Posted on 04/14/2018 7:29:42 AM PDT by MNDude
sorry - but the WPA was created for a imminent threat like the Red Army pouring through the Fulda Gap. Not for disctesionary punitive expeditions which the Executive couldn’t get International agreement.
It’s abject lawlessness.
The Presidency was never considered to be a Imperial Autocrat.
Conservatives need to man up and support rule of law - especially when it’s difficult.
England and France were on board for this. That’s plenty of international consensus right there. Two fellow members of the Security Council, one of which is famous for its gun-shy attitude. The WPA is a tool. Different POTUSes use it as they wish. The Presidency IS imperial, but not autocratic. If Congress gets a bug up its nose about a particular action, it can and historically has, reigned POTUS in. That’s what the WPA was designed to do.
the poodles and the frogs ?
BWAHHHH
“the containment of Communism”
The success of the effort to contain communism is questionable. Of the three main superpowers today, neither Russia or China has a true communism. But neither can be stopped form what they want to do. We don’t have enough of a threat to stop Russia or China from doing what they want to do or how they want to go about it. And both countries not only are self sustaining in their military, but they are capable of destroying the world no different that we are. Conventional conflict is impossible as long as they care what it contains.
Russia has stepped in to Syria and has assisted them with all kinds of armaments that we are not being told about. So tossing a few missiles into Syria to hit “reported” caches of chemical weapons, probably originating from China through North Korea into the region is a good show, but is not going to stop anything.
And remember that Russia supplied the missiles to Saddam that he fired into Israel during the American “intervention” in Iraq and Kuwait.
Reagan beat Russia financially for about 5 minutes. He never stopped them from exporting weapons to the middle east as we were doing it too. And as late as Nov 14, 2016 - Russia and Iran negotiated the supply of $10 billion worth of weapons and hardware to Tehran following the successful delivery of Russia’s S-300 air defense missile systems to the country. Sound like they fell? Nope.
rwood
I lived through the Cold War, serving 32 years in the Army.
Your statement that “The success of the effort to contain communism is questionable.” Is ridiculous, if you are old enough to understand that the goal of communism was “world domination”, you would see this.
I watched Kruschev’s “We will bury you” speech on TV. I did the “duck and cover” through grade school.
You had to be there, Son! Your knowledge is based on the revisionist history, written by the liberal “intellectuals” who backed the losing side.
“Of the three main superpowers today...”
Pick another history book. You don’t have a clue.
Russia has the economy of France, it’s dependent on 2 exports, energy (which we can crush at will if we need to) and inferior war armaments.
Russia is a shadow of itself and diplomatically has isolated itself from its former sphere of influence.
It’s a 2nd tier nation with 3rd tier politics and dictator and 4 tier foreign policy with its main allies being rogue states like Iran, NKorea and Syria.
Do more reading and less posting until you comprehend the world in which you live. ...or keep posting and embarrassing yourself.
Usually they’re obstructing action. This time they sent a frog jet and pilot. English are not poodles; they’re bull dogs.
I was speaking of military capacity. That’s what started this array of topics. As for the financial aspects of a country, that has nothing to do with their efforts to enhance countries like Syria, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, or any of the other third world nations they are trying to impress. They don’t send them food, they send them weapons. And they get their support by doing so.
I spent 21 years active military in the DP field and another 12 years working in tandem with the pentagon training in the 35L career field before they retired me medically. I didn’t read books all the time. Many times I talked to the people that wrote them.
So before you make snap judgments on people who are making statements, you better know where they got their info. Or you could be just embarrassing yourself. I did this for a living for half my life. I didn’t read the NY Times to get my info. I was there to include a lot of things you know nothing about unless you were there.
Besides, how in the world can a person get embarrassed when no one knows who you or I am? This is why I never insult, or try to insult, someone’s knowledge based upon statements. I have no idea who you are and you don’t know me. So who is going to embarrass me? I can’t think of anyone or anyway on political boards.
rwood
“I lived through the Cold War, serving 32 years in the Army.”
I’m glad you decided to spend the years in the military. I didn’t spend all 33 of mine active, just 21. But I shifted over to NAF and then later Appropriate continuing my training of troops in the 35 Lima career field from combatives to NBC and tactics. I retired completely, medically, in 2012. And with the splits in service for schooling, I was in on Vietnam to the terrorist actions of today until my forced retirement.
“The success of the effort to contain communism is questionable.”
That statement was for another poster when he was talking about the controlling of Russia and it’s socialist efforts which many people understand as communist. Obviously, Russia has not wavered in its efforts to stretch the world domination it is trying to gain. Their distribution of weapons to many of the middle eastern countries, and their work with other questionable countries like Germany and South Korea are an example of their efforts to continue the movement of their agenda.
Their “communism” hasn’t grown near as much as it has learned to work within the system. They are not trying to dominate countries anymore. They are trying to coerce countries into seeing their point of view and assisting them in doing the work they were supposed to do in the 60’s. Little different tact. They aren’t trying to appear to be the bullies like they used to. Kind of like flies/honey/vinegar. And they are more effective in their way of using countries rather than threatening them to do what the Soviets at that time demanded.
Brave new world. In some ways better, others worse. Makes it hard to blame people for who did what like no one seems to know who gassed the Syrian rebels. Or are, at least, admitting to it to include us.
rwood
it’s been 3 generations since John Bull was a bull dog.
The English are just our poodles these days. It’s embarrassing to see English politicians suck up so shamelessly to Washington.
