Trump is Russia's Worst Nightmare

[tsuke]

Again, that is inaccurate, has energy production increased dramatically since Trump has been President? No, meaning those regulations that you think were lifted had little or no effect on production and still don't

Iran is not, nor was it ever, depended on Qatar for anything, and Iran has plenty of oil resources of its own, don't know where you got that one from

Some of the nations in Europe are increasing military spending, but not to the degree nor effect that you want to imply

And to imply that any of this is presents some kind of nightmarish hurdle to Putin is absurd, even accepting half of the scenarios you presented doesn't in any way change anything from his view

your looking for years worth of results in a few months. What is important is the process to isolate Iran from its Sunni allies have begun and the rearmament of europe to serve as the front line of russia has restarted. It will take some time before the decreased regulations are felt too.

All of these things hurt russia

 

[anatta]

Again, that is inaccurate, has energy production increased dramatically since Trump has been President? No, meaning those regulations that you think were lifted had little or no effect on production and still don't

Iran is not, nor was it ever, depended on Qatar for anything, and Iran has plenty of oil resources of its own, don't know where you got that one from

Some of the nations in Europe are increasing military spending, but not to the degree nor effect that you want to imply

And to imply that any of this is presents some kind of nightmarish hurdle to Putin is absurd, even accepting half of the scenarios you presented doesn't in any way change anything from his view

Iran share a natural gas field w/Qatar. Iran needs that field for it's domestic uses..it doesn't have enough nat. gas otherwise.
It's one reason Iran has been flying in fresh food to Qatar every day since the blockade took place -
even though Qatar is a majority Sunni state..

Trump is pushing the idea of energy dominance - US becoming a net exporter of energy

 

[tsuke]

China wants the entire Far East, and with the US bailing on the area, it is hard to see how anyone is going to prevent them from dominating the area. It's not about military, they don't need to do anything militarily, it's all about economics, with the US pulling out of TPP even Australia is now looking for favorable trade agreements with China.

Russia is less of a player in the area than the US, their not going to do anything, this wedge your talking about is 20th Century, irrelevant today

Theoretically Russia is useful as an ally because it complicates the military calculus of china. In every scenario they have run Russia is at worst neutral. Turn that to hostile and you suddenly have a huge land border to defend.

Economically in case of war China knows it will never ever beat the US navy. The gap is just too large. But can beat the US army therefore they are developing the silk road all over again. That runs through russia and the middle east. The middle east will always be unstable. A russia in the US camp means we can strangle their trade routes.

Russia does not have the economy to be a major player for long. Too bad the democrats dont see this and insist on muh russia.

 

[archives]

lol..to the bolded.

Of course Trump understands realpolitik -he's trying to engage NK thru China -
and not this meaningless "strategic engagement" (partnership) w/China..this is from 2015

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/what-americas-china-strategy-should-be-13473
Finally, the early tenure of China’s avowedly nationalist and politically powerful president, Xi Jinping, has produced a material rise in domestic repression and tensions with the United States and China’s neighbors. Xi has expanded the definition of China’s “core interests,” militarized its maritime doctrine, and overseen devastating cyberattacks against the U.S. government. At home he’s adopted a hard line on domestic dissent and launched repeated broadsides against “Western values,” NGOs and civil-society groups.

Likewise, America’s “engagement” strategy was flawed from the start, proving insufficient to cope with the realities of a neonationalist China.
Whatever the case, Xi’s China has brought the flaws in America’s China strategy into sharper focus. Rapid economic growth has correlated with greater repression, while efforts at engagement and integration have been met with more brazen challenges to the status quo.

President Trump did not "engaging North Korea thru China," a better description is attempting to outsource North Korea to China, which we now know was never close to working, and everyone knew it seemingly but the President, must be "the most beautiful chocolate cake" didn't work

And to think that a President who, as I've noted before, is goated by flattery and pissed off by a tweet is on the same level as Putin who has decades at the game and is willing to go to the extreme is inane

 

[anatta]

China wants the entire Far East, and with the US bailing on the area, it is hard to see how anyone is going to prevent them from dominating the area. It's not about military, they don't need to do anything militarily, it's all about economics, with the US pulling out of TPP even Australia is now looking for favorable trade agreements with China.

Russia is less of a player in the area than the US, their not going to do anything, this wedge your talking about is 20th Century, irrelevant today

it's ENTIRELY about the military ( hard power) look at what they are doing with their 10 dash line!

They are building a new naval force at an alarming rate, and they are building dredge islands,
and fitting them with artillery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-Dash_Line

 

[archives]

Theoretically Russia is useful as an ally because it complicates the military calculus of china. In every scenario they have run Russia is at worst neutral. Turn that to hostile and you suddenly have a huge land border to defend.

