this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2024
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Are you serious?
Like someone else said, Trump would likely carpet bomb Gaza indiscriminately. This world increase hate against the US from the Middle East. And would probably encourage certain nations to act against the US.
Trump is also pro Putin. He would let Putin run rampant and he would invade and take over all the old Soviet bloc nations and rule with an iron fist over them. This would put Europe at risk of war. And could potentially drag in NATO members. And have you forgotten that Putin is staunchly against LGBTQ and trans people? This would cause complete chaos.
Why would Trump have to carpet bomb Gaza? Israel is literally already doing that with American bombs. What benefit would it be to Trump to spend billions of dollars deploying US military forces to take military action Israel is already taking? Trump would just continue letting Israel do whatever they want with no international repercussions. The genocide of Palestine is not popular with the extreme right, which is virulently anti-Semitic and has seized on the genocide as an excuse to promote anti semitism. Not to mention, Trump has territorial goals in mind. He wouldn't commit military forces to a place far from the Americas (and away from his territorial ambitions) to ethically cleanse a group of people who mean nothing to him.
Where did Trump expand US military presence during his presidency? I only have the examples in mind where he pulled troops out. Also the brief escalation with Iran was, well brief. Torpedising the JCPOA was a destabilizing act, but the war hawks amongs Dems are also fiercly opposing any diplomatic efforts with Iran.
Meanwhile while Biden is talking about "please Israel don't kill so many Palestinians, what are you doing this is bad press for me" he also keeps sending arms to Israel and backing them against every UN measure to demand a ceasefire and humanitarian access to Gaza.
Judging by actions instead of words, i don't see why Trump would be more of a danger to the Middle East than the Democrats are.
I share the criticism of lacking Ukraine support and Putin apologism by the republicans. I am skeptical that this would lead to WW3 in Europe though. Russia did not escalate to nuclear war, like they threatened, for European countries and the US to send more and more and better equipment to Ukraine. Russia having switched to war economy is dangerous as it might necesitate an even stronger focus on war efforts, but i remain sceptical that they would push into an all out war with European NATO countries. Putin is struggling internally to keep power, as we see by both Putin allies and enemys to keep "falling" out of windows. And the russian elites like money, but they don't like getting nuked. Also Russia is more and more dependant on countries like China and India to cover the sanctioned parts and products. Neither country is excited about the economic fallout of a full blown war in Europe.
Finally Putin being staunchly against LGBT people is unfortunate, but i don't see how this would make the prospect of WW3 more likely. We see a recession of pro LGBT stances in the growing fascism and right wing populism in Europe too. These countries will not go to war over LGBT rights. And the growth of these political leanings is aided by Russia, no doubt about it. But the land for these "plants" to grow is kept fertile by neoliberal politics, that are in line with the US Dems economic positions.
This is where the circle closes. We cannot solve Trump, growing fascism in Europe, Putins expansionism and create peace in the Middle East without changing the political direction of US Democrats and similiar political groups in Europe. By saying "ohh this election again we must get the Democrats to win as they are the lesser of two evil" all we do is grow both evils stronger.
Trump didn't have the conflicts we have now during his presidency. Actions instead of words??? You're kidding? You can't compare him to Biden in that regard.
Trump pulling troops out of the Middle-East was him pulling troops out of Afghanistan. And look what happened. The Taliban just walked back in with practically zero resistance and now every woman in the country lost their rights. The decades long work of trying to stabilize that country, dead soldiers from so many countries who tried to bring stability and peace in the region. All lost in a few weeks because of his stupidity.
Trump also pulled US soldiers out of Syria, Iraq and Somalia.
Also as much as i love to blame stuff on Trump, Afghanistan failing was not his work alone, or even mainly his work. And Biden was happy to fully pull out of Afghanistan, instead of reversing Trump decision. But the USs proclaimed goal of stabilising and democratising Afghanistan was a sham from the very beginning under Bush. Heck even the "war on terror" angle was a lie, as all the US did was make insurgent groups stronger wherever they went.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/23/politics/how-four-presidents-created-afghanistan-mess/index.html
Alright then. Go vote for Trump if you hate Biden so much. Let's see where a second Trump presidency leads world peace and social progress. Because according to you, he's so much better at doing this job than Biden who, outside of the whole Gaza conflict, has been praised for his work on so many levels.
And here you fall victim to the problem i was talking about in the first place. The US politics are so entrenched, that each election you rather want to chose the party that will fuck you over less badly this time, but by this enable both parties to fuck you over every time.
I'm not an US citizen so my perspective of course is different, but how the fuck can the majority of the voters in the US be fine with the choice being between two geriatrics with visible mental decline and think "yep this is as good as it gets"? How can the voters of the democrats let the party elites get away with another Biden candidacy?
But like a badly managed company only thinks about the next quarter, the US seems to only think about just the next term and never further.
I understand your point. But that's absolutely not what we were talking about.
The arguments you made were basically in favor of Trump and voting for Trump over Biden because he wasn't involved in any conflicts and reduced American military presence in the Middle East. You even hinted at saying he wasn't a war monger and painted him like he's working towards world peace when his actions are actually going to create more problems for world peace and more suffering worldwide instead of actively trying to prevent them.
My point was that in these regards Trump is not worse than Biden. Voting either party in this system will only reinforce them.
Comparing a fascist wannabe dictator who incited an insurrection, used nepotism to put his family in high positions in one of the most powerful governments in the world, traded government and military secrets with foreign nations for money, defrauded practically everyone that's ever worked with him, and so so so much more, who turned a whole party into a bunch of near Nazi level christo-fascist fanatics with Joe fucking Biden is rich.
I'm done with you.
None of these are foregin policy issues and none of these affect people outside the US directly. Which is why it is hard for us to see one candidate as better or worse than the other. It will always end up being the same shit for us anyways.
But maybe ask yourself this: Why did the system produce these two candidates again? Why is this the "best" the US can offer? What did the average Democrat voter do, to get a better candidate than Joe Biden from the Dems? Probably nothing. And why? Not being interested enough? Or feeling powerless anyways, because it is rigged with superpacs and billionaire donors anyways? Or because you have to work a second job, because you need to feed your children and yourself?
I can only point out to you again, that the political and economical system that produced Trump is the same system that produced Biden and everyone who is invested in that system will try to make sure that you keep staying inside the box they want you to stay in.