So this country wasted billions of dollars in Iraq.
We need to stop getting involved in the middle east affairs.
Also Russia praising is also stupid.
Plus to try and save face after being embarrassed by the US in crashing the Russian dollars last year. It's this fake John Wayne garbage that got the US into the debt it has today.
Just because of Iraq and other poor decisions trying to remove people from power. When we need to do more in helping people in this country first.
So let Russia get into another civil war with Isis.
They will end up the same way like Afghanistan war back in the 1980's. It's time for a change in mindset and maybe before jumping into another war.
Just remember GOP supporters and some Dems that supported that war will never talk about the billions lost. We finally have people trying to think instead of giving up more lives and money we don't have to give other countries!
In addition, administration officials and Middle East experts on both sides of the debate tell us, Obama's foreign- policy team no longer doubts that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to prop up President Bashar al-Assad and primarily target opposition groups other than the Islamic State, including those trained by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The administration was late to this conclusion. Despite warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Putin's military buildup was intended to keep Assad in power, the White House decided to explore cooperating with Russia on the ground. Throughout the summer and into the fall, top Russian officials -- including Putin himself in a meeting last month with Obama at the U.N. -- said they were not committed to keeping Assad in power for the long term, and would target only Islamic State fighters in their military offensive, according to U.S. officials.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-declassified-9a418bc8-6e75-11e5-91eb-27ad15c2b723-20151009-story.html
This crap is really getting old! We've spent close to $500 million training and equipping so called Syrian moderate opposition fighters who have deserted and handed over their U.S. supplied military equipment to Islamic radicals. The whole notion of asking President Assad to step down in the first place is moronic, stupid and idiotic, IMHO. No one in this administration has bothered to ask, who would be Assad's replacement, Islamists radicals? Just like the clusterfuck situation we now have in Iraq and Libya. Damn this is not rocket science people, it's like we never learn. We fucked up in Iraq by removing Sadaam, we fucked up in Libya by removing Gadaffi, and we were well on our way to fucking up Syria by insisting on removing Assad, until Putin intervened.
In addition, administration officials and Middle East experts on both sides of the debate tell us, Obama's foreign- policy team no longer doubts that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to prop up President Bashar al-Assad and primarily target opposition groups other than the Islamic State, including those trained by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The administration was late to this conclusion. Despite warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Putin's military buildup was intended to keep Assad in power, the White House decided to explore cooperating with Russia on the ground. Throughout the summer and into the fall, top Russian officials -- including Putin himself in a meeting last month with Obama at the U.N. -- said they were not committed to keeping Assad in power for the long term, and would target only Islamic State fighters in their military offensive, according to U.S. officials.
So this country wasted billions of dollars in Iraq.
We need to stop getting involved in the middle east affairs.
Also Russia praising is also stupid.
They need the money and only doing this for the Syrian oil money.
Plus to try and save face after being embarrassed by the US in crashing the Russian dollars last year.
It's this fake John Wayne garbage that got the US into the debt it has today.
Just because of Iraq and other poor decisions trying to remove people from power.
When we need to do more in helping people in this country first.
So let Russia get into another civil war with Isis.
They will end up the same way like Afghanistan war back in the 1980's.
It's time for a change in mindset and maybe before jumping into another war.
Just remember GOP supporters and some Dems that supported that war will never talk about the billions lost.
We finally have people trying to think instead of giving up more lives and money we don't have to give other countries!
In addition, administration officials and Middle East experts on both sides of the debate tell us, Obama's foreign- policy team no longer doubts that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to prop up President Bashar al-Assad and primarily target opposition groups other than the Islamic State, including those trained by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The administration was late to this conclusion. Despite warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Putin's military buildup was intended to keep Assad in power, the White House decided to explore cooperating with Russia on the ground. Throughout the summer and into the fall, top Russian officials -- including Putin himself in a meeting last month with Obama at the U.N. -- said they were not committed to keeping Assad in power for the long term, and would target only Islamic State fighters in their military offensive, according to U.S. officials.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-declassified-9a418bc8-6e75-11e5-91eb-27ad15c2b723-20151009-story.html
Well, maybe not 100% objective, you're still a bleeding heart liberal IMO, BUT you will at least come out and criticize BOTH sides on occasion. You don't criticize both sides equally, but that's okay, you do enough to remain credible that your posts reflect your own opinion and that you aren't just parroting the talking points of either the DNC or the RNC, whichever the case may be.
It's refreshing to see someone, anyone bashing their own side. Kudos.
and yes, it's a sad state of affairs when once again Russia has to save our ass. I don't suppose too many lefties care to remember that Putin had to bail out Kerry/Obama when they last stuck their respective feet in their mouths not all that long ago.
