Milley's unsent letter
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Does anybody find this at all surprising?
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Does anybody find this at all surprising?
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I didn't read the whole article; we all lived it, New Yorker, don't need to relive it. But: Milley wrote, "And lastly it is my deeply held belief that you’re ruining the international order, and causing significant damage to our country overseas . . . "
My biggest worry about the Trump so-called Administration is just that: the ruination of the American presence and position in the world, and how it will be restored or even if it can be. Trump was disastrous -- ramming around the globe, ungovernable and out of control, with a terrifying level of ignorance.
Probably we should be grateful that it wasn't worse. I attribute that to two things: 1) Other heads of state figured the wisest course was to duck and cover until this wild man the Americans saw fit to elect is safely off the stage or 2.) It was our good fortune that they had enough problems of their own that they had no time or resources to deal with it, and welcomed the respite.
It is not possible, for me at least, to get an accurate sense of how widespread and how reparable that damage is -- nor am I sure that anyone in the country or the world has a good understanding of it.
And the fact that there is a contemplation of re-electing Trump on the table is just . . . sad.
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In politics, always ask yourselves "Why?".
Why is this just now coming to light?
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@Jolly said in Milley's unsent letter:
In politics, always ask yourselves "Why?".
Why is this just now coming to light?
The claim about him not wanting disabled veterans came to light in 2020 IIRC.
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@Jolly said in Milley's unsent letter:
In politics, always ask yourselves "Why?".
Why is this just now coming to light?
The claim about him not wanting disabled veterans came to light in 2020 IIRC.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Milley's unsent letter:
@Jolly said in Milley's unsent letter:
In politics, always ask yourselves "Why?".
Why is this just now coming to light?
The claim about him not wanting disabled veterans came to light in 2020 IIRC.
That's not the gist of this thread.
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Wholly true? I have my doubts or it would have surfaced during the campaign.
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Wow! Scary stuff. As I have said before, it is amazing the amount of people who were very close to Presdient Trump who have said that basically President Trump was unfit to be president. If it were one person, it could maybe be dismissed. But when the number starts reaching double digits.........
If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, etc.
I agree with @Catseye3 I think President Trump set back foreign relations by many years during his time in the President office.
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Wow! Scary stuff. As I have said before, it is amazing the amount of people who were very close to Presdient Trump who have said that basically President Trump was unfit to be president. If it were one person, it could maybe be dismissed. But when the number starts reaching double digits.........
If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, etc.
I agree with @Catseye3 I think President Trump set back foreign relations by many years during his time in the President office.
@taiwan_girl said in Milley's unsent letter:
Wow! Scary stuff. As I have said before, it is amazing the amount of people who were very close to Presdient Trump who have said that basically President Trump was unfit to be president. If it were one person, it could maybe be dismissed. But when the number starts reaching double digits.........
If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, etc.
I agree with @Catseye3 I think President Trump set back foreign relations by many years during his time in the President office.
Difficult to disentangle perception from reality, but when perception is reality, what’s the point? But one could make a good faith attempt to describe the tangible ways in which this foreign relation setback affects us. Unless the point of saying there was a setback, is to make people believe there was a setback, so that they no longer vote in ways that set us back.
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@taiwan_girl said in Milley's unsent letter:
Wow! Scary stuff. As I have said before, it is amazing the amount of people who were very close to Presdient Trump who have said that basically President Trump was unfit to be president. If it were one person, it could maybe be dismissed. But when the number starts reaching double digits.........
If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, etc.
I agree with @Catseye3 I think President Trump set back foreign relations by many years during his time in the President office.
Difficult to disentangle perception from reality, but when perception is reality, what’s the point? But one could make a good faith attempt to describe the tangible ways in which this foreign relation setback affects us. Unless the point of saying there was a setback, is to make people believe there was a setback, so that they no longer vote in ways that set us back.
@Horace said in Milley's unsent letter:
@taiwan_girl said in Milley's unsent letter:
Wow! Scary stuff. As I have said before, it is amazing the amount of people who were very close to Presdient Trump who have said that basically President Trump was unfit to be president. If it were one person, it could maybe be dismissed. But when the number starts reaching double digits.........
If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, etc.
I agree with @Catseye3 I think President Trump set back foreign relations by many years during his time in the President office.
Difficult to disentangle perception from reality, but when perception is reality, what’s the point? But one could make a good faith attempt to describe the tangible ways in which this foreign relation setback affects us. Unless the point of saying there was a setback, is to make people believe there was a setback, so that they no longer vote in ways that set us back.
You are correct that it is difficult to disentangle perception from reality.
I was basing my comment on being outside the US and getting peoples thoughts on the US (trustworthiness, admiration, etc). Obviously it depends on who I talked to, but I think I got feelings from a pretty wide cross section of people.
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Does it effect trade, monetary policy or defense agreements?
If not, it's eyewash.
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@Jolly said in Milley's unsent letter:
Does it effect trade, monetary policy or defense agreements?
If not, it's eyewash.
It does. For example, the US pulling out of TPP. The next time there was a major trade agreement in Asia, China was the country who benefited the most. (To me, while TPP may not have been the best trade agreement between US-Asia, pulling out ended up as a worse result)
If countries do not have the trust that the US will follow up on things, they may be less incline to deal with the US in the future.
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That's the bottom line.
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@Jolly said in Milley's unsent letter:
Does it effect trade, monetary policy or defense agreements?
If not, it's eyewash.
It does. For example, the US pulling out of TPP. The next time there was a major trade agreement in Asia, China was the country who benefited the most. (To me, while TPP may not have been the best trade agreement between US-Asia, pulling out ended up as a worse result)
If countries do not have the trust that the US will follow up on things, they may be less incline to deal with the US in the future.
TPP aside the forced renegotiation and renaming of NAFTA was costly for all three parties and, in the end, of little, if any, gain to the US. It was mostly window dressing for Trump.
In fact, one primary goal of the US was to dismantle Canada’s supply management programs for agriculture products. While the new trade agreement opened the door for more US dairy products into the CDN market, it did not spell the end of supply management. Interestingly after the signing US milk was available in grocery stores for about 6 months then disappeared completely. It was even priced below locally produced milk. No one though would buy it and it expired on the store shelves.
Another area that remained essentially remained the same was dispute arbitration. It was tweaked but not substantially changed.
One good outcome was an agreement by all three parties to review and adjust the trade agreement as required on a regular basis. That however could have been accomplished without the Twittering whining and theatrics of the then POTUS. It was clear to all that the then POTUS was incapable of grasping the notion of free trade, international treaties and how private industry actually conducts trade and investment. Truly inept as a statesman and diplomat.
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Says the man led by Justin Castro.
“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
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