It’s shameful to see how Israeli politicians are so thoroughly leash trained, too. But PDJT is at least a kind master. He doesn’t whip his dogs. Occasionally he loosens us to hunt for him. The role ill suits us, too. But it used to be we were the foxes, not the hounds, and we didn’t always elude the chase. I’m not sure what kind of dog the English are nowadays, but it’s not a poodle. Poodles don’t get to fly Harriers and blow things up.
Lapdogs all
You were speaking of military capacity, but using the term “superpower”, implies much much more.
Thank you for your service.
Your analysis of Russia, however, I find very faulty and not supported by the facts.
The Oxford dictionary defines superpower as:
A very powerful and influential nation (used especially with reference to the US and the Soviet Union while these are perceived as the two most powerful nations in the world).
For the purposes of the term influence, I see it as two of them. China can fall into that category along with India with it’s population and nuclear capacity. But influence doesn’t have to be world wide, so a lot of countries with some type of power can come close.
Our world is getting closer together when it comes to capacity as many smaller countries, like South Korea, now have nuclear capacity thanks chiefly to the US, Russia, and China. Are they a superpower. Not yet. And they can’t even feed themselves yet. But from every little acorn a mighty oak grows. Time will tell how much influence they have on Japan and us in the Pacific.
rwood
“...Superpower : A very powerful and influential nation “
Russia doesn’t meet either of the two prerequisites of that particular definition.
Power is a complex term. Economically...GDP of France, Politically....largely isolated by modern nations, military...they come close only due to nuclear weapons, but they have no Carriers or serious force projection nor the basing and logistics to maintain projection.
Influence: Russia is ostracized and largely isolated so it has marginal influence and mostly with small nations that fear it and rogue nations like Syria, Iran and NKorea. *In fact, most former Soviet coerced allies want to move away, and have moved away from Russia.
“Russia is ostracized and largely isolated so it has marginal influence and mostly with small nations that fear it and rogue nations like Syria, Iran and NKorea.”
Sometimes the size of the nation isn’t a stimpmeter as to the determination of strength. Russia, in my thoughts and others like me that have dealt in the internal workings of groups, knew in advance of the handing over of technology and devices many years ago.
A leaked Washington Post report back in the 90’s claims a deal to sell off the “crown jewels” of Moscow’s arsenal was struck by a group of “US investors” and Russian scientists including plans to use submarine-launched missiles called “Calm” and “Ripple.” However when that deal hit legal and bureaucratic roadblocks due to restrictions, Russia turned to North Korean buyers directly instead. So the cat got out of the bag, so to speak. And we’re not in the clear either as Clinton supplied the MRV tracking capacity to China so they could site their missiles that rebounded almost immediately to North Korea. And he further supplied directly to Korea the supercomputers to turn industrial grade uranium into weapons grade under the guise of agricultural improvements. Welcome to the space age. Money by the pound.
But the Russian psychology of government is very complex. They like to play both sides against the middle. Just over the last 30 years alone they have been providing those small rogue countries you mentioned with ways to deliver weapons that we are sure of.
They supplied Iraq with the middle range missiles they used to “shell” Israel during the gulf war. They supplied Korea with the first of their missile parts for the KN-02 Toksa middle range and are currently assisting them with technology for the Hwasong-15, an ICBM they tested in 2017.
And they are currently assisting, if not directly involved with, the chemical weapons being used in Syria
“but they have no Carriers or serious force projection nor the basing and logistics to maintain projection.”
But what they do have is growing menagerie of nations they are rapidly, as fast as they can, developing long range nuclear capacity to try to put the scare into the US and China. And I feel their efforts are just like years ago when they were just as capable of tossing ICBMs to scare us and are spreading them around like they tried with Cuba in the 60’s. Only this time, it’s legal and lethal. Can they serve good food to their people? No, not really. But they can intentionally serve technology and parts to rogue nations to create a world wide disaster fear. One that the little countries will be beholding to. And that makes them a superpower in my mind..
rwood
I agree with you factual statements.
I agree with much of your rationale. So, we have a lot of agreement there, except the final conclusion. But, it’s just a matter of degree.
IMO unless Putin changes or they can better perspective and leave their “rogue state” foreign policy agenda, Russia will be a player as a chaos nuisance.
China has been smart enough to manipulate capitalism so they can build a technological path to a professional tech oriented military. I fear them as a serious competitor and superpower challenge in the future. In addition, they are already acting with extreme belligerence in the South China Sea, by taking disputed territories that they have little if any claim to.
>>>provide a comprehensive strategy with clear goals & a plan to achieve them<<<
Like crossing a Line in the Sand, a Red Line?
“Russia will be a player as a chaos nuisance.”
That’s all they have ever been. But they are now opening the door for other nations to become the same and so far aimed their public hatred at the US. And we buy into it by trying to appease those new threats Russia is creating by, again, trying to get into things we should have left alone. An example of that is the treaty with Iran that has forced other countries to release the millions of dollars that were frozen in foreign banks so Iran can fund their nuclear program.
We are just as stupid as Russia is smart. They sit in the ante room and wait for something to happen so they can continue to make us look stupid and gain more support. And they don’t have to do a damn thing but let their little attack dogs nip at our heals while they are laughing at us.
Now in comes Trump with ideas he can’t get accomplished because the libs are stalling using the chaos theory you pointed out to create unrest and public confusion. And this is going to continue until the conservatives are voted out and it will go back to what it was and worse. Oh, he’s making changes and has told a few countries to fix it yourself without our nickle or people. But so many past screw-ups, and so little time.
And the only way I see to stop it is tell the libs to $hit or get off the pot. Either prove something or shut up and help the voters that put Trump in there. You’ve got no ideas to help, only hinder. You are not in power. So, soldier, as one of your past leaders from the army, Patton, said, “Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of the way” It needs to come to that.
rwood
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