Stlkofta said:

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infinity ag said:

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Stlkofta said:

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Surrendering to the Taliban.

Paying tribute to Iran.

Funding Hamas….from Day One.

This the worst foreign policy POTUS we have ever had and it isn't close.

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Well, admit it. All Presidents, both D and R have done things like this. We funded terrorism in Pakistan as well as long as it did not touch us.
On the economic front, we built up China until they became the global menace they are today.

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Biden is not getting a pass on this or any of his other foreign policy failures with the claim "they all do it."

Even Obama didn't surrender to the Taliban.

With regard to Pakistan, you sometimes have to deal with a slime nation in order to advance overall foreign policy goals. Pakistan was essential to the planning and development of Afghanistan operations and could have been a far bigger issue for us and our assets in that country.

Saudi Arabia aren't princes amongst nations and we all know that. But as a counter to Iran, who is a far more dangerous nation to American foreign policy interests, the Saudis have to be in our equation warts and all.

What was the foreign policy benefit to funding Hamas? What was the foreign policy benefit of funding Iran under Obama and now Biden?

As far as the CCP, only one President authorized the mass transfer of technology allowing the Chinese to be where they are today. That was a Democrat as well. After Nixon, the interest was primarily in opening China to American overseas business with an eye towards countering the Soviets in the Cold War era. In other words, that market-oriented interest represented a return to an American foreign policy goal that existed from the very founding of our nation.

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Stlkofta said:

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Not a Bot said:

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The Afghanistan cards had been dealt long before then. We were funneling money to a fake army that existed only on paper. The Afghanistan papers were leaked in (iirc) 2011, but no one reported on it. The CIA and DOD knew that the Afghani Army was a walking pile of crap and couldn't do anything, but at the same time we're telling the public and Congress that everything was going great.

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Yeah. That is why no Taliban offensive ever got that far off the ground while Trump was President.

SIGAR reports point to the effectiveness of the Afghan Air Force and the Afghan Special Forces. The main body ANA was not all that good. But it was good enough to fight in the way we trained it to fight.

President Biden took away logistical funding from the two most effective segments of the Afghan military structure we built and trained in our way of fighting. That created the conditions for an effective Taliban offensive, as President Biden and his team stripped the Afghan military of its ability to fight as we had spent decades training it to fight.

Now we see the consequences of Biden's surrender to the Taliban at work here in tandem with his ridiculous decisions to fund Hamas and pay tribute to Iran. The chickens for a weak and insidious President have come home to roost.

No amount of blame-shifting is going to save him from the fact he is as terrible a President as he is a human being.

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Teslag said:

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I haven't even sensed a coherent talking point among media talking heads and democrat politicians. It's disjointed and they aren't sure how they want to approach it. This attack was so completely disgusting and one sided in terms of who to blame, they are having difficulty framing it in a way they need to.

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I have been in touch with communities impacted by what’s happening in the region. It is abhorrent. My heart is with all those impacted. We need peace in this region.

— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) October 7, 2023

Rossticus said:

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mts6175 said:

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ChemAg15 said:

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Isosceles_Kramer said:

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Hamas is commiting major war crimes, and recording it for online view. I don't see how they can gather the usual sympathy and play the victim card with this attack. There are atrocities being shown unlike their previous attacks. Very sad.

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This is what is alarming to me. Hamas is acting like they aren't going to play the victim card which means they WANT Isreal to respond with overwhelming force. Whoever is pulling the strings, their goal seems to be total warfare.

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Conspiracy theory answer - Iran is trying to draw us into a war and will attempt to hit us inside the USA too with some terrorist attack.

Hezbollah already has started attacking Israel in the northern district today. Gut tells me Israel is about to attempt to go Fallujah on Gaza, which will draw the other anti Israel Arab nations and terrorist groups. They want the west to engage.

This will get nasty.

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BRICS. Russia is in a tight spot, Iran wants to eliminate Israel, and China wants Taiwan. The US has shown that we lack resolve and will self cannibalize and bail before the job is done (Afghanistan, Ukraine, etc.) for political benefit. I don't think it's a coincidence that this begins when it has. I expect China to get froggy here shortly.

