Orange Duce

[OCanada]

Saddam was not getting stronger. That is part of the mythology of the war Iraq. Their curves were in no shape to fight a war as events proved and inspections confirmed

[Typical Lax Dad]

You think there is a military threat at the Southern Border that the US Military can’t contain? BS

We don't have the fortitude or resolve to secure our southern border.

We can't, & won't, wall off our country or withdraw from the world.

I thought you were the King of Irony, except when you play Mr Literal.

Still can't answer a straight question

Yeah, hundreds of thousands of sick kids & their parents, coming to join their family members already here illegally.

(D) Governors are witholding National Guard troops.
(D)'s in the House won't authorize or appropriate funds for active duty forces to supplement DHS.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... 9956ba7f4f

The approximately 6,000 troops that the Pentagon said would be at the border by March 1 include about 2,100 National Guard personnel. The guardsmen are deployed to the border to help relieve what the Trump administration has described as strain on CBP due to a large number of Central American families crossing the border.

The governors of California and New Mexico ordered the withdrawal of most of the guardsmen from the border in their states, calling the deployment political theater. As a result, the overall number of guardsmen deployed could soon decrease.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday that lawmakers plan to vote Tuesday on a measure rejecting Trump’s national emergency declaration.

https://www.federaltimes.com/federal-ov ... er-crisis/

Two House Democrats who served as judge advocates general are urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to withdraw his request for JAGs at the U.S.-Mexico border, and three senators — including one armed services Republican — are asking Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to reconsider his decision to comply with the request.

Reps. Ted Lieu of California and Anthony Brown of Maryland wrote Sessions to argue that stretching an already overtaxed JAG Corps would shortchange their primary mission to troops, military families and national security overall. They called the move “unwise, inefficient” and a detriment to national security.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news ... -to-border

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi ripped President Trump on Twitter Thursday for "pointlessly" sending troops to the border instead of working with Democrats on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The California Democrat wrote: "@realDonaldTrump is using every cynical political trick in the book to ignite anti-immigrant fervor. Needlessly militarizing our southern border won’t make Americans more safe – it’s just another political calculation.

"Instead of wasting resources on pointlessly sending troops to our border, @realDonaldTrump should work with Democrats to pass the DREAM Act & #ProtectDREAMers," she added.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... 531182a247

The Pentagon is preparing to loosen rules that bar troops from interacting with migrants entering the United States, expanding the military’s involvement in President Trump’s operation along the southern border.

Senior Defense Department officials have recommended that acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan approve a new request from the Department of Homeland Security to provide military lawyers, cooks and drivers to assist with handling a surge of migrants along the border.

The move would require authorizing waivers for about 300 troops to a long-standing policy prohibiting military personnel from coming into contact with migrants.

The Pentagon has approved only one previous request to waive the policy since the beginning of Trump’s recent border buildup, to help provide migrants with emergency medical care. There are about 2,900 active-duty troops and 2,000 National Guardsmen along the border.

In a sign of the sensitivities surrounding a move that might be seen as putting troops in a law enforcement role, the documents note that military personnel would remain in a “segregated driver’s compartment” when driving migrants to detention facilities. Customs and Border Protection officials would provide security on those trips.

The soldiers would also be asked to hand out snacks and refreshments to migrants in detention, where families often receive items such as cookies, crackers and juice boxes between meals. CBP agents often complain such tasks amount to “babysitting” duties and say their time would be better spent guarding the border.

Troops would be accompanied by law enforcement personnel as they provide migrants food and periodically check on their welfare.
Border Patrol officials say overwhelmed agents are being pulled away from their law enforcement duties because they are so busy caring for migrant parents and children. The shortage of drivers and agents who can chaperone migrants to hospitals has been especially acute.

CBP officers have been reassigned from ports of entry to drive vehicles and perform other support roles for border agents, but that has exacerbated wait times for commercial trucks and passenger vehicles crossing from Mexico.

Those people represent a military threat? And our US Military does not have the ability to respond to it?, if so authorized and it is analogous to our need for nuclear submarines and strike groups to guard oceans from military threats?.... All your flowery words is nothing but BS. Fraud.

[CU88]

We can't stay out of the ME, now that we've been the major influence there since '79, & the dominant military presence since '90.