Economically in case of war China knows it will never ever beat the US navy. The gap is just too large. But can beat the US army therefore they are developing the silk road all over again. That runs through russia and the middle east. The middle east will always be unstable. A russia in the US camp means we can strangle their trade routes.

Russia does not have the economy to be a major player for long. Too bad the democrats dont see this and insist on muh russia.

No, military is 20th Century thinking, it's all economics now, and under what circumstances would Russia ever threaten China?

 

[Darth Omar]

If you are the head of your Party, and your Party has complete control of both bodies of Congress and they still can't get passed legislation that they have been promising and working on for seven years, you got to question the leadership involved. If the President is this great "deal maker" that his followers believe he is he should have handled the situation long ago

He might be a pragmatist, but he has never experienced a hard core player as Putin who has been in the game for decades and has a history that shows he is easily willing to go to the extreme. As I said above, it should be a learning experience for the President, lets just hopes he puts his ego aside and learns quick

In terms of Trump's success with congress, if you're talking about healthcare how about we give Trump the same two years we gave Obama---before he finally passed the monstrosity with his name on it? Obama also had both houses and couldn't pass Cap n' Tax, so let's keep things in perspective.

I like Trump's chances, one on one with Putin. He also has better people around him than most previous presidents did.

 

[anatta]

President Trump did not "engaging North Korea thru China," a better description is attempting to outsource North Korea to China, which we now know was never close to working, and everyone knew it seemingly but the President, must be "the most beautiful chocolate cake" didn't work

And to think that a President who, as I've noted before, is goated by flattery and pissed off by a tweet is on the same level as Putin who has decades at the game and is willing to go to the extreme is inane

Putin is an international master -he ran rings around Obama; so much so Obama stopped trying to even talk to Putin.
Hopefully Trump will do better -one of his early and best moves was shoring up our Sunni alliance..
but Putin is a geo-political chess grandmaster.

What Trump is doing is bypassing 4/6/8 party talks with China over Korea. He's trying to engage China directly to put pressure on NK.
It's a desperate move, but it's all we got,as all these multi-party talks are just a way for China to look engaged.

it's all been fillibustering any action by China on NK

 

[Darth Omar]

No, military is 20th Century thinking, it's all economics now, and under what circumstances would Russia ever threaten China?

Umm....under what circumstances would they ever threaten us lol?

How about we focus on ISIS? I can't think of the last time a Russian threatened an innocent American.

 

[archives]

Putin is an international master -he ran rings around Obama; so much so Obama stopped trying to even talk to Putin.
Hopefully Trump will do better -one of his early and best moves was shoring up our Sunni alliance..
but Putin is a geo-political chess grandmaster.

What Trump is doing is bypassing 4/6/8 party talks with China over Korea. He's trying to engage China directly to put pressure on NK.
It's a desperate move, but it's all we got,as all these multi-party talks are just a way for China to look engaged.

it's all been fillibustering any action by China on NK

By "shoring up our Sunni alliance" the President put the US directly into the quagmire, a boondoggle that has existed for centuries and picking one side over the other always leads to future problems. President Obama did the opposite, attempting to play one of the other, and HW Bush knew this, that is why he didn't crush Iraq in the Persian Gulf War. Taking sides never works out

 

[archives]

Umm....under what circumstances would they ever threaten us lol?

How about we focus on ISIS? I can't think of the last time a Russian threatened an innocent American.

Wait a minute, didn't you just tell us that the goal was to use Russia as a counterbalance to China?

ISIS is going to be defeated on the battle field with or without the US, Russia/Iran is going to do that to make sure Syria is secure

It is also is, as President Obama exactly described it, a generational war, they can lose their territorial base, and inevitably they will, but it is the ideology that has to be defeated, and you are never going to do that militarily

 

[anatta]

By "shoring up our Sunni alliance" the President put the US directly into the quagmire, a boondoggle that has existed for centuries and picking one side over the other always leads to future problems. President Obama did the opposite, attempting to play one of the other, and HW Bush knew this, that is why he didn't crush Iraq in the Persian Gulf War. Taking sides never works out

ridiculous.
There is no ability to cooperate with Iran on anything..period..anything..not even routine patrrols in the Strait of Hormuz (where they seize our frigates)

how many countries have a "death to America"day as a holiday?

Bush let Saddam burn himself out because it burnt out Iran too. Bush used Saddam's aggression to weaken Iran

we have a long standing security/special relationship with SA and the Sunni's. I t doesn't mean we get dragged into regional wars. Yemen might be an exception, but we limit ourselves to logistical support at least.

 

[Owl'd You're Up!]