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Teslag said:

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I remember the first time I flew over Mosul and was amazed at how an entire city could be completely laid to waste. There was nothing left. Just rubble as far as you could see. I just couldn't imagine the amount of ordnance it took to get that done.

There's no reason why Israel couldn't and shouldn't do the same to Gaza.

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Teslag said:

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I haven't even sensed a coherent talking point among media talking heads and democrat politicians. It's disjointed and they aren't sure how they want to approach it. This attack was so completely disgusting and one sided in terms of who to blame, they are having difficulty framing it in a way they need to.

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cslifer said:

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Why do people keep posting stuff from random Twitter accounts that Israel sent 80% of their artillery shells to Ukraine? That is one of the most ridiculous things I have heard in a while.

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The US military is quietly shipping hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine from a massive stockpile in Israel, according to a Tuesday report.

The ammunition supply is located in Israel for the US military to use in regional conflicts. The US has also given Israel permission to use some of the supplies in emergency situations, The New York Times reported, citing American and Israeli officials.

The previous government approved of the move as Israel attempted to chart a course between maintaining ties with the US and Ukraine, and not antagonizing Russia.

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Quote:

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The US stockpile in Israel dates back to the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The US delivered weapons to beleaguered Israeli forces during the war, then set up storage facilities in Israel for use in a potential crisis.

US tanks and armored personnel carriers were stowed in the Negev desert in case American forces in the Middle East needed them. Later on, in the 2000s, munitions for the different branches of the US military were kept in Israel in locations that were only open to the US personnel, the report said.

The stockpile was officially known as War Reserve Stocks for Allies-Israel, or WRSA-I. It was supervised by the US European Command and is now overseen by the US Central Command, which has included Israel since 2021.

Israel used ammunition from the stockpile during the 2006 Lebanon war against the Hezbollah terror group, and during fighting against Gaza terrorists in 2014, according to a Congressional report from last year.

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YouBet said:

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It was reported a couple of days ago that Israel apparently has a $2B line to the US for armament as insurance. There was speculation that we diverted most of these arms to Ukraine. That may be where the 80% is coming from and shouldn't be surprising if we did that. Because....Biden.

On the hostages, it sounds like they are all still in Gaza. A Hamas spokesman said they had spread them throughout Gaza as a deterrent to Israel coming into Gaza - WSJ.

On a personal note, we moved out of Dallas last week to a small town. Very happy about that.

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Cru said:

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YouBet said:

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It was reported a couple of days ago that Israel apparently has a $2B line to the US for armament as insurance. There was speculation that we diverted most of these arms to Ukraine. That may be where the 80% is coming from and shouldn't be surprising if we did that. Because....Biden.

On the hostages, it sounds like they are all still in Gaza. A Hamas spokesman said they had spread them throughout Gaza as a deterrent to Israel coming into Gaza - WSJ.

On a personal note, we moved out of Dallas last week to a small town. Very happy about that.

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Man, really happy for you. I know that was a long time coming. So glad you were able to execute it.

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Definitely Not A Cop said:

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Definitely Not A Cop said:

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The IG and TikTok crowd are almost completely on Hamas side. Or at least, celebrating an uprising against Israel for putting the mistreated Palestinians in "open air prisons"

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Just to give some credit to Cuban, who usually finds the biggest foot to stick in his mouth.

https://instagr.am/p/CyJDj4zI6_O

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tremble said:

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Rossticus said:

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mts6175 said:

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ChemAg15 said:

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Isosceles_Kramer said:

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Hamas is commiting major war crimes, and recording it for online view. I don't see how they can gather the usual sympathy and play the victim card with this attack. There are atrocities being shown unlike their previous attacks. Very sad.

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This is what is alarming to me. Hamas is acting like they aren't going to play the victim card which means they WANT Isreal to respond with overwhelming force. Whoever is pulling the strings, their goal seems to be total warfare.

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Conspiracy theory answer - Iran is trying to draw us into a war and will attempt to hit us inside the USA too with some terrorist attack.

