All Things Russia & Ukraine

[dislaxxic]

Trump had, and may STILL have, classified documents from the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE matter at MAL

..

[Seacoaster(1)]

Interesting EUro reaction.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/1 ... perialism/

Hungary must resist America’s cultural imperialism
The Biden White House is desperate to export its identitarian ideology.

by FRANK FUREDI, 14th February 2023

Samantha Power, head administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived in Budapest last week with one mission – to save Central European nations from themselves. Her main target was Hungary.

According to a press release issued by USAID to accompany her trip to the Hungarian capital, Power wants ‘to help support democracy in Central Europe’. And she wants ‘independent media to thrive and build new audiences’. ‘[A] free and diverse press is a cornerstone of democracy’, she tweeted, ‘and in Hungary, independent journalists are facing real challenges’.

By a ‘free’ and ‘independent’ media, what Power really meant are outlets that freely propagate the worldview of the Biden administration. Central to this worldview, it seems, are LGBT rights. That’s why USAID’s press release explicitly told the Hungarians that the US will ‘continue to stand as an ally with LGBTQI+ people and all marginalised groups in their struggle for equality’.

Power’s attempt to impose the White House’s obsession with LGBT issues on Hungary is not especially surprising. It is worth remembering that one of Biden’s earliest foreign-policy initiatives was to send the State Department a memo ‘to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBTQ+ persons’.

But of course, it’s not just LGBT rights driving the US’s intervention in Central Europe. Last December, when USAID announced its Central Europe programme, it also claimed it was going to support ‘new locally driven initiatives in Central Europe with the goal of strengthening democratic institutions, civil society and independent media, which are all pillars of resilient democratic societies’. For USAID, these ‘locally driven initiatives’ refers not to any grassroots organisations, but to NGOs. And through these NGOs, USAID claims it is building ‘the watchdog skills of civil society and media to enhance rule-of-law observance, combat corruption and increase access to justice’.

The use of the word ‘watchdog’ is telling. As is well known, a watchdog usually has a master – and one does not need a PhD in political science to guess that this watchdog’s master is not a million miles away from 2201 C Street Northwest, Washington, DC – the home of the State Department.

USAID’s promise to ‘support democracy’ and ‘strengthen democratic institutions’ is entirely cynical. In practice, USAID wants to use local NGOs and other institutions to translate Washington’s cultural narrative and political priorities into a local language. This is to create the impression that what’s ‘made in America’ appears as locally grown. In reality, of course, it’s nothing of the sort.

This represents a clear attempt on the part of Washington to erode the sovereignty and exert influence over the democratic decision-making processes of Hungary and other nations in Central Europe. The US is effectively assuming the role of a moral guardian of democratic life in Central Europe.

The arrogance is breathtaking. It seems that the Biden administration believes it possesses an inalienable right to influence the political and cultural life of Hungary and other Central European nations. The US State Department is certainly in no doubt that Budapest is a legitimate target for its propaganda. Back in 2019, its mouthpiece, the New York Times, reported that ‘Radio Free Europe’, the Cold War-era US radio station formerly broadcast to Soviet states, ‘is poised to return to a less free Hungary’.

For the US to pose as the liberator of a ‘less free Hungary’ is an insult to the people of Hungary and an affront to Hungarian democracy. It treats Hungary as a benighted nation whose wayward citizens are in need of civilising. Indeed, if you strain your ears, you can hear Power and her friends over at Radio Free Europe muttering sotto voce about the desirability of regime change.

No doubt Central European nations need to have good relations with the US. But if they want to preserve their sovereignty and way of life, they must resist the attempts by the Biden White House to impose its ideology on their societies.

Frank Furedi is the executive director of the think-tank MCC-Brussels.

This is a pretty dumb article.

[a fan]

Interesting EUro reaction.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/1 ... perialism/

Hungary must resist America’s cultural imperialism
The Biden White House is desperate to export its identitarian ideology.

by FRANK FUREDI, 14th February 2023

Samantha Power, head administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived in Budapest last week with one mission – to save Central European nations from themselves. Her main target was Hungary.

According to a press release issued by USAID to accompany her trip to the Hungarian capital, Power wants ‘to help support democracy in Central Europe’. And she wants ‘independent media to thrive and build new audiences’. ‘[A] free and diverse press is a cornerstone of democracy’, she tweeted, ‘and in Hungary, independent journalists are facing real challenges’.

By a ‘free’ and ‘independent’ media, what Power really meant are outlets that freely propagate the worldview of the Biden administration. Central to this worldview, it seems, are LGBT rights. That’s why USAID’s press release explicitly told the Hungarians that the US will ‘continue to stand as an ally with LGBTQI+ people and all marginalised groups in their struggle for equality’.

Power’s attempt to impose the White House’s obsession with LGBT issues on Hungary is not especially surprising. It is worth remembering that one of Biden’s earliest foreign-policy initiatives was to send the State Department a memo ‘to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBTQ+ persons’.

