Swordsmyth
Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2016
- Messages
- 74,737
A temporary situation he rectified.
It also was caused by the Pentagon refusing his orders to withdraw from places.
You know all of this already.
For the Love of God, Stop Saying Trump Was an Antiwar President
- Thread starter PAF
- Start date
It also was caused by the Pentagon refusing his orders to withdraw from places.
You know all of this already.
Swordsmyth
Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2016
- Messages
- 74,737
He's not a drop better and I have already posted the proof he is much worse, especially about the jab.
That dog won't hunt.
unknown
Member
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2011
- Messages
- 12,404
The Commander in Chief has the authority to bring all of the troops home.
Period.
He didnt, not even close.
Swordsmyth
Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2016
- Messages
- 74,737
That's a nice theory, too bad the Pentagon didn't agree and joined the rest of the bureaucracy in ignoring his orders, I'd bet they sent troops places without his permission too.
Congress didn't agree either and put it in the budget that he couldn't withdraw troops from S. Korea without permission from Congress and the Pentagon.
Had he pushed much harder than he did the RINOs would have explicitly banned removing more troops from more places and then impeached and removed him.
You just can't admit he was the best in living memory and that Ron himself would have had difficulty doing better or even as well.
unknown
Member
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2011
- Messages
- 12,404
Trump may be the worst President in history.
A political outsider who didn't do shit.
Well, he enacted more gun control and skyrocketed the debt.
And is still promoting and taking credit for the clot shot.
acptulsa
Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2008
- Messages
- 75,396
One of these days you'll become honest enough to put "proof" in quotation marks.
jmdrake
Member
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2007
- Messages
- 51,888
RFK Jr worse about the jab Trump helped create? Nope. I'd love to see your "evidence" but I'm preemptively calling BS on that one. RFK Jr. worse on envioronmentalism and guns I can believe. But on guns RFK is playing to the democratic base and Trump is playing to the demeoratic base light.
acptulsa
Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2008
- Messages
- 75,396
Of course. If you own Pfizer stock.
Now, see, 'Scusesmyth? That's how you use quotation marks properly.
jmdrake
Member
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2007
- Messages
- 51,888
Instead of looking at a picture with a misleaading headline, here's the actual article. Points that support [MENTION=34322]unknown[/MENTION] I'll underline. Points that support [MENTION=65299]Swordsmyth[/MENTION] I'll bold. My own commentary in italics. And here's why I call the headline misleading. They include NATO troops and up until the Russia / Ukraine war, NATO wasn't at war. The article also includes troops in Japan and South Koroea. I can't think of any moves by any president other than Trump to try to actually end the Korean conflict. Yeah...the attempt didn't work. But at least it was an attempt. I hope my analysis ticks everybody off. That way I know I'm doing it right.
Despite Vow to End ‘Endless Wars,’ Here’s Where About 200,000 Troops Remain
Under President Trump, there are now more troops in the Middle East than when he took office, and he has continued the mission for tens of thousands of others far from the wars of 9/11.
Give this article
American military personnel in Logar Province, Afghanistan, in 2018.
American military personnel in Logar Province, Afghanistan, in 2018.Credit...Omar Sobhani/Reuters
Thomas Gibbons-NeffEric Schmitt
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Eric Schmitt
Oct. 21, 2019
President Trump has repeatedly promised to end what he calls America’s “endless wars,” fulfilling a promise he made during the campaign.
No wars have ended, though, and more troops have deployed to the Middle East in recent months than have come home. Mr. Trump is not so much ending wars, as he is moving troops from one conflict to another.
This was written in 2019. Osama Bin Laden was finally declared "dead" under Obama and it was clear Afghanistan would never be stable. Really no reason not to just "declare victory and go home." Any pullout done in early spring in 2017, 2018 or 2019 would have been just as good as spring 2020. Biden screwed up the pullout by waiting until fall, giving the Taliban all summer to fight, but there's no reason Trump couldn't have done this years before.
Tens of thousands of American troops remain deployed all over the world, some in war zones such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and — even still — Syria. And the United States maintains even more troops overseas in large legacy missions far from the wars following the Sept. 11 attacks, in such allied lands as Germany, South Korea and Japan.
