Stannis wrote:
I'll let our men in blue decide if this is a all purpose politics thread lol
So to address your questions and points...
I tried to keep the spoiler, but with all the quotes it kind of blew up - oh well.
I think we are focusing too much on would could or could not happen if the USA leaves the Middle East. And not on actually what USA is actually accomplishing or have accomplished.
So far, they have been on a long losing streak. On paper, it might be a "W" in that we killed more people and caused a lot of destruction. But did we defeat "terrorism" or just create more terrorists + extremists? Why is it that there's usually a civil war after we invade/bomb these nations?
So, you had to go there. You had to ask what's been accomplished . . I kid, of course. That's essential. You don't have to look too far back in history to see that America used to do good things. World War I and II, arguably. Standing up to the Russian aggression . . . arguably. But it gets harder to keep praising, you know. Vietnam was costly and of iffy benefit and everything you say about the middle east is true.
Did we accomplish anything in Afghanistan after 20 years? Maybe not. what about Iraq, again? Maybe made it worse, though I don't know that if Saddam was still there, if that would be better, but that doesn't make US involvement a win. Yes, good point. The history in the middle east isn't on our side. It's hard to argue that.
Stannis wrote:
Libya, Yemen, Syria, etc. Are these places better since the USA got involved? I don't think so.
Libya is tricky. That was during the Arab spring. The revolt against Qaddafi was sizable and Qaddafi was bringing in foreign mercenaries and he had like 100,000 in prisons. Had Obama not gotten involved, it would have been a bloodbath. But getting involved, created an instability in the country? Was that better? I don't know. What's more, Obama doesn't know. I heard one of his aids talking about how that US military intervention changed him. He became less certain in using US military. Benghazi also happened, which may have cost Hillary the election. I still say it would have been a bloodbath without US intervention, but it wasn't pretty with US intervention. I don't know.
Syria, now this one, Trump pulled us out of Syria and it immediately got worse. A genocide started. It was so bad that Trump reversed his decision. So when you say "what good has the US done", just having a presence in Syria is saving lives. It is, and I know this because when that presence was removed, Kurds were massacred.
Don't know much about Yemen. Isn't that Saudi Arabia's war, not ours? But, I've not read up on it. The US is discouraging Saudi involvement, but not with very much force.
Stannis wrote:
In lot of cases, we've seen cases of unity between these Muslim nations and sometimes even between Sunni and Shia sects (like when they did the oil embargoes in the 70s), but once the USA gets involved, it turns into a **** again.
Saddam was once the US's guy in Iraq. We put him there, so. . . that's on us for sure.
But how is that different than the Russian's backing Assad in Syria? He's their guy. Assad would have been thrown out if Syria had their way. Russia came to his support. Obama wasn't sure what to do. I think he wanted to go in and stand against Russia, but he know it was risky. He put the vote to congress, which, on the one hand, I respect, on the other hand, congress is a bunch of sellouts to whatever gets them votes, so I don't think they're reliable.
I'm not saying Obama should have sent support to the Syrian people to stand up against Russia and Assad, but I sometimes wish that had happened. Nobody wanted to stand up to Putin in 2014 or whenever this was. Now, just 9 or 10 years later, Europe can kick Putin's ass, well, he still has nukes, but army to army, Europe would wipe the floor with Putin. How things change . . . but I digress.
Did you hear about Russia's missile test? The missile didn't even get out of the ground. It blew up the silo. They're not doing well.
Stannis wrote:
Yeah, I get if we leave and no longer influence some of these Middle East governments, we get higher gas prices. But to me, so be it? Since when is trading oil for blood ok? I'd like to think America is better than that. If they aren't, I want them to be because I still live here and I'm a citizen
You might be right. Do you remember what a big deal inflation was just a year or two ago? It wasn't nothing, but, even so, you mgiht be right. It's a tough thing for a president to let that happen on their watch, but I'll give you some points for this, for letting the chips fall where they may.
It's worth pointing out that the US wants stability, not war, so it's not exactly trading oil for blood, so much as trading being the hall monitor for steady oil prices. We're the worlds hall monitor . . . good for us. The US also wants to try to limit support for terrorists, so our presence in the middle east isn't without any benefit, but I hear your point.