But of course, it’s not just LGBT rights driving the US’s intervention in Central Europe. Last December, when USAID announced its Central Europe programme, it also claimed it was going to support ‘new locally driven initiatives in Central Europe with the goal of strengthening democratic institutions, civil society and independent media, which are all pillars of resilient democratic societies’. For USAID, these ‘locally driven initiatives’ refers not to any grassroots organisations, but to NGOs. And through these NGOs, USAID claims it is building ‘the watchdog skills of civil society and media to enhance rule-of-law observance, combat corruption and increase access to justice’.

The use of the word ‘watchdog’ is telling. As is well known, a watchdog usually has a master – and one does not need a PhD in political science to guess that this watchdog’s master is not a million miles away from 2201 C Street Northwest, Washington, DC – the home of the State Department.

USAID’s promise to ‘support democracy’ and ‘strengthen democratic institutions’ is entirely cynical. In practice, USAID wants to use local NGOs and other institutions to translate Washington’s cultural narrative and political priorities into a local language. This is to create the impression that what’s ‘made in America’ appears as locally grown. In reality, of course, it’s nothing of the sort.

This represents a clear attempt on the part of Washington to erode the sovereignty and exert influence over the democratic decision-making processes of Hungary and other nations in Central Europe. The US is effectively assuming the role of a moral guardian of democratic life in Central Europe.

The arrogance is breathtaking. It seems that the Biden administration believes it possesses an inalienable right to influence the political and cultural life of Hungary and other Central European nations. The US State Department is certainly in no doubt that Budapest is a legitimate target for its propaganda. Back in 2019, its mouthpiece, the New York Times, reported that ‘Radio Free Europe’, the Cold War-era US radio station formerly broadcast to Soviet states, ‘is poised to return to a less free Hungary’.

For the US to pose as the liberator of a ‘less free Hungary’ is an insult to the people of Hungary and an affront to Hungarian democracy. It treats Hungary as a benighted nation whose wayward citizens are in need of civilising. Indeed, if you strain your ears, you can hear Power and her friends over at Radio Free Europe muttering sotto voce about the desirability of regime change.

No doubt Central European nations need to have good relations with the US. But if they want to preserve their sovereignty and way of life, they must resist the attempts by the Biden White House to impose its ideology on their societies.

Frank Furedi is the executive director of the think-tank MCC-Brussels.

So after spending your entire career as an armed representative of the US of A, who told the world what to do and where.....at the point of a gun....American arrogance in its full glory.....

...you're just now realizing that not everyone is all that excited about the US shoving people around, and telling them what to do? It took you 'til 2023 to figure this out?

Don't remember the mass EU protests before the Iraq War?

...and how hard would it be to find reasonable Afghanis that aren't all the jazzed about the occupation that you thought was super awesome. Or find Afghanis that believe that we ruined their county because of Reagan's little game of arming the future Taliban?

Biden is a Neo-Con, just like you. It's why you think we have a right to occupy Afghanistan, and back their politicians.

[MDlaxfan76]

Interesting EUro reaction.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/1 ... perialism/

Hungary must resist America’s cultural imperialism
The Biden White House is desperate to export its identitarian ideology.

by FRANK FUREDI, 14th February 2023

Samantha Power, head administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived in Budapest last week with one mission – to save Central European nations from themselves. Her main target was Hungary.

According to a press release issued by USAID to accompany her trip to the Hungarian capital, Power wants ‘to help support democracy in Central Europe’. And she wants ‘independent media to thrive and build new audiences’. ‘[A] free and diverse press is a cornerstone of democracy’, she tweeted, ‘and in Hungary, independent journalists are facing real challenges’.

By a ‘free’ and ‘independent’ media, what Power really meant are outlets that freely propagate the worldview of the Biden administration. Central to this worldview, it seems, are LGBT rights. That’s why USAID’s press release explicitly told the Hungarians that the US will ‘continue to stand as an ally with LGBTQI+ people and all marginalised groups in their struggle for equality’.

Power’s attempt to impose the White House’s obsession with LGBT issues on Hungary is not especially surprising. It is worth remembering that one of Biden’s earliest foreign-policy initiatives was to send the State Department a memo ‘to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBTQ+ persons’.

But of course, it’s not just LGBT rights driving the US’s intervention in Central Europe. Last December, when USAID announced its Central Europe programme, it also claimed it was going to support ‘new locally driven initiatives in Central Europe with the goal of strengthening democratic institutions, civil society and independent media, which are all pillars of resilient democratic societies’. For USAID, these ‘locally driven initiatives’ refers not to any grassroots organisations, but to NGOs. And through these NGOs, USAID claims it is building ‘the watchdog skills of civil society and media to enhance rule-of-law observance, combat corruption and increase access to justice’.

The use of the word ‘watchdog’ is telling. As is well known, a watchdog usually has a master – and one does not need a PhD in political science to guess that this watchdog’s master is not a million miles away from 2201 C Street Northwest, Washington, DC – the home of the State Department.

