U.S. Politics

[Awol]

7 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?tid=a_breakingnews?tid=a_breakingnews

well okay.

Amusingly, Prince established a company with UAE's defacto ruler Mohamed Bin Zayed called.........Spectre 

He's also the guy who organised the recruitment and deployment of several 1000 South American (mainly Colombian) mercenaries to fight for the UAE in Yemen.

You might call him a bad hombre. 

[Brumerican]

Prince is Betsy Devos' brother by the way ...

Russia owns Trump and the whole world knows it. 

[NurembergVillan]

3 hours ago, Awol said:

Amusingly, Prince established a company with UAE's defacto ruler Mohamed Bin Zayed called.........Spectre 

He's also the guy who organised the recruitment and deployment of several 1000 South American (mainly Colombian) mercenaries to fight for the UAE in Yemen.

You might call him a bad hombre. 

I love that you know (and post) stuff like this.

I try to stay as educated as I can on current affairs and politics, but some things require either too much research or a genuine in-depth knowledge of the subject that I just don't have.

Cheers!

[Awol]

16 minutes ago, NurembergVillan said:

 

I try to stay as educated as I can on current affairs and politics, but some things require either too much research or a genuine in-depth knowledge of the subject that I just don't have.

Cheers!

Thanks but it is pretty parochial local stuff so no reason for you to hear it elsewhere. 

While we're on the US thread though, they've been going banzai on AQ in Yemen since Mr T got in. Sadly support for Saudi remains at 100% and Yemen is fast approaching Live Aid levels of famine. 

If it doesn't change soon we'll be witnessing a man made disaster on a scale unlike anything so far this century - imo.

/spotter. 

[HanoiVillan]

3 hours ago, Awol said:

Thanks but it is pretty parochial local stuff so no reason for you to hear it elsewhere. 

While we're on the US thread though, they've been going banzai on AQ in Yemen since Mr T got in. Sadly support for Saudi remains at 100% and Yemen is fast approaching Live Aid levels of famine. 

If it doesn't change soon we'll be witnessing a man made disaster on a scale unlike anything so far this century - imo.

/spotter. 

Daniel Larison has been writing a lot about Yemen recently, but this was an interesting post recently, both because I agree with the sentiment and for the news that the coalition plan to attack the port of Hodeidah this week:

'Nikki Haley appeared on Face the Nation yesterday, and she was asked why Trump had proposed cuts to humanitarian aid funding when millions are at risk of starving to death in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen. This is part of her answer:

'Famine is something that, when you look at those four areas, we’re extremely concerned about it. The United States has always been the moral conscience of the world.

We are going to continue to express our values and continue to make sure we show that, not just in our words, but in our actions.'

Haley failed to explain how stripping funds from U.N. aid organizations that need more funding than they currently have to prevent famine in these countries demonstrates the administration’s supposed extreme concern. Her answer would be laughable if the situation weren’t so serious. The conceit that the U.S. is the “moral conscience of the world” at a time when the U.S. is actively supporting a military campaign that has taken Yemen to the brink of famine is absurd and offensive. Millions of people are being starved by the Saudi-led coalition that our government has actively supported in this war from the start, but Haley didn’t have to address that because she was never asked about it.

As usual, U.S. officials don’t acknowledge our role in wrecking and starving Yemen and are never asked to defend it. Haley was not asked about the U.S. role or our responsibility for helping to create the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. If she had been asked, the moral and strategic bankruptcy of current U.S. policy would be exposed without much difficulty. Failing to ask her about this is an especially regrettable oversight when the decision to support the coalition’s attack on the port of Hodeidah is likely to come later this week. An attack on the port would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis that is already threatening the lives of millions, and the U.N. has specifically warned against taking such action because of the horrible, predictable consequences that it would have. Our ambassador to the U.N. should be made to answer why this administration is getting ready to do something that the U.N. expects will result in disaster for millions of people.'

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/haleys-absurd-rhetoric-and-the-starvation-of-yemen/

[choffer]

Most of the reporting regarding the FT article the other day focussed on the whole North Korea thing but the article itself is quite a fascinating read. This bit in particular is quite telling:

[Awol]

2 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Daniel Larison has been writing a lot about Yemen recently, but this was an interesting post recently, both because I agree with the sentiment and for the news that the coalition plan to attack the port of Hodeidah this week:

'Nikki Haley appeared on Face the Nation yesterday, and she was asked why Trump had proposed cuts to humanitarian aid funding when millions are at risk of starving to death in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen. This is part of her answer:

'Famine is something that, when you look at those four areas, we’re extremely concerned about it. The United States has always been the moral conscience of the world.

We are going to continue to express our values and continue to make sure we show that, not just in our words, but in our actions.'

Haley failed to explain how stripping funds from U.N. aid organizations that need more funding than they currently have to prevent famine in these countries demonstrates the administration’s supposed extreme concern. Her answer would be laughable if the situation weren’t so serious. The conceit that the U.S. is the “moral conscience of the world” at a time when the U.S. is actively supporting a military campaign that has taken Yemen to the brink of famine is absurd and offensive. Millions of people are being starved by the Saudi-led coalition that our government has actively supported in this war from the start, but Haley didn’t have to address that because she was never asked about it.