Hezbollah already has started attacking Israel in the northern district today. Gut tells me Israel is about to attempt to go Fallujah on Gaza, which will draw the other anti Israel Arab nations and terrorist groups. They want the west to engage.

This will get nasty.

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BRICS. Russia is in a tight spot, Iran wants to eliminate Israel, and China wants Taiwan. The US has shown that we lack resolve and will self cannibalize and bail before the job is done (Afghanistan, Ukraine, etc.) for political benefit. I don't think it's a coincidence that this begins when it has. I expect China to get froggy here shortly.

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Too many changes in China too rapidly IMO. Losing your foreign minister and multiple strategic military commanders in the PLARF not conducive to real world ops.

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MouthBQ98 said:

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The Hamas/Palestinian support on the left is because they fall neatly into an oppressed/oppressor leftist political narrative and an identity politics intersectionalist narrative also. They are supposedly the oppressed minority group that are freedom fighters, instead of the perpetual antagonists and self destructive nihilistic extremists that they actually are. The left wants to exploit, promote, and leverage the oppression narrative for political activism in nations elsewhere, far removed from the actual conflict, to raise funds and recruit sympathetic activists locally. It's what they always do. It's not about reality, it as about narrative.

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MouthBQ98 said:

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The Hamas/Palestinian support on the left is because they fall neatly into an oppressed/oppressor leftist political narrative and an identity politics intersectionalist narrative also. They are supposedly the oppressed minority group that are freedom fighters, instead of the perpetual antagonists and self destructive nihilistic extremists that they actually are. The left wants to exploit, promote, and leverage the oppression narrative for political activism in nations elsewhere, far removed from the actual conflict, to raise funds and recruit sympathetic activists locally. It's what they always do. It's not about reality, it as about narrative.

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MouthBQ98 said:

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I agree it is possible but we need to stop at claiming speculation as fact, or be clear it is speculation. Lots of random accounts on the social media fail to do that, and people run with it based on confirmation bias without considering how plausible or factual it is, and end up spreading unfounded rumors because they happen to support preconceptions.

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Quote:

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The latest iteration of this year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) proposed by the House incorporates a crucial provision within which the Pentagon is mandated to submit a comprehensive report to Congress. Included in this report are the present inventory of PGMs within WRSA-I, the Defense Department's strategy for replenishing the stockpile after the transfer of munitions to Ukraine and an evaluation of whether the current stockpile aligns with the legal obligation to uphold Israel's Qualitative Military Edge (QME) as safeguarded by U.S. law.

Preserving Israel's QME stands as a crucial goal within the U.S.-Israel relationship. The overarching objective is to safeguard Israel's QME by ensuring it possesses the necessary resources to effectively tackle any future security threats. However, the transfer of the munitions stockpile to Ukraine has resulted in a diminished WRSA-I inventory for Israel.

JINSA has learned that the remaining weapons stored there are virtually useless for Israel's needs, and since 2018 has been the only organization to call for WRSA-I to be modernized and replenished with much-needed PGMs to help counter threats from Iran and/or Hezbollah.

American officials have stated repeatedly how WRSA-I helps ensure the Jewish state's ability to defend itself. Yet, according to JINSA, "the stockpile is falling dangerously short of meeting its stated purpose. Of particular concern is the stock of PGMs, especially Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tail kits to convert unguided bombs. Israel will need abundant PGMs to compensate for limited defensive capabilities and prevail in an expected major war with Tehran and its proxies, all while minimizing collateral damage to civilians."

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Quote:

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Michael Makovsky, president and CEO of JINSA, has also noted that "the stockpile is falling dangerously short of meeting its stated purpose. Israel will need abundant PGMs to compensate for limited defensive capabilities and prevail in an expected major war with Tehran and its proxies, all while minimizing collateral damage to civilians."

He said that JINSA is "making progress on this critical issue, with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans."

"We applaud Congressman Panetta, with whom we've worked closely on this issue, for introducing this important provision into the NDAA, and we thank House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) for his support," said Makovsky.

"Much work remains to be done before this provision becomes law, but JINSA will continue to work with our partners in Congress so this and other JINSA recommendations are included in this year's NDAA."

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