I agree in bringing home troops from non-conflict zones, but that's got nothing to do with stopping endless wars. And it's unclear from the article if the German, Japan and Korea troop levels represent an increase, decrease or the same.
Although deployment numbers fluctuate daily, based on the needs of commanders, shifting missions and the military’s ability to shift large numbers of personnel by transport planes and warships, a rough estimate is that 200,000 troops are deployed overseas today.
And what have the overseas troop deployment levels been historically? Can't tell from the article.
Afghanistan: 12,000 to 13,000 troops
At the height of the war, in 2010 and 2011, there were more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. When Mr. Trump took office, that number was hovering around 10,000. A new strategy, announced in August 2017, added thousands more.
Mr. Trump has long bemoaned the length of the 18-year conflict, with Pentagon officials worried that, at a moment’s notice, one tweet could end the mission.
Yep. That "one tweet" should have come in 2017. Osama Bin Laden is dead. He wasn't even in Afghanistan. Time to go home.
The current commander, Gen. Austin S. Miller, has slowly dropped troop numbers to between 12,000 and 13,000 over the past year.
American and Afghan officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the plan, said the eventual American force size could drop to 8,600 — roughly the initial reduction envisioned in a draft agreement with the Taliban before Mr. Trump halted peace talks last month. Rather than a formal withdrawal order, they are reducing the force through a gradual process of not replacing troops as they cycle out.
Why did Trump halt peace talks? SMH!
Syria: About 200
What started as 50 Special Operations soldiers in late 2015 ballooned to more than 2,000 in 2017 when American troops and Kurdish and Arabic local fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, were battling the Islamic State in Raqqa, its de facto capital.
In December 2018, before the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate collapsed, Mr. Trump issued his first of several orders to pull all American troops from the country. In turn, the Pentagon tried to shore up a plan to withdraw roughly 1,000 troops while keeping the rest spread out across the country’s northeastern corner.
No reason for the Pentagon to fight Trump on this.
In recent weeks, Mr. Trump ordered those remaining troops out, leaving a small detachment of around 200 in southern Syria — at a small outpost on the Jordanian border. Mr. Trump is also said to be in favor of leaving about 200 Special Operation forces in eastern Syria to help combat Islamic State guerrilla fighters and to block Syrian government forces and their Russian advisers from seizing several coveted oil fields in the east.
This is pure Trump. Leaving enough troops there to steal Syria's oil.
The other troops who left northern Syria in the past several days did not return to the United States, as Mr. Trump said they would. They are now based in western Iraq.
Left in a war zone.
Iraq: About 6,000
The war that began as Operation Iraqi Freedom and lasted from 2003 to 2011 peaked at about 150,000 troops. Only a small detachment remained when American troops left altogether in 2011. In 2014, the Islamic State poured over the Syria-Iraq border and routed the Iraqi Army from Mosul, once the country’s second-largest city, and pressed south to the outskirts of Baghdad, the capital, before being repelled.
With ISIS fighters closing on Erbil, President Barack Obama started his campaign against the terrorist group, which would come to be known as Operation Inherent Resolve. The small contingent of ground troops, helping hunt terrorist targets and advise the morale-stricken Iraqi Army, grew to around 5,000 in 2016.
That number has only increased, to roughly 6,000, as American troops move from northern Syria to western Iraq.
And the reason for that is...?
Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations: 45,000 to 65,000
In response to Iranian attacks and provocations since May, the Pentagon has deployed about 14,000 additional troops to the Persian Gulf region, including roughly 3,500 to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. Those forces include airborne early warning aircraft, maritime patrol planes, Patriot air and missile defense batteries, B-52 bombers, a carrier strike group, armed Reaper drones and other engineering and support personnel.
As Ron Paul pointed out "They don't want us on the Arabian peninsula." Even under Bush the troops were pulled out of Saudi Arabia.
