***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[frink85]

Random Question:

Why does anyone care about the middle east?


Like seriously, who cares? It's become so strange to me. You turn on the TV and you got middle east experts on their explaining the tribal conflicts, and the complicated web of alliances and blah blah blah.
Who ****ing cares? Why is america or any country at all involved in this?

and don't tell me it's because of oil, West Africa has oil and I don't see people on TV touting themselves as West African experts. I've never seen a dude on TV talmbout, well you know the Hausa tribe in northern Nigeria fell like this and the Yurobas think that...


Why is it that being an expert on the middle east can lean to ****ing plum jobs in think tanks? why are there even think tanks devoted to this regions?

and don't tell me it's because of terrorism either, because what ever countries Americas allies with in the middle east means the enemies of that ally will marshal terrorist plots against you, so what the ****ing point?


I really gotta know.

I’ll take a random guess, oil + instability + money

The fact that there’s royal families with billions in cash and constant political/social/geopolitical turmoil it’s more interesting to outside countries like the US, easier to take a foothold into and cash grab and gain influence

 

[osh kosh bosh]

-Isreal

Evangelicals care about Israel so all of America has to care

-Conflict in that region is sold to the public for the reason for having our massive war machine which a ton of affluent people profits from it.

-We sell arms to many in the region. Another place where affluent people in our country profit from.

That made some amount of sense when isreal existence was like a tenuous proposition. Isreal got nukes, they got more money than just about anyone else in the region, they got a big *** military, as far as I can tell they are expanding.

Isreal is fine. What is gunna happen to isreal than nescitates letting the Saudis bomb and starve people in Yemen, I don't get it.

American is what ever trillion economy, who is worried about the drop in the bucket arm sales?


I guess youre right and the foreign policy establishment has conned us into a mass delusion where we gotta care about a patch dirt filled with warring tribes that have been feuding for a millennia.

 

[aepps20]

I don't gotta do ****.

Obeezy in town early next week. If it is anything like his 2016 preelection speech, he finna upload a whole rhetorical clip into Heller.

**** Dean Heller as a staff, record label and as a **********ing crew

 

[Nike Jordan]

50 years ago today.

 

[frink85]

That made some amount of sense when isreal existence was like a tenuous proposition. Isreal got nukes, they got more money than just about anyone else in the region, they got a big *** military, as far as I can tell they are expanding.

Isreal is fine. What is gunna happen to isreal than nescitates letting the Saudis bomb and starve people in Yemen, I don't get it.

American is what ever trillion economy, who is worried about the drop in the bucket arm sales?


I guess youre right and the foreign policy establishment has conned us into a mass delusion where we gotta care about a patch dirt filled with warring tribes that have been feuding for a millennia.

But American politics and media wants you to believe that poor Israel is in grave danger and needs all of our support from big bad Palestine (Muslims/brown folks)

 

[RustyShackleford]

That made some amount of sense when isreal existence was like a tenuous proposition. Isreal got nukes, they got more money than just about anyone else in the region, they got a big *** military, as far as I can tell they are expanding.

Isreal is fine. What is gunna happen to isreal than nescitates letting the Saudis bomb and starve people in Yemen, I don't get it.

American is what ever trillion economy, who is worried about the drop in the bucket arm sales?


I guess youre right and the foreign policy establishment has conned us into a mass delusion where we gotta care about a patch dirt filled with warring tribes that have been feuding for a millennia.

-First, stop trying to make sense of the motivation of white evangelicals. Why put yourself through that stress.Second, remember that also the Pro-Israel lobby is strong in America, within both parties.

-And so what if America is the trillion dollar economy, it is still fragile, especially for the middle class. Before the great recession, the most memorable were caused by energy shocks because of oil prices. Oil prices spike, you can't hide it from people, they see it at the gas pump. You can handwave away it away as the US is a big economy but things like high GAS prices feel like a pay cut to people, and they get angry, want answers, so it is a perfect opportunity sell them on nonsense. People already have that connection in their head.

It is a finesses like so many other things. Whenever the US has had a chance to pull back from the region, there have been people in on the finesse that made sure they stayed involved.

And the finesses it perfect. We destabilize the region, spend a ton trying to stabilize it, then destabilize it, then we look like we are on the hook to bring some stability back to the region.

I would think a person like you would appreciate a good scam like the US foreign policy.

 

[IATT]

Cant make this up

 

[boris]

Republicans talking about treating people with respect.

 

[IATT]

 

[whywesteppin]

I guess youre right and the foreign policy establishment has conned us into a mass delusion where we gotta care about a patch dirt filled with warring tribes that have been feuding for a millennia.

more than one millennia...

it's quite the anomaly, to go from almost nothing to where they are now in a few decades.

the middle east has become a battleground for religion, war, oil, etc. we would be better off if we would just ignore it all but a lot of dominoes could fall -- not just with Israel but other things as well.

