America Going to War with Syria! - Page 10 - Politics and Economics

If you heard a candidate say that and voted for him/her anyway, you are crazy. It doesn't matter what your main reason was.

Moral people don't vote for politicans who say things like that.

Agree with both; my point still stands.

04-07-2017 , 06:43 PM

#227

Dutch101

old hand

Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 1,987

Quote:

Originally Posted by O.A.F.K.1.1

Why did Assad even use chems in the first place?

Seems like a lose lose.

The only prism through which it makes sense is that this whole affair is orchestrated to give Comrade Trump a bump in the polls and reset the narrative on his relationship with Russia.

Gas is cheap, effective and leaves infrastructure in tact. Assad would love to be able to use it without consequences. That is why he will keep trying to get away with it.

04-07-2017 , 07:07 PM

#228

DrModern

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Quote:

Originally Posted by David Sklansky

As long as our strike was a one time thing that doesn't escalate, it barely matters who dropped the chemicals on the kids (unless it was actually done by us). The strike probably made it less likely for anybody to do it again.

"It barely matters who dropped the chemicals on the kids" has been called, folks.

David, you can't post things like this and expect to be taken seriously. It matters a great deal who is responsible for a horrible, deadly attack with a dangerous weapon. Empirical questions have answers that have political and moral consequences. The fact that firing cruise missiles might have "made it less likely for anybody to do it again" (which, spoiler alert, it didn't) is just invoking an irrelevant generality ("deterrence is good"). When someone gets murdered, do you sit around going, "it hardly matters who did it as long as we imprison someone?"

04-07-2017 , 07:42 PM

#229

longmissedblind

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 3,733

Quote:

Originally Posted by otatop

He's a terrible reader.

This is...................... accurate....... A very.................. on.............. point............

Quote:

Originally Posted by cuserounder

It's important to remember that if Trump did want to use military action to boost his approval numbers and impact the news cycle, he could have just significantly ramped up strikes on ISIS. He didn't need a conspiracy, he had an option all along.

No no, you need the suffering Syrian kids to get every Johnny cablenews watcher to get teary-eyed furious

04-07-2017 , 08:26 PM

#230

sportsjefe

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Quote:

Originally Posted by theballer84

I will apologize for being out of the loop a bit - it looks like he is now 100% on board with blaming Assad.

http://www.nationalobserver.com/2017...-tells-commons

That was not his position earlier Thursday. It looks like once he was told the U.S. was going to go ahead and strike anyway (one hour before they did) without doing a full investigation that he decided it better to play along.

yeah, trudeau "failed his purity test".

https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/850502137905860610

04-07-2017 , 09:09 PM

#231

SuperUberBob

Not interesting enough

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 48,217

Quote:

Originally Posted by longmissedblind

This is...................... accurate....... A very.................. on.............. point............

Perhaps Trump is dyslexic.

Guess we'd have to compare him reading something from many years ago to that speech to see if it's consistent through time or a sign of neurodegenerative disease.

04-07-2017 , 10:19 PM

#232

2/325Falcon

Conehead

Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 21,907

Quote:

Originally Posted by microbet

Most of the fighting in Vietnam was against the South Vietnamese Vietcong and the vast majority of their weapons were American made.

Lol no.

04-07-2017 , 10:28 PM

#233

th14

old hand

Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 1,460

Quote:

Originally Posted by einbert

Welp

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/850425431899680768

Daily Beast: Assad, Taunting Trump, Mounts New Attacks on the Town He Gassed

Quote:

ISTANBUL—Just hours after the U.S. damaged a Syrian airbase linked to a chemical weapons attack, the Assad regime and its Russian ally launched three airstrikes against the very same rebel-held town where Assad was accused of using poison gas to kill more than 100 men, women, and children on Tuesday.

if Assad isn't responsible for the gas attack it's very strange he would respond to American pressure by doubling down on that town

04-07-2017 , 10:32 PM

#234

2/325Falcon

Conehead

Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 21,907

Quote:

Originally Posted by theballer84

Covert U.S. forces have been in Syria for a while now. I absolutely do not put it past the U.S. to infiltrate the Syrian air force and plant or convince an individual to do something like this in order to create justification for an attack.

Awwwwwww yissssssssssssss. Hai guys, ever heard of Operation Northwoods?

04-07-2017 , 10:36 PM

#235

Mr.DjiSamSoe

adept

Join Date: Oct 2015 Posts: 863

To all American whom agreed and happy to see this war happen,i hope someday,someway or somehow they or anyone will take the war to your own soil..

04-07-2017 , 10:38 PM

#236

2/325Falcon

Conehead

Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 21,907

As long as they wait until I finish the new Zelda game, fam.

04-07-2017 , 11:33 PM

#237

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 56,442

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2/325Falcon

Lol no.

You loling about the weapons? I know at some point I saw the inventory of captured VC weapons, but I can't find it - after looking for a while. Best I feel like doing now is this:

Quote:

In fact, communist forces in South Vietnam in 1965 were armed almost exclusively with weapons and ammunition captured, stolen, or bribed from South Vietnamese army and security forces.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/r/record-war.html

04-08-2017 , 12:10 AM

#238

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 56,442

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2/325Falcon

Lol no.