But, at any given time, between 45,000 and 65,000 American troops are in the region, spread out between Jordan and Oman, assigned to operate airfields, run key headquarters, sail warships and fly warplanes, and stage for deployments to places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The numbers change substantially depending on the presence of an aircraft carrier strike group or two in the region, and whether a large group of Marines is afloat in those waters.
Africa: 6,000 to 7,000
There are between 6,000 and 7,000 American troops spread across Africa, with the largest numbers concentrated in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. In Somalia, there are about 500 Special Operations troops, fighting the Qaeda-linked terrorist group, the Shabab, from small outposts alongside local troops.
In the Sahel, in countries like Niger, Chad and Mali, there are several hundred. The Air Force recently built a large drone base, known as Air Base 201, near the city of Agadez, Niger. Last year, Jim Mattis, the defense secretary at the time, ordered the military command that oversees troops on the continent, known as Africom, to shrink its forces by several hundred Special Operations troops as part of the Pentagon’s strategy to focus more on threats from Russian and China around the world.
Africom was Obama's betrayal of his home continent. But at least under Trump that started to shrink.
The current commander of Africom, Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, is completing a sweeping review that will probably mean the reduction of more troops.
Japan and South Korea: About 78,000
Since the end of World War II and the Korean War, the United States has maintained a large military presence in Asia. More than 28,000 United States troops are stationed in South Korea, many living with their families. The United States and South Korea have suspended major training exercises over the past year as a concession to North Korea, but the two militaries continue to carry out smaller drills.
So according to this article, the U.S. under Trump tried to NOT provoke South Korea and yet its blaming Trump for troops that have been there since the 1950s? Sorry but this entore 78,000 troop number needs to be subtracted from the 200,000 total. These are not war zone troops.
In Japan, the Pentagon maintains about 50,000 troops at roughly two dozen bases across the country. About 25,000 of those troops are stationed on Okinawa. Violence committed by American service members or related personnel on the island has long caused friction between Washington and Tokyo.
NATO nations: More than 35,000
The Cold War put as many as 300,000 American troops across Europe to defend against the Soviet Union. That presence eventually plummeted to about 30,000 soldiers after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
A colossal waste of money, but not war zone troops. So 200,000 - 78,000 - 35,000 = 87,000 war zone troops. Way too many, but less than half of what's claimed by thee article.
Under President Trump, there are now more troops in the Middle East than when he took office, and he has continued the mission for tens of thousands of others far from the wars of 9/11.
Give this article
American military personnel in Logar Province, Afghanistan, in 2018.
American military personnel in Logar Province, Afghanistan, in 2018.Credit...Omar Sobhani/Reuters
Thomas Gibbons-NeffEric Schmitt
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Eric Schmitt
Oct. 21, 2019
President Trump has repeatedly promised to end what he calls America’s “endless wars,” fulfilling a promise he made during the campaign.
No wars have ended, though, and more troops have deployed to the Middle East in recent months than have come home. Mr. Trump is not so much ending wars, as he is moving troops from one conflict to another.
This was written in 2019. Osama Bin Laden was finally declared "dead" under Obama and it was clear Afghanistan would never be stable. Really no reason not to just "declare victory and go home." Any pullout done in early spring in 2017, 2018 or 2019 would have been just as good as spring 2020. Biden screwed up the pullout by waiting until fall, giving the Taliban all summer to fight, but there's no reason Trump couldn't have done this years before.
Tens of thousands of American troops remain deployed all over the world, some in war zones such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and — even still — Syria. And the United States maintains even more troops overseas in large legacy missions far from the wars following the Sept. 11 attacks, in such allied lands as Germany, South Korea and Japan.
I agree in bringing home troops from non-conflict zones, but that's got nothing to do with stopping endless wars. And it's unclear from the article if the German, Japan and Korea troop levels represent an increase, decrease or the same.
Although deployment numbers fluctuate daily, based on the needs of commanders, shifting missions and the military’s ability to shift large numbers of personnel by transport planes and warships, a rough estimate is that 200,000 troops are deployed overseas today.
And what have the overseas troop deployment levels been historically? Can't tell from the article.
