Marines short 6 Infantry Battalions and the Navy short 100 ships.

I disagree with that narrative for two reasons. First, it was their money - so we didn't pay Iran anything - We agreed to stop illegally holding their money - a troubling violation but - given the circumstances were dire and exceptional - and we had buy in from the international community - including all the security council members ! - including China and Russia ... it was acceptable.

(the troubling part was using our sole reserve currency status to seize money - a no no - but ok circumstances were exceptional - and we had universal agreement from those who have "allowed" us this status)

The problem is that while we initially had universal agreement - time had passed and there was now universal agreement to end the sanctions among all the other permanent member Security council nations - including France, Britain - and Germany (temporary) - and pressure had been building - and these other nations were already working with Iran on "The deal"

The Iran Sanctions are of little use without buy in from China/Russia - never mind all the other EU.

Second - but related. It was not "Obama's deal" - it was China-Russia - EU and the US making a deal - and Obama had little choice given the circumstances.

Then came Trump - who backed out of the deal - which was pointless given the lack of agreement from the others - basically saying we agreed with Iran to lift the sanctions and we will not re-instate them.

This would have made the US reinstating sanctions worthless - and that would not do. Trump had made a bold move on the Geopolitical Chessboard - and it had not turned out so well..

Rather than recognize - this flaw in the positional idea - Trump doubled down and went all in - akin to a hail Mary attack on the king.
and this turned out to be a huge blunder.

Trump used the economic nuclear option to force compliance. The equivalent of declaring economic war on every nation on the planet - at the same time he was waging a Trade war with China - which was dumb and dumber.

The nations of the world went wild - and while they complied - because they were forced to - they have been getting payback ever since .. our economic position seriously weakened.

Worse - our Sole WR currency status is on the ropes - and a competitor will arise soon.

 

This is one massive excuse for the OBAMA failure of the Iranian deal to GIVE them money. Who paid Iran for the IR6? Who agreed to no international inspections?

Everything I said is REALITY. You're just using the Rachel Maddow mouth piece hoping you're right.

 

power

 

What kind of power? Power to do what?

 

I hate Maddow - but that is beside the point - as is the fact that I trash Obama left right and center - so lose the ad hom fallacy.. You did not address one thing from my post - just dismissed all the information presented as if were some kind of religious zealot who has just been informed that Noah's ark was not big enough to house all the animals .. and then trying to project your lapping up a Koolaid induced propaganda narrative onto others.

What you said does not reflect either reality or context - refer to previous post.

 

Underlined^

Yes, it very accurately does. And I don't care how you feel about Maddow...you're both spewing the same propaganda. None the less, even with their extra cash and their "word for it", they will still build a nuke. Hence why it's a lose/lose for us to make that idiotic deal.

 

What the Dem's say is irrelevant - partisan mindlessness on steroids with a dose of Trump derangement syndrome.

Do what ever they want - How - What is it that China and Russia are doing that you are referring to - building nuclear bombs ?

 

You were the one that brought Maddow up - so if you don't care - why did you bring her up .. and it is you who is spewing spoon fed propaganda and projecting your issues onto others

Further - once again you completely fail to address the content of my post.

1) Iran was not paid anything - as it was their money to begin with
2) It was not Obama's deal.
3) Trump backing out only managed to accelerate Iran towards a nuke

 

Any link to support your claim?

 

They are building nuclear bombs or least improving on what they have. However, both are testing us. The Russians are pushing the limits of international space to see how we react to their bombers. China is building islands and arming them and then saying we cannot fly over what used to be international airspace. They don't do such things just for the fun of it.

 

Of course it does. Trump talk money out of the department of defense and put it towards the wall the supreme Court ruled that he was allowed to do it.

 

Dude it had nothing to do with it because the money in question wouldn't fund one marine company for a year let alone 6 battalions.

 

First off don't conflate China and Russia, they represent quite different problems. China us ascendant, or believes it is at the moment it's goal is world domination. It's foreign policy is based on making sure the great cathartic incident of the Boxer Rebellion followed well less than a century later by the Japanese onslaught in WWII and the long March and the slaughters that followed. And then there's the Korean War.

