calourie wrote: ↑Fri Nov 27, 2020 12:44 am
old salt wrote: ↑Thu Nov 26, 2020 10:55 pm
calourie wrote: ↑Thu Nov 26, 2020 8:03 pmOne last "Come on" Salty. You are going out of your way to continue to support and make false equivalancies for a man who is currently doing all he can to undermine America's belief in democratic principles and the execution of fair elections. This is a travesty, and you are certainly smart enough to know better than to continue to act as though this behavior hasn't been applied throughout his four years in office. Each to his own, I suppose, and there is no reason for you to give a rip about my point of view, but I will say it is just sad to see you fight tooth and nail to defend such an un-American abomination after all the service you have rendered this country.
Thanks for the benefit of the doubt. I smell more than one rat. Trump's opponents look good only in contrast to him. Biden deserves the same media scrutiny which Trump received, not the media tongue bath he recieved during the campaign. Trump will soon be yesterday's story. Let's see how Biden's policies toward Ukraine, Russia & China play out. Will Biden add Belarus to Ukraine & Georgia on his NATO membership dance card ? Will he follow through on Obama's promised pivot to Asia, which Trump was the only one to act upon , or will he tell us again that the Communist Chinese aren't such bad guys ? Will he defend Taiwan & stand up for the rights of Hong Kong with the same fervor he supported Ukraine ? Will he continue to pressure our NATO & Pacific allies to contribute more to our common defense ? Let's see what he does.
IMHO, we made great strides the past 4 years on the national security front. To me, that was worth putting up with Trump. Results & readiness over rhetoric & symbolism. Let's see how Putin & Xi respond to soft power & empty, soaring rhetoric, not to mention Kim & the Mullahs.
Be well.
Not sure I follow your reasoning on the national security front. Trump seems to have done a good deal of damage to our relationships with our traditional allies while at the same time the following appears to have occurred:
1. Trade deficit with China is at or near an all time high despite Trump's tariff war which many of us know is being paid by the US consumer, not China as Trump claims. Even with massive US taxpayer bailouts to US farmers the China trade war seems to be carving a sizable chunk out of the third biggest US agriculture foreign market. Meantime Trump and his family look like they continue to angle for favorable status with Xi and his cronies, Hunter Biden be damned. Don't forget to check for made in China trademarks on Trump and Trump family merchandise and products.
2. Trump is seemingly willing to concede power in the mideast to Putin, Erdogan and bin Salman, none of whom I would tend to label as staunch allies for our interests. I am not opposed to disengagement there, but it does appear to be coming at the expense of many lesser players in the area who thought we were their allies. I wonder how Israel feels about all this.
3. Interactions with Kim seem to have been more about photo ops than diplomacy.
4. Trump has made it abundantly clear on several occasions he trusts Putin more than he does our own national security experts. I have a hard time seeing that as reassuring from a national security standpoint, but perhaps you have inside information that I am lacking.
5. As far as I can surmise, Trump runs his foreign policy as he does most things, that is to say on a transactional basis, the gist of which is,if it is good for Trump it is good for the good old US of A. We should be able to do better no matter who is in office.
With respect, I disagree. Don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.
1. on trade -- see my response to afan, ^ up the page. USMCA was an overdue upgrade to NAFTA. For manufacturing, we are inextricably intertwined with China. All we can do is try to protect our IP & critical capabilities & capacities, & claw back what we can.
2. Putin, Erdogan & the House of Saud were already firmly entrenched in the ME @ 1/2017. Russia was already in Syria. Erdogan had just survived a coup in which he suspected US complicity. We finessed the situation in Syria so that we could finish off IS, hold them down & protect our Kurdish allies with a minimum of US forces & casualties. Even the abrupt "pullout" of Syria turned into a repositioning which further stabilized NE Syria & still protects our SDF allies (& their oil fields). We're still operating from our Turkish NATO base at Incirlik, having punished Erdogan by denying him the F-35 acquisition & manufacturing participation. We've strengthened our alliance with the Gulf Arab states with modest force redeployments to contain Iraq, deter their proxy terrorism, while taking out the leaders of the IRGC & IS. The Abraham accords & moving our embassy to Jerusalem were unthinkable 4 years ago.
3. Superficial face saving theater matter greatly in that part of the world. They are reassuring & a small price to pay for no nuc tests & limiting ICBM testing.
4. I watch what our forces are doing rather than stagecraft & toasts between national leaders.
5. All diplomacy is transactional. IMHO our alliances are more robust (actually, not rhetorically) & our adversaries more effectively contained & deterred than they were 4 years ago, all with minimal US casualties. I hope Biden does as well, ...in a more soothing way. The table is set for him.