Afghanistan: 12,000 to 13,000 troops
At the height of the war, in 2010 and 2011, there were more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. When Mr. Trump took office, that number was hovering around 10,000. A new strategy, announced in August 2017, added thousands more.
Mr. Trump has long bemoaned the length of the 18-year conflict, with Pentagon officials worried that, at a moment’s notice, one tweet could end the mission.
Yep. That "one tweet" should have come in 2017. Osama Bin Laden is dead. He wasn't even in Afghanistan. Time to go home.
The current commander, Gen. Austin S. Miller, has slowly dropped troop numbers to between 12,000 and 13,000 over the past year.
American and Afghan officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the plan, said the eventual American force size could drop to 8,600 — roughly the initial reduction envisioned in a draft agreement with the Taliban before Mr. Trump halted peace talks last month. Rather than a formal withdrawal order, they are reducing the force through a gradual process of not replacing troops as they cycle out.
Why did Trump halt peace talks? SMH!
Syria: About 200
What started as 50 Special Operations soldiers in late 2015 ballooned to more than 2,000 in 2017 when American troops and Kurdish and Arabic local fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, were battling the Islamic State in Raqqa, its de facto capital.
In December 2018, before the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate collapsed, Mr. Trump issued his first of several orders to pull all American troops from the country. In turn, the Pentagon tried to shore up a plan to withdraw roughly 1,000 troops while keeping the rest spread out across the country’s northeastern corner.
No reason for the Pentagon to fight Trump on this.
In recent weeks, Mr. Trump ordered those remaining troops out, leaving a small detachment of around 200 in southern Syria — at a small outpost on the Jordanian border. Mr. Trump is also said to be in favor of leaving about 200 Special Operation forces in eastern Syria to help combat Islamic State guerrilla fighters and to block Syrian government forces and their Russian advisers from seizing several coveted oil fields in the east.
This is pure Trump. Leaving enough troops there to steal Syria's oil.
The other troops who left northern Syria in the past several days did not return to the United States, as Mr. Trump said they would. They are now based in western Iraq.
Left in a war zone.
Iraq: About 6,000
The war that began as Operation Iraqi Freedom and lasted from 2003 to 2011 peaked at about 150,000 troops. Only a small detachment remained when American troops left altogether in 2011. In 2014, the Islamic State poured over the Syria-Iraq border and routed the Iraqi Army from Mosul, once the country’s second-largest city, and pressed south to the outskirts of Baghdad, the capital, before being repelled.
With ISIS fighters closing on Erbil, President Barack Obama started his campaign against the terrorist group, which would come to be known as Operation Inherent Resolve. The small contingent of ground troops, helping hunt terrorist targets and advise the morale-stricken Iraqi Army, grew to around 5,000 in 2016.
That number has only increased, to roughly 6,000, as American troops move from northern Syria to western Iraq.
And the reason for that is...?
Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations: 45,000 to 65,000
In response to Iranian attacks and provocations since May, the Pentagon has deployed about 14,000 additional troops to the Persian Gulf region, including roughly 3,500 to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. Those forces include airborne early warning aircraft, maritime patrol planes, Patriot air and missile defense batteries, B-52 bombers, a carrier strike group, armed Reaper drones and other engineering and support personnel.
As Ron Paul pointed out "They don't want us on the Arabian peninsula." Even under Bush the troops were pulled out of Saudi Arabia.
But, at any given time, between 45,000 and 65,000 American troops are in the region, spread out between Jordan and Oman, assigned to operate airfields, run key headquarters, sail warships and fly warplanes, and stage for deployments to places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The numbers change substantially depending on the presence of an aircraft carrier strike group or two in the region, and whether a large group of Marines is afloat in those waters.
Africa: 6,000 to 7,000
There are between 6,000 and 7,000 American troops spread across Africa, with the largest numbers concentrated in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. In Somalia, there are about 500 Special Operations troops, fighting the Qaeda-linked terrorist group, the Shabab, from small outposts alongside local troops.