Stannis wrote:
And with all due respect, the people who keep responding "it's more complicated than that". To me, that just translates to "we gotta go into the Middle East and do fcked up **** so US citizens get to pay lower gas prices".
I'm going to disagree with you here. Lets go back to Obama. Obama went into Libya to get Qaddafi because he wanted to prevent a larger conflict. Libya lost stability when the government fell, there was a wave of immigration into Europe, Obama had 2nd thoughts and as a result, Obama was hesitant to go into Syria when their people tried to overthrow Assad and Russia stepped in to support Assad.
Obama would say it's complicated. Saying it's not complicated is not being honest. Libya and Syria aren't even oil nations, though I think Libya has some. saying it's complicated doesn't mean "lower gas prices" it means, it's a powder keg in several of those nations and terrorist groups can get a footing there. Knowing what to do isn't easy.
Stannis wrote:
Now we got lunatics in office signing bombs, taking photos with war criminals , posting in on social media. WTF is this?
You've got me here. I don't know anything about this. I guess my current affairs knowledge is a bit dated.
Stannis wrote:
We already know there's a bunch of scandals and corruptions when it comes to foreign dealings. So anyways, yeah, I'm super skeptical when it comes to America and international affairs. It's about a lot of things, but I know peace isn't one of them.
Examples?
I mean, the Trump whitehouse, sure. Biden? Obama? What scandals and corruptions? Don't say Hunter because he's nobody.
Are you talking about Snowden? US spying on everyone? Yeah, that happened. That wasn't a good look.
Stannis wrote:
This kind of globalization will work can work sometimes. Like the smaller Middle Eastern countries like Kuwait. Or with European countries like Bosnia and Kosovo. The people have to overwhelming welcome it. But there's a cultural clash if we are talking about large Islamic states in the East. You are just wasting your time or influencing them through bombs and fear.
Looking forward at what is happening now... going to war with these Shia Muslim countries would not be something I would want to do. No, I don't think they will defeat USA. But they'll fight harder than Iraq and Afghanistan, Libya. And it will be a bigger black hole sucking up more time and money. Dare I say, 10 times worse than Iraq + Afghanistan.
well, if you're going to go back to Kuwait, yes, that wasn't a nation. The way the lines were drawn in the middle east - when was that done? 1920s? 1930s? That was a mess that caused all kinds of problems.
and, are we going to war with Shia Muslim countries? The US pulled out of it's recent wars. had a one or two week intervention in Libya, didn't get into Syria beyond a presence that's mostly a peace keeping force . . . I don't want to go to war either. I think we've learned that fighting a war thousands of miles from home doesn't give us the advantage.
I don't think the US is planning to go to war with any middle east nations anytime soon. The question is whether our presence, a few military bases, some trade agreements, is beneficial or harmful. I don't know where I come down on that. I do think that full blown non-interventionism is the same thing as showing the world our cards at the poker game where everyone is cheating, so I don't support that approach. But beyond "lets withdraw everywhere" being something that I'm skeptical of, I'm not sure what the right approach is.
I have mad respect for Obama, and I think he tried. Even then, was the peace deal with Iran a good thing? Trump just undid it, so . . . I don't know. They already got paid, so what did Trump accomplish?
I have ZERO respect for Trump and even Trump didn't do what he said he'd do, closing down a bunch of military bases. And Trump screwed us in Afganistansh by showing the Taliban our cards, telling them all about our retreat and scheduling it the week Biden took office (a dik move that cost American lives, which he could blame Biden for). Biden delayed the withdrawl, but it was still a mess. They knew we were pulling out. They prepared for it.
If you want to say we should have never gone into Afganistan, you might be right, though, after 9-11, that would have been a tough sell. But knowing what to do with an inherited war, I'm sorry, but that's hard. it's not a simple question. Certainly what we shouldn't do is what Trump did and show the Taliban our cards and say, OK, I'm going to pull out, just letting you know. And, you'll be nice to me, right?
I know that I rant too much and I don't have much in the way of answers beyond pointing out the obvious (Trump is a dimwit).
I mentioned Trump a few times, but look at what his decision to pull of of Syria, because he trusted Erdogan's promise to maintain the peace, look what that got us:
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/trumps-syria-shambles/https://www.chathamhouse.org/2019/10/trump-withdraws-troops-syria-falloutThat was just one pull-out. It wasn't pretty.
God invented war so Americans would learn geography.