Why can we not "stay out"?

MAGA

[Brooklyn]

Those people represent a military threat? And our US Military does not have the ability to respond to it?, if so authorized and it is analogous to our need for nuclear submarines and strike groups to guard oceans from military threats?.... All your flowery words is nothing but BS. Fraud.

[Brooklyn]

We can't stay out of the ME, now that we've been the major influence there since '79, & the dominant military presence since '90.

Why can we not "stay out"?

MAGA

Good question.

But isn't it funny how right wingers say government must stay out of health care and other domestic issues but, somehow, must continue to stick its nose into foreign affairs?

[thatsmell]

Yup, it's all right wingers.



As long as you ignore Carter, Clinton and Obama sticking their noses into the "foreign affairs" in Lebanon, Bosnia, Libya etc...

[MDlaxfan76]

Yup, it's all right wingers.



As long as you ignore Carter, Clinton and Obama sticking their noses into the "foreign affairs" in Lebanon, Bosnia, Libya etc...

Good point. Being involved internationally has been bi-partisan. sometimes with quite unintended consequences.

Which doesn't necessarily mean that uninvolvement or inaction is necessarily the better course.

[jhu72]

Saw Orange Duce on Fox and Friends. Flapping his gums trying to talk his way out of the stupid comments he made to Stephanopoulos. To me it looked like even the Faux News folks weren't buying his kaka.

It is LONG LONG past time for the press to stop playing nice, defering to this piece of beans, treating him with the respect normal Presidents have come to expect when he lies to their faces. Someone is going to do it - in an interview call his beans what it is - A LIE! The first will make history.

[a fan]

You had me fooled the way you're b!tch!ng & 2nd guessing our efforts in the ME to keep those sea lanes open & not disrupt the oil flow to Japan, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, S Korea & our NATO allies.

No. What I mean is: NATO forces. Not US forces and letting everyone else stay at home.

What you have been arguing is that the UK and France and Germany and Turkey et. al. can't afford patrol boats. ONLY American ships can do it.

[LandM]

afan,
Maybe you can help explain what NATO is good for now. It is a Cold War relic and before you say I am Trumpster I have been saying that for the last 15 years. The only one of the three countries you named that has been beneficial has been the UK. France was rolled in how many days and someone could do it again today same with Germany. NATO was created to stop Russia/USSR and it did. Had people listened to Patton we could have avoided that part of history and saved allot of tax dollars

CU88 and Brookie - you nailed it - no one wants, well almost no one wants to go and get their arse shot at. It is puzzling why we do this and it is not an R or D thing. Not sure why we need to be the savior of the world.

As to afan - I know some people in TX and AZ at the border, they are literally armed to the teeth......it is a kid in the candy store when you walk through their locked basement area. So, while the folks in uniform get their "rules of engagement" lecture from some lawyer (we have allot of lawyers in this country), those guys will probably take care of it if it gets out of hand

[a fan]

afan,
Maybe you can help explain what NATO is good for now.

It's not. And that's my entire point. And who is responsible for that? America is. It's been "someone else's turn" since 1989. Let France, UK, and Germany patrol the freaking oceans. Who's region is it in the first place? Not ours. They can afford to buy some destroyers and littoral ships, for crying out loud.

That's been my whole point in my discussion with old salt. He thinks that the US has to do all this stuff. I strongly disagree. We have CHOSEN to take the lead, and to keep NATO weak and all but pointless. Why? Simple. So we can call the shots.

And if you look at the results, you'd think at some point we'd wake up and realize how dumb this path is. But obviously not.

As to afan - I know some people in TX and AZ at the border, they are literally armed to the teeth......it is a kid in the candy store when you walk through their locked basement area. So, while the folks in uniform get their "rules of engagement" lecture from some lawyer (we have allot of lawyers in this country), those guys will probably take care of it if it gets out of hand

Wrong poster, my friend..I haven't said a word about the border in this current discussion. Enjoy your weekend!

[CU88]

So we can call the shots.

I fully agree with this as the FACT behind USA wanting and driving NATO. Post WWII, NATO was needed for global stability, and the USA wanted to provide it for all.