USAID’s promise to ‘support democracy’ and ‘strengthen democratic institutions’ is entirely cynical. In practice, USAID wants to use local NGOs and other institutions to translate Washington’s cultural narrative and political priorities into a local language. This is to create the impression that what’s ‘made in America’ appears as locally grown. In reality, of course, it’s nothing of the sort.

This represents a clear attempt on the part of Washington to erode the sovereignty and exert influence over the democratic decision-making processes of Hungary and other nations in Central Europe. The US is effectively assuming the role of a moral guardian of democratic life in Central Europe.

The arrogance is breathtaking. It seems that the Biden administration believes it possesses an inalienable right to influence the political and cultural life of Hungary and other Central European nations. The US State Department is certainly in no doubt that Budapest is a legitimate target for its propaganda. Back in 2019, its mouthpiece, the New York Times, reported that ‘Radio Free Europe’, the Cold War-era US radio station formerly broadcast to Soviet states, ‘is poised to return to a less free Hungary’.

For the US to pose as the liberator of a ‘less free Hungary’ is an insult to the people of Hungary and an affront to Hungarian democracy. It treats Hungary as a benighted nation whose wayward citizens are in need of civilising. Indeed, if you strain your ears, you can hear Power and her friends over at Radio Free Europe muttering sotto voce about the desirability of regime change.

No doubt Central European nations need to have good relations with the US. But if they want to preserve their sovereignty and way of life, they must resist the attempts by the Biden White House to impose its ideology on their societies.

Frank Furedi is the executive director of the think-tank MCC-Brussels.

This is a pretty dumb article.

Very.
But not surprising, unfortunately.

Hungarian communist, academic, turned far right "contrarian"...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Furedi

Here's the think tank he's the Executive director of, which Salty claims is "EUro"
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022 ... it-matters

[old salt]

So after spending your entire career as an armed representative of the US of A, who told the world what to do and where.....at the point of a gun....American arrogance in its full glory.....

...you're just now realizing that not everyone is all that excited about the US shoving people around, and telling them what to do? It took you 'til 2023 to figure this out?

Don't remember the mass EU protests before the Iraq War?

...and how hard would it be to find reasonable Afghanis that aren't all the jazzed about the occupation that you thought was super awesome. Or find Afghanis that believe that we ruined their county because of Reagan's little game of arming the future Taliban?

Biden is a Neo-Con, just like you. It's why you think we have a right to occupy Afghanistan, and back their politicians.

One size fits all logic makes things easy. You don't have to distinguish. You don't have to think.

Every military intervention is different, based on circumstances, from Korea to Vietnam to Grenada to Panama to Bosnia to Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria to Ukraine. Some I supported, some I grudgingly endured. I realize it's a complex concept for you, but continue wasting bandwidth with your pointless rants if it makes you feel superior. Thankfully, I spent most of my time doing deterrence, another complex concept which apparently escapes you.

[old salt]

Hungarian communist, academic, turned far right "contrarian"...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Furedi

Here's the think tank he's the Executive director of, which Salty claims is "EUro"
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022 ... it-matters

Maybe USAID will fund them as a NGO.

[cradleandshoot]

Trump had, and may STILL have, classified documents from the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE matter at MAL

..

Maybe he has those classified documents stuffed up his rectum? The horse is dead Dis, put down the club you need to save " Lucille" for RD.

[cradleandshoot]

Interesting EUro reaction.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/1 ... perialism/

Hungary must resist America’s cultural imperialism
The Biden White House is desperate to export its identitarian ideology.

by FRANK FUREDI, 14th February 2023

Samantha Power, head administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived in Budapest last week with one mission – to save Central European nations from themselves. Her main target was Hungary.

According to a press release issued by USAID to accompany her trip to the Hungarian capital, Power wants ‘to help support democracy in Central Europe’. And she wants ‘independent media to thrive and build new audiences’. ‘[A] free and diverse press is a cornerstone of democracy’, she tweeted, ‘and in Hungary, independent journalists are facing real challenges’.

By a ‘free’ and ‘independent’ media, what Power really meant are outlets that freely propagate the worldview of the Biden administration. Central to this worldview, it seems, are LGBT rights. That’s why USAID’s press release explicitly told the Hungarians that the US will ‘continue to stand as an ally with LGBTQI+ people and all marginalised groups in their struggle for equality’.

Power’s attempt to impose the White House’s obsession with LGBT issues on Hungary is not especially surprising. It is worth remembering that one of Biden’s earliest foreign-policy initiatives was to send the State Department a memo ‘to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBTQ+ persons’.

But of course, it’s not just LGBT rights driving the US’s intervention in Central Europe. Last December, when USAID announced its Central Europe programme, it also claimed it was going to support ‘new locally driven initiatives in Central Europe with the goal of strengthening democratic institutions, civil society and independent media, which are all pillars of resilient democratic societies’. For USAID, these ‘locally driven initiatives’ refers not to any grassroots organisations, but to NGOs. And through these NGOs, USAID claims it is building ‘the watchdog skills of civil society and media to enhance rule-of-law observance, combat corruption and increase access to justice’.

