Us Embassy In Iraq Under Attack

[DKTanker]

Yes, I love how you fastened onto that nugget, and ignored everything else in the article.

Meaning that I latched on to the only fact of the article, that somebody named anonymous made an allegation? Anonymous said you raped your mother. Prove anonymous wrong, Stuart.

[BansheeOne]

You know that the claim has been confirmed by German defense minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, right? And as usual the threat needlessly broke additional china, because the European parties to JCPOA say they had already decided to trigger the deal's dispute settlement mechanism when Trump decided to apply the hammer to make them do it. Which means they now can't take any further steps without being seen as giving in to the bully, making it more unlikely. In fact they were now only able make the decision at hand while issuing a statement that they continue to support JCPOA overall, in defiance of Trump's threat. And in the long run, abusing power like that will just make people find ways to work around it, counter it, and thus marginalize it.

 

Trump Wields U.S. Economic Might in Struggles With Allies and Adversaries Alike

Sanctions and tariffs are deployed for geopolitical objectives

By Jon Hilsenrath and Laurence Norman

Jan. 17, 2020 12:09 pm ET

 

WASHINGTON—A flurry of global events in recent weeks shows how the Trump administration is wielding U.S. economic might—through tariffs, sanctions and other means—as a geopolitical weapon for battles with adversaries and allies alike.

 

The strategy has reaped some short-term gains, though the risks include the potential for a loss of global influence in the longer term.

 

Mr. Trump and his team used tariffs to push China toward buying more U.S. goods and reforming its treatment of American companies; increased sanctions pressure on Iran over its nuclear program; considered restricting the Iraqi government’s access to the money it keeps at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in a confrontation over U.S. troops; and used sanctions to target a Russo-German natural gas pipeline, squeezing Berlin in an effort to challenge Moscow.

 

Sanctions and tariffs aren’t new, of course. But until Mr. Trump, the U.S. in the post-Cold War era tended to deploy these tools cautiously, against clear adversaries and in cooperation with key allies. U.S. economic power, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was generally used as a carrot to draw others into a trading system inspired by America’s free-market values.

 

The carrot is now a stick, largely because Mr. Trump believes the U.S. was suckered by others in the era of globalization it advanced in the 1990s and 2000s. U.S. economic might, in Mr. Trump’s view, can be used as a tool to fix a global trading system he sees as broken and to pursue other goals.

 

“We are righting the wrongs of the past and delivering a future of economic justice and security for American workers, farmers and families,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday at the signing of an interim trade deal with China. “It should have happened 25 years ago.”

 

Economists, pointing to the tariff fights that preceded the Great Depression and World War II, have warned of peril. So far, the damage hasn’t been as great as some feared.

 

[...]

 

Still, many economists estimate tariffs did slow U.S. growth and investment and imposed uncertainty on business globally. Moreover it is unclear such overt assertions of U.S. economic power were needed; some provisions in the latest trade deals had already been included in the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership pact that Mr. Trump threw out early in his presidency.

 

Mr. Trump’s policies could do greater damage to U.S. standing in the long run, many skeptics still warn. They could alienate counterparts, ultimately weakening the very power Mr. Trump is asserting. Moreover the tools the U.S. has used might now be used against it. Mr. Sheets notes tariffs are now in everyone’s tool kit.

 

Clete Willems, who served as deputy in Mr. Trump’s National Economic Council, said the administration has been justified in using tariffs to address inequities in the global trading system. But it needs to avoid becoming the unfair player it accuses others of being.

 

“There is a limit to how many tariffs we should put in place,” he said. “It is in the U.S. long-term interest to have a rules-based international trading system.”

 

[...]

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-wields-u-s-economic-might-in-struggles-with-allies-and-adversaries-alike-11579280987

 

Meanwhile, rival Iranian authorities take positions.

 

Iran's Rouhani calls for 'national unity' after jet downing

 

Issued on:15/01/2020 - 10:40 Modified: 15/01/2020 - 10:38

 

Tehran (AFP)

 

President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday called for "national unity" and flagged the need for changes to the way Iran is run after the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner.

 

Demonstrations have been held for four successive days in Tehran after the armed forces admitted to shooting down the Boeing 737 in a catastrophic error last week.

