homersapien 11,388 Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 Interesting article by George Will on the accelerating decline of American stature in the world: Opinion by George F. Will Columnist August 21, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. EDT The novel coronavirus has reminded Americans of something that a mature people should not need to be reminded of: Governments do not get to pick their priorities and preoccupations. Forces and events beyond U.S. shores get a vote, and they might test a Biden administration early and gravely. Russia is ramshackle and declining: In a 2019 survey, 53 percent of Russians ages 18 to 24 said they wanted to emigrate. Nevertheless, Russia is revising the map of Europe by dismembering its geographically largest nation, Ukraine. In her book “Atomic Spy: The Dark Lives of Klaus Fuchs,” Nancy Thorndike Greenspan notes that when Fuchs, the scientist who spied for Russia, with huge consequences, from within the Manhattan Project, died in East Germany in 1988, no senior Soviet official attended his funeral. But a 35-year-old KGB official stationed in Dresden did: Vladimir Putin’s durable anti-Western grudge pre-dates the events that, a year after the Fuchs funeral, began Russia’s radical diminution. Chinese President Xi Jinping, convinced that the United States is much diminished, seems impatient not merely to “Finlandize” Taiwan — to make it compliant, as the Soviet Union attempted to make Finland — but to subject the “renegade province” to Beijing’s intensifying totalitarianism. Would a Biden or Trump administration be preferable if, in 2021, China, whose increasing truculence is displayed from the South China Sea to the Himalayan border with India, seized one of Taiwan’s nearby islands? In Germany, which has the world’s fourth-largest national economy, a survey was released in May on whether the United States or China is Germany’s most important partner: Thirty-seven percent said the United States, 36 percent said China. The same organization’s September 2019 poll had shown a 27-point U.S. advantage. Among Germans ages 18 to 34, China was preferred in May by 46 percent to 35 percent. The organization says the precipitous decline of respect for the United States largely pre-dated the stumbling U.S. response to the pandemic. In an April poll asking Italians whether they prefer close ties with China or with the United States, China was preferred, 36 percent to 30 percent. European shifts toward China have occurred during abundant news reports about China’s concentration camps facilitating cultural genocide against more than 1 million Uighurs. A May survey in Britain showed that only 28 percent trust the United States to act responsibly in the world, a 13-point decline since January. Consigning U.S. foreign policy to a historically illiterate, uninformed, erratic and impulsive person has consequences. President Trump, like the coronavirus, has been an accelerant of some trends that preexisted the eruption of him and it into global dynamics. But what the Economist calls Trump’s “toe-curling” obsequiousness toward Xi (the “greatest leader in Chinese history”) has been unhelpful. Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who for 13 months was Trump’s national security adviser, worries that “the overoptimism that animated U.S. foreign policy in the 1990s” produced disappointment that has become a “retrenchment syndrome” and recapitulates the “come home, America” impulse during the nation’s Vietnam agony. He recalls historian C. Vann Woodward’s 1960 observation that then-new technologies — e.g., jet aircraft, and ballistic missiles, including those carried by nuclear submarines — ended the country’s “era of free security.” Six decades on, with U.S. prestige and influence at its post-1945 nadir, security is neither free nor secure. Robert D. Kaplan of Eurasia Group observes: “Undeniably, our post-Cold War presidents have been dramatically inferior to our Cold War presidents” — Harry Truman through George H.W. Bush — “in terms of thinking strategically about foreign affairs.” Today, during hysterias incubated on campuses, Kaplan warns: “One should never forget these lines from Solzhenitsyn: ‘Idolized children despise their parents, and when they get a bit older they bully their countrymen.’ . . . Chinese are educated in national pride; increasingly the opposite of what goes on in our own schools and universities.” A nation that nurtures elites that are at best ambivalent about their nation will not have sufficient confidence to inspire, or deserve, the confidence of other nations. Victoria Nuland, former assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, recalls George Kennan’s 1946 “Long Telegram,” in which he said that in opposing the then-emerging Soviet threat “much depends on [the] health and vigor of our own society.” Nuland adds, “The first order of business is to restore the unity and confidence of U.S. alliances in Europe and Asia.” Voters’ principal consideration this year should be which presidential candidate is most apt to accomplish Nuland’s recommendations. Although life is full of close calls, this is not one. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-president-bidens-first-priority-must-be-restoring-foreign-confidence-in-the-us/2020/08/20/1ec9a722-e2fc-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html?hpid=hp_save-opinions-float-right-4-0_opinion-card-g-right%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,388 Posted August 22, 2020 Author Share Posted August 22, 2020 See also: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,807 Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 i agree. sadly the repukes will claim he sold the country out just like they said about obama......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creed 1,640 Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 Interesting. This would be a good debate topic. I thought the opposite, and it would be to restore the confidence in the executive branch, from the citizens. I wonder what Biden thinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,388 Posted August 23, 2020 Author Share Posted August 23, 2020 1 hour ago, creed said: Interesting. This would be a good debate topic. I thought the opposite, and it would be to restore the confidence in the executive branch, from the citizens. I wonder what Biden thinks. I think that's implicit by first, recognizing all of our problems and then addressing them in a serious way. Also by trying to unite the country instead of dividing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creed 1,640 Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 1 hour ago, homersapien said: I think that's implicit by first, recognizing all of our problems and then addressing them in a serious way. Also by trying to unite the country instead of dividing