One ex-KGB officer remarked that the great thing about capitalism was how little it cost to find someone to betray their country.
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I don’t doubt I had family fighting in them (as part of the English army lest there be any confusion) though it’s a bit murky around then and we don’t really have any records or anything like that from earlier than the mid 19thC. So we wouldn’t know any family abroad at that time.
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See, that’s some sell your soul money there.
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Whenever I hear the announcers on the BBC World Service babbling about “free trade” and the awesomeness of globalization, I think of the opium wars.
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Flynn’s going to retire to Leavenworth.
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A taste of their own medicine …
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Now this is what I call an extraordinary rendition.
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I’d be particularly curious given how Turkey is…not exactly playing up it’s “Nope, Secular Republic Now. Do you need a reminder?” political culture these days.
The portion of Team Trump(and American foreign policy types in general) who espouse the “No, it’s time for the Russians to be our buddies again so we can both go and kill scary terrorist muslins!!!” position can be described by many adjectives unsuitable for polite company; but the reasonably competent ones at least have a shot at ‘odious; but internally consistent’.
Taking bribes from Turkey to soft-pedal on ISIS because the Turks don’t like the Kurds, though, is harder to fit into any cogent framework aside from mere willingness to sell out(doubly so when one keeps in mind how enthusiastic Flynn is about the Russians, which makes it less likely that he has a principled love of the NATO state that was basically admitted to give us a particularly handy shot at Russia): if you dislike ‘islamic terrorism’ so much; being willing to compromise on ISIS is…curious; if you are a ‘war of civilizations’ enthusiast, you should be real cool toward the Turkish leadership at present; and so on.
I’m just not having a good time coming up with something plausible here; even if I admit the “Sure, we make friends with terrible people when it suits our interests!” logic that went so well during the cold war.
He actually seems to have managed something that fits the as-actually-defined-in-the-constitution-because-people-like-to-throw-it-around-casually definition of ‘treason’ on this one.
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It’s a mystery to me as well.
First-stab hypothesis: Flynn is terrified of three things. Brown people, Muslims and Commies.
The Russians are white, Christian and no longer Commies. All good.
The Turks are brown and Muslims, but at least they ain’t Commies. Ditto for Daesh. The Kurds, OTOH, hit all three buttons.
It’s weak, but that’s all I have so far. Flynn is irrational; he’s hard to predict.
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It’ll only work until they get a translation of Rudyard Kipling.
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wait…slow down…what kind of treason are we talking about here?
I have 3 kids to send to college.
War Is A Racket by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (retired), 1935. Can’t get a plainer statement than that, from a man who was employed in that racket and came to see it for what it was.
Pretty amazing guy, btw; awarded the Medal of Honor twice, and at the time of his death, the most decorated US Marine in history. Stopped an attempt at a fascist coup in 1933.
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Beat me to it! The Capone quote is perhaps one of the best, concise statements on the nature of war, so I’ll leave it here
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
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Perfect example of how the war against Daesh is not something the U.S. wants to “win” as in crush ISIS. This is very much about maintaining favorable spheres of influence.
If we wanted to crush ISIS we would’ve thrown our hats in the ring with the YPG/PKK a couple years ago.
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Didn’t know about that video; thanks.
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Unfortunately they have the built-in excuse, appeasement of Erdogan re: Kurds is an extension of Obama’s policy. Although it seems that at the end of the administration they started to come around, very much a case of too little, too late.
Without having listened, I immediately read “The marching song of the covert battalions” and thought “Shhhh! Be vewy vewy quiet, I’m hunting wabbits.”
I hope they’re all about ready to head off to school.
'Cuz soon that half a mil ain’t gonna be enough for 3 kids.
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tell me about it. One is in two years. And she is eyeing Brown to which I said “You are so on your own”
The other two have a few more after that, and I am praying for them to get athletic scholarships.