However, now I believe that NATO need not have the USA as the stable force behind it. What do we really gain, just the sale of arms? Our bases, and with them military forces have shrunk, in NATO nations.

Our Debt and finances require that we step back and greatly reduce spending on Military protection of others. Cut the defense budget by 50% and spend that money on USA infrastructure.

[old salt]

You had me fooled the way you're b!tch!ng & 2nd guessing our efforts in the ME to keep those sea lanes open & not disrupt the oil flow to Japan, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, S Korea & our NATO allies.

No. What I mean is: NATO forces. Not US forces and letting everyone else stay at home.

What you have been arguing is that the UK and France and Germany and Turkey et. al. can't afford patrol boats. ONLY American ships can do it.

They can do it. We encourage them to join us. They choose not to & are limited in their scale & reach, logistically.
I believe the Brits still have a minesweeper in the Gulf.

[old salt]

afan,
Maybe you can help explain what NATO is good for now.

It's not. And that's my entire point. And who is responsible for that? America is. It's been "someone else's turn" since 1989. Let France, UK, and Germany patrol the freaking oceans. Who's region is it in the first place? Not ours. They can afford to buy some destroyers and littoral ships, for crying out loud.

That's been my whole point in my discussion with old salt. He thinks that the US has to do all this stuff. I strongly disagree. We have CHOSEN to take the lead, and to keep NATO weak and all but pointless. Why? Simple. So we can call the shots.

And if you look at the results, you'd think at some point we'd wake up and realize how dumb this path is. But obviously not.

As to afan - I know some people in TX and AZ at the border, they are literally armed to the teeth......it is a kid in the candy store when you walk through their locked basement area. So, while the folks in uniform get their "rules of engagement" lecture from some lawyer (we have allot of lawyers in this country), those guys will probably take care of it if it gets out of hand

Wrong poster, my friend..I haven't said a word about the border in this current discussion. Enjoy your weekend!

Trump's trying to do what you say, but he can't just drop everything & walk away.
He's been flogging & shaming our allies to do more, then gets criticized for undermining our alliances or selling arms to SA & UAE.

[old salt]

Those people represent a military threat? And our US Military does not have the ability to respond to it?, if so authorized and it is analogous to our need for nuclear submarines and strike groups to guard oceans from military threats?.... All your flowery words is nothing but BS. Fraud.

Our military has the ability to respond. We don't have the political will to do it.

...& Trump can't even use Ft Sill to house migrant unaccompanied minors because it was a Japanese internment camp .. , even though it's used to house our soldiers & Obama used it for the same thing.

We send our troops to Central America or Haiti after natural disasters to house, care for, & detain victims in refugee camps, but we can't use them along our own border to do the same thing.

We have the ability to do it. We don't have the laws & funding to do it. The (D)'s & dishonest MSM misrepresent & undermine what our military could do, if authorized & funded. They don't want to solve the crisis. They deny it, then use it to hammer Trump.

Meanwhile, DHS is so overwhelmed, they don't have the capacity to detain this volume just long enough to verify their health, id, family linkage to the minors in tow, screen their credible fear claim, assign them a court date, then release them to join their family members already here illegally, ignore their court dates, get fake documents, a min wage job & blend into the illegal underground, until/unless arrested for a crime & released rather than turned over to ICE.

It's all a scam. The military could be part of a solution, but Trump's political enemies don't want to solve the humanitarian crisis. They need it to hammer Trump.

[foreverlax]

President Trump: And I'll – and I'll tell you something, what I don't like is when you raise the interest rates, there's no inflation, there's virtually no inflation. When you raise interest rates that means you're paying more in debt. And I inherited almost $21 trillion in debt. I inherited that. President Obama and Biden, they doubled the debt during their eight years. You know that. And —

Well that is another lie the Blinder Brigade slurp up.

President Trump: Sure. But I have to rebuild the military. They doubled the debt, and they didn't do anything. They doubled the debt on nonsense. I took over a military that was totally depleted. I have to rebuild it. . .

Yea, they didn't have the kind of headwinds Trump has had to negotiate.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Those people represent a military threat? And our US Military does not have the ability to respond to it?, if so authorized and it is analogous to our need for nuclear submarines and strike groups to guard oceans from military threats?.... All your flowery words is nothing but BS. Fraud.

