re: China buying Iranian oil as retaliation for trade deal failures--

Not me

Nope. You just don't like the implied prospects that this trade war retaliation puts us in an uncomfortable position. Will we insist China quit buying oil from Iran? how far will we go to stop them? How will we accomplish whatever it is we are trying to accomplish with Iran if they have plenty of hard currency coming in from sales of oil to China??

It is an uncomfortable and unfortunate place to be.

Frankly I would leave the Middle East to it's own devices and deal with China simply on the basis of relations between our two countries.

Whatever implied obligations we have to intervene in Iran have made Trumps hand with China harder to play.

Do you think the Israelis or the Saudis will pressure Trump to make up with China in hopes China will return to their stance of boycotting Iran??

Do you like it that those relationships exert influence on our negotiating with China?

quote:

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So forget a entire region and just deal with one country? China?

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Why not? I don't see any big effort to go to war in the "entire region" of Africa.

We can buy oil there. That is what it looks the Chinese want to do.

I am damn tired of being world policemen. It puts us in compromising positions---positions that often times lead to the death of Americans.

Seems Trump does want to continue the NeoCon/Hillary foreign policy in the ME to a certain degree.

Stange you should post her picture.

He ran on getting our of the ME and I liked that. Then he hired Bolton.

What's it feel like to cheer on two of your own country's rivals?

ib still ducking my questions

ib, if you really wanted to be reasonable about this, you would stop wringing your hands over every little minute thing that happens in this trade war and start looking at the big picture. or keep being an arse

#100

It is amazing the naiveté of many Trumpkins.

The Chinese are playing the Iranian sanctions card in the BIG PICTURE and the Trumpkins think the trade war we started and the promises we made to the Saudis and the Israelis have NOTHING to do with our situation.

The Saudis are scum just like the Persians and Turks they hate. Toting their water is nothing a single American should spill their blood over.

We damn sure should not let our relationship with China go to complete s*** to accommodate our Iranian policy or a politician's re-election. Let Trump continue his short sighted trade war---he will lose more votes than he gets when he imposes the forth tariff on the remaining $300 billion--those tariffs will be plain for everyone to see unlike the ones now.

But Trumpkins should not stand silent in their worship of the orange man while the war hawks like Bolton in his administration are all but advocating all out war with Iran. Bolton knows inserting carrier groups off the coast of a country is not something that will reduce tension. He wants a conflict just like Adelson and Krushner.

If the Iranians want to nuke Israel they can simply buy a bomb from Pakistan I am sure. Those backwoods rulers of Iran need enemies to keep the Iranian population worked up. Death to America, Death to Israel is all about getting votes. We would wipe their arse off the globe should they decide to attack the USA with nuclear weapons.

There are no "good" players in the ME. All of our so called allies are bought and paid for. Even the Israelis would leave us if we cut the money off to them and the Palestinians and told them we refuse to bomb their enemies.

You have not a clue as to what you are talking about.

How big of a mistake would it be to let this trade war go so far that US companies have no access at all to a quarter of the world's population??

BUT this thread is not about the trade war per se except to demonstrate how our far reaching, misguided obligations force us into uncomfortable situations.

Are we going to blockade Iran and prevent the Chinese from buying from Iran as they had pretty much agreed to do prior to the failure of the last round of trade talks and rich a confrontation with both China and Iran?

If we had no obligations to the Saudis and the Jews we would not be in this situation. We could care less where the Chinese buy oil.

What would you think if the Russians blockaded Saudi Arabia and told us we couldn't buy oil there?