 

[rexanglorum]

In addition to religious devotion to Israel and sheer quantities of oil in the gulf states, there is the middle east’s proximity to the USSR/Russia’s near abroad, there is Turkey’s NATO membership and the fact that Iran conducted an anti imperial revolution which has been successful and which has not been totally contained.

The humiliation of the US empire and it’s ruling class cannot be understated. The Iranian people threw off a US backed client ruler and their Revolution has not been defeated and despite relentless US harassment and attempts to isolate it, Iran is ascendant. Powerful empires act irrationally when faced with weaker but nevertheless victorious opponent. So expect the ruling class of the US to remain obsessed with the Middle East and expect their to always been calls to intervene in conflicts in the region whenever Iran’s interests can be rolled back.

 

[kdawg]

You know what I hate most about this painting though - it’s the inclusion of Lincoln. That whole “party of Lincoln” thing is so tired. Just give it up - he’d abhor everything you stand for.

 

[Wargames]

That made some amount of sense when isreal existence was like a tenuous proposition. Isreal got nukes, they got more money than just about anyone else in the region, they got a big *** military, as far as I can tell they are expanding.

Isreal is fine. What is gunna happen to isreal than nescitates letting the Saudis bomb and starve people in Yemen, I don't get it.

American is what ever trillion economy, who is worried about the drop in the bucket arm sales?


I guess you're right and the foreign policy establishment has conned us into a mass delusion where we gotta care about a patch dirt filled with warring tribes that have been feuding for a millennia.

There is so much money in the military industrial complex they can't stop. Plus its easier to kill brown people in the middle east than anywhere else because the terrain makes it harder to pull off guerilla tactics. You can't raid a base at night using trees to hide your approach if there aren't any trees. You can't build underground supply chains under the sand. Then Israel takes advantage of this and throws more money at people to give cover to their own imperialism and here we are.

Even Obama's approach to lessen American bloodshed by using Drones to do our killing (cause he didn't even try to fix it) too has been subverted to more money opportunities for these monsters. Now they just sell these bombs to somebody else if they can't sell them to the US government. You could even argue its an unofficial tax we put on certain countries to not bomb them ourselves but that is another conversation. Funny fact Turkey was the number #2 buyer of American Weapons behind Israel for decades. Saudi doing it now was them trying to get close to Trump, by giving him a positive headline......but I digress.

Read this link https://www.budget.senate.gov/ranki...federal-government-would-be-running-a-surplus

Look at all the wonderful things we as Americans could get if we weren't so preoccupied with killing brown people in the middle east. Then remember that Mitch McConnell came out just yesterday and said his greatest regret is he couldn't take more social safety nets away from people to invest more into Rich People paying fewer taxes and killing brown people. It's sickening at its core and it paints a picture of a society in decline. There are no reasons to participate in any of this besides a few millionaires becoming richer and manipulated jingoism.

 

[whywesteppin]

You know what I hate most about this painting though - it’s the inclusion of Lincoln. That whole “party of Lincoln” thing is so tired. Just give it up - he’d abhor everything you stand for.

1 - notice you can't see Lincoln's face. He's probably rolling his eyes.

2 - lol at Trump being tiny.

 

[Kimchi Papi]

Great feature on identity europa (on the Today Show) taking a hold on college campuses as well as local, state, & federal governments. It's amazing how white supremacists are taking a hold of the deplorable party.

 

[Wargames]

1 - notice you can't see Lincoln's face. He's probably rolling his eyes.

2 - lol at Trump being tiny.

I feel like Teddy would stab more than half those people at the table if given a chance. Obviously not Lincoln and maybe not Daddy bush cause Cap and Trade.

 

[kdawg]

I feel like Teddy would stab more than half those people at the table if given a chance. Obviously not Lincoln and maybe not Daddy bush cause Cap and Trade.

Yeah, Teddy's clearly making a fist in the picture.

 

[whywesteppin]

I feel like Teddy would stab more than half those people at the table if given a chance. Obviously not Lincoln and maybe not Daddy bush cause Cap and Trade.

Lincoln giving the signal to Teddy. They're gonna team up and take out the rest of them, 4 racist presidents each.

 

[blastercombo]

America does it “policing” in the Middle East for a couple reasons

1. False sense of control
2. Money
3. Our “trade off” for the unplayable debt for other countries

 

[Kimchi Papi]

Whose the guy behind Teddy in the painting?

 

[IATT]

 

[rolaholic]

Heh...

#NeverForget

 

[blastercombo]

Trump has asked people to not be so quick to judge the Saudi king and Kim Jon, but the rape victim was a FRAUD

 

[IATT]

 

[Mark Antony]

Not following too closely, but I thought they were just going to apologize for a "bad interview" accepting guilt, how did it change to this?