Then he’s got half the money, so why should he do anything for losers?
I think while there is almost certainly a whole bunch of grift going on, most bribery is going to be of the sort where people bribe people who claim to/appear to have the ability to influence Trump rather than bribing Trump himself.
His own cons tend to be a bit more basic. I don’t think he gets beyond embezzlement and the standard “get everyone to stay in my hotels” grifting.
This is one of those “a stopped clock is right twice a day” type things that Trump does occasionally.
In general, the US not playing “World Police” in another country is a good thing.
Yet another time when defunding the police is a good idea…
I don’t care who is doing the troop withdrawal. We need to get our military out of any policing role we still find ourselves in as soon as possible.
I’d be right there with you if we were talking Vietnam-type numbers, in the thousands. But we’re not. The few hundred US troops that remain in most theaters at this time are not doing any fighting. They are doing training, and their primary purpose right now is symbolic. They act as a political shield and stabilizing effect in areas where there is still risk of actual shooting wars. In contrast to when the US starts a confrontation, keeping a small US troop presence in places like Somalia helps avoid bloodshed until such a time as the situation stabilizes.
Pulling them out willy-nilly creates a power vacuum that leads to dangerous instability.
No, fomenting a power-vacuum and then abandoning it to the instability you helped create isn’t right any time of day.
Right. That’s also the raison d’etre of UN peacekeeping missions. Whatever one’s opinion of their efficacy (it’s a mixed bag IMO), they’re not large-scale unilateral interventions in service of fossil-fuel and agribusiness corporations and/or on behalf of fighting the Commies just because they’re Commies.
Negative on that. The US forces in Somalia are definitely kinetic.
My thinking is that having our units deployed on foreign land gives recruiting ammunition to some very bad groups. Even under the best of circumstances. Even if the members of these units are exemplary humans, completely respectful of all local customs and taboos they will still be resented eventually fomenting animosity towards them and by extension us. As far as the power vaccum is concerned, either we colonize or we don’t. If they are not actively shooting at people that are say, ethnically clensing a sub group, then how is our long term presence not a form of colonization? If they are engaged in DA missions then we will certainly rack up the body count and animus.
I left my Reserves medical unit four decades ago and I see they’re now operating field hospitals in 3rd-world countries and training local medicos. I don’t see that as a bad imposition. YMMV.
So does poverty, instability, and violence.
We’re not talking about colonization. One of the only things that’s actually good about US troop presence in a region is that it puts up a signpost that says “don’t fuck with these people around here. They are under our protection. If you hurt them, the largest military in the history of the world will simply make you not exist.”
While it’s not enough progress and not fast enough for my liking, I think it’s encouraging that military leaders have been doing drawdowns faster and to lower numbers than they used to. Instead of parking 50,000 troops in a country, they’ve learned to park 500 instead, because the whole world knows there are 500,000 behind them.
Next up: not getting involved in the first place.
Well, this explains why Mr. Martins Roger needs my help moving forty million dollars out of Somalia. There are four trunks at JFK with ten million in each just awaiting my signature and bank account number and then they’re mine.
I always give fake names and accounts. That’s worked just as well as the usual chain-letter strategies. Does anyone here know Donny Boy’s bagman account numbers? He should enjoy this, too.
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