Wrong

First your content, if Trump is as you say playing Russia off against China why then is his policies "very harmful to Russia?" which by the way, they haven't been so far, anything but harmful

How is Trump "encouraging" American energy companies anymore than previous Administrations "encouraged" American energy companies? And Russia's oil export problem isn't new to Trump, it has been occurring for at least the last two years, which by the way aids China, the nation you claim Trump sees as the real threat

And of course you realize that Qatar has one of the US's major airfields in the Middle East, and I never knew the Saudis needed US approval to "use any and all methods to go after Iran." Your whole Middle East melodrama is too simplistic to properly describe an area that is a quagmire

Lastly, hard to believe that Putin, an experienced world leader who practices realpolitik feels threatened or would ever be outmaneuvered by Trump who is easily goated with a complement and offended with a tweet

Moreover, the Trumpy has next to no influence on oil and natural gas prices.

Moreover, Qatar and Iran are actually developing the South Pars natural gas field.

Moreover, everyone knows in case the U.S. sees her interests seriously threatened, it will develop the will power to wage and, in doubt, win that war. The fate of the Crimea was nowhere near a central U.S. or NATO interest.

Moreover, the Europeans' pledge to ramp up their war spending dates back to times before Trump, and they pledged not a penny more than they already had, since.

Moreover, as Mueller ramps up his investigation, the Trumpy-Putin bromance is as much in the spotlight and alive as it ever was.

All told, in that system whence the OP report emerged, there are at least two suns shining on an a planet quite unlike earth, with four Trump-head-shaped moons. Otherwise, it's also completely different.

 

[archives]

ridiculous.
There is no ability to cooperate with Iran on anything..period..anything..not even routine patrrols in the Strait of Hormuz (where they seize our frigates)

how many countries have a "death to America"day as a holiday?

Bush let Saddam burn himself out because it burnt out Iran too. Bush used Saddam's aggression to weaken Iran

we have a long standing security/special relationship with SA and the Sunni's. I t doesn't mean we get dragged into regional wars. Yemen might be an exception, but we limit ourselves to logistical support at least.

Never said anyone had to cooperate, rather playing one off the other, and we have no "long standing relationships" with Sunni, ISIS is Sunni, did you think Suadi Arabia was all in in fighting ISIS? Perhaps individual nations, but only as they maintain a balance of power, taking sides creates more problems

 

[anatta]

Never said anyone had to cooperate, rather playing one off the other, and we have no "long standing relationships" with Sunni, ISIS is Sunni, did you think Suadi Arabia was all in in fighting ISIS? Perhaps individual nations, but only as they maintain a balance of power, taking sides creates more problems

sunni (states)..what did you think i meant? sunni as a sect? why would we ally w/a sect?

you can't play this down the middle -it would be nice if we could but it can't be done.
Obama tried that. All it did was rattle the Sunnis ( states) and engender loathing from Iran

we sent them loads of cash in planes, and they used it for their expeditionary force in Iraq/Syria.

Iran is the big hegemonist in the ME now.It's so bad they are sending weapons and supplies to the Houthi in Yemen - SA's back door.
Iran is in Iraq/Syria/Lebanon (hez)/Yemen (proxie).. they have exceeded their wildest dreams for a Shi'a Crescent.

 

[Darth Omar]

Wait a minute, didn't you just tell us that the goal was to use Russia as a counterbalance to China?

ISIS is going to be defeated on the battle field with or without the US, Russia/Iran is going to do that to make sure Syria is secure

It is also is, as President Obama exactly described it, a generational war, they can lose their territorial base, and inevitably they will, but it is the ideology that has to be defeated, and you are never going to do that militarily

One way of defeating the ideology is by decimating ISIS. Btw, 'Islamophobe' conservatives have been calling the war on terror an ideological struggle for at least a decade now.

Good to know people are catching on, finally.

 

[anatta]

One way of defeating the ideology is by decimating ISIS. Btw, 'Islamophobe' conservatives have been calling the war on terror an ideological struggle for at least a decade now.

Good to know people are catching on, finally.

violent (can't say Islamic) extremism

 

[Rune]

yes i think china is the primary threat to US supremacy.

Read the fable of the goose that lays the golden eggs.

 

[Amadeus]

ridiculous.
There is no ability to cooperate with Iran on anything..period..anything..

Iran has been on the frontlines fighting ISIS. They are the number one enemy of ISIS. They are more liberal and democratic than either Russia or Saudia Arabia. Their population is largely pro-Western. They've been abiding by the nuclear agreement.

 

[anatta]

Iran has been on the frontlines fighting ISIS. They are the number one enemy of ISIS. They are more liberal and democratic than either Russia or Saudia Arabia. Their population is largely pro-Western. They've been abiding by the nuclear agreement.

they are governed by a theocratic group that hates the USA. It's baked in.
They are also a state sponsor of terrorism.

Their population isn't the problem,it's their government. They go after ISIS solely for own hegemony concerns