As usual, U.S. officials don’t acknowledge our role in wrecking and starving Yemen and are never asked to defend it. Haley was not asked about the U.S. role or our responsibility for helping to create the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. If she had been asked, the moral and strategic bankruptcy of current U.S. policy would be exposed without much difficulty. Failing to ask her about this is an especially regrettable oversight when the decision to support the coalition’s attack on the port of Hodeidah is likely to come later this week. An attack on the port would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis that is already threatening the lives of millions, and the U.N. has specifically warned against taking such action because of the horrible, predictable consequences that it would have. Our ambassador to the U.N. should be made to answer why this administration is getting ready to do something that the U.N. expects will result in disaster for millions of people.'

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/haleys-absurd-rhetoric-and-the-starvation-of-yemen/

Sorry to continue this even though a little off thread, but...

If that assault on Hodeida takes place expect ballistic missiles from Yemen to start falling on Riyadh and the UAE in response.

The big lie is that the Saudi coalition is fighting to put down rebel tribesman. In fact they are fighting 80-85% of the Yemeni armed forces AND rebel tribes - who have held off the best the Arab world and their friends can throw at them for the last two years - with very limited technical assistance from Iran and Russia.

The western fear (US/UK and others) is a Saudi failure leading to political revolution in the Kingdom where an unfortunately large number of people are pretty Islamic Statey in their world view.

[Xann]

Bannon's OFF the National Security Council

[snowychap]

1 hour ago, Xann said:

Bannon's OFF the National Security Council

He was only there to 'keep an eye' on Flynn, apparently.

[Chindie]

Has Ivanka filled the seat yet? Or is it Barron's turn to get a place in power?

[TheAuthority]

Watching this press conference with Trump being questioned about Syria alongside the King of Jordan. 

My God, Trump just looks like a rank amateur next to him. He is just flailing around like a fool.

[NurembergVillan]

1 minute ago, TheAuthority said:

Trump just looks like a rank amateur

Funny that!

[maqroll]

On 4/4/2017 at 08:46, Awol said:

Thanks but it is pretty parochial local stuff so no reason for you to hear it elsewhere. 

While we're on the US thread though, they've been going banzai on AQ in Yemen since Mr T got in. Sadly support for Saudi remains at 100% and Yemen is fast approaching Live Aid levels of famine. 

If it doesn't change soon we'll be witnessing a man made disaster on a scale unlike anything so far this century - imo.

/spotter. 

Yemen, South Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Libya...the list of failed and failing states grows and grows.

Interesting the total media blackout of the ethnic cleansing in Baluchistan (SW Pakistan)

[Awol]

6 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Yemen, South Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Libya...the list of failed and failing states grows and grows.

Interesting the total media blackout of the ethnic cleansing in Baluchistan (SW Pakistan)

You have a truly awesome bird at Georgetown called Christine Fair. She wrote an amazing book called "fighting to the end: The Pakistan Army's way of war".

Check her out on YouTube and marvel at the sheer idiocy of US policy on Pakistan. 

Edited April 5, 2017 by Awol

[maqroll]

1 hour ago, Xann said:

Bannon's OFF the National Security Council

Great bit of news in a sh*tstorm of bad. My question is who really made this decision?

[maqroll]

6 minutes ago, Awol said:

the sheer idiocy of US policy on Pakistan. 

I've marveled at it for years. We can't adequately feed, house, educate and employ literally millions of Americans, but we ship billions of dollars in cash and weaponry to a cabal of psychopaths who would use those weapons against us in a heartbeat if they could.

[Awol]

24 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Great bit of news in a sh*tstorm of bad. My question is who really made this decision?

I reckon the so called Junta (Mattis, Kelly & McMaster) are waking up the Donald to a more grown up view of the world.

That would be an unequivocally good thing.

[Awol]

So Syria is going to be foreign policy test where we see what Trump's 'Murcia is all about.

He slated Obama for letting the chemical weapon attack by Assad go unanswered in 2013, seems he's not going to do the same this time.

With Russia and Iran firmly behind Assad it's going to be very interesting to see how he handles this one, but now a response has been talked up he can't back down without euthanasing America's remaining foreign policy credibility.

Putin will be thrilled.

 

[LondonLax]

3 hours ago, Awol said:

So Syria is going to be foreign policy test where we see what Trump's 'Murcia is all about.

He slated Obama for letting the chemical weapon attack by Assad go unanswered in 2013, seems he's not going to do the same this time.

With Russia and Iran firmly behind Assad it's going to be very interesting to see how he handles this one, but now a response has been talked up he can't back down without euthanasing America's remaining foreign policy credibility.

Putin will be thrilled.

 

I wonder if the switching up of Bannon (with his Russian sympathies) for traditional military hawks on the security council has something to do with this recent anti-Assad talk.

[StefanAVFC]

7 minutes ago, LondonLax said:

I wonder if the switching up of Bannon (with his Russian sympathies) for traditional military hawks on the security council

Traditional military Hawks like Rick Perry?