The use of the word ‘watchdog’ is telling. As is well known, a watchdog usually has a master – and one does not need a PhD in political science to guess that this watchdog’s master is not a million miles away from 2201 C Street Northwest, Washington, DC – the home of the State Department.

USAID’s promise to ‘support democracy’ and ‘strengthen democratic institutions’ is entirely cynical. In practice, USAID wants to use local NGOs and other institutions to translate Washington’s cultural narrative and political priorities into a local language. This is to create the impression that what’s ‘made in America’ appears as locally grown. In reality, of course, it’s nothing of the sort.

This represents a clear attempt on the part of Washington to erode the sovereignty and exert influence over the democratic decision-making processes of Hungary and other nations in Central Europe. The US is effectively assuming the role of a moral guardian of democratic life in Central Europe.

The arrogance is breathtaking. It seems that the Biden administration believes it possesses an inalienable right to influence the political and cultural life of Hungary and other Central European nations. The US State Department is certainly in no doubt that Budapest is a legitimate target for its propaganda. Back in 2019, its mouthpiece, the New York Times, reported that ‘Radio Free Europe’, the Cold War-era US radio station formerly broadcast to Soviet states, ‘is poised to return to a less free Hungary’.

For the US to pose as the liberator of a ‘less free Hungary’ is an insult to the people of Hungary and an affront to Hungarian democracy. It treats Hungary as a benighted nation whose wayward citizens are in need of civilising. Indeed, if you strain your ears, you can hear Power and her friends over at Radio Free Europe muttering sotto voce about the desirability of regime change.

No doubt Central European nations need to have good relations with the US. But if they want to preserve their sovereignty and way of life, they must resist the attempts by the Biden White House to impose its ideology on their societies.

Frank Furedi is the executive director of the think-tank MCC-Brussels.

So after spending your entire career as an armed representative of the US of A, who told the world what to do and where.....at the point of a gun....American arrogance in its full glory.....

...you're just now realizing that not everyone is all that excited about the US shoving people around, and telling them what to do? It took you 'til 2023 to figure this out?

Don't remember the mass EU protests before the Iraq War?

...and how hard would it be to find reasonable Afghanis that aren't all the jazzed about the occupation that you thought was super awesome. Or find Afghanis that believe that we ruined their county because of Reagan's little game of arming the future Taliban?

Biden is a Neo-Con, just like you. It's why you think we have a right to occupy Afghanistan, and back their politicians.

I don't agree with your assessment here a fan. Old Salt was a naval officer, I was an enlisted man. We both had this in common... We both followed effing orders. I'm willing to bet that OS and I both obeyed orders we disagreed with.

[MDlaxfan76]

Hungarian communist, academic, turned far right "contrarian"...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Furedi

Here's the think tank he's the Executive director of, which Salty claims is "EUro"
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022 ... it-matters

Maybe USAID will fund them as a NGO.

maybe you should do your homework before trying to pass this crappola off as legit?

[MDlaxfan76]

Interesting EUro reaction.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/1 ... perialism/

Hungary must resist America’s cultural imperialism
The Biden White House is desperate to export its identitarian ideology.

by FRANK FUREDI, 14th February 2023

Samantha Power, head administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived in Budapest last week with one mission – to save Central European nations from themselves. Her main target was Hungary.

According to a press release issued by USAID to accompany her trip to the Hungarian capital, Power wants ‘to help support democracy in Central Europe’. And she wants ‘independent media to thrive and build new audiences’. ‘[A] free and diverse press is a cornerstone of democracy’, she tweeted, ‘and in Hungary, independent journalists are facing real challenges’.

By a ‘free’ and ‘independent’ media, what Power really meant are outlets that freely propagate the worldview of the Biden administration. Central to this worldview, it seems, are LGBT rights. That’s why USAID’s press release explicitly told the Hungarians that the US will ‘continue to stand as an ally with LGBTQI+ people and all marginalised groups in their struggle for equality’.

Power’s attempt to impose the White House’s obsession with LGBT issues on Hungary is not especially surprising. It is worth remembering that one of Biden’s earliest foreign-policy initiatives was to send the State Department a memo ‘to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBTQ+ persons’.

But of course, it’s not just LGBT rights driving the US’s intervention in Central Europe. Last December, when USAID announced its Central Europe programme, it also claimed it was going to support ‘new locally driven initiatives in Central Europe with the goal of strengthening democratic institutions, civil society and independent media, which are all pillars of resilient democratic societies’. For USAID, these ‘locally driven initiatives’ refers not to any grassroots organisations, but to NGOs. And through these NGOs, USAID claims it is building ‘the watchdog skills of civil society and media to enhance rule-of-law observance, combat corruption and increase access to justice’.

The use of the word ‘watchdog’ is telling. As is well known, a watchdog usually has a master – and one does not need a PhD in political science to guess that this watchdog’s master is not a million miles away from 2201 C Street Northwest, Washington, DC – the home of the State Department.

