A time-tested distraction from domestic bs.
A rallying point for America Firsters and U.S. military-industrial complex.
Higher prices now justified for everything inside U.S. borders.
And among so many other things, for those of us with draft-age or soon to be draft-age sons, a nontrivial turn of events.
May the gods and goddesses–if such there be–have mercy on us all.
Reminds me of Pinochet and his regime, busily kidnapping and murdering his own countrymen and then… hey lookit war in the Falklands…
… Between 1973 and 1988, Chilean state agents were responsible for over 3,000 deaths or disappearances and tens of thousands of cases of torture and political arrests. The Spanish extradition request for Pinochet included charges of murder and torture.
The UK government’s decision to allow Pinochet to escape justice was consequently met with outrage, particularly after the despot seemed to show miraculous signs of recovery upon his arrival in Santiago.
Many suspected that a political agreement had been reached to allow Pinochet to return to Chile under cover of a contentious medical report which claimed he was unable to instruct his lawyers.
Recently declassified files now indicate how the legal process had been complicated by a secret deal made with Pinochet by Margaret Thatcher during the 1980s.
Thatcher, the files suggest, had promised the dictator medical assistance in Britain in return for Chile’s military and intelligence support during the Falklands War in 1982.
The documents further show how the idea to release Pinochet on health grounds had been discussed at length behind closed doors, with the Chilean authorities pushing a “humanitarian” solution to the crisis.
Jeremy Corbyn MP, a prominent supporter of the campaign to see Pinochet extradited, commented: “All the time there was pressure to allow Pinochet to go back… This concoction about his health was developed and we were told that he was a man who was losing his memory, age was taking over, and he would not be fit to face trial”. …
source:
Huh. “Health.” “Not be fit to face trial.” Gosh. I wonder who else may end up being described this way and go on living consequence-free. Gosh… a few names come to mind…
Hmm. I guess I missed the part of the Ukraine-Russia war where the US military got directly involved and launched a missile strike at targets in Russia? When did that happen? Maybe I was asleep or something.
Greene, and Republicans like her, cannot bring themselves to agree with a Democrat on anything, even when they are, in fact, in full agreement on an issue. Which is part of how we got here. To them, nothing is worse than a Democrat. Literally nothing.
While many Israelis have huge problems with Netanyahu, his policies of genocide and mass murder of Iranians are hugely, overwhelmingly, popular.
Israel has had coalition parties that loudly tell us that Palestinians have no human rights because they don’t meet their definition of human for decades now.
It’s not just Netanyahu. Mere regime change simply isn’t enough.
If Iran is serious about their longtime chants of “Death to America!”, they really should fucking looooove Trump being President of the US. And they would be going against their stated interests if they killed him. I’m not saying they don’t want to assassinate him. Authoritarian regimes do stupid shit all the time. But the last thing Iran should want right now is a more capable, intelligent person as President of the US. Not that Vance is going to really be a better President, but I don’t think he would be as reckless as Trump.
No, I get it, I just find it slightly ironic that Iran wants to see the US fail as a nation, and they also want to get rid of the one person who can most likely lead the US to fail as a nation.
I agree with her that given recent attacks inflicted by Israel, Iran may well have already moved everything nuke related that Tramp claims US forces destroyed. I’m thinking the US attack was all more for show than for the stated goal, perhaps entirely.
The repercussions of this act of war are likely to help Russia. Their relations with Iran will improve. Iran will provide them with a ton more drones for Ukraine. The price of oil will increase; helping Russia’s economy. If they disrupt oil transport in the straight - even more so.
And it will weaken the U.S. alliances in Europe and elsewhere even further.
Yeah, he’s seriously incentivized. Which makes believing him, over the US’s own intelligence, pretty crazy.
Now I’m losing my mind over the discourse coming out of the White House: Trump violated the constitution, international law, and a couple nuclear treaties in bombing Iran before talks took place, after having quite flagrantly violated the nuclear agreement with Iran for no reason (other than Obama having been responsible for it) and they’re blaming the bombing on Iran… for not coming to an agreement. They’re declaring victory (yet more military action is needed, for some reason), while making Iran, which wasn’t close to building a nuclear weapon and which posed no immediate threat, more belligerent and highly motivated to get a nuclear weapon.
Meanwhile, as obvious parallels to the Iraq war are being so, so obvious, Vance reassures us that it’s totally different this time:
I thought that quote was a joke or summing up what he was saying, but watched the included video and realized that no, that was a direct quote. Jesus.
“Hey this is totally different from Iraq - those guys were total idiots because they told you the conflict would be super easy and quickly resolved. Which turned out to not be true, unlike this time which will be super easy and quickly resolved.”
Also, I just can’t get over this administration, with its blatant top-to-bottom incompetence, proclaiming that the previous guys were all idiots, but they’re the competent ones.