Definitely something fishy going on.
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I have to keep reminding myself that most people are normal and social media highlights the crazies more so than the level headed.
Although I think it’s a pretty mad situation where if you tell your politics on one issue - vaccines, abortion, capital punishment, healthcare, tax, refugees, race relations etc then I have a 90% chance of knowing your politics on every other issue.
Also, politicizing the Covid vaccination may be the most evil thing the right wing in America has ever done.
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So much of what they politicize results in people dying. I dont see this as that much of a leap.
What is astounding though is that Ive seen analyses showing that you get a better predictor of the last election based on current views on vaccines and masking than you do based on the results of the 2004 presidential election.
Does this bothers anyone???
Thank God they were disorganized. There was clear intent on the part of the majority to do violent harm, but they were more of a rabble than crack troops.
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…and we know who the ‘rabble rouser’ was though
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20 Years?
I would argue that you need to go back to 1961 to find a US President that was competent.
And even he couldn’t keep his tallywhacker in his trousers.
What about Nixon? Watergate notwithstanding he knew his shit.
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I guess - I mean what can you say about Nixon? Honest, trustworthy, level headed and not in the least bit paranoid.
No none of them…
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Didn’t he have to deal with the big bloke with the blue willy?
Small protest. There’s a serious lack of suitable Watchmen gifs.
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I wasn’t going to start an “Afghanistan” thread so this is the closest fit. Doesn’t suit the Breaking News Thread anymore, either.
Had an at-length conversation with a friend from the US last night that actually made sense, the more I think about it. Here’s the gist of it:
NATO and the US have been in Afghanistan for some time now, trying to eliminate Al-Qaeda (I guess you can add ISIS to this list now). Due to the nature of their presence there, they haven’t really been able to affect any geopolitical change to the country other than “supporting” the government of their choice. However, that focus has shifted
According to numerous sources (US geological agency et al), that region is an untapped resource of precious metals/minerals and large oil/gas deposits worth trillions of dollars.
To directly quote my friend, “this is going to be a bunch of rich old men playing chess with many people’s lives”.
So the theory is, that the US made a full withdrawl of the region that they knew was going to result in a vacuum: Trump rules out Afghan troops withdrawal - BBC News
once the Taliban take control of the country and start killing foreigners, the US will then re-enter the country in a full-force state of war in an effort to effectively eliminate the Taliban. They will no longer be hiding in caves in the mountain, they have moved into the cities now. Their jihadist ideals do not reflect well with the Afghan people whom they have terrorized for decades, and the commoners will support an armed invasion like they did in the beginning.
Russia and China have already shown support for the Taliban Emirate, as it lays the groundwork for getting priority access to the huge resources which will be under the Emirate’s control.
Whilst I try to ignore global politics for the most part, I feel this situation is going to get far worse than it already is.
I don’t get the perspective. What does pulling out now to go back in later achieve that staying put doesn’t? Is the point we need to pull out for a time to get a respite to reenergize the support for being there?
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Just noway!
Anyway, abortion is now effectively illegal in the state of texas after the Supreme Court last night refused to intervene in the new Texas state law, and worse it in practice opens the door to the criminalization of miscarriages.
This is a really big fucking deal and for all the focus in recent years on the perils of a minority appointed court and what they might do, there has barely been a blip on the coverage on what they have now done.
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How it was explained to me, the original reason for their presence there was the elimination of Al-Qaeda as they tracked Bin Laden from 9/11. He was being sheltered by the Taliban. Once that was done, the US attempted to stabilize the political situation. But they were not there to remove the Taliban. Taliban is now defending Bin Laden in the news which isn’t going to help the situation, and former Al-Qaeda members are being reported in the news as joining the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Sounds like the stage is being set.
Please understand that these thoughts are not my own, but the theories behind them are somewhat plausible considering what’s happening right now. will be re-visiting this sometime next year to see what’s happened.
I hope that one of the courts will issue a stay on the law in the next couple of days.
I dont get it. That just reframes what we know of the stated reasons for originally going in and the dynamics that existed.
I understand the perspective of wearily expecting a different administration to get sucked into going back in under the same pretense we went in originally. The bit Im not understanding that your response didn’t address is how getting out now is part of a calculated move to enable that future state of again going after the taliban. I understand it’s not your perspective per se, but Im just struggling to understand the dots being connected.
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