...& Trump can't even use Ft Sill to house migrant unaccompanied minors because it was a Japanese internment camp .. , even though it's used to house our soldiers & Obama used it for the same thing.

We send our troops to Central America or Haiti after natural disasters to house, care for, & detain victims in refugee camps, but we can't use them along our own border.

We have the ability to do it. We don't have the laws & funding to do it, & the (D)'s & dishonest MSM misrepresent & undermine what our military could do, if authorized & funded. They don't want to solve the crisis, they deny it, then use it to hammer Trump.

There is a Military threat that we are concerned with from the northern triangle? All you have to do is say no.

[old salt]

Those people represent a military threat? And our US Military does not have the ability to respond to it?, if so authorized and it is analogous to our need for nuclear submarines and strike groups to guard oceans from military threats?.... All your flowery words is nothing but BS. Fraud.

...& Trump can't even use Ft Sill to house migrant unaccompanied minors because it was a Japanese internment camp .. , even though it's used to house our soldiers & Obama used it for the same thing.

We send our troops to Central America or Haiti after natural disasters to house, care for, & detain victims in refugee camps, but we can't use them along our own border.

We have the ability to do it. We don't have the laws & funding to do it, & the (D)'s & dishonest MSM misrepresent & undermine what our military could do, if authorized & funded. They don't want to solve the crisis, they deny it, then use it to hammer Trump.

There is a Military threat that we are concerned with from the northern triangle? All you have to do is say no.

No I don't. Our military responds to humanitarian disasters all over the world.
Why are they being blocked from responding to the one on our southern border ?

[Typical Lax Dad]

Those people represent a military threat? And our US Military does not have the ability to respond to it?, if so authorized and it is analogous to our need for nuclear submarines and strike groups to guard oceans from military threats?.... All your flowery words is nothing but BS. Fraud.

...& Trump can't even use Ft Sill to house migrant unaccompanied minors because it was a Japanese internment camp .. , even though it's used to house our soldiers & Obama used it for the same thing.

We send our troops to Central America or Haiti after natural disasters to house, care for, & detain victims in refugee camps, but we can't use them along our own border.

We have the ability to do it. We don't have the laws & funding to do it, & the (D)'s & dishonest MSM misrepresent & undermine what our military could do, if authorized & funded. They don't want to solve the crisis, they deny it, then use it to hammer Trump.

There is a Military threat that we are concerned with from the northern triangle? All you have to do is say no.

No I don't. Our military responds to humanitarian disasters all over the world.
Why are they being blocked from responding to the one on our southern border ?

Thanks. I was interested in the equivalency of defending the oceans from military threats compared to the Southern border as you made the comparison, not me.

[old salt]

Those people represent a military threat? And our US Military does not have the ability to respond to it?, if so authorized and it is analogous to our need for nuclear submarines and strike groups to guard oceans from military threats?.... All your flowery words is nothing but BS. Fraud.

...& Trump can't even use Ft Sill to house migrant unaccompanied minors because it was a Japanese internment camp .. , even though it's used to house our soldiers & Obama used it for the same thing.

We send our troops to Central America or Haiti after natural disasters to house, care for, & detain victims in refugee camps, but we can't use them along our own border.

We have the ability to do it. We don't have the laws & funding to do it, & the (D)'s & dishonest MSM misrepresent & undermine what our military could do, if authorized & funded. They don't want to solve the crisis, they deny it, then use it to hammer Trump.

There is a Military threat that we are concerned with from the northern triangle? All you have to do is say no.

No I don't. Our military responds to humanitarian disasters all over the world.
Why are they being blocked from responding to the one on our southern border ?

Thanks. I was interested in the equivalency of defending the oceans from military threats compared to the Southern border as you made the comparison, not me.

It's ALL part of the mission of our military. What is most frustrating -- if our laws, judges & politicians allowed it, our military could mobilize & rapidly deal with the humanitarian crisis on our southern border, in a humane manner. If migrants knew they'd be taken into custody & detained by soldiers, rather than released into the US, without effective restrictions, they'd stop coming & those with legit asylum claims would make them in Mexico or Costa Rica.