 

The air disaster claimed the lives of all 176 passengers and crew on board, mostly Iranians and Canadians and including many students.

 

Rouhani also said Iranians want "diversity" as he urged the electoral authorities to refrain from disqualifying would-be candidates for a February 21 general election.

 

"The people are our masters and we are its servants. The servant must address the master with modesty, precision and honesty," Rouhani said after a cabinet meeting.

 

"The people want to make sure that the authorities treat them with sincerity, integrity and trust," he said in the remarks aired live on state television.

 

Rouhani also said the armed forces should "apologise" and fully explain what happened in the air disaster, which came hours after they fired a wave of missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq.

 

[...]

 

Referring to the spate of disasters which he described as "unimaginable" and "unacceptable", Rouhani said they should lead to a "big decision" about Iran's political system.

 

"And that major decision," he said, "is national reconciliation."

 

"These (parliamentary) elections must be the first step," said the president.

 

https://www.france24.com/en/20200115-iran-s-rouhani-calls-for-national-unity-after-jet-downing

 

Iran plane crash: Khamenei defends armed forces in rare address

17 January 2020

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has defended the country's armed forces after it admitted shooting down a passenger plane by mistake.

 

He said the Revolutionary Guard - the elite unit responsible for the disaster - "maintained the security" of Iran.

 

Widespread protests and criticism from abroad have put growing pressure on Iran over its handling of the incident.

 

But the ayatollah tried to rally support as he led Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012.

 

The Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 was travelling to Kyiv from Tehran on 8 January when it crashed shortly after take-off. All 176 passengers on board, including nationals from Iran, Canada, Sweden and the UK, were killed.

 

The ayatollah called for "national unity" and said Iran's "enemies" - a reference to Washington and its allies - had used the shooting down of the plane to overshadow the killing of senior Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike.

 

"Our enemies were as happy about the plane crash as we were sad," he said.

 

"[They were] happy that they had found something to question the Guard and the armed forces."

 

[...]

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51140806

 

January 17, 2020

 

Radio Farda

 

Iranians Enthralled By Rouhani's Hasty Departure From Khamenei's Friday Prayer

 

A video and photos showing the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's unusually quick departure from today's Friday Prayers, led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have filled timelines of Iranian social media users.

 

Hundreds are commenting on the reason behind Rouhani's alleged anger and shaking hands while Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani looked at him in astonishment when he got up to go. Most of the people commenting seem to be supporters of the Islamic Republic who are criticizing Rouhani.

 

In the video Rouhani is seen praying along with other state dignitaries behind Khamenei but gets up to leave as soon as the last word is uttered while Khamenei is still prostrate. What makes the move suspicious to many is that minutes before that the camera recorded him praying with a visibly upset face trying to steady a badly shaking hand with his other hand. His departure was interpreted as an insult to Khamenei by hardliner social media users.

 

Some Iranians in their comments say Rouhani was angry because a eulogist had insulted him in a pre-sermon poem. The verses that he recited implied that the "choice" to elect Rouhani's was "erroneous" and corrupted the revolution.

 

Eulogists are professional religious singers who recite poems in praise of Imams and other religious figures. They form an influential force in the Islamic Republic and are almost entirely merged with the hardliner faction. In today's ceremony the crowd chanted "Death to hypocrites" after the eulogist's pointed words.

 

Yet others think Rouhani was angry because in his two sermons on Friday Khamenei took an uncompromising stance against the United States and particularly the European sides of the Iran nuclear agreement.

 

In his speech Khamenei also said "some people" had spoken to "appease the enemy". It did not escape social media users that the camera of the state-run television which was broadcasting the ceremony live, zoomed on Rouhani's face when Khamenei was saying that.

 

One Twitter user wrote: "What do you expect from Rouhani? He left to say to Europeans that he is against the Leader's views and sides with them". Another user wrote: "It was obvious that people's 'Death on hypocrite' slogan was meant for Rouhani".

 

In the absence of official reports or comments on the incident these interpretations which are entirely based on videos from the ceremony are not verifiable by any means.

 

Today's Friday prayer had another big surprise in store: Even some of the people participating in the Friday prayers, normally thought to be pro-regime, refused to walk over the U.S. flag and chose to walk around it. There was no time for the state-run television to do what it usually does, censor the footage.

