US Election: 2016
- Thread starter Edward Campbell
- Start date
- Reaction score
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- 430
mariomike said:
But he had a good excuse. Medically unfit for duty, heel spurs. So don't be so hard on the man. After all it must have been intolerably painful when he was a star athelete in high school and college. And it has got to be tough playing 18 holes suffering as he does. The pain is so bad it's made him insane. :bowing:
Jarnhamar, I agree with much of what you say. U.S. policy has gotten Canada and other countries, rightly or wrongly, involved in many military actions. I believe very much in diplomacy as much as possible and using the military only as a last resort.
Most Americans as well as Canadians have little knowledge of the fact that the seeds of discontent in, say, Iraq, weren't sown by Obama. Nor were they created by George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush necessarily. Instead, a fair bit of the blame should be assigned to Britain and France who, following the first world war and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, created a number of middle east nations based on political expediency. Dictators like Saddam Hussein simply held the fragile nation together through terror and force until the U.S. came along and replaced Hussein's government with its idealized version of what an Iraqi government should be like. I just don't that it's going to be easy to get the evil genie back in the bottle. And anyone who says they have an easy answer is sadly mistaken. And Iraq is not the only country with "unnatural" borders.
I don't know what the answer is, but like you, I know that what the U.S. either does or does not do could affect the lives of our forces. Russia has proven to be a threat, not only in the middle east but in Europe. However, their economy is in such tatters that they may run out of money as early as mid 2017. Already, Putin is facing some severe budget cuts to his military machine. While I'm not a Ronald Reagan fan for the most part, he did sense the financial instability of the USSR and forced the Russins into an arms race they couldn't afford and ended up being a major contributor to the breakup of the Soviet Union.
China I do see as a major future threat and sure hope that the next leader of the U.S. will be able to deal with the Chinese. There's far more happening behind the scenes militarily and economically than most people realize. Which reminds me of how, in 1969, the USSR and China (both Communist countries) got into a brief but intense land war over disputed territory in the far east. It involved over 100,000 troops. There were hundreds of deaths and the Russians were terrified that China would send hundreds of thousands of soldiers across the border and cut their only major supply line...the Trans Siberian Railway.
The Russians planned to bomb their former Chinese allies into Nuclear oblivion, but when the newly elected President Nixon got wind of it, he was worried that the nuclear fallout would endanger U.S. troops in both South Korea and South Vietnam. They U.S. then threatened tomside with the Chinese and the Russians backed down. It also led to Nixon and Kissinger going to China, leading to the normalization of relations between the U.S. and China.
Again, having a cool head and having a good program of diplomacy are very important for a President. And whoever becomes President is going to need to communicate well with Congress, the American people and the leaders of other countries.
Hope I haven't bored everyone to tears.
Most Americans as well as Canadians have little knowledge of the fact that the seeds of discontent in, say, Iraq, weren't sown by Obama. Nor were they created by George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush necessarily. Instead, a fair bit of the blame should be assigned to Britain and France who, following the first world war and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, created a number of middle east nations based on political expediency. Dictators like Saddam Hussein simply held the fragile nation together through terror and force until the U.S. came along and replaced Hussein's government with its idealized version of what an Iraqi government should be like. I just don't that it's going to be easy to get the evil genie back in the bottle. And anyone who says they have an easy answer is sadly mistaken. And Iraq is not the only country with "unnatural" borders.
I don't know what the answer is, but like you, I know that what the U.S. either does or does not do could affect the lives of our forces. Russia has proven to be a threat, not only in the middle east but in Europe. However, their economy is in such tatters that they may run out of money as early as mid 2017. Already, Putin is facing some severe budget cuts to his military machine. While I'm not a Ronald Reagan fan for the most part, he did sense the financial instability of the USSR and forced the Russins into an arms race they couldn't afford and ended up being a major contributor to the breakup of the Soviet Union.
China I do see as a major future threat and sure hope that the next leader of the U.S. will be able to deal with the Chinese. There's far more happening behind the scenes militarily and economically than most people realize. Which reminds me of how, in 1969, the USSR and China (both Communist countries) got into a brief but intense land war over disputed territory in the far east. It involved over 100,000 troops. There were hundreds of deaths and the Russians were terrified that China would send hundreds of thousands of soldiers across the border and cut their only major supply line...the Trans Siberian Railway.
The Russians planned to bomb their former Chinese allies into Nuclear oblivion, but when the newly elected President Nixon got wind of it, he was worried that the nuclear fallout would endanger U.S. troops in both South Korea and South Vietnam. They U.S. then threatened tomside with the Chinese and the Russians backed down. It also led to Nixon and Kissinger going to China, leading to the normalization of relations between the U.S. and China.
Again, having a cool head and having a good program of diplomacy are very important for a President. And whoever becomes President is going to need to communicate well with Congress, the American people and the leaders of other countries.
Hope I haven't bored everyone to tears.
- Reaction score
- 4,759
- Points
- 1,060
cupper said:
I know people that did Regimental PT every day and have been pensioned out because of heel spurs. :waiting:
.
