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Trump Foreign Policy


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I thought this is worth it's own thread. His foreign policy is going to have huge ramifications on many Americans and America in general for many years to come.

 

Here is the first public relations bomb thrown by terrorists. It's going to be interesting to see how he responds. If he pulls out now, it's going to appear that he was told what to do by a guy living in a cave in Afghanistan somewhere. Will his ego be so big that he sends more troops in to go after this guy?

 

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Obama became a political punching bag in this realm, and at times deservedly so, but a lot of Americans believe Trump will better protect us and beat terrorism back.

 

I imagine this letter won't sit very well with him - I'm intrigued to see how he responds.

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Could you consider this part of Trump's FP? A little bit concerning that this started immediately after their phone call, but a story I read said there are constant ceasefire violations in Ukraine all the time. We'll have to see if this aggression from Russia is sustained unfettered. If so, it would seem to suggest to me that Trump offered at least tacit approval.

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I think it's silly to nitpick every military operation that happens during a presidency if someone dies. Soldiers die under every president and from what I read about this they planned it for months.

 

That said the Republicans weren't at all reasonable in this regard when it came to Obama and Clinton.

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That's possible, but it would depend very much on this Reuters report being an accurate assessment, rather than internal recriminations after a bad op. This op was planned months in advance, under the Obama administration, and they were just waiting for a chance to run it. It doesn't mean Trump wasn't hasty, but it's not totally clear that he was. Also not sure if I would say Obama's usage of special forces is a paragon of virtue.

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The Trump administration appeared to loosen U.S. sanctions Thursday that the Obama administration had imposed against Russia in response to its cyberattacks in the 2016 presidential election.

 

The Treasury Department published a license that authorizes certain transactions between U.S. companies and the FSB, Russia’s security service and for the importation, distribution or use of “certain information technology products in the Russian Federation.” Such transactions had been prohibited under Obama administration sanctions imposed on Russia in late December. At the time, the U.S. sanctioned nine entities and individuals including the FSB and GRU. The Obama administration said that the FSB had assisted and provided material support to the GRU in its efforts to interfere with the U.S. election.

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This isn't just Trumpian foreign policy. This is American policy, and our willingness to condone it.

 

This media imbalance is a vital propaganda tool. In U.S. media land, Americans are always the victims of violence and terrorism, always menaced and threatened by violent Muslim savages, always targeted for no reason whatsoever other than primitive Islamic barbarism. That mythology is sustained by literally disappearing America’s own victims, pretending they don’t exist, denying their importance through the casual invocation of clichés we’ve been trained to spout (collateral damage) and, most importantly of all, never humanizing them under any circumstances.
Glenn Greenwald holds up a mirror. It is vital that we look into it.
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That's possible, but it would depend very much on this Reuters report being an accurate assessment, rather than internal recriminations after a bad op. This op was planned months in advance, under the Obama administration, and they were just waiting for a chance to run it. It doesn't mean Trump wasn't hasty, but it's not totally clear that he was. Also not sure if I would say Obama's usage of special forces is a paragon of virtue.

 

Obama's foreign policy is definitely not immune to criticism. It's one of the easiest parts of his legacy to build a case against, IMO.

 

I'd like to counter the notion that Obama was all aboard on this.

 

 

Additionally, there was a Times piece stating that he was waiting for a moonless night for the op, of which there were none before Trump took office.

 

Here's what I know for SURE about Obama: He took his duties as Commander-in-Chief very seriously. Did he always make the correct choices? Absolutely not. But I'm 100% confident the man gave every decision his due diligence, had many sober, straight-faced conversations about things, and thought long and hard before commanding military action.

 

My issue is not with the operation itself. It's that Trump didn't put adequate thought or preparation into it. And from the Intercept piece above, now we've got his Press Secretary incorrectly claiming Iran attacked our ship and having to get correct by a member of the media.

 

I also read that Mattis was in the Alfalfa dinner when Trump, Bannon, Flynn et al ordered the operation. He didn't even consult his DoD when making this call? I was the flabbergasted, because I was hoping Mattis would be the one to keep Trump from doing crazy sh#t.

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Right, Obama didn't clear the raid -- but he was briefed on it. What I read in either the Times or Post was that it was being delayed for 'operational' reasons i.e, waiting for the right weather or external conditions, etc, and ultimately just left to his successor to give the final green light.

 

So it's not clear that Obama felt the intelligence was way inadequate. I do agree he took his duties quite seriously, and Trump does not appear to have the same temperament. However, whether approving this particular raid at this particular time was a product of his carelessness, or just an op where a few things went wrong...I think that's less obvious.

 

I didn't know that about Mattis. What I remember reading is that he found out there were casualties at a dinner, and left to take care of it. Not sure if it's the same one. Some military people consider this a successful op. Perhaps Obama might've made the same conclusion.

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Trump approved the raid at a dinner attended not just by General Mattis, but also by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the vice president, and his national security adviser. I believe the advice of these folks would be adequate. Our military knows how to plan and carry out special ops missions, and a prudent President leaves the planning to military officials.

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Not... good.

German public trust in USA plummets to record low: study

A new poll shows that German trust in the transatlantic relationship has dropped to a level equatable to public trust in Russia since Donald Trump was elected US President.

In total, seven out of ten respondents told research group Infratest dimap that the US is not a trusted ally of Germany at the moment.

That was a drop of 37 percent compared to a survey conducted in November, marking a record historic low for faith in the transatlantic partnership, Die Welt reports.

In the same survey, 21 percent of Germans said that Russia can be trusted as an ally, while only four percent said the same about Turkey.

Asked about their attitudes to US President Donald Trump, Germans expressed considerable disapproval.

 

 

Trump is decreasing America's respect abroad already.

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