USAID’s promise to ‘support democracy’ and ‘strengthen democratic institutions’ is entirely cynical. In practice, USAID wants to use local NGOs and other institutions to translate Washington’s cultural narrative and political priorities into a local language. This is to create the impression that what’s ‘made in America’ appears as locally grown. In reality, of course, it’s nothing of the sort.

This represents a clear attempt on the part of Washington to erode the sovereignty and exert influence over the democratic decision-making processes of Hungary and other nations in Central Europe. The US is effectively assuming the role of a moral guardian of democratic life in Central Europe.

The arrogance is breathtaking. It seems that the Biden administration believes it possesses an inalienable right to influence the political and cultural life of Hungary and other Central European nations. The US State Department is certainly in no doubt that Budapest is a legitimate target for its propaganda. Back in 2019, its mouthpiece, the New York Times, reported that ‘Radio Free Europe’, the Cold War-era US radio station formerly broadcast to Soviet states, ‘is poised to return to a less free Hungary’.

For the US to pose as the liberator of a ‘less free Hungary’ is an insult to the people of Hungary and an affront to Hungarian democracy. It treats Hungary as a benighted nation whose wayward citizens are in need of civilising. Indeed, if you strain your ears, you can hear Power and her friends over at Radio Free Europe muttering sotto voce about the desirability of regime change.

No doubt Central European nations need to have good relations with the US. But if they want to preserve their sovereignty and way of life, they must resist the attempts by the Biden White House to impose its ideology on their societies.

Frank Furedi is the executive director of the think-tank MCC-Brussels.

So after spending your entire career as an armed representative of the US of A, who told the world what to do and where.....at the point of a gun....American arrogance in its full glory.....

...you're just now realizing that not everyone is all that excited about the US shoving people around, and telling them what to do? It took you 'til 2023 to figure this out?

Don't remember the mass EU protests before the Iraq War?

...and how hard would it be to find reasonable Afghanis that aren't all the jazzed about the occupation that you thought was super awesome. Or find Afghanis that believe that we ruined their county because of Reagan's little game of arming the future Taliban?

Biden is a Neo-Con, just like you. It's why you think we have a right to occupy Afghanistan, and back their politicians.

I don't agree with your assessment here a fan. Old Salt was a naval officer, I was an enlisted man. We both had this in common... We both followed effing orders. I'm willing to bet that OS and I both obeyed orders we disagreed with.

What does that have with the price of apples on the moon?

You both took orders??
So what? or good for you...it's not on topic.

Views expressed here aren't "following orders"...

[Typical Lax Dad]

Interesting EUro reaction.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/1 ... perialism/

Hungary must resist America’s cultural imperialism
The Biden White House is desperate to export its identitarian ideology.

by FRANK FUREDI, 14th February 2023

Samantha Power, head administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived in Budapest last week with one mission – to save Central European nations from themselves. Her main target was Hungary.

According to a press release issued by USAID to accompany her trip to the Hungarian capital, Power wants ‘to help support democracy in Central Europe’. And she wants ‘independent media to thrive and build new audiences’. ‘[A] free and diverse press is a cornerstone of democracy’, she tweeted, ‘and in Hungary, independent journalists are facing real challenges’.

By a ‘free’ and ‘independent’ media, what Power really meant are outlets that freely propagate the worldview of the Biden administration. Central to this worldview, it seems, are LGBT rights. That’s why USAID’s press release explicitly told the Hungarians that the US will ‘continue to stand as an ally with LGBTQI+ people and all marginalised groups in their struggle for equality’.

Power’s attempt to impose the White House’s obsession with LGBT issues on Hungary is not especially surprising. It is worth remembering that one of Biden’s earliest foreign-policy initiatives was to send the State Department a memo ‘to ensure that US diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBTQ+ persons’.

But of course, it’s not just LGBT rights driving the US’s intervention in Central Europe. Last December, when USAID announced its Central Europe programme, it also claimed it was going to support ‘new locally driven initiatives in Central Europe with the goal of strengthening democratic institutions, civil society and independent media, which are all pillars of resilient democratic societies’. For USAID, these ‘locally driven initiatives’ refers not to any grassroots organisations, but to NGOs. And through these NGOs, USAID claims it is building ‘the watchdog skills of civil society and media to enhance rule-of-law observance, combat corruption and increase access to justice’.

The use of the word ‘watchdog’ is telling. As is well known, a watchdog usually has a master – and one does not need a PhD in political science to guess that this watchdog’s master is not a million miles away from 2201 C Street Northwest, Washington, DC – the home of the State Department.

USAID’s promise to ‘support democracy’ and ‘strengthen democratic institutions’ is entirely cynical. In practice, USAID wants to use local NGOs and other institutions to translate Washington’s cultural narrative and political priorities into a local language. This is to create the impression that what’s ‘made in America’ appears as locally grown. In reality, of course, it’s nothing of the sort.

