What I learned on CNN tonight:
Giuliani tells us that Trump gave up birtherism a couple years ago. No he didn’t say whether Trump admitted it out loud.
Trump’s security briefings included the fact that Obama ignored all intelligence expert advice. This was largely conveyed by body language.
You know even if the US did seize all the oil fields in Iraq and part of Syria and even if it was profitable, it would be a terrible terrible idea. Russia and China would both then (with justification) do the same for any choice resource portions they wanted, it would be a free for all. I think if you pointed this out to Trump he’d honestly shrug and say “who cares?, as long as they only grab territory near their own borders it’s ok with me”.
I can just see Trump, Putin and Xi agreeing to carve the world up into three “operational spheres”. He’d do a deal! It would be a great deal, the best one using the best words!
That wasn’t occupation, it was colonization. Very different things: hint, colonization leaves new roads behind, even if not very good, and new cities, and a completely different legal system to what previously existed in the area, and a language not previously spoken in the area; occupation only leaves behind military bases.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen, heard, or read reporters interviewing people at Trump rallies, and they say, verbatim: “He tells us what we want to hear”. They mean this as a compliment. As in, this is why they like him! It’s still hard for me to grasp that anyone with an IQ high enough to hold down a well-paying job (because, again, most Trump supporters are pretty well off financially) would fail to understand that “he tells us what we want to hear” is not a compliment–not to him, not to you! FFS
Yes, I don’t consider Bernie especially honest. He was particularly squirrely about his taxes–almost Trumpesque. (Note that I worked Trump into this reply!)
So, the German tourist is at the Polish border, and the guard is filling out the form, and asks “Nationality?”
“German” says the tourist.
“Occupation?” asks the guard
“No” says the tourist “just visiting.”
The follow-up that never seems to be asked (aside from the obvious issues of colonialism/neo-colonialism) is “So, Mr. Trump, does that mean your policy will be to insert large numbers of American ground troops to seize, secure, operate, and protect these oil and refinery facilities?” And doing so would not only turn the Government of Iraq into a sworn enemy (instead of the fair weather friend of today), causing all coordination with Iraqi ground forces to stop and effectively not only turning Iraq over fully to Iran, but also completely hindering their ability to re-take Mosul and the rest of Iraq from ISIL.
The U.S. and other Coalition nations (primarily the UK, France, Australia, and a few others) are Iraq’s only real air force aside from a handful of F-16s we sold them. The military forces of Iraq rely heavily on U.S. training, equipment, and ongoing supplies and U.S.-funded supply contracts.
The only way that the U.S. can defeat ISIL (relatively) quickly as opposed to another year/year and a half estimated now would be for U.S. ground forces to do it themselves. This would mean likely deploying at least 40,000-70,000 ground troops and additional supporting air units. Given that ISIL relies heavily on urban warfare and IEDs/VBIEDs/rigged buildings, it would be pretty bloody for U.S. forces, especially in Mosul and Ar Raqqah.
I seriously get the opinion that Trump thinks that “seizing all of the oil” involves pumping it into a few barrels, loading it into a plane and flying it to the US. It would take a couple of days max. Easy!
