How sad is it that, although the report may not be accurate, it is completely believable.
Right? It’s like we have our very own Kim Junk Il. 
Not for an instant do I think he’s beyond it. I am simply point out that that is not how Doanld Trump talks. It’s not his speech pattern.
If Donald Trump had actually wanted to say something like that, it would have gone something like this;
“You’ve got some bad hombres down there, very bad, very bad. It’s just a disaster - I might have to do something, maybe with our military, it’s very brave, the bravest, Yours isn’t that brave, that’s what people are telling me, but mine is… I can take care of this if I have to.”
It’s generally the case that we believe what we want to believe. If what we want to believe is close to the truth, then what we believe will be close to the truth, also. If not, then not.
IOW, the fact “we believe” something ins’t much of an indication that it’s close to the truth.
If it is proven to be a hoax, the Associated Press had better publish a retraction in 150-point Helvetica Black and do some whipped-cur-level groveling for handing the “mainstream news is FAKE NEWS!!!@@” crowd a propaganda victory with a big pink fuckin’ bow on it.
I had the weirdest thought last night while watching the news…
Like, what’s going on in Syria right now? Is Trump just continuing what Obama was doing? Is that whole military action on autopilot? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? What about Afghanistan? Is anyone in charge???
It’s quite probable that the story is mistaken, but it doesn’t really matter when you look at the big picture. So far Trump has so pissed off the Mexican president that he canceled a scheduled visit, enraged the world’s major Muslim countries and fomented anti-US sentiment among even moderate Muslims, let alone Islamic extremists who have been greatly emboldened, called for a nuclear arms race, threatened Iran, and most recently, hung up on the Australian PM in a fit of pique. He’s Made America Great Again™ in less than two weeks!
Unless all their missions and campaigns were scheduled to end by January 20, my guess is that all the generals just kept on doing whatever they were doing before Trump, and will keep on doing so until instructed otherwise. I mean, it’s not like every single U.S. government agency stopped working and waited for new orders.
When a company hires a new CEO, are all the projects it’s working on automatically cancelled?
Funny how the mex pres is talking about new initiatives against the drug cartels with his own military today. :smack:
That worked so well the last time (:rolleyes:)
I kept seeing articles comparing Trump to Woodrow Wilson… I just thought they meant he was a racist.
There already is such a coalition forming.
Russia and China, and maybe Iran.
Which is basically why you have so much anti Russian propaganda.
So, they pro-actively got aggressive themselves years before Trump was elected?? :eek: Are you saying that they have a hot tub time machine???
They poured vodka on the tub’s controls.
Currently, for whatever reasons, Iran and Russia are besties. For the moment, at any rate. Trump gives Putin tongue-baths and threatens to open fire if an Iranian sailor flips us the bird.
Damn deep or damn dumb?
Of course someone is in charge. That’s what we have General/Flag Officers for. It’s not like someone has to hold their hand every moment of every day. The CENTCOM and JSOC Commanders are continuing to execute their lawful orders, reporting as previously required, and asking for guidance/authorization as required before as the situation develops.
I haven’t seen any major changes in guidance that would directly impact execution on the ground. I have seen guidance from Trump asking for a review of options the military might consider more effective against IS but that weren’t approved under the previous administration’s orders. That’s going to be making work for senior commanders and their staffs…especially their staffs. Those major moves are still being considered.
The raid on AQAP in Yemen seems to be one exception to an observable impact of the change at the small unit level. It sounds like it was a not a new target but approval hadn’t come to execute previously. Given that Special Operations folks are actively in combat in big chunks of Africa and the Middle East (let alone the world) it’s probably not the only such mission. We just don’t here about most of those types of missions.
also "A person with access to the official transcript of the phone call provided only that portion of the conversation to The Associated Press. "
so taken out of context also.
This thread perfectly demonstrates both the good and the bad I see in the SDMB.
White House insists Trump was joking about invading Mexico
So, there’s that. Just funning around. Its a cultural trait, Mexican guys are totally easy-going about their personal dignity, and Trump is totally easy-going about their dignity too.
(Your correspondent from the conservative wing of the extreme left notes that the cite doesn’t clarify what, perzackly, was a “joke”. Maybe he pronounced the “h” in “hombres”?)
Used to be that terrorists had to either recruit Americans to commit terrorism here or they had to cross a goddam ocean to get their terrorists here. If we do this wrong, the terrorists will be able to walk here.
That’s not to say that we couldn’t invade Mexico, destroy a couple of drug lords and send a strong message to the rest but all you need is a few sympathetic innocent bystanders and those drugs lords might start looking like freedom fighters.