This represents a clear attempt on the part of Washington to erode the sovereignty and exert influence over the democratic decision-making processes of Hungary and other nations in Central Europe. The US is effectively assuming the role of a moral guardian of democratic life in Central Europe.

The arrogance is breathtaking. It seems that the Biden administration believes it possesses an inalienable right to influence the political and cultural life of Hungary and other Central European nations. The US State Department is certainly in no doubt that Budapest is a legitimate target for its propaganda. Back in 2019, its mouthpiece, the New York Times, reported that ‘Radio Free Europe’, the Cold War-era US radio station formerly broadcast to Soviet states, ‘is poised to return to a less free Hungary’.

For the US to pose as the liberator of a ‘less free Hungary’ is an insult to the people of Hungary and an affront to Hungarian democracy. It treats Hungary as a benighted nation whose wayward citizens are in need of civilising. Indeed, if you strain your ears, you can hear Power and her friends over at Radio Free Europe muttering sotto voce about the desirability of regime change.

No doubt Central European nations need to have good relations with the US. But if they want to preserve their sovereignty and way of life, they must resist the attempts by the Biden White House to impose its ideology on their societies.

Frank Furedi is the executive director of the think-tank MCC-Brussels.

So after spending your entire career as an armed representative of the US of A, who told the world what to do and where.....at the point of a gun....American arrogance in its full glory.....

...you're just now realizing that not everyone is all that excited about the US shoving people around, and telling them what to do? It took you 'til 2023 to figure this out?

Don't remember the mass EU protests before the Iraq War?

...and how hard would it be to find reasonable Afghanis that aren't all the jazzed about the occupation that you thought was super awesome. Or find Afghanis that believe that we ruined their county because of Reagan's little game of arming the future Taliban?

Biden is a Neo-Con, just like you. It's why you think we have a right to occupy Afghanistan, and back their politicians.

“Americans” don’t like the French because they pushed back on American Cultural Imperialism…… I stopped buying Lobster Rolls from a guy selling “American” Fries…..guy was so ignorant I decided I can’t give him my money.

[a fan]

One size fits all logic makes things easy. You don't have to distinguish. You don't have to think.

That's your response to EVERYTHING. One size fits all logic is OS shorthand for "I don't understand why you don't agree with me".

What I'm telling you...if it breaks through your gigantic ego......is that in EVERY case...from Korea to Vietnam to Grenada to Panama to Bosnia to Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria to Ukraine. 100% of those cases, if you asked the people who live there what they think of the American military showing up, and telling them what's what.....you'll find people who despise them, and their arrogant *sses.

It never occurred to you that during your career YOU were the *sshole with a gun that was doing what you find offensive with USAid------using US power to bully other nations around, telling them what to do. Whether you "supported" what your POTUS ordered you to do is immaterial to the conversation.

You just suddenly noticed because you find pushing pro-gay stuff offensive. If it's pro-democracy, you think that's fine. Newsflash: BOTH are annoying and offensive to sovereign nations. Wake up.

Every military intervention is different, based on circumstances, from Korea to Vietnam to Grenada to Panama to Bosnia to Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria to Ukraine. Some I supported, some I grudgingly endured.

That's swell. What I can't get through your giant ego to communicate to you is: you like to act as though none of these past events happened. And that you think it makes perfect sense to not learn from past events.

Your entire line of thinking is the reason that they coined the phrase "history is doomed to repeat itself".



You're unable to learn from Ukraine and other interventions to learn what to do and not do with Taiwan, for example.

Your'e unable to think first: why is Taiwan is anything more than a pointless island that's three times the size of Connecticut? All you come here with is: take that hill.

So it would never occur to you that a smarter path is to make Taiwan irrelevant, and make it not worth spilt blood. All you can come up with is to arm them, and make them a porcupine. Biden took the first step with the Chips act....first step towards making Taiwan irrelevant, and making it pointless for China to invade there.

And we've already learned that you couldn't think of a way to make it so that Middle East oil was irrelevant, moving forward from from the oil crisis....making it so that we don't care what happens there. Instead, you told us that we HAD to use our Military to secure cheap oil. So guys like you will make the same mistakes when it comes to energy and other materials in the future. Any attempt to get you to consider other avenues gets a dismissive response from you....or better still, call me "revisionist", or the soup of the day "one size fits all".

So you yell at me when I try and offer different paths for the future, building on previous American successes and mistakes. And call me stupid and naive. Oh, and that I'm wasting bandwith.

As if the rest of the forum can't wait to read your posts about Biden and how the gays are bad.

[a fan]

I don't agree with your assessment here a fan. Old Salt was a naval officer, I was an enlisted man. We both had this in common... We both followed effing orders. I'm willing to bet that OS and I both obeyed orders we disagreed with.

That's not the question at hand. The question is: if you asked the locals in our many military adventures since WWII, do you think you'd find people who were annoyed by the Americans there to "spread democracy", or whatever the reason given for their presence?

You and I both know the answer. So I'm sorry if I don't care about OS's complaint about USAid "arrogantly" pushing the current American agenda.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. That's my point: this is hardly a new thing.

