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Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership [W:251]

Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Montecresto said:
Let the DOD planners, the guys that retire to defense contractor jobs tell it, and we should have kept a residual force in Iraq indefinitely, lol. :roll:
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As I said above, that makes them fools. It was never going to happen. Even Bush resigned himself to a withdrawal date.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Moot said:
Sorry but I'm not going to read a pdf that I have to save to my hard drive from a source I'm not familiar with.



lauren.vortex.com on reddit.com


You should be careful, too.
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lol yes the fascists are coming to get me in the pdf. :roll:
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Boo Radley said:
That makes them fools. It was never going to happen. It required more than residual troops; the place required significant numbers of troops, which will never happen with a democracy.
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Really? How is it, then, that the U.S. still has such a large, powerful force in South Korea more than sixty years after the Korean War sputtered out? It has been reduced somewhat, but for decades it consisted of more than 35,000 troops, backed by a lot of armor, artillery, and air power. That seems like a "significant number of troops" to me--roughly twice as large a force as the one military planners suggested for Iraq.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Boo Radley said:
As I said above, that makes them fools. It was never going to happen. Even Bush resigned himself to a withdrawal date.
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Yeah I know that. I'm just making the point how rational it is for DOD planers, the same guys that retire from the Pentagon to cushy defense industry jobs, to want to leave indefinite military presences all over the world if possible, and the more war the merrier. Just because it's been repeated ad nauseam doesn't diminish Eisenhower's very articulate warning about the defense contractor industry.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

iliveonramen said:
They don't
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And do you think it's OK that the Senate has not even been allowed to read let alone ratify the most important treaty of the Obama administration?
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Boo Radley said:
That makes them fools. It was never going to happen. It required more than residual troops; the place required significant numbers of troops, which will never happen with a democracy.
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They envisioned at least 20,000 troops remaining because that was the responsible thing to do.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

face said:
And do you think it's OK that the Senate has not even been allowed to read let alone ratify the most important treaty of the Obama administration?
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Well...seeing as to how an agreement hasn't been reached yet there's nothing to currently vote on. As for once an agreement is reached, it's within the law of executive agreements. I'm not really worried about the Congress because they haven't been able to do virtually anything.

They couldn't pass the international version of the Disabilities Act through the House, even when Bob Dole in his wheel chair gave a plea to members to support this bill. If an agreement is reached with Iran that has the potential to stop them from working on nuclear weapons without the use of force? Normally would like Congressional approval but I'm not sure this Congress could pass anything at the moment.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Jack Hays said:
They envisioned at least 20,000 troops remaining because that was the responsible thing to do.
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And the military and Bush administration wanted 40-50,000 to remain so that troops would remain as secure as possible. Obama must have understood that fewer troops mean they face greater risks.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Montecresto said:
Yeah I know that. I'm just making the point how rational it is for DOD planers, the same guys that retire from the Pentagon to cushy defense industry jobs, to want to leave indefinite military presences all over the world if possible, and the more war the merrier. Just because it's been repeated ad nauseam doesn't diminish Eisenhower's very articulate warning about the defense contractor industry.
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When you have some evidence to raise your remark above the level of casual slander please let me know.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Jack Hays said:
When you have some evidence to raise your remark above the level of casual slander please let me know.
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Are you a former DOD employee?
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Montecresto said:
Are you a former DOD employee?
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No, but many DoD civilians and many military personnel, both officers and enlisted, have been my friends and colleagues over the years. Their level of selflessness is apparently unknown to you.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Jack Hays said:
No, but many DoD civilians and many military personnel, both officers and enlisted, have been my friends and colleagues over the years. Their level of selflessness is apparently unknown to you.
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True, your friends are probably unknown to me. But human nature is selfish. And unless your denying that DOD personnel often retire to lucrative jobs with defense contractors, why are you offended?
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Montecresto said:
True, your friends are probably unknown to me. But human nature is selfish. And unless your denying that DOD personnel often retire to lucrative jobs with defense contractors, why are you offended?
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A few (not very many, actually) move on to the defense industry, but your implication that their work while on active duty is motivated by downstream profits is reprehensible.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Jack Hays said:
Of course some go to defense industry; they have the expertise. But two points are important. The numbers are small and there is no hint that active duty decisions were colored by retirement ambitions. Truth in advertising: I spent 18 months with Raytheon after I retired from the USG.
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Thanks for the disclosure, I kinda figured that. Now open the link and see what a problem this is that you seek to trivialize and diminish.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Montecresto said:
Thanks for the disclosure, I kinda figured that. Now open the link and see what a problem this is that you seek to trivialize and diminish.
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I had already read it. It is indeed a trivial problem.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

iliveonramen said:
Nobody in this thread has any idea what is in the agreement yet want to undermine and attack it because....well Obama.
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Irrelevant because Obama is arrogantly going against what Congress wants. They will pass a bill and veto whatever agreement he and Iran come to.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Jack Hays said:
I had already read it. It is indeed a trivial problem.
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Horse ****. No, and no.

An overwhelming majority of the employees seeking opinions—84 percent—had at least one specific company or organization in mind, and defense companies dominated the list of prospective employers.

Last year, CREW released Strategic Maneuvers, a report revealing the extent to which retired high-ranking generals and admirals cash in on their years of military experience by taking lucrative jobs with the defense industry. CREW found that at least nine of the top-level generals and admirals who retired between 2009 and 2011 took positions with the five largest defense companies contracting with the government: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Montecresto said:
Horse ****. No, and no.

An overwhelming majority of the employees seeking opinions—84 percent—had at least one specific company or organization in mind, and defense companies dominated the list of prospective employers.

Last year, CREW released Strategic Maneuvers, a report revealing the extent to which retired high-ranking generals and admirals cash in on their years of military experience by taking lucrative jobs with the defense industry. CREW found that at least nine of the top-level generals and admirals who retired between 2009 and 2011 took positions with the five largest defense companies contracting with the government: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman.
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Of course they did, as they should. With very few exceptions, their value to the companies is in their understanding of the customer culture, and nothing more. There's nothing nefarious going on.
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Jack Hays said:
Of course they did, as they should. With very few exceptions, their value to the companies is in their understanding of the customer culture, and nothing more. There's nothing nefarious going on.
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No, not at all. That's why congress created an ethics board to council retiring DOD employees about it. Really, you should read the link, remember what it says, and then comment, in that order!
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

iliveonramen said:
They don't
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and it's absolutely ok with you that a co-equal branch of govt is is keeping another co-coequal branch of govt in the dark?

I'm going to guess the answer is yes...
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

Bodhisattva said:
Irrelevant because Obama is arrogantly going against what Congress wants. They will pass a bill and veto whatever agreement he and Iran come to.
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We'll see...what if an agreement is reached that is widely supported...they will try to stop the agreement just because? Go back to sanctions and possible military strikes?
 
Re: Obama Blasts Republicans Over Letter to Iranian Leadership

mac said:
and it's absolutely ok with you that a co-equal branch of govt is is keeping another co-coequal branch of govt in the dark?

I'm going to guess the answer is yes...
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The branches of government aren't co-equal in all realms.
 
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