it. Which do you think is priority? Confidence of foreign nations in the United States or the confidence of citizens in the executive branch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj3jordan 2,056 Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 Maybe Joe could go to Egypt and apologize. Trash our country to all the others. The funny part would be when he tries to smell all the Muslims hair. Especially if it’s not Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyAU 3,634 Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 3 hours ago, homersapien said: Also by trying to unite the country instead of dividing it. Edited 3 hours ago by homersapien It's the DNC dividing the country, not Trump. You are too ideologically blind to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,388 Posted August 24, 2020 Author Share Posted August 24, 2020 7 hours ago, creed said: Which do you think is priority? Confidence of foreign nations in the United States or the confidence of citizens in the executive branch? They are symbiotic. There is no "priority". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,388 Posted August 24, 2020 Author Share Posted August 24, 2020 5 hours ago, johnnyAU said: It's the DNC dividing the country, not Trump. You are too ideologically blind to see it. How so? Please be specific. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creed 1,640 Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 11 hours ago, homersapien said: They are symbiotic. There is no "priority". You sure it's not commensalism or mutualism? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,388 Posted August 24, 2020 Author Share Posted August 24, 2020 7 hours ago, creed said: You sure it's not commensalism or mutualism? Sounds like you get my point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autigeremt 6,643 Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 He has to become president first. I predict he loses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,807 Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 i believe this. now make no mistake i love america but we share this world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I_M4_AU 7,857 Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 3 hours ago, aubiefifty said: i believe this. now make no mistake i love america but we share this world. Well, thank God we are a Democratic Republic not a Theocracy. Put America first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,807 Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 3 hours ago, I_M4_AU said: Well, thank God we are a Democratic Republic not a Theocracy. Put America first. i am pretty sure we share this world with other folks. we should act accordingly. i bet you hated john lennon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey 16,625 Posted August 29, 2020 Share Posted August 29, 2020 President Trump has restored respect for America among foreign governments. If there's also a smidgen of fear in there, that's a good thing. Obama gave them the opinion that we were a bunch of sniveling wimps. Happily, that has been reversed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,807 Posted August 29, 2020 Share Posted August 29, 2020 6 hours ago, Mikey said: President Trump has restored respect for America among foreign governments. If there's also a smidgen of fear in there, that's a good thing. Obama gave them the opinion that we were a bunch of sniveling wimps. Happily, that has been reversed. man we are a laughing stock. show me a link on this one cus i need it bad................ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autigeremt 6,643 Posted August 30, 2020 Share Posted August 30, 2020 On 8/28/2020 at 4:34 PM, aubiefifty said: i am pretty sure we share this world with other folks. we should act accordingly. i bet you hated john lennon. We may share it but it’s still a world of nations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autigeremt 6,643 Posted August 30, 2020 Share Posted August 30, 2020 On 8/28/2020 at 10:10 AM, aubiefifty said: i believe this. now make no mistake i love america but we share this world. I agree. But we aren’t a part of a “world order” but I can see your point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I_M4_AU 7,857 Posted August 30, 2020 Share Posted August 30, 2020 On 8/28/2020 at 5:34 PM, aubiefifty said: i am pretty sure we share this world with other folks. we should act accordingly. i bet you hated john lennon. I didn’t hate Lennon. He actually taught me that a lust for a woman can change your whole perspective and not always in a good way. His song Imagine was a communist manifesto as described by him, it followed the feeling of the Vietnam war at the time and became popular. Like most hippie movements it was pie in the sky and unworkable. Reality sucks sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,807 Posted August 30, 2020 Share Posted August 30, 2020 12 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said: I didn’t hate Lennon. He actually taught me that a lust for a woman can change your whole perspective and not always in a good way. His song Imagine was a communist manifesto as described by him, it followed the feeling of the Vietnam war at the time and became popular. Like most hippie movements it was pie in the sky and unworkable. Reality sucks sometimes. i love john just because of the song imagine. he also protested and they say helped shorten the vietnam war. and i am not a socialist i just want things to be fair. bezos will probably be the first cat to a trillion dollars. damn shame he sometimes pays no taxes and some of his workers are on welfare as well. that is what i am harping about. how much money do you have to make before you can provide your workers with a living wage? anyway i was picking when i said i bet you hated john. add it to my non funny statements on here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I_M4_AU 7,857 Posted August 30, 2020 Share Posted August 30, 2020 13 minutes ago, aubiefifty said: i love john just because of the song imagine. he also protested and they say helped shorten the vietnam war. and i am not a socialist i just want things to be fair. bezos will probably be the first cat to a trillion dollars. damn shame he sometimes pays no taxes and some of his workers are on welfare as well. that is what i am harping about. how much money do you have to make before you can provide your workers with a living wage? anyway i was picking when i said i bet you hated john. add it to my non funny statements on here. I sorta knew you were kidding, who could not like the Beatles growing up in our era? Bezos is all about the power. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19:24. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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