?Anyone notice Trump’s speech in Saudi. ?How about his visit to Israel.
There is a distinct change in attitude towards the world, and our position in it, from Obummer. Where Obummer denigrated America, talked a lot of hot air, and pretty much threw everyone under the bus, Trump is making no excuses for who we are, no “accommodations” to foreign rituals, and clearly stating both our interests and what WE think we and they should be doing.
For the first time there is exhortation to throw the thugs out of the mosques, to name them apostasy, to get on with “normal” life.
In short, it is doing what is practical, noting the world as it is, not as we think it ought to be.
I have a draft of War & Peace Part 5 in the hamper, but this may be a better venue to talk about foreign policy. ?Do you believe Trump has it right.
When force is required, use it so that the crater serves as a reminder.
US military lives are more important than media opinion.
We will not fix your country, but we will kill our enemies.
It is a lot better to be our ally than not.
I adored his speech but my euphoria has been destroyed by the tragedy in Manchester.
The incident in Manchester is separate from what Trump is doing. It is truly tragic that there appears to be significant injuries from those trying to “escape”. Hysteria may be more deadly than those who wish to harm us.
TKC, treating with foreign nations can be tricky. Certainly investing American troops ought to be a very seriously taken alternative.
What I like about what Trump has done is circumscribe just what we expect our “allies” to do. That includes something uncomfortable for them – throwing them out of the mosque. No muslim has yet been willing to do that. But perhaps now with Trump’s encouragement it might begin to occur. If it does, that will be a major change in the scope and direction of our foreign policy.
The other thing I like is that it seems purposeful, not random comments or positions. For far too long we have been treated to content-free bromides instead of solid strategy and policy. This is true not only for Obummer but for W, who seemed lost much of the time. He was a nice guy, but there wasn’t any real strategy evident. That follows his father’s example.
If you want allies, you have to be predicatable in resolution.
People have to know when you will fight and why.
If you want your enemies to fear you, you have to be unpredicatable in action but predictable in resolution. They know must know the same thing as your allies.
Anyone who has run projects of any size, knows the idiocy of mission creep. If you have the worlds best firefighters, and then expand their mission to building and inspecting houses for others because they might go on fire someday is a recipe for defeat and disaster.
Put out the fire and then let everyone know rebuilding the house is their problem, and the next fire is their problem too. Setting the expectations is the key to successful management,
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I particularly like setting the expectations is key to successful management.
“What I like about what Trump has done is circumscribe just what we expect our “allies” to do. That includes something uncomfortable for them – throwing them out of the mosque. No muslim has yet been willing to do that. But perhaps now with Trump’s encouragement it might begin to occur. If it does, that will be a major change in the scope and direction of our foreign policy.”
Frankly, I believe this is our only option. There are too many of them and too few of us. This cultural/civil/hegemonic war strikes me as peculiar from WWI and WWII; we are facing 1.8 million bona fide enemies and 1.8 billion appeasers (24% of the world’s population). And those are just Muslims. We have American and European appeasers as well.
I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this before; drastic circumstances require drastic measures.
What bothers me is that Trump is saying nothing beyond common sense. He is absolutely right It is working. Why is this so difficult to find? Jesus Christ, I’m not asking for the next Churchill. Just somebody who’s not full of shit, weak as a daisy, or committed to our destruction.
It’s been a long time.
Ah, Admin! The world is full of Chamberlains, not Churchills.
“Common sense” is mislabeled – it should be “Uncommon sense”.