 

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iranians-enthralled-by-rouhani-s-hasty-departure-from-khamenei-s-friday-prayer/30383428.html

Edited January 18, 2020 by BansheeOne

[Stuart Galbraith]

Would I prefer to have more weight to it? Sure. But there is a long tradition in the UK of anyonymous sources that turn out to be good, for example, Dr David Kelly, or Katherine Gun. We have yet to develop the American tradition where anyone who doesnt put their name forward is instantly assumed to be a Democrat plant, but im sure we will get there.

 

 

Khamenei defends the Iranian armed forces. So business as usual then.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-51140806

[Ivanhoe]

Would I prefer to have more weight to it? Sure. But there is a long tradition in the UK of anyonymous sources that turn out to be good, for example, Dr David Kelly, or Katherine Gun. We have yet to develop the American tradition where anyone who doesnt put their name forward is instantly assumed to be a Democrat plant, but im sure we will get there.

 

You seem to be focused on whether the anonymous source is believed, rather than proven truthful. If you've been diligently reading the news the last 4 years, you would know that the majority (if not entirety) of sources making claims about Trump have wilted under the proviso of oaths and perjury conviction.

 

This week being an exemplar. This Lev Parnas dude made claims, Ukrainian FM calls bullshit, Parnas starts walking his claims back. The obverse of healthy skepticism is unhealthy credulity.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Well as far as proven truthful, we have heard allegations on this grate site that Ted Cruz's dad killed Kennedy, the Clintons are paedophiles, Hilary is a serial killer and Obama is a Kenyan. None of these have had any evidence to support it, but since its a narrative that is favourable, its wholly unquestioned.

 

All that said, you are clearly right to be cynical. For my money Parnas is being so vocal only to force Trump into giving him a Pardon to make him shut the hell up. It doesnt need to be anywhere near truthful in that context.

[Jeff]

Yes, the Euros have been leading the charge in standing up to the Mullahs, if only that dastardly Orange Man would stop mucking things up. You were also on your way to increasing NATO spending even more if Trump hadn't used mean words to force you to back track. It's probably Trump's fault that Europe is getting ever more gas from Russia. If he'd just be nicer, then Europe would wean themselves off a totalitarian's leash. Very convincing argument. Good gravy, did someone steal all the mirrors in Europe because people really need to take a look in one and realize how foolish they look.

[MiloMorai]

 

Would I prefer to have more weight to it? Sure. But there is a long tradition in the UK of anyonymous sources that turn out to be good, for example, Dr David Kelly, or Katherine Gun. We have yet to develop the American tradition where anyone who doesnt put their name forward is instantly assumed to be a Democrat plant, but im sure we will get there.

 

You seem to be focused on whether the anonymous source is believed, rather than proven truthful. If you've been diligently reading the news the last 4 years, you would know that the majority (if not entirety) of sources making claims about Trump have wilted under the proviso of oaths and perjury conviction.

 

This week being an exemplar. This Lev Parnas dude made claims, Ukrainian FM calls bullshit, Parnas starts walking his claims back. The obverse of healthy skepticism is unhealthy credulity.

 

What else is the PM to say? He is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

​

How many of Trump's minions have gone to jail and/or charged?

[Ivanhoe]

As the saying goes, you can indict a ham sandwich. And we are now seeing the cracks appearing in the cases against the Trumpsters.

[R011]

Well as far as proven truthful, we have heard allegations on this grate site that Ted Cruz's dad killed Kennedy, the Clintons are paedophiles, Hilary is a serial killer and Obama is a Kenyan. None of these have had any evidence to support it, but since its a narrative that is favourable, its wholly unquestioned.

 

All that said, you are clearly right to be cynical. For my money Parnas is being so vocal only to force Trump into giving him a Pardon to make him shut the hell up. It doesnt need to be anywhere near truthful in that context.

I don't recall anyone here claiming Cruz"s father killed Kennedy. Opinion on Obama's real citizenship was divided, but most conservatives here didn't take the claim seriously as I recall. Clinton hung out with a guy who pumped seventeen year old girls. There is no firm evidence he partook, but it is very suspicious. A lot of people whose deaths are convenient for the Clinton's have ended up dead under odd circumstances. At least one was on a suicide watch in a federal prison with injuries that may not be consistent with self-harm and conveniently missing video.

