The other evening, talking with my wife about all the war craziness, I brought up the example of Ronald Reagan and the Beirut Barracks Bombing on October 23, 1983.
The Alex's at the Duran seem to think that Biden will keep ploughing on because 1/ he is feeling the pressure from the Israel/NeoCon/NeoLib Leviathan and, in any case, 2/ his default response is always to be the aggressive asshole. Not forgetting 3/ “We’re the United States of America for God’s sake.”
I can't say that I was a fan of the Reagan admin national security people, in general, including Weinberger. Many of them seemed to be aggressively pro-war and are the "forefathers" of our current day NeoCons (brought in under the Bush umbrella). On the other hand, as part of the pressure the Reagan admin applied it became economically unfeasible for the USSR to continue. Sort of like the "Tricky Dick" strategy. "Funny" how the tables have turned back the other direction on that one.
Weinberger to his credit was at heart a pragmatist and a realist. He saw how the USSR could be neutralized. He also saw how it didn't make sense to get into a war with Iran. If you go back and look at the total history, Iran had/has a lot of justification for concluding that the U.S. was/is their enemy and worked consistently to their detriment. Is it so surprising that they did everything they could to turn their own people against the U.S.? And build against potential U.S. aggression? I am not saying that the Ayatollahs and their regime aren't horrible people and that they have not been horrible for human rights and the well being of the people of Iran and they aren't horrible for wanting nuclear weapons capability. But really, can you expect that they would not act on behalf of their own preservation when they believe they are under active attack over a period of decades? Their response (as horrible as it may be) is predictably human nature.
What this history tells me is that we need a leader (President) who has good judgment regarding a consistent foreign policy and diplomatic and tactical and strategic actions in support thereof, enabling him/her to judge well between competing factions in the U.S. government. Judgments should be based on pragmatism and reality and what is best for the future of our country, rather than simply ad-hoc political considerations. Is Trump that guy? Maybe. He seemed to be to an extent during his Presidency. Is Biden that guy? No.
Trump as a builder and businessman is a realist, a pragmatist. Biden? An ideologue. It seems Weinburger ditched ideology for realism. With Zhou? He’s just acting out of ideology while keeping an eye on the electoral calendar. I just despair.
Biden's handlers are acting out of ideology, Ol' Joe himself is just wondering where his next hair sniff and ice cream cone are coming from. Not a joke!
Really sinister if true, per Hoh, that Biden admin's plan re Israel is to signal that Israel should drive out or mass-murder as many Palestinians in Gaza as they can ASAP -- i.e. ethnic cleansing and genocide -- and move on to ceasefire, so voters won't remember in Nov.
The Alex's at the Duran seem to think that Biden will keep ploughing on because 1/ he is feeling the pressure from the Israel/NeoCon/NeoLib Leviathan and, in any case, 2/ his default response is always to be the aggressive asshole. Not forgetting 3/ “We’re the United States of America for God’s sake.”
Iran pressures Islamic terrorist group to announce no more attacks because Zhou quietly dangles the $6B card to them.
Hamas, Houthi’s, and Hezbollah and the other 29 terrorist groups… not so much.
I can't say that I was a fan of the Reagan admin national security people, in general, including Weinberger. Many of them seemed to be aggressively pro-war and are the "forefathers" of our current day NeoCons (brought in under the Bush umbrella). On the other hand, as part of the pressure the Reagan admin applied it became economically unfeasible for the USSR to continue. Sort of like the "Tricky Dick" strategy. "Funny" how the tables have turned back the other direction on that one.
Weinberger to his credit was at heart a pragmatist and a realist. He saw how the USSR could be neutralized. He also saw how it didn't make sense to get into a war with Iran. If you go back and look at the total history, Iran had/has a lot of justification for concluding that the U.S. was/is their enemy and worked consistently to their detriment. Is it so surprising that they did everything they could to turn their own people against the U.S.? And build against potential U.S. aggression? I am not saying that the Ayatollahs and their regime aren't horrible people and that they have not been horrible for human rights and the well being of the people of Iran and they aren't horrible for wanting nuclear weapons capability. But really, can you expect that they would not act on behalf of their own preservation when they believe they are under active attack over a period of decades? Their response (as horrible as it may be) is predictably human nature.
What this history tells me is that we need a leader (President) who has good judgment regarding a consistent foreign policy and diplomatic and tactical and strategic actions in support thereof, enabling him/her to judge well between competing factions in the U.S. government. Judgments should be based on pragmatism and reality and what is best for the future of our country, rather than simply ad-hoc political considerations. Is Trump that guy? Maybe. He seemed to be to an extent during his Presidency. Is Biden that guy? No.
Trump as a builder and businessman is a realist, a pragmatist. Biden? An ideologue. It seems Weinburger ditched ideology for realism. With Zhou? He’s just acting out of ideology while keeping an eye on the electoral calendar. I just despair.
Biden's handlers are acting out of ideology, Ol' Joe himself is just wondering where his next hair sniff and ice cream cone are coming from. Not a joke!
You’re right.
Really sinister if true, per Hoh, that Biden admin's plan re Israel is to signal that Israel should drive out or mass-murder as many Palestinians in Gaza as they can ASAP -- i.e. ethnic cleansing and genocide -- and move on to ceasefire, so voters won't remember in Nov.
“It’s not working, but we are going to continue.”
Wow, just wow.
That would go between “it’s working and It was us”.
I wonder if the deep state would have the gall to try and postpone (unprecedented and without legal basis) the elections if conflict broke out.
Given the states authority to administer elections we could potentially have some states holding elections while others could postpone.
In today’s world nothing would surprise me, even the US having two presidents.
Why not. There’s two Air Force One’s.
Well there was a time when there were two popes ...
There was also a time when there were three.
Ha! Then there's a precedent for things to get really silly this year.
I know of the two. When were there 3?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Schism#Three_popes
Thank you!! Ever heard of the 3rd Pope!