I have lost my mind. If found, please give it a snack and return it?
"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same of others"...John Wayne in "The Shootist"
A Deplorable!
"The government is a child that has found their parents credit card, and spends knowing that they never have to reconcile the bill with their own money"-Shannon Churchill
It isn't that we just "don't back them". It's that we screw them over. Iraq 91 -- assurances to the shia and sunni we would support a coup. Left them high and dry so when they finally did take over after we carried out 2 wars on their country, we're hardly on the "friends" list.
Same with the kurds. We protected them from Saddam and used them at whatever capability level they were worth -- mostly intel -- and we protected them from the Turks and their genocidal notions. We used them against ISIS but now we are leaving their fate up to Erdogan? Bet we got a lot of friends left there.
I'd say the only "real" "allies" we have are those that have no choice. It's take a chance on us or nothing. In a sense, you can't really blame some of the people that hate us. We moved into Iran and propped up its puppet in exchange for cut-rate oil. Bailed on Nam and pretty much N Korea back when it could have been saved and a unified Korea established. Then there was Noriega who was our friend before we killed him.
Sure, we won the Gulf War. They appealed to our "sensibilities". We got paid in gold and cut-rate oil to kick Saddam's ass out of Kuwait. And we'd been Saddam's benefactor during the Iran-Iraq War. No honor among thieves.
While still insulting, it's hard to blame those that want nothing to do with us.
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” Edumnd Burke
On the other hand , other countries do the same to us. How many countries have we provided arms to for them to fight off an enemy only to have them eventually use those weapons against us?
Of course we could solve that by not arming every rebel group that puts their hands out, but still.
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” Edumnd Burke
A-10s in Afghanistan
Iraq - Desert Storm:
Last edited by Elessar; 09-10-2019 at 10:30 PM.
I have lost my mind. If found, please give it a snack and return it?
"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same of others"...John Wayne in "The Shootist"
A Deplorable!
"The government is a child that has found their parents credit card, and spends knowing that they never have to reconcile the bill with their own money"-Shannon Churchill
Who has Trump given money to? The answer is no one. which makes me wonder, what the fuck is the government doing with all that money that Congress is like "here this money is for the country of ______________" and Trump is "nah brah , we good we aint giving them nothing?" LOL
He is, but that's not coming out of money allocated as foreign aid. Where is all the foreign aid money that Trump just refused to give out ? That's a real question. Was the money ever there, and now the State Department is just sitting on it, or was it just another case of Congress allocated money , but didn't actually disperse it, or what? I've looked , but can't find the answer.
You should care. A billion here, a billion there, and suddenly we're talking about real money.
I bet the government could cut 20% off their budget if they just absolutely insisted that every agency account for every single penny. And I know from experience that they do not.
"The government is a child that has found their parents credit card, and spends knowing that they never have to reconcile the bill with their own money"-Shannon Churchill
I'm bitching. I want to know. Did Congress actually give the State Department that money and so it's just sitting there where eventually it will be stolen or lost, or was this just another situation where Congress basically said "yeah we're gonna spend this money on this" but then actually never gave the agency any money?
Which actually brings me to another pet peeve. I hate the way Congress can play word games like that. Allocate the money and then never actually give it to the agency and be like "oh we allocated the money, not sure why it didn't get done" because people don't understand the word games Congress plays, but that's another topic entirely.