- Reaction score
- 2,526
- Points
- 1,260
Heel spurs + service + pensioned out =/= heel spurs + healing + athletics + deferring mandatory service (or not getting a chance to serve)recceguy said:
Also, to be fair, most of Trump's deferrments were school-related, not medical - all apparently by the rules.
- Reaction score
- 2,526
- Points
- 1,260
And some homespun satire from a satirical (?) Putin Twitter account ;D
- "Trump, who has no connection to @Wikileaks knows what they'll leak tomorrow and they have no connection to leaking the stuff we hack."
- "Trump is the first Republican candidate to be endorsed by Iran, North Korea, the Kremlin, @FBI & the KKK."
- "Russian intel hacked the DNC @wikileaks leaked the DNC mails There's no connection between the 2"
- Reaction score
- 2,526
- Points
- 1,260
More grist for the mill/fuel for the fire ...
op:
- "Sources told CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton that U.S. intelligence has alerted joint terrorism task forces that al Qaeda could be planning attacks in three states for Monday. It is believed New York, Texas and Virginia are all possible targets, though no specific locations are mentioned ..." (CBS)
- "Russia is poised to mount electoral observation of the US elections, which some fear could be used as part of a campaign to discredit the US presidential elections and weaken Hillary Clinton’s position if she wins. According to Bellingcat’s inquiries, Russia is planning to at least conduct a distance-monitoring mission, if not actually send a delegation to monitor the elections in person. In the past, Bellingcat can show how personnel involved with such missions made their mind up in advance of observations, and used their reports and statements to the press to reinforce Kremlin lines and sow doubt without real evidence of electoral fraud ..." (bellingcat, anti-RUS OSINT site) -- "ROIIP (Russian Public Institute of Electoral Rights) will remotely monitor the elections in the US" (archived from RIA Novosti, RUS-state media, in Russian) -- News conference in Moscow Monday 7 Nov on U.S. election (ROIPP, in Russian)
op:
McG
Army.ca Legend
- Reaction score
- 2,300
- Points
- 1,160
Not sure if I am validating or skirting Goodwin's Law here, but ...
If Hitler and Stalin were resurrected from the dead in the US and they won candidacy for the Republican and Democratic parties respectively, I suspect the voters still could not put together a plurality of support behind a third party or independent candidate ... even with "birthers" arguing in the wings that resurrected in the US is not the same as born in the US.
There are at least two other candidates who have access to enough electoral college votes by virtue of the states which include them on the ballot, and more other candidates if one considers allowed write-ins who are not on the ballot. For all the horrible things that are being presented about both Trump & Clinton, is it really possible that all the other candidates are actually worse?
If Hitler and Stalin were resurrected from the dead in the US and they won candidacy for the Republican and Democratic parties respectively, I suspect the voters still could not put together a plurality of support behind a third party or independent candidate ... even with "birthers" arguing in the wings that resurrected in the US is not the same as born in the US.
There are at least two other candidates who have access to enough electoral college votes by virtue of the states which include them on the ballot, and more other candidates if one considers allowed write-ins who are not on the ballot. For all the horrible things that are being presented about both Trump & Clinton, is it really possible that all the other candidates are actually worse?
- Reaction score
- 1,320
- Points
- 1,260
New York Times today,
A Militia Gets Battle Ready for a ‘Gun-Grabbing’ Clinton Presidency
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/us/a-militia-gets-battle-ready-for-a-gun-grabbing-clinton-presidency.html
Maybe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3O01EfM5fU
A Militia Gets Battle Ready for a ‘Gun-Grabbing’ Clinton Presidency
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/us/a-militia-gets-battle-ready-for-a-gun-grabbing-clinton-presidency.html
MCG said:
Maybe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3O01EfM5fU
Colin Parkinson
Army.ca Myth
- Reaction score
- 9,159
- Points
- 1,160
Many people vote for the party their parent voted for, started out that way and then moved across the spectrum when I started to read what the parties said and saw what they did/didn’t do. Some people never question their party loyalty. It would be healthy for everyone if they did. I prefer Trump for 2 things, Supreme Court picks and that trump represents political chaos and the US political system needs a healthy dose of chaos and the tables at the political elite temple being kicked. He will drag in new insiders who will challenge the current monopoly that is to comfortable. It would be nice if someone even farther from the corridors of power got in, but the system is rigged by the vast expense required to be a contender. Reduce the costs of running and then you might see more people. However the main lesson to be learned from this election is that no normal human being has a background clean enough to survive the scrutiny being done. That will leave the field open to the politically addicted and the Puritans, which scares me.
- Reaction score
- 7,277
- Points
- 1,160
Colin P said:
Colin - in 1660 the Brits chucked out the Bible Thumper son of Oliver Cromwell and all the Sadd Green wearing Puritans and "elected" Charles II as their King - a king with 9 mistresses, including the inimitable Nell Gwyn
And Samuel Pepys diary of a bureaucrat makes for some pretty racy reading by a modern.
Morality is over-rated.
By the way, the Carolinas and their culture, were founded by aristocratic supporters of Charles.
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- Reaction score
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