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Skids
Quitting drinking will be one of the best choices you make in your life.
Joined: 11 Sep 2007 Location: Joined 3/6/02 . Member #175
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Jezza
2023 PREMIERS!
Joined: 06 Sep 2010 Location: Ponsford End
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Terrible decision by Trump. The NeoCons are firmly in charge. _________________ | 1902 | 1903 | 1910 | 1917 | 1919 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1935 | 1936 | 1953 | 1958 | 1990 | 2010 | 2023 | |
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005 Location: In flagrante delicto
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^
Dunno.
He has the support of Britain and France.
First time they used chemical weapons, Obama made threats but blinked. Second time, under pressure, he fired off a couple of shots but didn't follow through. The Donald doesn't blink, he makes others blink. Like china backing down on their tariff war threats. _________________ Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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Jezza
2023 PREMIERS!
Joined: 06 Sep 2010 Location: Ponsford End
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Is there any evidence Assad was behind the chemical weapons attack?
Just seems illogical he would perpetrate such an attack when he's close to winning the war. Though the alternative is he's a psychopath. _________________ | 1902 | 1903 | 1910 | 1917 | 1919 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1935 | 1936 | 1953 | 1958 | 1990 | 2010 | 2023 | |
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007 Location: Between London and Melbourne
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I agree with Jezza.
Firstly, There is no certain evidence that Assad was behind the attack (there are some very, very ugly groups in the opposition which have used CWs in the past, and it is hard to see what Assad has to gain from their use given he is winning anyway.
Secondly, there is no core strategic defensive interest here that requires us to risk the lives of our young men as world policemen. What really is our objective here and how will this achieve it ? Unless we have specific and compelling national interests, such things should be undertaken with UN support if at all.
Wars are easy to enter, but they are wildly unpredictable in their course and consequences. It is time we stopped treating them with all the seriousness of a date night. _________________ Two more flags before I die! |
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pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
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stui magpie wrote: | The Donald doesn't blink, he makes others blink. Like china backing down on their tariff war threats. |
Actually, Trump blinked so hard on that he was enveloped by the bags under his eyes
I assume you saw his about-face on the TPP when he realised China could (a) match the pain in minutes, (b) target retaliation for maximum electoral pain, and (c) seize global leadership — all for massive financial loss for everyone.
This is a complete repudiation of his own bilateral grandstanding, and an embarrassing chastisement. _________________ In the end the rain comes down, washes clean the streets of a blue sky town.
Help Nick's: http://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/fundraising.htm |
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Culprit
Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Location: Port Melbourne
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-12/trump-syria-response-embroils-russia-iran-israel/9642154
In an interview with Reuters, then Republican candidate Trump, said the focus should be more on Islamic State than Bashar al Assad's Syria; indeed ousting Assad, he argued, was "secondary, to me, to ISIS"
Obviously Trump has changed his position.
Russia has gone to the UN, the UN have told them to suck eggs. Putin has a big ego and he will want to make a Statement as well. A strike against US, UK or France would be a massive escalation. |
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Pies4shaw
pies4shaw
Joined: 08 Oct 2007
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As long as they aren't looking for a soft target, like, say, in the South Pacific. |
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pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
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pietillidie wrote: | stui magpie wrote: | The Donald doesn't blink, he makes others blink. Like china backing down on their tariff war threats. |
Actually, Trump blinked so hard on that he was enveloped by the bags under his eyes
I assume you saw his about-face on the TPP when he realised China could (a) match the pain in minutes, (b) target retaliation for maximum electoral pain, and (c) seize global leadership — all for massive financial loss for everyone.
This is a complete repudiation of his own bilateral grandstanding, and an embarrassing chastisement. |
His Twitter poll results are in, causing him to blink yet again: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/us/politics/trump-tpp-japan-south-korea.html
A tactic of constant vacillation and contradiction is very effective because it wrong-foots everyone and makes critique impossible. Obviously, though, it is also incompatible with leadership, which requires strategy and direction.*
The actual working leaders of the US government are presumably proceeding on the basis of something like a TPP, re-branded to allow Trump to 'own it'.
*Should this critique somehow reach Trump's ears, we can look forward to a PR tirade asserting that he is "very strategic" and "the most brilliant strategist in world history". _________________ In the end the rain comes down, washes clean the streets of a blue sky town.
Help Nick's: http://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/fundraising.htm |
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007 Location: Between London and Melbourne
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^ agreed, PTID, and one of th most interesting things about Trump is that he is inadvertently redefining (liquefying might be a better term) the concept of leadership as we understand it. It should be (as we have defined the term) about strategy and direction, focused execution and inspiration. Instead, he is the first major Western leader since 1945 to make it solely about the capricious exercise of power. It is possible that this will unfreeze and wrong-foot some players for a while and give him some successes. But it is a matter of time before it becomes (at best) only farcical or (at worst) eruptive. We shall see. _________________ Two more flags before I die! |
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ronrat
Joined: 22 May 2006 Location: Thailand
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You gotta love him. Diplomats and bureacrats spend years looking at every single issue from tiolet rolls to apricots to used underwear vending machines from Japan . Trump, nah get rid of it. Doesn't help etc.
Pockets of the USA growing niche fruits etc will go bust but it won;t worry him until he goes back to his hotels. Where is so and so. "Oh didn't you hear Sir, you ripped up the TPP so they pulled the trees and we know have to import them from some country you just banned from exporting to us"
The bigger picture is not his thing. It seems the 140 characters of twitter is his limit. _________________ Annoying opposition supporters since 1967. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003 Location: Andromeda
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A whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, wasn’t it? Just another impotent show of force as a response to a stalemate that nobody wants (or can afford, or has any idea how) to break. Maybe they’ll do the same in 6 months, there’ll be a whole lot of sabre-rattling, and Syrians will continue to be cruelly slaughtered in their thousands. _________________ All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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