FEDIT POLITICS Thread

Cheer up guys, im sure we bound to start bombing people again real soon!
Dont forget the midterms are coming and smarting voters are in need of a dopamine flush.
You know the president is going to continue to deliver us those dope wins.

 

what do you want from me Irish?

 

derp

 

St. George Floyd day

 

I don't know fully what I think about the MOU. I don't think it's some catastrophic failure, but it's a reality check with some political consequences. It doesn't make me respect Trump any less, but it does cause me to extend more grace to Obama, Reagan, and other presidents who've had controversial dealings with these lunatics. Carter...less so.

We have to compare the deal to historical precedent and the status quo, not what people hoped would happen. Trump pulled out of the JCPOA, put maximum sanctions on Iran, and killed Soleimani. Then he killed the Ayatollah. Then he did about 5 weeks of airstrikes that degraded Iran's military and nuclear capabilities. He put on a blockade that cost Iran $500M per day. No boots on the ground. Iran has agreed to destroy the enriched uranium and not to acquire a nuclear weapon. There will be monitoring and inspections to verify compliance. If they don't comply, turn down the benefits dial and pull out the big stick (no homo, and I hope that's not necessary). Not perfect, but I'd call this an improvement over historical precedent and the status quo.

I don't hate the "neocons". I think their opinions are every bit as welcome as the hardline non-interventionists. But Trump isn't an ideologue. For better or worse, he's a pragmatist who can read the tea leaves. The strikes and blockade put us in a position to negotiate from a stronger position, but there are limits to what we can accomplish from the air. Iran still has the drones and mines to cause short term economic pain during a midterm year. Do the neocons want $8 gas and boots on the ground? Do they want to spend billions more (hopefully we can make up what we've spent on oil exports)? The only realistic option was to stop for now and give diplomacy a try.

The real cost is political (though I do believe this is recoverable). Starting the strikes angered the non-interventionists. Stopping the strikes angers the neocons and disappoints Iranian Americans who got some false hope. There was no political benefit to do this. That's why I believe, naive as I am, that the nuclear threat was real and this needed to be done. Doing the right thing when it's not the popular thing to do is admirable imo...but, like I said, I am naive.

I think we can all agree that we're sick of Iran.

 

hope it doesn't sound patronizing and i know it does sometimes. but i really appreciate hearing well thought out opinions and pov's from the younger guys. especially w historic perspective. sometimes we all forget about that part. regardless its welcome and affirming to hear them. going to take in the Reagan museum next week hopefully w the gf before she leaves for Virginia. can't believe i've never been to the place. lmk if anyone wants to meet up. my schedule is flexible. Happy Pappy day!

 

pred

 

Have fun! It's awesome. The Nixon one is closer to me but the Reagan one blows it out of the water. The tour takes you onto air force one.

 

be there at noon tomorrow. excited and can't believe its taken me so long to see the place. really inspiring seeing all the visitors here enjoying what we have. hope to meet some.

 

of course you did. it's going to come out legit though. none of them are clean.

 

really not that funny tbh