Author Topic: The Joe Biden Thread  (Read 42374 times)

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Offline Montgomery

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Re: The Joe Biden Thread
« Reply #300 on: October 27, 2020, 03:42:19 pm »
As a Canadian, I'd have to say Trump is a pretty bad choice.

His trade wars are harming countries (like Canada) that are supposed to be allies. (They are also harming the U.S. too...) His cutbacks in various forms of 'soft power' increases the possibility of future conflicts. His cutbacks on programs that deal with disease prevention mean an increased chance of future pandemics. And his attempts to withdraw troops from parts of the middle east lead to a flareup that displaced thousands of people (not exactly a canada-specific problem but still one that should be of concern.)

The U.S. is no longer a trustworthy ally, and countries can expect that even if they come to some agreement with the U.S., it might not be honored.
Well, Russia and China do benefit from having Trump around. Trump is Putin's puppet, and  his general screw-ups have left a power vacuum that China and Russia are very eager to fill.

However, what benefits China and/or Russia does not necessarily benefit Canada (or the U.S. for that matter).Ummm... so?

First of all, wars are not the only thing that can be a problem for the world. Widespread famine, diseases, abusive dictatorships, environmental problems, etc. can often cause just as much death as your average war. And lets face it, Trump's record on these is not exactly favorable.

Secondly, the fact that Trump has not engaged in any armed conflict does not make him any better at Biden. After all, he Obama/Biden administration was not particularly militaristic, and I doubt that Biden would suddenly decide to start dropping bombs on random countries. (I could also point out that while Trump hasn't started any wars, under his administration Drone strikes have increased, and oversight has decreased compared to the Obama administration.... not a good combination in my opinion.)

The fact that there hasn't been a war break out in the past 4 years probably has more to do with luck than anything.
 
I would also be curious what you consider a "war of aggression". Something like Gulf War 2 could certainly be classified as such... But what about Afghanistan? (I'm sure most people would consider it justified given that the U.S. was attacked from people operating from there.) How about Libya? (The U.S. did engage in bombing there, but the U.S. were certainly not the instigators.) Or are you assuming that any war the U.S. fights in is automatically a "war of aggression", regardless of the underlying context?
Russia may not be a threat in the way of "Large scale invasion/occupation". But that does not mean that they are not a problem....

They certainly have used their military against neighboring countries.... Afghanistan (back when i was the USSR), Ukraine, etc. And even if they are not a military threat, they certainly have disrupted other countries in other ways.... such as interfering in various elections (most famously the U.S. 2016/2020 elections, but also possibly the 2017 french election, the 2014 Ukraine election, and possibly Brexit)

Russia should not be considered an ally, nor a country that should be trusted.While I don't think China would have any interest in a large-scale war against the U.S., they may decide to flex their muscles and act against Taiwan, or expand their sphere of influence in south east asia. And they have had their recent skirmishes with India. They have used a lot of resources to build their own stealth jets (with data that had been stolen from the F35 program, part of which Canada funded.)

I very intelligent and thoughful post which deserves my full attention when I have the time......
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said. ~M.T.