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Guess who has 2 thumbs and makes ML really angry? (piefed-media.feddit.online)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works
28 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

EDIT: Correction, I was banned from Lemmy Zip, the confusion stems from my inability to see Lemmy Zip communities in the search anymore leading me to think it was Lemmy ML which has a community of the same name.

THIS GUY
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[–] 4 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Trump put Maduro on trial, got gifted a second hand peace prize, and promptly forgot it existed. He’s not a complicated man.

The year isn't even over yet, much less Trump's term.

Yes, please remember that Maduro's kidnapping, the kidnapping of a sovereign head of fucking state, happened earlier this year.

Obviously the situations on both fronts are more nuanced than that, with Venezuelan VP being open to negotiation with US oil executives who have been operating in the region for a long time, but the important part is that not only can things not worsen for the Cubans by trading one world power’s protection for another

Whose protection are they trading for? They've been aligned with China since the 90s and Russia since Putin's first election.

Abandoning their meagre current alliances for the prospect of throwing themselves at the mercy of an American political machine which has no concept of negotiation at present seems immensely unwise.

but US citizens will not stand for a permanent occupation of Cuba,

That's not much comfort to the thousands of Cubans who will die in the process.

and if the GOP tries to hold power past their terms then it will be all of our problems together.

I don't think "It's okay, because it'll either improve if Americans do the right thing (after doing the wrong thing 2/3 times in the past fucking decade), or else Americans will ALSO be screwed" is all that compelling an argument to Cuba. Or, for that matter, to Americans.

Handing Trump a 'win' on Cuba would be a great way to strengthen his hold on low-information centrists - of which there are too many in this fucking country - and strengthen the Cuban exile community in Florida whose death-grip on American politics have royally fucked us four times and counting in my fucking lifetime alone.

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  • [–] [S] 0 points 5 months ago* (5 children)

    Well the USA has issued a warrant for Raul Castro so unless they want that flavor of violence they should be trying to deescalate.

    That’s not much comfort to the thousands of Cubans who will die in the process.

    I strongly believe that a voluntary deescelation of Cuba, with some public flattery and a couple small gifts, would resolve the situation with zero casualties. I think Trump is just that much of a fucking moron.

    I don’t think “It’s okay, because it’ll either improve if Americans do the right thing (after doing the wrong thing 2/3 times in the past fucking decade), or else Americans will ALSO be screwed” is all that compelling

    Right and wrong are one thing, but at some point you have to minimize harm. There is no need for war and mass death in Cuba, so we should be doing everything in our power to avoid it.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago (4 children)

    Well the USA has issued a warrant for Raul Castro so unless they want that flavor of violence they should be trying to deescalate.

    How did de-escalation work for Iran and Venezuela, again? How did it work for Palestine? Lebanon?

    Why will it work for Cuba when it's failed in literally every other foreign policy crisis of this administration so far?

    I strongly believe that a voluntary deescelation of Cuba, with some public flattery and a couple small gifts, would resolve the situation with zero casualties. I think Trump is just that much of a fucking moron.

    I think Trump is enough of a fucking moron to think that a mission accomplished banner in Havana would be a welcome addition to the war accolades he so desperately desires and delusionally imagines he has.

    Right and wrong are one thing, but at some point you have to minimize harm. There is no need for war and mass death in Cuba, so we should be doing everything in our power to avoid it.

    Sure. And point number one on minimizing harm would be preventing a US invasion. And you do that by making sure the US knows an invasion will be costly.

    Tell me, if someone had offered this exact advice about demilitarizing to Ukraine regarding Russia in 2021, what would you think of that person?

    Don't let the fact that Cuba is a shitty regime blind you to the fact that appeasement to dictators is a fucking sucker's game.

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  • [–] [S] 0 points 5 months ago* (3 children)

    Iran absolutely has never attempted a deescalation in my lifetime. They're the epitome of "fuck around, find out". They sold death in every direction and now it's come back to them 10 fold, and it's not justice, it's horrible.

    Maduro might as well have put a big neon sign above his head, his most famous speech these days are his "Come Get Me" speech mocking the idea of the USA apprehending him. I think a few days before the capture he was singing a different tune, being somewhat ambiguous to US investment for oil, but if we're drawing parallels to that event then it's not even worth discussion because that means the conclusion for Cuba is already set in stone as well, just like Venezuela's was months in advance, and I only hope that isn't the case.

    You brought up Russia's actions, again, but I've already established that Russia wants to expand and the USA does not.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago* (2 children)

    Iran absolutely has never attempted a deescalation in my lifetime.

    That's not a serious examination of international politics. Fuck, man, there was opportunity for outright realignment even after the fucking Iraq War. Even in the 2010s Rouhani openly espoused a reconciliatory line.

    Fuck, man, have you forgotten the treaty that Trump ripped up?

    I think a few days before the capture he was singing a different tune, being somewhat ambiguous to US investment for oil, but if we’re drawing parallels to that event then it’s not even worth discussion because that means the conclusion for Cuba is already set in stone as well, just like Venezuela’s was months in advance, and I only hope that isn’t the case.

    ... in which case demilitarizing would be immensely fucking stupid.

    You brought up Russia’s actions, again, but I’ve already established that Russia wants to expand and the USA does not.

    Putin wants wars to shore up his domestic legitimacy and power.

    Trump wants wars to shore up his domestic legitimacy and power.

    Institutions do not act in their own interests. Institutions act in the interests of the decision-makers, and between the minority status of the Dems and the fucking spinelessness of the GOP, the main decision-maker in the US with regards to foreign policy at the moment is Donald Trump.

    The only difference between Trump and Putin is that Trump is significantly stupider. Not less malicious, not less opportunistic, not less willing to break formal-or-informal agreements with countries for the sake of militaristic fascist chest-beating.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Shit, that's fair, the Nuclear Disarmament Treaty. It just feels completely overshadowed by them arming Hamas to attack the music festival jump starting the genocide by Israel which is the defining event of the last 3 years, among a thousand similar operations stretching back decades.

    In 2009 they had a spy convicted of smuggling NATO activity intel to Iran who presumably would resell it. Same year paid $32,000 for a hit in California on an Iranian-German dissident an activist. In 2010 in a port in Nigerian, an Iranian shipment of 13 cargo containers of guns, grenades, rocket launchers, etc was confiscated and not long after a smuggled stash of just under ~$10M USD equivalent, believe to be in connection to a large shipment of Heroin. In 2011 a car salesman from texas was shown to be in contact with the IRGC in a plot to bomb a restaurant in Washington DC. A couple of months later they attempte the assassination of Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Ambassador while in the USA. Around the same time they successfully assassinate security official Hassan M. al-Kahtani in Pakistan. The list of escelations of conflicts just keeps growing longer and longer, more and more every year after that.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 months ago

    Sure, but every regional power is playing those dipshit games. It certainly hasn't stopped us from aligning with Saudi Arabia - or Israel, for that matter.

    The public-facing and clandestine ops sides of relations are often entirely divorced - hence why even close allies like the UK and the USA can end up supporting opposite sides in global spook shit.

    Iran is hostile to our interests - but not nearly to the degree that US politics - especially Republican politics - have treated it as, and Iran's first and foremost interest in its international diplomacy is the preservation of its shitty Islamic Republic.

    As far as "Let's not be enemies" goes, we already make far worse compromises. Neutrality with Iran is (or would have been, since that's a distant prospect now) more-than-worth an increased ability to refocus on China and Russia.

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