• Squizzy@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Let’s not compare apples to oranges.

    Biden isn’t less deserving of scrutiny because he is the better president. He is backing a genocide, that should be put to him.

    Will anything happen? No, because America doesn’t have justice left in stock.

    • Tinidril@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      US diplomatic efforts have been consistently pressuring Israel to restrain their actions. What people don’t get, and what makes that statement seem insane to you, is that our ability to influence Israel is entirely dependent on our public support and, even so, is severely limited.

      Let’s say we go hard against Israel, cut off their access to US weapons manufacturing, and cut off their aid. Suddenly one of the three great regional powers in the Middle East is up for grabs and Russia eagerly steps into the void. Now Russia has two of the three in their orbit, the other being Iran. Iran happens to be the best regional ally of the Palestinians, but Russia will put an immediate end to that. Now the situation for the Palestinians is even worse, unless you think the US is going to threaten military intervention against Israel.

      Biden has said some braindead shit on the topic, like taking this moment to call himself a Zionist, but the actions his administration have actually taken have been the best available in a very bad situation. The current government of Israel is basically their version of MAGA. They are going to do what they are going to do, and there is nothing we can do to stop it, short of putting boots on the ground ourselves. (Even if we wanted to, we are historically shit at these kinds of actions.). The best we can do is advise restraint and try to keep the conflict from becoming regional. We did manage to keep Israel from doing a major strike on Lebanon that could easily have sparked a much broader conflict.

      • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        America let itself get to this point, putting your hands up complaining that you don’t have many options isn’t acceptable when you publicly defend and prop up a genocidal regime.

        • Tinidril@midwest.social
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          10 months ago

          No fucking kidding, but I wasn’t complaining. You clearly think virtue signaling about how much you care about the Palestinians is more important than being the adult in the room and actually doing what’s in their best interests and the interests of a region that could very easily fall into a much bigger conflict.

          Biden is POTUS, not a social media talking head. If he were to verbally condemn Israel, it would make the situation worse, not better. As Israel’s friend, we have a seat at the table and a chance to influence things. As Israel’s critic, we are left with terrible to no options. I’m glad we don’t have a president who craves social media likes over all else.

          • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Your influence isn’t doing shit, typical American shite pompous bullshit leader of the free world but shies away from the difficult conversation because even if you recognize it is the right thing you don’t want to the consequences.

            America put all these pieces on the board and is now acting like they can’t do anything but give stern commentary.

            I don’t crave social media likes, I’d love to see less dead children even if it means POTUS has to answer some tough questions. Where does the buck stop again?

            • Tinidril@midwest.social
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              10 months ago

              Your influence isn’t doing shit,

              The fact that Israel and Lebanon aren’t at war right now says you are wrong.

              American shite pompous bullshit leader of the free world but shies away from the difficult conversation

              It’s been widely reported that Biden and netanyahu have had the difficult conversations, but maybe you are talking to me. I’m certainly trying, but you sure do make it difficult.

              America put all these pieces on the board

              LOL. These pieces were on the board long before America even existed as a country. Even so, this isn’t a “America bad” conversation, we are discussing the Biden administration’s handling of the current crisis. I give America a large part of the blame too BTW, I just don’t need to signal it in every conversation.

              I’d love to see less dead children even if it means POTUS has to answer some tough questions.

              What questions? All I see from you are rants. I’m all for tough questions, and I’m hardly a fan of Biden.

              Where does the buck stop again?

              Which buck? If we are talking about the genocide, then I’d send the bill to the government perpetrating it and Hamas. Hamas’s attack on Israel was intended to provoke exactly the response it’s getting from the far right wing government that Israel elected. Even now, Hamas is continuing to provoke Israel to ensure that it keeps happening. Israel isn’t going to back off, and Hamas will continue using their response to drive recruitment. Is the US supposed to talk them out of it, or are we supposed to put boots on the ground to stop it? Either one would have about the same level of success.

      • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        He’s actually passed a lot of protectionist policies which are fairly new in terms of how expansive they are.

        He has 100% done more for Americans than Trump and with more grace and poise.

        • Sagifurius@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          I really doubt that, as I’m not american. Trump was hitting it out of the park for americans, literally stomping my head of state in negotiations. admittedly trudeau isn’t all that bright. anyways, protectionist policies aren’t a good idea. Setting up a situation protectionism isn’t needed is better. Trump forced trudeau into allowing importation of american milk to canada, it used to be a given not.

          • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            10 months ago

            He did nothing of the sort. Trump forcing Trudeau to let American milk into Canada isn’t much of a win for Americans. You sound uneducated on current events.

          • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Ah here you clearly have a viewpoint set and that’s not going to change.

            The policies Trump was putting in place were also protectionist, just poorly so. He also floundered on COVID killing his countrymen.

            I’m not going to continue s conversation with anyone that thinks Trump was the more intelligent of any two people in a room. Much less a world leader.

          • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            What isn’t mentioned is that there’s a kind of tit for tat norm in politics. If you damage the soft negotiation power that comes from co-operation retaliation is normal. Forcing a group to do something completely against their interests because you took advantage of the size of your resources (hard power) isn’t actually difficult… It’s just that you destroy goodwill and open the door to future “screw you” style retaliation.

            “Stomping our head of State” isn’t exactly difficult when there as many Canadians in the world as there are Californians. He basically tanked steel trade because it would cause outsized harm to a smaller country the costs of which which ended up being borne by the US industries to force milk onto a market where it generally isn’t wanted. American milk contains artificial growth hormone which domestic milk doesn’t and threatening to tank our domestic food security because Canadian milk isn’t Government subsidized like American milk is means that we can’t compete on price is a dick move.

            Since then that coercive deal has been taken apart by the courts and that Milk deal has all but been rescinded as of November last year. The Biden admin did their best to make it stick but Trumps abysmal understanding of the law extends to international trade law and the flaws were there from the beginning.

            Trump damaged a lot of America’s good diplomatic standing for temporary victories and there was a lot of America’s long standing dirty laundry that other nations were already overlooking due to soft goodwill policy. The only advantage Trump had was that people were banking on him being a temporary nuisance. If he returns to power he does invite a lot of opportunities for international retaliation. Canada is a notorious soft diplomacy country. A future Trump lead US might not like what closed door handshakes may be in it’s future.