Russia on the other hand is a country in Decline. Were I to express Putin policies I would say make Russia great again. Trouble is he lacks the where-with-all to accomplish that because he doesn't really understand what it takes to make a country great. He's got a lot of company in that regard. Which is why Trump's signature phrase 'Make America Great Again' triggered so many people on the left.

 

You seem to have a mixed up version of the story which is likely responsible for your jaded perspective.

Russia has had the bomb for 70 years and we are still here - made it through the Duck and Cover days - which you seem to still be in.
The cold war ended decades ago friend - not sure if you saw that movie where a family was locked in a bomb shelter for 20 years .. comes out and still thinks the Cold war is still on.

"Building nuclear bombs" - Russia has dismantled far more nukes than it has built over the last 3 decades. Think at the height they had near 30,000 .. now down to 8,000 with only around 2000 deployed. This is still enough to annihillate the US 5 times over but - far less than previous.

"Testing US" - Actually the Reverse is True. Everytime the Bear took a step back - removing its troops and militarization of eastern europe - including freeing something like 14 nations .. NATO stepped in and built a base - in violation of the agreement - at least in principle and spirit.

In 2002 s Bush pulled out of the ABM treaty - destabilizing nuclear detente' Putin said "This is a mistake"
Then .. not only did Bush pull out of the Treaty .. he announced plans to put ABM's on Russia's border in 2007.

Now we are pushing for militarization of space - further ramping up the arms race and restarting the cold war.

You have things backward's mate.

 

Nuclear weapons age and need to be repaired or replaced periodically. Additionally, they are changing nuclear weapons so that they are yield selective which improves their utility.

As have numerous other nations. Space could well be the first shots of a war.

 

Both Russia and China are Ascendant - but the idea of China - or any other nation dominating the world is simply not reality.
The conflation going on here is yours - conflating economic with military.

Military is not part of this conversation .. you are conflating military dominance with economic dominance - these are two separate issues w/r to China/Russia - as neither we nor they can use our military prowess to influence the other .. MAD ended this - for the first time in the history of the world.

 

Yes - Russia and China have improved their technology greatly of late - not that we ever had a way to avoid nuclear destruction - but we are even more vulnerable now - as are they.

This is the schoolyard game of - We can annihilate you 10 times - well we can annihilate you 11 times" - being played out at your expense . Weaponizing space only increases the chances that our collective ability to destroy ourselves is realized.

Although I responded to your points - You completely avoided the main points in my post.

and numerous nations have not been charging down the weaponization of space path - It is the US - that has been doing this. Once again you have things backwards.

 

China and Russia are both working to upgrade their nuclear weapons as well as weaponizing space.

I am not obligated to address your points. I have my own points.

 

I agree it's crazy but history is replete with rulers that believed crazy things. In what way is Russia ascendant?

 

Russia's economy is way bigger and better than back in the days of communism - Russia is not exactly a small chunk of land. They have little or no debt -on a comparative basis .. when this debt bubble finally bursts Russia will be sitting pretty in this respect.

Russia is selling a way more military equipment than they used to - the market for their missiles is especially hot.

Russia - who used to be enemy of China - is working with China on many fronts .. the India -China- Russia missile triad being one area. Russia has gained huge in trade with China ..

It will be China and Russia rebuilding Iran/Iraq/Syria .. and Venezuela for that matter. It is Russia who will be supplying Gas to Europe - Nordstream 2, Italy has adopted belt and road initiative.

It is not just China and Russia though - the reality is that every other nation mostly is a competitor with the US for the global pie.

This is why I was so concerned about the Blunders trump was making in this respect - not a good time to be alienating our allies - and everyone else on the planet - by waging economic war - messing with the sovereignty of these nations via the economic nuclear option.

This was a big blunder..

 

Good to know - have fun talking to yourself

 

Not concerned. In spite of what you might think, you are not the only other person in this forum.

 

You are projecting your flaws onto others - you are the one who thinks they are the only person one on this forum by inferring that no other comments matter but yours.

Caught in your own web of self deception it seems.

 

It was a necessity. It has a huge land area and the smallest population by far of the big three and that population is borderline stagnant. Add to that that there middle are popular because that are cheap often antiquated garbage.