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

Well as far as proven truthful, we have heard allegations on this grate site that Ted Cruz's dad killed Kennedy, the Clintons are paedophiles, Hilary is a serial killer and Obama is a Kenyan. None of these have had any evidence to support it, but since its a narrative that is favourable, its wholly unquestioned.

 

All that said, you are clearly right to be cynical. For my money Parnas is being so vocal only to force Trump into giving him a Pardon to make him shut the hell up. It doesnt need to be anywhere near truthful in that context.

I don't recall anyone here claiming Cruz"s father killed Kennedy. Opinion on Obama's real citizenship was divided, but most conservatives here didn't take the claim seriously as I recall. Clinton hung out with a guy who pumped seventeen year old girls. There is no firm evidence he partook, but it is very suspicious. A lot of people whose deaths are convenient for the Clinton's have ended up dead under odd circumstances. At least one was on a suicide watch in a federal prison with injuries that may not be consistent with self-harm and conveniently missing video.

They didn't claim it, but they were full of equanimity when Trump did.

 

Once again I digress, you have all made a fair point.

[Mikel2]

I never understood the birther thing (And never met many republicans who believed that stuff - Never mind that it was the Hillary camp in 2008 that started it). Even if Obama had been born in Kenya, his mother was an American citizen, so he would have been a natural born citizen anyway. No different from McCain (Born in Panama).

Edited January 18, 2020 by Mikel2

[Jeff]

It might have helped if his own publishers author bio for him didn't say he was Kenyan born, uncorrected until 2007 (sixteen years later), the year he decided to run for president. Even Snopes has to list that one as true. That and the reluctance to show the full BC gave ample room for things to go crazy.

 

"Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii."

[EchoFiveMike]

I never understood the birther thing (And never met many republicans who believed that stuff - Never mind that it was the Hillary camp in 2008 that started it). Even if Obama had been born in Kenya, his mother was an American citizen, so he would have been a natural born citizen anyway. No different from McCain (Born in Panama).

 

 

And clearly Mcaniac should have never been allowed anywhere close to power either... It was never supposed to be about enabling some individual ambitions, it's about protecting the Nation, and that's been screwed since at least the Gilded Age.

 

Hey, just accept that they're all cheaters, and "the Rules" don't mean shit, never have, and never will, unless you are just looking for an excuse to quit and surrender, like the GOPe. S/F....Ken M

[Ivanhoe]

Hey, just accept that they're all cheaters, and "the Rules" don't mean shit, never have, and never will, unless you are just looking for an excuse to quit and surrender, like the GOPe. S/F....Ken M

And crooks. Its understandable why lefties have no heartburn over the thought that their pols are rapacious crooks. What confounds me is why conservatives and faux conservatives find it hard to believe that folks wanting to grab the levers of power might not be saints.

[Roman Alymov]

"Why are US embasses attacked"

[BansheeOne]

Yes, the Euros have been leading the charge in standing up to the Mullahs, if only that dastardly Orange Man would stop mucking things up. You were also on your way to increasing NATO spending even more if Trump hadn't used mean words to force you to back track. It's probably Trump's fault that Europe is getting ever more gas from Russia. If he'd just be nicer, then Europe would wean themselves off a totalitarian's leash. Very convincing argument. Good gravy, did someone steal all the mirrors in Europe because people really need to take a look in one and realize how foolish they look.

 

Well, I daresay we all here have the about 20-25 years left on the clock needed to see where current policy will take global US influence. Because frankly right now it looks headed the way of Britain post-WW II to me - it will still be too powerful to be irrelevant, but getting itself sidetracked by poor decisions and clinging to the past.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Which is still better than many European powers, that cant seem to find first gear.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Annnnnd once again, its all the fault of the evil Merica! Damn you for making the Iranians blip that button!

 

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-crash-russia/russia-iran-was-spooked-by-reports-of-u-s-f-35s-when-it-downed-airliner-idUKKBN1ZG1LI

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Iran’s accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner last week occurred at a time when Tehran was spooked by reports of advanced U.S. stealth fighters in the area.