[a fan]

“Americans” don’t like the French because they pushed back on American Cultural Imperialism…… I stopped buying Lobster Rolls from a guy selling “American” Fries…..guy was so ignorant I decided I can’t give him my money.

What a shocker, OS-----yet another poster understands my point. Gee, maybe I'm not ranting, and am simply correctly pointing out that Biden is doing the same "USA-A-ok" overseas propaganda BS that that last dozen Presidents have.

[cradleandshoot]

I don't agree with your assessment here a fan. Old Salt was a naval officer, I was an enlisted man. We both had this in common... We both followed effing orders. I'm willing to bet that OS and I both obeyed orders we disagreed with.

That's not the question at hand. The question is: if you asked the locals in our many military adventures since WWII, do you think you'd find people who were annoyed by the Americans there to "spread democracy", or whatever the reason given for their presence?

You and I both know the answer. So I'm sorry if I don't care about OS's complaint about USAid "arrogantly" pushing the current American agenda.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. That's my point: this is hardly a new thing.

I'm not being clear, all of us that served obeyed orders we did not necessarily understand or agree with. OS seems to have a much different understanding of our military based on his experiences both good and bad. Often times I read something OS posts. I get what he is trying to say. I understand how he got there. I remember when my company in the 82nd did not get to make the parachute jump as part of the REFORGER deployment. Our higher ups to include our battalion commander were incensed at the decision. Being part of any REFORGER deployment was a very big deal. Alot of things have changed since then. The Return of Forces to Germany is even more of a big deal today. That could now be modified to the Return of Forces to Europe. I believe that is a point that OS has been trying to make. We now have pretty potent armored units in Poland. The last time I checked Poland was pretty damn close to Ukraine.

[cradleandshoot]

“Americans” don’t like the French because they pushed back on American Cultural Imperialism…… I stopped buying Lobster Rolls from a guy selling “American” Fries…..guy was so ignorant I decided I can’t give him my money.

What a shocker, OS-----yet another poster understands my point. Gee, maybe I'm not ranting, and am simply correctly pointing out that Biden is doing the same "USA-A-ok" overseas propaganda BS that that last dozen Presidents have.

That argument might have been more persuasive had Joe Biden not made our leaving Afghanistan into the debacle it turned into. FTR, I'm pretty sure our allies who are counting on us were paying attention to what unfolded during our own version of Dunkirk. We pretty much armed the new regime with an impressive amount of ammunition and vehicles.

[old salt]

One size fits all logic makes things easy. You don't have to distinguish. You don't have to think.

That's your response to EVERYTHING. One size fits all logic is OS shorthand for "I don't understand why you don't agree with me".

What I'm telling you...if it breaks through your gigantic ego......is that in EVERY case...from Korea to Vietnam to Grenada to Panama to Bosnia to Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria to Ukraine. 100% of those cases, if you asked the people who live there what they think of the American military showing up, and telling them what's what.....you'll find people who despise them, and their arrogant *sses.

It never occurred to you that during your career YOU were the *sshole with a gun that was doing what you find offensive with USAid------using US power to bully other nations around, telling them what to do. Whether you "supported" what your POTUS ordered you to do is immaterial to the conversation.

You just suddenly noticed because you find pushing pro-gay stuff offensive. If it's pro-democracy, you think that's fine. Newsflash: BOTH are annoying and offensive to sovereign nations. Wake up.

Every military intervention is different, based on circumstances, from Korea to Vietnam to Grenada to Panama to Bosnia to Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria to Ukraine. Some I supported, some I grudgingly endured.

That's swell. What I can't get through your giant ego to communicate to you is: you like to act as though none of these past events happened. And that you think it makes perfect sense to not learn from past events.

Your entire line of thinking is the reason that they coined the phrase "history is doomed to repeat itself".
You're unable to learn from Ukraine and other interventions to learn what to do and not do with Taiwan, for example.

Your'e unable to think first: why is Taiwan is anything more than a pointless island that's three times the size of Connecticut? All you come here with is: take that hill.

So it would never occur to you that a smarter path is to make Taiwan irrelevant, and make it not worth spilt blood. All you can come up with is to arm them, and make them a porcupine. Biden took the first step with the Chips act....first step towards making Taiwan irrelevant, and making it pointless for China to invade there.

And we've already learned that you couldn't think of a way to make it so that Middle East oil was irrelevant, moving forward from from the oil crisis....making it so that we don't care what happens there. Instead, you told us that we HAD to use our Military to secure cheap oil. So guys like you will make the same mistakes when it comes to energy and other materials in the future. Any attempt to get you to consider other avenues gets a dismissive response from you....or better still, call me "revisionist", or the soup of the day "one size fits all".

So you yell at me when I try and offer different paths for the future, building on previous American successes and mistakes. And call me stupid and naive. Oh, and that I'm wasting bandwith.

As if the rest of the forum can't wait to read your posts about Biden and how the gays are bad.