In the interest of following your example of being evenhanded here, despite all the GOP uproar over Benghazi and Hillary, I personally believe that Hillary would be doing a MUCH better job of dealing with the ME, including Syria, and probably has the best foreign affairs chops of anyone in the race, including "My hero" Donald Trump. It's one of the main reasons I believe the country will be much better off under a Hillary administration than any other Democrat still in the race. I could have seen myself voting for Webb, but that's a moot point now.
It's really a shame that there are only a very small handful of people worth talking to on this board, as Doc Gonzo so rightfully pointed out, planet stupid seems to have taken over here, and planet stupid owns both sides of the aisle, not just the left. There aren't a lot of righties left here worth talking to either.
It's refreshing to see someone, anyone bashing their own side. Kudos.
and yes, it's a sad state of affairs when once again Russia has to save our ass. I don't suppose too many lefties care to remember that Putin had to bail out Kerry/Obama when they last stuck their respective feet in their mouths not all that long ago.
In the interest of following your example of being evenhanded here, despite all the GOP uproar over Benghazi and Hillary, I personally believe that Hillary would be doing a MUCH better job of dealing with the ME, including Syria, and probably has the best foreign affairs chops of anyone in the race, including "My hero" Donald Trump. It's one of the main reasons I believe the country will be much better off under a Hillary administration than any other Democrat still in the race. I could have seen myself voting for Webb, but that's a moot point now.
It's really a shame that there are only a very small handful of people worth talking to on this board, as Doc Gonzo so rightfully pointed out, planet stupid seems to have taken over here, and planet stupid owns both sides of the aisle, not just the left. There aren't a lot of righties left here worth talking to either.
The Northern Hemisphere of Planet Stupid seems insistent on pointing out every little foible and failure of the GOP, right wing, Tea Party, what have you, and then repeating the same mantra over and over again (PLUS CA CHANGE PLUS LA MEME CHOSE). Candidates for SPOTY from their side of the equation aren't so much the who, but which post was the downright stupidest combination of words and epithets of the last year, and then patting themselves on the back for their ignorance and congratulating each others witless wisdom.
The Southern Hemisphere seems to be obsessed with any and every little thing Hillary Clinton might or might not have done, completely overlooking her many and solid contributions, as you yourself have pointed out. Indeed, while I don't trust HRC any more than you do, she is far and away a more viable choice than any of the currently available choices being presented to us during this clusterfuck pre-cum-pain (sic) debate season.
On the other hand, I really hope everyone took a moment to read the link Big Papasan provided about Barry Goldwater. To those in the Northern Hemisphere, you need to set aside your foaming at the mouth loathing for any and all things conservative, and read what Goldwater had to say. He sounds more like an intelligent and moderate liberal than any of you could ever aspire to. And the Southern Hemisphere should read it if only to be reminded of what real conservative mindsets used to be like before we were overwhelmed by Tea Party cretins, and their obnoxious cousins in Congress.
Truth be told, I find there's still a few contributors worth reading, but they have become rare, while the idiots have taken over, much like in Congress. Too much douchebaggery, not enough dialog, and so little of substance being discussed anymore.
The world is on fire, and we're given no options other than a circle jerk.
-- Modified on 10/9/2015 12:21:12 PM
One of the few things I've read here lately that didn't make me feel dumber by the experience.
I guess I must have been REALLY REALLY fucking bored over the last few days as once again I tried talking to people that there is just no talking to. We all know how this board cycles, hopefully it will cycle back to at least some kind of semi intelligent conversation squeezing it's way in between all the flinging of poo by partisan idiots.
The rest goes back in the kitty. But I agree Obama screwed the pooch in Syria, with terrible consequences. However, we are where we are and I think the only policy at this point is do nothing and let Putin wade in the quagmire. It will be ugly and he'll probably regret it.
.......The CIA and the Pentagon initiated separate programs to train and equip Syrian Rebels. The Pentagon was given a budget of $500 million to train and equip 5000 moderate Syrian rebel fighters, only 4-5 fighters remain, the rest deserted and joined Islamic radical groups with their U.S. supplied military equipment. The CIA was tasked to train and equip other moderate Syrian rebels to go after ISIS, now those same CIA trained Syrian rebels are being attacked by Putin's Russian military jets/missiles. Turkey recently joined the fight and stated they were going after ISIS but began bombing Kurdish rebel camps, the same Kurdish rebel groups helping the U.S. to fight ISIS. Can anyone see how clusterfucked this all is?
but nothing I can ever think of to this extreme.
I think this administration has done an extremely poor job into identifying exactly who we are supporting. I am not denying that we have backed dozens of petty despots in the past, but usually we had at least some American interests (no matter how evil) at stake, and to at least some benefit to ourselves. Taking out Kadaffi is a perfect example, it didn't appear that this administration took five minutes to try and figure out who we were backing before blindly following the French to protect "their" oil. Syria looks to be an even worse clusterfuck.
But there's a BIG difference between blowing $50 million and ten times that amount.