“There were at least six (U.S.) F-35 fighters in the air in the Iranian border area (at the time). This information has yet to be verified, but I’d like to underline the edginess that always accompanies such situations,” Lavrov said.

Iran’s downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, which killed all 176 people aboard, has created a crisis for the Islamic Republic’s clerical rulers who have faced days of protests after the Iranian military admitted it had shot down the plane accidentally.

Lavrov, speaking at his annual news conference in Moscow, called the incident a human error and said he was not trying to excuse anyone for what happened.

But he said it was important to understand the context and that the incident had occurred hours after an Iranian missile attack on U.S. bases in Iraq, when Iranian forces were braced for some kind of U.S. military retaliation.

“There is information that the Iranians were expecting another attack from the United States after the strike but did not know what form it might take,” said Lavrov.

[BansheeOne]

Which is still better than many European powers, that cant seem to find first gear.

 

I'm certain that relatively speaking, they won't be any worse than the UK at any point during the last seven decades, and probably better in total due to difference in scale. Maybe tearing down the international political and economic regimes the US has carefully established and dominated for their own benefit in that same time is really a Horatian act of relinquishment to make their allies stand on their own feet, and will actually result in a better world for everyone - including Americans, if they can get over the passive-aggressive turn their exceptionalism has taken lately, and get used to no longer being the top dog calling the shots, like the old imperial European powers have (barely). It's just that recent mid-term data from the second half of the 20th century indicates that overall, the West is better off with the US in charge, and that people promoting different ideas tend not to have the best interests of liberty on their minds.

 

Meanwhile, Iran flip-flops on the black boxes at about one megakerry.

 

Date 19.01.2020

 

Iran backtracks on plans to send black boxes from downed jet to Ukraine

 

The head of the probe into the Ukrainian airliner that was shot down says the recordings will be examined by Iran. His comments contradict those a day earlier, which said the black boxes would be sent to Kyiv.

 

Iran on Sunday appeared to U-turn over its earlier decision to send abroad the black box flight recorders from the Ukrainian jetliner shot down earlier this month, saying Tehran would first review the audiotapes.

 

Hassan Rezaeifar, who is leading the investigation into the tragedy was cited by the state-run IRNA news agency as saying: "the flight recorders from the Ukrainian Boeing are in Iranian hands and we have no plans to send them out.''

 

Rezaeifar added: "We are trying to read the black boxes here in Iran. Otherwise, our options are Ukraine and France, but no decision has been taken so far to send them to another country."

 

A day earlier, another Iranian news agency, Tasnim, cited the same official as saying it was not possible to interpret the recordings in Iran, and that the black boxes would be sent to Kyiv, where French, American and Canadian experts would help analyze them.

 

[...]

 

https://www.dw.com/en/iran-backtracks-on-plans-to-send-black-boxes-from-downed-jet-to-ukraine/a-52054909

[Jeff]

Perhaps they're afraid that they already started to tamper with them and that would look bad. Or they just don't want the voice recordings of the crew plumeting to their deaths to be played.

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

Which is still better than many European powers, that cant seem to find first gear.

 

I'm certain that relatively speaking, they won't be any worse than the UK at any point during the last seven decades, and probably better in total due to difference in scale. Maybe tearing down the international political and economic regimes the US has carefully established and dominated for their own benefit in that same time is really a Horatian act of relinquishment to make their allies stand on their own feet, and will actually result in a better world for everyone - including Americans, if they can get over the passive-aggressive turn their exceptionalism has taken lately, and get used to no longer being the top dog calling the shots, like the old imperial European powers have (barely). It's just that recent mid-term data from the second half of the 20th century indicates that overall, the West is better off with the US in charge, and that people promoting different ideas tend not to have the best interests of liberty on their minds.

 

Meanwhile, Iran flip-flops on the black boxes at about one megakerry.

 

Date 19.01.2020

 

Iran backtracks on plans to send black boxes from downed jet to Ukraine

 

The head of the probe into the Ukrainian airliner that was shot down says the recordings will be examined by Iran. His comments contradict those a day earlier, which said the black boxes would be sent to Kyiv.

 

Iran on Sunday appeared to U-turn over its earlier decision to send abroad the black box flight recorders from the Ukrainian jetliner shot down earlier this month, saying Tehran would first review the audiotapes.

