage, kills civilians indiscriminately, and creates more enemies than it kills. Let the Russians do that for a change. Watch the actions, don’t listen to the unending, unchanging platitudes uttered by the American government.

Amongst the bitter lessons learned from Bush-Cheney is that the US government cannot be believed. Period. Next, we don’t understand the Middle East. And we don’t know how to fight the type of war which is fought in the Middle East. And we can’t win it, we can only create more hatred and opposition. (Remember when “democracy” and MacDonalds were going to prevail without effort over there?)