Go live in Japan for a year, Sport. Then tell us how they think Americans are asses.
They were pretty appreciative in Taiwan when I toured the country in 1976. Ditto for S Korea & Hong Kong.
...& then there was liberty in Australia & the PI.

Why do we now have a strategic oil reserve ? Why did Biden have to drain it to it's lowest ever level ?
What is the impact of energy prices in Europe & the global economy ?

To demonstrate how little you pay attention. Show us what I've said we should do re. Taiwan.
How fast can you & Biden make Taiwan irrelevant with your planned chip factory ?
How do you feel about freedom of navigaton in WPac ?

You just can't accept that you can't browbeat me into agreeing with you. You're free to believe what you want. Too bad you can't extend that courtesy to others. ...& you can stop the gay trolling. I won't be taking your bait.

[old salt]

I'm not being clear, all of us that served obeyed orders we did not necessarily understand or agree with. OS seems to have a much different understanding of our military based on his experiences both good and bad. Often times I read something OS posts. I get what he is trying to say. I understand how he got there. I remember when my company in the 82nd did not get to make the parachute jump as part of the REFORGER deployment. Our higher ups to include our battalion commander were incensed at the decision. Being part of any REFORGER deployment was a very big deal. Alot of things have changed since then. The Return of Forces to Germany is even more of a big deal today. That could now be modified to the Return of Forces to Europe. I believe that is a point that OS has been trying to make. We now have pretty potent armored units in Poland. The last time I checked Poland was pretty damn close to Ukraine.

Bingo c&s. You get it. I participated in the planning & execution of REFORGER 87 from inside NATO. That's what gave me the appreciation of what an effective combined allied force that NATO was by the end of the Cold War. The Soviets & Warsaw Pact realized it too. THAT was deterrence. It's also why I'm so frustrated at the state of readiness to which our EU NATO allies allowed their forces to deteriorate & my ongoing frustration with their bickering & recalcitrant contributions to Ukraine, compared to the US, ...while our Pacific allies are watching China's moves & wondering when & if we're going to show up as promised. We can't do all that our allies expect of us.

https://www.ausa.org/articles/we-were-t ... iet-threat

[old salt]

“Americans” don’t like the French because they pushed back on American Cultural Imperialism…… I stopped buying Lobster Rolls from a guy selling “American” Fries…..guy was so ignorant I decided I can’t give him my money.

What a shocker, OS-----yet another poster understands my point. Gee, maybe I'm not ranting, and am simply correctly pointing out that Biden is doing the same "USA-A-ok" overseas propaganda BS that that last dozen Presidents have.

Maybe Sam Powers can next visit France & school them.

[old salt]

Ukraine's arsenal of democracy (on credit).

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/ ... ne/384542/

US to Sextuple 155mm Production, Improve Arms Factories
Some $1.45 billion will be spent to better produce artillery rounds, over a million of which have been sent to Ukraine.

by Sam Skove, March 28, 2023

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama—The U.S. will double monthly production of 155mm artillery shells to 24,000 by year’s end and increase it sixfold within five years, Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo said today.

The Pentagon will spend some $1.45 billion to upgrade production facilities to better arm Ukraine and replenish U.S. stocks, Camarillo said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium here.

The Army is also boosting production of Javelin anti-tank missiles and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, or GMLRS, he said.

Production of Javelin missiles will more than double to 330 a month, and production of launchers will double to 41 a month, Camarillo said. It will cost $349 million to add factory lines, purchase equipment, and hire second shifts, he said.

Ukraine’s army used Javelins extensively in the early phases of Russia’s invasion; they helped to blunt the armored thrust towards Kyiv. The weapon became well known as a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance, popularized by the “St. Javelin” meme that depicts a religious figure cradling the launcher.

The Army is also upping monthly GMLRS production from 566 missiles to 1,110 by 2026, Camarillo said. The 70-kilometer-plus missile has been used in high-profile strikes on Russian forces since it first arrived in Ukraine last November.

Overall, the U.S. is investing over $2 billion this year in industrial facilities used to manufacture weapons and ammunition. Camarillo said the projects were awarded and funded in “rapid” time by Congress. The funds are part of a 15-year, $18 billion plan to modernize government-owned weapons and munitions facilities.

Army production of 155mm shells appeared to be slightly ahead of its past estimates. In April, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the U.S. was planning to manufacture 20,000 155mm rounds per month by spring, not the 24,000 that Camarillo said.

Still, it’s unclear whether the increase in U.S. production can meet Ukraine’s needs and its own.

The U.S. has already sent 1,074,000 155mm rounds to Ukraine, which is burning though as many as 143,000 rounds a month, according to research by Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Even with the planned funding, some hard limits remain for U.S. production, according to Camarillo and Doug Bush, assistant Army secretary for acquisition, logistics, and technology. At an Army budget hearing earlier in March, Camarillo said that production of Javelins was at the “maximum.”

Bush said a lack of machine tools was holding back production of munitions.

“These machines are the size of buildings. You don’t just go buy it from a parking lot somewhere,” Bush said.