 

Hassan Rezaeifar, who is leading the investigation into the tragedy was cited by the state-run IRNA news agency as saying: "the flight recorders from the Ukrainian Boeing are in Iranian hands and we have no plans to send them out.''

 

Rezaeifar added: "We are trying to read the black boxes here in Iran. Otherwise, our options are Ukraine and France, but no decision has been taken so far to send them to another country."

 

A day earlier, another Iranian news agency, Tasnim, cited the same official as saying it was not possible to interpret the recordings in Iran, and that the black boxes would be sent to Kyiv, where French, American and Canadian experts would help analyze them.

 

[...]

 

https://www.dw.com/en/iran-backtracks-on-plans-to-send-black-boxes-from-downed-jet-to-ukraine/a-52054909

 

 

Banshee, you are aware that shows a lack of awareness of the success's of British foreign and military policy over the last 70 years dont you? The stability of places like Kenya, Jordan, Sierra Leone, Oman, Malaysia, Borneo is not a complete accident due our indifference.

[DKTanker]

Annnnnd once again, its all the fault of the evil Merica! Damn you for making the Iranians blip that button!

 

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-crash-russia/russia-iran-was-spooked-by-reports-of-u-s-f-35s-when-it-downed-airliner-idUKKBN1ZG1LI

 

 

It's fleshed out a bit more, but this is what you were saying just one week ago.

[DB]

To be fair to Stuart, it's not that he supports Iran, it's simply that he appears to be completely incapable of deciding which set of internet "facts" to believe. Whereas most on this site decide to believe the set of facts that most closely match what this echo chamber demands, Stuart seems to be overwhelmed by all the echo chambers he is trying to stick his head into, to the point where he chooses to entertain all of them.

[Jeff]

Victor Davis Hanson: Chaos in Europe – It's tricky being world's largest importer of gas, oil and critic, too

By Victor Davis Hanson

 

Despite its cool Green parties and ambitious wind and solar agendas, Europe remains by far the world’s largest importer of oil and natural gas.

 

Oil output in the North Sea and off the coast of Norway is declining, and the European Union is quietly looking for fossil fuel energy anywhere it can find it.

 

Europe itself is naturally rich in fossil fuels. It likely has more reserves of shale gas than the United States, currently the world’s largest producer of both oil and natural gas. Yet in most European countries, horizontal drilling and fracking to extract gas and oil are either illegal or face so many court challenges and popular protests that they are neither culturally nor economically feasible.

 

The result is that Europe is almost entirely dependent on Russian, Middle Eastern and African sources of energy.

 

The American-Iranian standoff in the Middle East, coupled with radical drop-offs in Iranian and Venezuelan oil production, has terrified Europe — and for understandable reasons.

 

The European Union has almost no ability to guarantee the delivery of critical oil and gas supplies from the Middle East should Iran close the Strait of Hormuz or harass ships in the Persian Gulf.

 

Europe’s only maritime security is the NATO fleet — a synonym for the U.S. Navy.

 

Vladimir Putin’s Russia supplies an estimated 30 percent of Europe’s oil needs. In times of crisis, Putin could exercise de facto control over the European economy.

 

In other words, Europe refuses to develop its own gas and oil reserves, and won’t fund the necessary military power to ensure that it can safely import energy from problematic or even hostile sources.

 

It’s no wonder that Europe’s traditional foreign policy reflects these crazy paradoxes.

 

Energy neediness explains why the EU was so eager to maintain the so-called “Iran deal” with the theocracy in Tehran, and also why it was nervous about the anti-Russia hysteria that arose in the United States after the 2016 election.

 

Past European distancing from Israel reflected Europe’s fear of alienating Arab oil producers in the Middle East and North Africa.

 

Europeans are also uneasy about the Trump administration. They see the current U.S. government as nationalist and unpredictable.

 

Americans appear not so ready as in the past to enter the world’s hotspots to ensure unimpeded commercial use of sea and air lanes for the benefit of others.

 

The result is a sort of European schizophrenia when it comes to America and foreign policy in general. On one hand, the European Union resents its military dependence on Washington, while on the other it prays for its continuance. The EU loudly promotes freedom and democracy abroad, but it is careful to keep ties with oil-exporting Middle Eastern autocracies that are antithetical to every value Europeans promote.

