[TheRealThing]

Eh, that history isn't exactly accurate, though for purposes of your position, it would be convenient if it was.

You always find a way to run the discussion into a liberal rat hole. About a year ago I called out an obvious threat to American sea power in the Persian Gulf. Under the Obama doctrine, we always tuck our nuclear fleet's tails, and defer to thug nations such as Iran who are our sworn enemies, replete with death to America day. The Middle East was a relatively stable place as W left office. We had already invested the money for the military infrastructure necessary to support our presence there in the form of bases, (air and naval) as well as the equipment we ultimately just abandoned and ISIS commandeered, and well established logistical lines of support. Now, I know there in La-La Land liberals spread tablecloths on idyllic pastures of perfectly cut grass upon which unicorns play under fluffy clouds and rainbows. I got that. But in the real world an able and highly trained military pays high dividends in real terms in our interactions among the nations.

We really needed to maintain those bases and train our military personnel over there in the Middle East. But as I said, we abdicated the throne to Russia, and in so doing, lost the very theater in which we had just won so many stunning victories. We walked away from something a few years ago that today, no amount of money could ever re-buy. A viable military presence in the region that served to provide the world stability and the place to safely train our troops and maintain a much needed presence, and flushed Trillions of dollars in US Treasure and investment is so doing. Then liberals have the cheek to gripe about the debt and say they had to find a way to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They (Obama and the chipmunks) snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory. And if I might add, though there was always a danger posed by IED's, if our hands were not perpetually tied behind our backs through ridiculous terms of engagement constraints, our actual casualty rates would have been acceptably low. But no, Obama had said they were coming home and if it meant destabilizing the entire Middle East and making the world's most formidable military look like bozos, then that's the way the cookie crumbles. They came home and the region once at peace is now ablaze.

The same thing only more ambitious in scope, is happening in the South China Sea. Obama handed Iraq back to a very tenuous 'state', and as a consequence it lapsed into chaos and morphed into a quasi Caliphate under his watch. Russia is moving to regain some of it's losses due to the collapse of the USSR, and China is building a military force that already poses a significant threat to the US (a US which is determined to downsize her military and nuclear deterrent below joke status BTW) should they be so inclined. Such is the legacy of the supremely naïve and we may be about to compound the lunacy by handing the title of commanderette-in-chief to an old woman who wants to give full blown socialism a go, and thinks 'it's just time' for a girl to be president. :igiveup: