Maybe it's just me, but there's just something about a kaffiyeh pulled up over a face that makes me want to smack it repeatedly with a baseball bat until I see red. If you know what I mean (and I think you do).
Posted on 01/11/2024 5:23:49 PM PST by RandFan
I don't care what FR neocons say
UK/US are officially bombing one of the poorest countries on Earth.
It's unconscionable.
I want peace. Enough.
At the time of the attack: Bill Clinton, President. Hugh Shelton, Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. William Cohen, Secretary of Defense.
And I don’t think it has gotten any better since then.
That's for damn sure.
I am not for being the worlds policemen or using the military to save private companie, ours or alliess (ie vietnam, for ex)
However, it is 100% reasonable for the military, wherever they are, to return fire on someone attacking them.
As an individual I claim that ability. For anyone, they will claim a right to return fire and defend themselves.
You are mixing up political military policies of an administration with the right to self protection/defense and the rules or warfare. No one is going to agree with you making such a big error.
Yemen has been a terrorist factory for years. The shipping lanes have to stay open.
Same here, except I want a 204,634 square miles of 4-inch- thick glass where Yemen currently squats...
“I propose that the U.S. Navy will not provide protection to any ship in international waters that doesn’t meet the requirements established under the Jones Act for domestic shipping. Does this sound reasonable to you?”
No, because we would in effect be forcing our domestic law (the Jones Act applies to shipping between US ports, not international shipping) on the rest of the world.
I can not recommend to your notice measures for the fulfillment of our duties to the rest of the world without again pressing upon you the necessity of placing ourselves in a condition of complete defense and of exacting from them the fulfillment of their duties toward us. The United States ought not to indulge a persuasion that, contrary to the order of human events, they will forever keep at a distance those painful appeals to arms with which the history of every other nation abounds. There is a rank due to the United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.This “poorest country” has been usurped by terrorists supported by a country that Biden has given multiple billions to, and they are using those billions to disrupt Red Sea traffic. This is Biden backpedaling.
— George Washington, 5th Annual Address to Congress, 12/03/1793
The current scenario is beyond retarded. If you are a maritime shipping company you have every financial and regulatory incentive to domicile your company and flag your vessels in any country but the U.S. — and you can still count on the U.S. taxpayers to pay for the military protection of your ships. It’s astonishing that any American with half a brain would think this makes sense.
I’m with you.
This sh!t goes on as our border bleeds.
Good point. And it seems similar to Iran encouraging Houthi troublemaking of various sorts.
Though I recall pretty much everyone having problems with the Barbary pirates (including the Brits). Most got out of it by paying the jizya or ransom. America paid a yearly “tribute”, but eventually refused to do so and took the war to the pirates.
I mean really you’re being silly. Diplomacy with pirates who are firing missiles and boarding ships at sea?
This is the perfect lesson because the pirates are attacking international shipping, and many here don’t understand how vital our military is to keeping free trade operating, or how valuable that trade is to our economy/ way of life.
And the article says we tried diplomacy through Iran for months, to no effect.
I think you are being short-sighted: 90% of the world’s goods are transported by sea. The US is the world’s largest consumer market. Maintaining freedom of shipping is absolutely essential to our national interests.
Here’s a list (as of 2023) of the world’s consumer markets:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_consumer_markets
My biggest concern is that as a nation we have made a number of political and government policy decisions over the years that have brought us to a situation today that is completely untenable for a sovereign, independent nation. International trade is not a bad thing, but international trade that is seemingly carried out on everyone's terms except ours is a disaster -- and what you're seeing now in the Red Sea is one case study in how it all goes off the rails.
Let's look at where the last 50+ years have brought us ...
1. Chase many of our major manufacturing industries overseas through excessive regulation and unfavorable business conditions.
2. Make large swaths of America destitute in the process.
3. Chase all our maritime shipping companies overseas, too -- for the same reasons so many manufacturers have left.
4. Have U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for the U.S. Navy to protect Danish ships ... flying Panamanian or Liberian flags ... with crews of Filipino sailors ... delivering everything from cheap Chinese crap to critical materials and high-value electronic components here to the U.S.
No offense to anyone who has engaged me in thoughtful, intelligent discussions on this subject here on FR (and on this thread in particular), but you'd have to be retarded to think this makes any sense at all when it comes to protecting our own national interests.
You argue absolutes; thus, you brook no dissension. And anyone who has the temerity to disagree, is — in your own words — RETARDED.
You could have made a cogent argument, but you chose not to.
More’s the pity.
$34 trillion in national debt is the inevitable consequence of that idiocy.
You must like inflation then.
What does inflation have to do with it?
No, the threat is very similar to that posed by the Barbary pirates. US commercial shipping may be nonexistent today, but we and our allies still depend heavily on maritime commerce, and the Red Sea is one of the world's busiest and most vital waterways.
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