 

Germany agrees with its allies that Russian imperial agendas could threaten European autonomy. But privately, Berlin reassures Putin’s Russia that it wants to buy all the gas and oil that Moscow has to sell. Germany increasingly seems far friendlier with a suspicious Russia than it is with an America that protects it.

 

In sum, what ensures that Europeans have enough daily gasoline and home heating fuel are not batteries, wind farms and solar panels — much less loud green proselytizing. They count instead on a mercurial Russia, an array of unstable Middle Eastern governments and an underappreciated U.S. military.

 

In a logical world, Europeans would retake control of their own destiny. That recalibration would entail beefing up their military power, and their navies in particular.

 

They also would begin to frack and horizontally drill. Europeans would push ahead with more nuclear power, hydroelectric projects and clean-coal technologies — at least until new sources of clean energies become viable.

 

Europe should applaud U.S. gas and oil development, which has upped world supplies, diversified suppliers and lowered global prices.

Europeans should especially remember that the U.S. military keeps global commerce safe for all vulnerable importers such as themselves.

 

But these remedies are apparently seen in Europe as worse than the disease of oil and gas dependency.

 

The result is again chaos. Europe lectures about greenhouse gases while it desperately seeks supplies of fossil fuels. Germany usually sets the tone in Europe, and it is the most hypocritical in both denouncing and buying fossil fuels from unsavory sources.

 

The danger for Europe now is that the charade may soon be over.

 

Americans are self-sufficient in gas and oil. They have lost interest in Middle East quagmires and petro-regimes. And they don’t like patrolling the world for countries that both count on and ankle-bite the U.S. military. Meanwhile, the more Europeans pander to oil-rich Russia, Iran and various Gulf states, the less respect they earn in return.

 

It is hard to be both the world's largest importer of gas and oil and the loudest critic of fossil fuels, but Europe has managed to do it.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/victor-david-hanson-europ-importer-gas-oil

 

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

Annnnnd once again, its all the fault of the evil Merica! Damn you for making the Iranians blip that button!

 

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-crash-russia/russia-iran-was-spooked-by-reports-of-u-s-f-35s-when-it-downed-airliner-idUKKBN1ZG1LI

 

 

It's fleshed out a bit more, but this is what you were saying just one week ago.

 

No, and I believe we kicked this around several times and you still didnt get my point. I dont blame Trump for this airliner full of civilians being killed. But if he didnt realise that there were going to be dead people at some point when he kicked JCPOA over, then he is a damn fool. Again, look at the leadup to KAL007 and you might see my point. Reagan didnt cause it, but he framed the environment in which the tragedy occured with several decisions that if they were not reckless, were certainly questionable. Please, read the section where it says 'spooking the soviets, Psyops'. Its not that much different from how the Trump white house has been dealing with Iran in recent weeks.

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/a-cold-war-conundrum/source.htm#Top%20of%20File

Someone was going to end up dead at some point. The same thing happened int he leadup to flight 655 too for that matter. There was over a year of increasing tension, and nobody bothered to recognise where it was going to lead.

 

 

To be fair to Stuart, it's not that he supports Iran, it's simply that he appears to be completely incapable of deciding which set of internet "facts" to believe. Whereas most on this site decide to believe the set of facts that most closely match what this echo chamber demands, Stuart seems to be overwhelmed by all the echo chambers he is trying to stick his head into, to the point where he chooses to entertain all of them.

 

Facts are a funny thing. A week ago I said it was possibly a missile that brought this aircraft down, and I was accused of being highly aggressive and unfair to Iran. Is that whats called the middle ground in these parts?

 

Perhaps you want to go back and read what I actually wrote before you instantly accept DK's not entirely accurate rememberance of it. Even better, tuck into any book on Able Archer and you might that I was trying to draw attention to. Crises are made. They are not JUST one sides fault, and whilst one side is usually more reasonable than the other, its beholden on both to demonstrate intelligent management. If you want to interpet that as stirring it, and not what it actually was, an attempt to have a reasonable debate on crisis management, then I cant talk to you.

 

Or you can just default to sneering again. its really up to you.