re: U.S. launches airstrikes against Iran-backed militias

quote:

---

But I will absolutely make the case that if you want it to be an all or none proposition, it must be all, because there’s a lot of people around the world that want to kill us, for whatever reason. We must fight and kill them there, not on our own soil, with our citizens in harms way.

---

This hasn't worked at all. Arguably the insistence that 'people want to kill us' as a carte blanche justification to invade and interfere in the balance of power in the region has made us less secure, and has deteriorated the security of the entire region.

Why did he not go to Congress???

quote:

---

frick the Middle East.

---

Fine. I agree, but why do WE have to get involved?

quote:

---

The framework of reentry has already been agreed. It was done through Russian intermediaries. Each side has to 'save face' to appear strong to their hardliners, but it's only a question of when the JCPOA deal will be restarted.

---

I’m sure Biden has the next several pallets of cash loaded on the plane for the iyatola already.

quote:

---

Disagree. At present we have marxist democrats declaring everything from climate change to systemic racism, to inanimate firearms, to transphobia being the biggest threat to this country. If muslim terrorists were flying planes into the White House or Congress, or attacking, invading and beheading folks in the fancy gated communities in DC where all the politicians, judges, and lobbyists live, they’d be singing a different tune. Hell if millions of Mexicans were pouring into DC, setting up cartel gangs and preying on the elites the way they prey on citizens, I’m betting they would find a bigger threat to this country than the bullshite they are pushing.

---

I have no idea what this is in reference to. But again, the notion that the 'world is a battlefield' where we have to fight battles elsewhere to prevent them here is not reflective of what has occurred these last two decades, nor does it recognize the myopia of our strategy in the ME. Unless you think letting the Iranians build a proxy force was part of that strategy, or leaving a vacuum of power so great that traditional powers waltzed in and did what they wanted.

quote:

---

Fine. I agree, but why do WE have to get involved?

---

I spent a total of 26 months deployed to Afghanistan for OIF. These fricking jihadists are brutal killers. They kill women, people with disabilities, children, elderly men in the name of Islam and Allah. It is sickening.

It hits home. Should WE get involved? It is a question that is indicative to some of us that spent some time over there. I am not a proponent for starting shite in the ME without a viable reason.

quote:

---

It’s in reference to the fact that we have taken the fight to the terrorists, and we don’t have terrorist attacks happening on our soil, for the most part. So much so, that we have politicians elevating utter bullshite to greatest threat to America status. So it’s in reference to the fact that fighting them there has been an unqualified success.

---

I certainly don't consider it an unqualified success, as you had attacks by ISIS outside the region until 2018. In terms of limiting Iran, the "over there" strategy also failed, as Iran has a entrenched proxies throughout the entire region, which is a decidedly different state of affairs than even 2011 or 2003. There might be a lull right now, but it will almost certainly flare up again, because all the major geopolitical actors, save for a few exceptions, are too reluctant to use their own forces, instead relying on proxies. Nothing about our strategy has made any sense, given what has happened on the ground.

quote:

---

Who the hell elected the United States as Powered Armored Global-Cop to pick winners or losers in these ancient sectarian conflicts? Certainly not me.

---

Well, if not Muammar Gaddafi, then maybe Saddam Hussein. If not Saddam Hussein, then certainly Osama Bin Laden, along with all of their cohorts. The list is pretty darn long. These people learned in the 70’s that our economy, our country, is dependent on energy from oil. The flow of oil from the ME is vital to our national interests, and therefore must be protected, manipulated, and handled as if our country depends on it, because it does. That also makes us a player/cop in the ME.

It’s just the reality of the situation. If you think it’s wrong, tell me the last time you loaded up the family and headed to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving on your bicycle.

The fact that fundy muslims are by and large murderous, brutal throwbacks to the Middle Ages also makes us a player in their sandbox.

quote:

---

These people learned in the 70’s that our economy, our country, is dependent on energy from oil. The flow of oil from the ME is vital to our national interests, and therefore must be protected, manipulated, and handled as if our country depends on it, because it does. That also makes us a player/cop in the ME.

---

Wrong: it is not blood for oil but blood for dollars. Pursuing the underlying motivations for the real reasons our nation is embroiled in Middle Eastern affairs will lead to some very uncomfortable truths about the actual objectives of our foreign policy agenda in the Middle East.