Here is more:

http://www.ifstone.org/weekly/IFSton...-1965mar08.pdf

Quote:

The Pentagon's Figures
To put the figures in perspective, we called the Pentagon press office and obtained some figures the White Paper does not supply—the number of weapons captured from the guerrillas and the number lost to them in recent years:

Captured From
Guerrillas
1962 4,800
1963 5,400
1964 4,900
3-Year Total

Lost to Them
5,200
8,500
13,700
15,100 27,400

In three years, the guerrillas captured from our side 12,300 more weapons than they lost to us. What interests us at the moment is not this favorable balance but the number of guerrilla weapons our side captured during the past three years. The grand total was 15,100. If Hanoi has indeed engaged in an "elaborate program" to supply the Viet Cong, one would expect a substantial number of enemy-produced weapons to turn up. Here is the sum total of enemy-produced weapons and supplies in that 18-month tally to the Control Commission—

72 rifles (46 Soviet, 26 Czech)
64 submachine guns (40 Czech, 24 French but "modified"
in North Vietnam)
15 carbines (Soviet)
8 machine guns (6 Chinese, 2 North Vietnamese)
5 pistols (4 Soviet, 1 Czech)
4 mortars (Chinese)
3 recoilless 75.mm rifles (Chinese)
3 recoilless 57.mm guns (Chinese)
2 bazookas (1 Chinese, 1 Czech)
2 rocket launchers (Chinese)
1 grenade launcher (Czech)
179 total

This is not a very impressive total. According to the Pentagon figures, we captured on the average 7500 weapons each 18-months in the past three years. If only 179 Communist made weapons turned up in 18 months, that is less than 2 1/2% of the total. Judging by these White Paper figures, our military are wrong in estimating, as they have in recent months, that 80% of the weapons used by the guerrillas are captured from us. It looks as if the proportion is considerably higher. The material of North Vietnamese origin included only those 24 French sub-machine guns "modified" in North Vietnam, 2 machine guns made in North Vietnam, 16 helmets, a uniform and an undisclosed number of mess kits, belts, sweaters and socks. Judging by this tally, the main retaliatory blow should be at North Vietnam's clothing factories.

04-08-2017 , 12:12 AM

#239

markksman

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.DjiSamSoe

To all American whom agreed and happy to see this war happen,i hope someday,someway or somehow they or anyone will take the war to your own soil..

You are Canadian.

04-08-2017 , 12:53 AM

#240

Oroku$aki

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04-08-2017 , 01:24 AM

#241

CHRONICFEVER

Goes hard in the paint

Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 13,449

Now that I think about it more , Trump s response was perfect . Show everyone who the boss is , he probably knows that chemical attack was not ordered by Assad but still choose to showcase his power in front of the China guy, he probably wants to portray this image of a madman who will act on anything

What better way to do it then to choose a low populated aircraft place and let people know you a crazy mofo not to mention the low poll numbers and the Russia connection.

I would bet there will be nothing more of this in future

04-08-2017 , 01:37 AM

#242

rtd353

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Apr 2014 Posts: 3,897

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHRONICFEVER

It was a brilliant political move on multiple levels

04-08-2017 , 02:29 AM

#243

Mr.DjiSamSoe

adept

Join Date: Oct 2015 Posts: 863

Quote:

Originally Posted by markksman

You are Canadian.

You are ******ed 😂

04-08-2017 , 02:58 AM

#244

David Sklansky

Administrator

Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,060

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrModern

I wrote my post under the impression that no one was hurt in the strike. With several dead it no longer applies.

However your analogy is not accurate. It would only be somewhat accurate if there was some doubt that we would ever punish murderers and now prospective murderers know they can't get away with it. In other words if we had previously attacked chemical weapons users I wouldn't have written what I did.

04-08-2017 , 05:19 AM

#245

2/325Falcon

Conehead

Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 21,907

microbro,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People...am#Vietnam_War

The lol here is the "most of the fighting was against the Vietcong" part of your post. Ia Drang, Tet, Hue, etc. There were even some tank battles. Never mind the North Vietnamese navy and airforce. Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapon...NLF.2FVC.2FNVA

and here's the money shot from your link:

Quote:

In the coastal lower Mekong Delta, where I served immediately after the Tet Offensive, the Viet Cong were equipped with weapons ranging from homemade booby traps to Chinese and Czech mortars and semiautomatic rifles. Main force VC (there were no PAVN units present) were armed with a combination of communist bloc and captured U.S. weapons, with local VC militia and self-defense forces relying almost exclusively on U.S. World War II-vintage M-1 rifles and M-2 carbines captured, stolen, or bought on the black market from South Vietnamese government forces. (The RVNAF did not begin receiving the U.S. M-16 rifle until 1969.) Also popular were World War I-vintage German Mauser bolt-action rifles, large stocks of which had been captured in Germany by Soviet forces in 1945. The Russians subsequently transferred them to the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which later turned them over to the Viet Minh during the French-Indochina War. Weapons of French and even Japanese manufacture also were discovered in VC arms caches, as were antivehicular mines, almost all of which were home-manufactured using dud U.S. bombs and artillery shells.

04-08-2017 , 07:14 AM

#246

Our House

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Is the Russian warship that just moved to the Mediterranean serious in any way, or is it just a standard show?

04-08-2017 , 07:53 AM

#247

stinkubus

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 4,422

Is that the one that has it's own tugboat in tow 24/7?

04-08-2017 , 11:30 AM

#248

Trolly McTrollson

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Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 36,688

Quote:

Originally Posted by sportsjefe

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/sta...80219961815040

Can we get a money-back guarantee on these cruise missiles? We lob 60 of them at an airstrip and it's still usable? If this was a consumer product, Northrop-Gruman would be sending us a $60M rebate check. Maybe Trump can write a 1-star product review on Amazon or something.