Washington Post has been particularly ridiculous this season

[Clodfobble]

To be fair, the backlash and regret over the WMD claims stem from the invasion and war they were used to justify. Unless someone is proposing we invade Russia, I'm not sure there are really the same stakes involved.

Personally, I think we know darn well Russia did it, but to admit how we know would either tip them off to their weaknesses, or else prove that we've done the same shit a thousand times. Anyone remember when the NSA got caught bugging every major leader in Europe?

Frankly I don't give a crap if they did do it. As many have pointed out, all they did was release genuine information. They didn't falsify anything. People are mad because the hack didn't provide the opposition equal time? This ain't Brinkley and Huntley, hire your own damn hackers if you want the RNC's dirty laundry to be aired. Or, you know, try not having any dirty laundry of your own. It's like the mom finds drugs in her kid's room, and he's trying to be mad about how she violated his trust by going through his stuff. You got caught, don't act like you have the moral high ground.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

To be fair, the backlash and regret over the WMD claims stem from the invasion and war they were used to justify. Unless someone is proposing we invade Russia, I'm not sure there are really the same stakes involved.

Hillary's paranoia surrounding Russia colored her thought process about a no fly zone in Syria and could have led to military conflict with Russia. Our baby-boomer foreign policy lense distorts reality badly. Trump is a damn kook and could get taken advantage of, but turning down the anti-Russian propaganda is necessary on a small planet.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Griff

Hillary's paranoia surrounding Russia colored her thought process about a no fly zone in Syria and could have led to military conflict with Russia.

Do you really not understand why Putin feared Hilary? He could not manipulate her. If Hilary has paranoia, then so do Senators McCain, Graham, McConnell, Speaker Ryan, and most all moderate Senators and diplomats. As well as virtually all American intelligence agencies.

Hilary, Kerry, and other American diplomats were not flakey, kneejerk, and emotional. So Putin needed them replaced by people who are emotional and are not chess players such as Palin, Fiorina, or Cruz. As David Brooks accurately notes, Getting Trump was a bonus.

Military conflicts with Russia - as with any other nation - are avoided by acknowledging and addressing problems up front. Why were Assad's weapons of mass destructive so quickly removed from start to finish all in Oct 2013? The act was phenomenal. Even Russia was fully manipulated into participating in an international coalition (that included Norway, China, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, and an international UN team) to dismantle warheads and remove chemicals for Sarin and Mustard gas. All destroyed on a US military cargo ship Cape Ray. It all happened because American and international diplomats confronted Syria and Russia up front with a "no exception permitted" attitude - the red line.

Avoiding war means a hard headed attitude supported by long term planning - that only chess players understand. That was Obama, Scowcroft, both Clintons, Powell, Holbrooke, Kerry, Richard Clarke, George Mitchell, and a long list of other American diplomats.

List of weak kneed strategists included George Jr and Condi Rice. People such as these make war likely. As a result, George Jr left office with two of the longest wars in American history and with American positions deteriorating. A pathetic response by George Jr to China's 9 Dash Line (including Spratly and Parcel Islands) may have made war likely in the next ten years. A firm handed approach backed up with a chess player attitude averts war.

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by tw

Why were Assad's weapons of mass destructive so quickly removed from start to finish all in Oct 2013?

Because they weren't? Here we go again, again:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/08/23...mical-weapons/

The world’s chemical weapons watchdog has repeatedly found traces of deadly nerve agents in laboratories that Syria insisted were never part of its chemical weapons program, raising new questions about whether Damascus has abided by its commitments to destroy all of its armaments, according to a highly confidential new report.
...
In a confidential two-page summary of the report, OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu writes that the majority of 122 samples taken at “multiple locations” in Syria “indicate potentially undeclared chemical weapons-related activities.” Many of Syria’s explanations for the presence of undeclared agents, he added, “are not scientifically or technically plausible, and … the presence of several undeclared chemical warfare agents is still to be clarified.”

Four months ago:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/0...nations-227385

Even after he supposedly turned over his entire stockpile of chemical weapons three years ago, Bashar Assad is still crossing Barack Obama's "red line," a U.N. investigation has found.

U.S. officials confirmed Wednesday that the probe had determined that the Syrian president and his regime were responsible for at least two cases of the deadly use of chlorine in the Arab country's civil war since 2013. Investigators also blamed the Islamic State terrorist group in an incident involving mustard gas.

In all the confusion it's hard to remember who has WMD and who doesn't. All we know for absolute certain, I suppose, is that Assad had them in 2013.

And that means, from when he got them, until 2013, nobody gave a flying fuck. We can call that "leading from behind" because the UN, the US, the EU and whomever else is supposed to give a fuck, actually gave no fucks at all, and then very suddenly pretended to give a fuck when they were actually used politically important.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Maybe instead of not giving a fuck they didn't know. Can we just barge into any country and demand to check every corner of it without evidence or provocation?

[Griff]

Originally Posted by tw

Do you really not understand why Putin feared Hilary? He could not manipulate her. If Hilary has paranoia, then so do Senators McCain, Graham, McConnell, Speaker Ryan, and most all moderate Senators and diplomats. As well as virtually all American intelligence agencies.

"You're soaking in it Democrats!"


"Madge, you've been soaking my foreign policy in Neo-Conservatism!?"


"No no no, it"s only Neo-Conservatism when Republicans do it!"