The narrative we have been sold about the war effort in the Middle East for at least the past 50 years has been a massive smoke and mirrors show. Hillary’s emails while she was SoS reveal that everything the American people have been told about the war effort in the Middle East is a damnable lie:

New Emails Shed Light on Covert Weapons Sales From Benghazi Consulate....

quote:

---

….During the Spring of 2011, as the Obama administration ramped up efforts to topple the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, a licensed American arms dealer, Marc Turi, his business partner formerly with the CIA, senior US military officials in Europe and Africa as well as a former staffer for republican Senator John McCain considered logistics for arming the rebels, according to the emails exclusively obtained by Fox Business and Fox News.

---

Hillary Clinton State Department approved U.S. weapons shipment to Libya despite ban: Memos recovered from Benghazi compound divulge covert effort…

quote:

---

The State Department initially approved a weapons shipment from a California company to Libyans seeking to oust Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 even though a United Nations arms ban was in place, according to memos recovered from the burned-out compound in Benghazi.

The documents, obtained by The Washington Times, show U.S. diplomats at the Benghazi compound were keeping track of several potential U.S.-sanctioned shipments to allies, one or more of which were destined for the Transitional National Council, the Libyan movement that was seeking to oust Gadhafi and form a new government.

---

Libya is “Hillary’s War” – Released emails Show Depth of Hillary Clinton Ownership…

quote:

---

Memos recovered from Benghazi compound divulge covert effort:

The U.S. State Department released more of Hillary Clinton’s emails today. One of those emails is noted as originating on March 22nd 2011, the exact day President Obama launched the attacks on Libya.

The newly released email confirms what many already knew – it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power who convinced President Obama to go to war in Libya….

---

So what may have been the real reason for the regime operation against Khaddafi? It is all has been revealed.

Khadaffi planned to quit selling Libyan oil in U.S. dollars, demanding payment instead in gold-backed “dinars” — a single pan-African currency backed by gold. Khaddiffi, sitting on a massive stockpile of gold, estimated at close to 150 tons, was also pushing other African and Middle Eastern governments to join together to create an alternative to the PetroDollar system.

This isn’t a kooky, tin-foil nutter, conspiracy theory. The plot to thwart Khaddafi’s attempt to create an alternate currency to challenge the PetroDollar and likewise the revelation that the Beghnazi Consulate was used as diplomatic cover for a weapons running scheme comes from Hillary’s emails.

Libyan Oil, Gold, and Qaddafi: The Strange Email Sidney Blumenthal Sent Hillary Clinton: In 2011 One of Clinton's closest advisors passed her an intelligence report prepared by an ex-CIA official that speculated about France's motivations for bombing Libya.

quote:

---

….The most recent batch of Clinton emails reveals perhaps the most bizarre morsel of Blumenthal-baked intelligence to date. An April 2, 2011 memo titled "France's client/Q's gold" quotes "knowledgeable individuals" with insider information about French President Nicolas Sarkozy's motivation for bombing Libya.

The military campaign, the anonymous sources say, was designed to quash plans by Gaddafi to use $7 billion in secret gold and silver to prop up a new African currency. The French worried the move would undercut the currency guaranteed by the French treasury, known as CFA franc, that's widely used in West Africa and acts as a strong link between France and many of its former African colonies. After French intelligence officials got wind of this secret plan, the Blumenthal memo reports, Sarkozy freaked out: "This was one of the factors that influenced [his] decision to commit France to the attack on Libya."

---

Wars of WMDs or Currency Wars? Saddam himself very likely was targeted for this same reason:

Foreign Exchange: Saddam Turns His Back on Greenbacks....

quote:

---

November 13, 2000. Europe's dream of promoting the euro as a competitor to the U.S. dollar may get a boost from SADDAM HUSSEIN. Iraq says that from now on, it wants payments for its oil in euros, despite the fact that the battered European currency unit, which used to be worth quite a bit more than $1, has dropped to about 82[cents]. Iraq says it will no longer accept dollars for oil because it does not want to deal "in the currency of the enemy."

---

“Blood for Oil” has always been a misnomer. We never have fought these wars of permanent occupation in the Middle East for oil.

There are enough known energy reserves in the Western Hemisphere for our nation to wean itself from dependency on Middle Eastern oil. “Blood for Greenbacks” is another story altogether.

The PetroDollar pact with Saudi Arabia is the primary reason the U.S. dollar is accepted as the world’s reserve currency: while a brilliant piece of political statecraft in it's day, it has been a disaster for the U.S. economically and militarily since at least the end of the Cold War. The current crisis continues until our nation returns to a sound monetary policy and abandons this print-on-demand currency that is propped up by the corrupt PetroDollar pact.