Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
- Thread starter GasBandit
- Start date
So... Praetorian Guard scenario still in play even after he's left office.
I never knew this went away.
This is a man who doesn't believe in exercise and eats garbage. That he's not dead yet it is solely because he's from New York and all the rat poison in the hot dog's he's eaten have preserved him.
Well, he has nukes, so invasion is out of the picture, and you can only negotiate... but you should do it carefully, and not as a PR-stunt, and take into account that they always pretend to want to deal, when they're just buying time.
GasBandit
Staff member
Even if nukes were out of the picture, the first US boot to set foot on Nork soil would precipitate 5, possibly 6 digit casualties in Seoul from all the conventional artillery dialed in on every house, school, market, and hospital.
But I think Terrik was asking about the status of the ethical/moral imperative, not the consequences of various options.
But they're foreign houses, schools, markets, and hospitals.
Seeing the Democrats freak out that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat the incumbent career Democrat Senator in the NY primaries makes me yet again wish for Congressional term limits.
I know! She’s only 28 yrs old, which means we could potentially have a woman in the house for twenty, even thirty terms! And a Porto Riccan one, at that! She could be harder to dislodge than Santa Anna!
—Patrick
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/03/heal...T15:13:10&utm_source=twCNNi&utm_medium=social
Your whole God damn government should be in jail over Puerto Rico.
Your whole God damn government should be in jail over Puerto Rico.
Oh, look at you thinking that's more of a deterrent then getting your own troops nuked...
As for morals... i was implying no one really cares about them when it comes to geopolitics...
And Clinton, and Bush, and Obama.
I'm glad people are finally paying attention, but I wish it hadn't taken Trump becoming president for people to see how screwed up things have been in the U.S.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, I guess if we really need a silver lining...
Nah, the media will ignore it again as soon as a Democrat's in power, like you did with Guantanamo.
I think EVERYONE is just trying to forget about Guantanamo these days; we effectively can't shut it down because we can't dump the inmates we have into their countries of origin, they (and everyone else) refuse to take them. So it's going to stay open until the day they all die or we work out more deals to get them accepted somewhere. We're down to 41, the last group out was at the end of Obama's term in office in January 2017.
Somehow, I doubt this is something the Trump administration considers "pressing".
Now this might be crazy, but couldn't we have a trial and send them to normal jail?
But for that you'd need, like, evidence and stuff...
And since they snatched some people based on the model of watch they where wearing...
Honestly the day Trump was elected my sole optimism was maybe, maybe this could teach people about expanding executive power, and how it should be very restrained.
It would take an act of congress to pass them into the US.
There are a lot of complexities surrounding their detention, but ultimately your suggestion can only happen if congress makes it happen.
Note that the Democrats had control of both congress and the White House early on in Obama’s term, just after his campaign promise to close Guantanamo, and they chose not to act, so it’s a bipartisan choice to keep them incarcerated.
It’s really a Gordian knot, though, and I know if obama could have cut it he would have. To his credit he did all he could for all those he could release through deals with other governments.
Wasn't it just 2-3 Blue Dog Dems?
There are a lot of complexities surrounding it, and it can't be boiled down to just one thing. If you want to blame a few dems, you also have to blame Obama for moving slowly and believing that it was a bipartisan issue. If you're going to blame Obama you might as well blame Bush who expanded it (it had prisoners prior to bush, but no one cared) - it held over 700 prisoners, and during his presidency he only got it down to some 200+, which Obama nearly decimated. People blame Obama because it was a major part of his campaign platform, and one of the bigger things separating him from Hillary during the primaries.
A lot of ink has been spilled over it, and if you're really interested you can dig in, but it's like the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland:
https://www.google.com/search?q=why+didn't+obama+close+guantanamo
It's a legal (semi-legal, or illegal, depending on your perspective) convenience for the US, but, As Obama pointed out in his campaign speeches it's one place where the US sacrifices its most sacred principles in the name of "security".
Keep in mind its mission isn't imprisonment. It's an intelligence gathering facility. Imprisonment is a collateral cost of the primary mission.
And it's a terrible human tragedy.
Closing Camp Delta (or emptying it) does not necessitate losing the 'rental' in Cuba.
I mean, the base was there before it became a prison, right?