The 2020 Presidential Race

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by KA24DESOneThree

The REST of the world behaves how it damn well pleases. Hell, Americans killed more than 16,000 people last year. Americans raped more than 127k people last year on record, and we all know that to be just a fraction of the actual rapes.

Okay, it's unacceptable; I never made any argument one way or another. Our government doesn't roll out every time someone's behavior is unacceptable. That's not our purpose. You may think it is, but it's not.

Hate their behavior? Preach. Try to change it. But my tax dollars shouldn't be used because you're riding around on a high horse. I don't want a single penny of my tax dollars used anywhere other than inside our borders.

Corbic, dude, I don't know what to say to you. My gray matter doesn't compute your gray matter's post. Your argumentation style is "no u."

By the way, the US raided the Iranian Consulate General in Erbil in 2007, which was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Unlike this attack, we removed and took prisoner multiple Iranians. Oh, whoops.

It's telling that you take rumor as truth. Multiple US lawmakers came out of Trump's last military briefing angry- including multiple Republicans. Now I'll wait for you to say something about them being Republican in Name Only and then bring up some more conservative Facebook memes that, for all you know, were originally authored by a Russian, Israeli or Chinese misinformation operative. That hook was awful shiny, though.

Got it.

And just for the record you’re cool with other countries hanging gays and women being have class citizens.

Solid stance.

[KA24DESOneThree]

Originally Posted by exitspeed

Got it.

And just for the record you’re cool with other countries hanging gays and women being have class citizens.

Solid stance.

"I never made any argument one way or another."

So now I will. No, I'm not cool with it AT ALL, but it's not our government's problem.

We, as individual Americans or as an NGO, can try to step in to change it. We can shed light on it, boycott their products, highlight it on social media, bring it to the world's attention, but it is not our government's problem. At no point in the founding documents of this nation "we must interfere with all wrongdoing everywhere."

If it was, you think they would have labeled black people as more than 3/5ths a person. If it was, you think we wouldn't have killed so many indigenous people. You'd think we would have entered into fair contracts. You'd think we wouldn't have poisoned alcohol, given unwitting people syphilis, illicitly made women infertile, or made electro-shock therapy a thing.

What about the Chinese treatment of Uyghurs? Millions detained, thousands treated inhumanely.

Brazilian indigenous leaders gunned down by loggers and farming cartels.

Mexicans beheaded and melted in lye so Americans can deviate their septums.

Indians gang-raping women and then being extrajudicially murdered by police.

How about our allies in Iraq and Afghanistan? Millions of dollars funded to conservative Muslims in exchange for safe passage or suppression of anti-American sentiment, all while the local warlords get rich and keep women as uneducated second-class citizens due to their imam's interpretation of the Koran. Billions of dollars flooded through poor countries, increasing corruption and making actual, effective governance nearly impossible. See this: https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/LessonsLea...R-16-58-LL.pdf

Tens of billions of US dollars spent on anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan and opium production is at literally an all-time high.

CIA-led coups, failed coups, and support of brutal dictatorships and rebel groups because they were aligned with our politics or business relationships in the region.

A series of fucking wars over bananas.

Installing a Shah in Iran who didn't have the slightest idea what he was doing, surrounded himself with yes-men who were equally inept and didn't pay attention to the rule of law in his country.

Installing a Shah in Iran who failed to notice the rising tide of conservative, theocratic anti-interventionism rippling through mosques in his country and the Middle East.

Arming and training conservative Muslims to fight invaders in Afghanistan without thinking of the potential ramifications of creating an entire class of religious warriors during a period of Westernization and capitalism.

Corbic, you're right. It wasn't an embassy, and it wasn't a full consulate. Here's a link for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._r...ffice_in_Erbil

We raided a consular office and deprived five people of freedom, two for 305 days and three for up to two years (source needed). We missed the intended targets.

This isn't physics. Every action doesn't have an equal reaction. A small mistake by America (or Russia, or Britain, or Belgium, or France, or Spain, or Japan) can lead to a cascade of decisions, fate, and outside influence that creates a monster.

The world is fucked. Shit's ridiculous. But adventurers can still drive down to Ushuaia from Tuktoyaktuk, from Norway to South Africa, from Glasgow to Mongolia. The world is big, and it can be dangerous, but the vast majority of its people are kind. To consider entire countries as our enemy is ignorant and, frankly, stupid as hell.