I'm an American. During the 90's when Saint Paisios was still alive and living in Mount Athos, an American Senator went to visit him. The Saint refused to look at him or speak to him. When the party who brought him there asked why, the Saint told him that if it wasn't for the US there would be no wars. Saint Paisios was able to foresee future events, so I don't think he meant it only for what we were doing to Yugoslavia, but for future events as well since he was very clairvoyant.
I have said several times that the US does not want war with Iran, and that the Iranians know it. That is why they have been so busy thumbing their noses at the West. They know they can get away with it. Iran is a cross between a medieval theocracy and a modern police state. The Ayatollahs rule through force and repression, and they need to look tough to their people in order to keep their grip on their oppressed populace. That is why they have seized the tankers, used limpet mines on others, and shot down the drone. It all plays well in Tehran, and the Ayatollahs know the West is at a loss as to how to react. Iran is very strong militarily, with sophisticated air defenses. She has an army of 400,000, far more than the US could deploy against them (our maximum strength deployed to Iraq was 140,000 and we had trouble maintaining that number). We can expect more provocations.
I see I am up against tag team anti Americanisn Meaning Alexis managed to craw to her cornner and tag you to replace her No problem But no biting or eye gouging is allowed
I'm still waiting for the rule book you're using. Meanwhile, I'll show you mine. Let's start with the beginning: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/...ews-sanctions-against-the-regime-by-one-year/ Now that we've established the existence of an oil embargo put in place by the EU - of which the UK is still a member, with all ensuing rights and obligations, Brexit efforts notwithstanding - let's see what the international law has to say about embargoes. https://www.britannica.com/topic/embargo-international-law The seizure of the Iranian ship is perfectly legal according to your precious international law (the real international law. not wishful-thinking-international-law). The seizure of the British tanker by Iran, on the other hand, is piracy, because there's no embargo imposed by Iran on whatever destination that tanker had, making Iran's actions against British ships in international waters illegal. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the International Maritime Organization to issue statements condemning British actions as illegal violations of the code of the seas, and neither should you. In this particular case, the British did the right and legal thing.
Not according to my son and nephew and those other FA-18 pilots who were flying combat missions over Iraq and Syria...80% of their targets, they were denied to engage and destroy those targets directly by the Obama White House. The Obama White House was directly micromanaging the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East. When Trump came into the White House he ended Obama's politically correct rules of Engagement and allowed the generals to call the shots on defeating ISIS. Obama's legacy will be that he turned the entire Middle East into a complete basketcase by... #1. Backing and supporting the Arab Spring. #2. Regime changes in Egypt and Libya. #3. Attempted regime change in Syria.
The UK used pirate tactics and hijacked an Iranian Tanker. This is Tit for tat. Once the UK treats Iran with respect and releases the tanker, im sure Iran will do same.
The iranian i know is not religious but would always side with his nation and against any outside force. USA needs regime change as well.
It's hard to believe just how stupid and incompetent the UK govt is. They grab an Iranian ship and the Iranians say we'll grab one of yours. So the British allow unescorted ships in the Straits so one gets grabbed. Duh, stupid. Lets see if the Americans help out, having pressured the British into grabbing the Iranian tanker in the first place. Maybe if Johnson gets on his knees and pleads, or whatever, Trump will do something.
ISIS is a splinter group of Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is in the business of terrorizing not taking territory. ISIS is in the business of taking and holding territory. They have an army that wears uniforms. They tax the people who live in their territories. They pumped oil out of the ground and sold that oil through Turkey to be put on the international market. ISIS no longer holds territory and no longer have a state in either Iraq or Syria. There are still thousands of ISIS soldiers throughout the world but they no longer have a state or wear uniforms.
The UK was just enforcing the international embargo on Syria. Iran tried to smuggle heavy fuel oil (diesel) to Syria by using a huge tanker. A violation of the international embargo. Royal Marines enforced that embargo by seizing that tanker. The conterband fuel oil was unloaded and the tanker is being returned to Iran. The Brits didn't have to returned that tanker under international maritime law but they did.
Both Russia and Syria are in collusion with Iran but both Russia (Putin) and Syria (Assad) want Iran out of Syria. I'm guessing both Putin and Assad are wishing they never crawled into a bed bug infested bed with Iran.
Actually they have a president or PM that's voted in, so it's not a dictatorship. Today the US doesn't accuse nations of not being democracies, but of not being 'liberal' democracies. Most nations do not want liberalism. It doesn't mean though they are not democracies..
It's always easy to play tough guy when it's not you or your kids dying in a war. We have lost about the same number of people in the past 6 years as we lost in the last year before the withdrawal. I call that a win. But if you want to die for the people of Iraq I bet you could sign up as a contractor.
Assad had no choice. Israel today is only facing what it had wrought. Their relationship with Assad was fine, there was no reason for them or anyone to overthrow him and break up Syria because he refused to hurt Russia and pass a gas pipeline from Qatar. The minute the neighboring countries saw the opportunity, they jumped in to see what part of Syria they could grab. Turkey first and foremost. They wanted the oil rich lands east of the Euphrates - as did KSA. Israel wanted the Golan Heights, Jordan wanted an area for the Palestinians, and so on and so forth. They were all helping ISIS and Al Nusra in one way or another - and that includes the US, UK and France. Assad was losing the war so he had no choice but to invite Hezbollah and Iran in. He can't very well tell them now to leave after all they had sacrificed to help him.
If the alternative is economic growth then no. They claim they need nuclear power. The US proposes to give it to them. Win - win unless Iran is lying.
The Iraq war was won. Iraq was safe, secure, and stable with our residual military, intelligence, and governance personnel there. Obama gave that all away. How does that honor the fallen ???
. That's what we were hoping with Trump. I thought his ego wouldn't let him bow down to the powers of the new world order in Washington and they'd all end up in jail where they belong. Instead they bogged him down with lies about collusion with Russia. Hopefully things will change now, but I won't hold my breath.