In the Sahel, in countries like Niger, Chad and Mali, there are several hundred. The Air Force recently built a large drone base, known as Air Base 201, near the city of Agadez, Niger. Last year, Jim Mattis, the defense secretary at the time, ordered the military command that oversees troops on the continent, known as Africom, to shrink its forces by several hundred Special Operations troops as part of the Pentagon’s strategy to focus more on threats from Russian and China around the world.
Africom was Obama's betrayal of his home continent. But at least under Trump that started to shrink.
The current commander of Africom, Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, is completing a sweeping review that will probably mean the reduction of more troops.
Japan and South Korea: About 78,000
Since the end of World War II and the Korean War, the United States has maintained a large military presence in Asia. More than 28,000 United States troops are stationed in South Korea, many living with their families. The United States and South Korea have suspended major training exercises over the past year as a concession to North Korea, but the two militaries continue to carry out smaller drills.
So according to this article, the U.S. under Trump tried to NOT provoke South Korea and yet its blaming Trump for troops that have been there since the 1950s? Sorry but this entore 78,000 troop number needs to be subtracted from the 200,000 total. These are not war zone troops.
In Japan, the Pentagon maintains about 50,000 troops at roughly two dozen bases across the country. About 25,000 of those troops are stationed on Okinawa. Violence committed by American service members or related personnel on the island has long caused friction between Washington and Tokyo.
NATO nations: More than 35,000
The Cold War put as many as 300,000 American troops across Europe to defend against the Soviet Union. That presence eventually plummeted to about 30,000 soldiers after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
A colossal waste of money, but not war zone troops. So 200,000 - 78,000 - 35,000 = 87,000 war zone troops. Way too many, but less than half of what's claimed by thee article.
I'm sure this won't change anybody's mind about anything. Sometimes I analyze things for my own edification.
Last edited:
Swordsmyth
Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2016
- Messages
- 74,737
LOL
That's ridiculous.
His one piece of gun control was trivial and meant to take the wind out of the sails of the left after the mass shooting, it's far overshadowed by the SCOTUS rulings he gave us that are ending gun controls right and left.
Congress skyrocketed the debt and proved they were willing to override any vetoes.
He was lied to about the shot and he has been slow to admit to being wrong, but that's trivial, the important part is that he opposed mandates.
Not to mention the long list of good things he did that you ignore.
Swordsmyth
Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2016
- Messages
- 74,737
How about pushing lockdowns, endorsing shot mandaters, and mandating the shot for people who visited his house?
See below:
LOL
RFK Jr. is no Ron Paul, not even close.
He's a Demoncrat that holds VERY anti-liberty positions.
More at: https://rfkexposed.com/
https://twitter.com/goddeketal/status/1645929281074126848
Robert F. Kennedy not only opposed 'Learn the Risk', a vaccine-skeptical NGO, but also hypocritically backed strict lockdowns while advocating for jailing climate change skeptics. This raises questions about his integrity, as he appears mainly focused on enforcing his beliefs.
Important thread on RFK Jr.:
https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1652134220339314688
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1652134220339314688.html
Working Poor
Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2008
- Messages
- 10,985
I would like to encourage everyone to listen to at least some of the before he started running for president interviews, speeches and, episodes of his tv show "the apprentice". I was amazed at a lot off the things he said when I watched several videos of him before running for president. every interviewer asked him if he was going to run for president. He always said he did not want to.
I think Trump may have wanted to be a high level military man when he was a young man. He did go to military school after all and would have entered the military as an officer and could have worked his way up. We know that he a least wanted to understand military tactics and to learn disciplined. It is said that he made up that he had bone spurs so he could not go into the military idk. I wanted to go into the military but was rejected because my arches are too high I was accepted in the air force or navy medical program prior to my physical. I am sure more people get rejected for foot irregularities than any other thing.
Trump was close friends with Nixon, and JFKjr. His uncle John Trump was an electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist and professor at MIT. John took charge of the Tesla papers when he died. I think it is very possible that Trump owns a patent or two. I think Trump understood that he would be the enemy of the ones in "control" if he became president I think he knew/knows they are very dangerous beings.
Trump likes women and bought a few whores. imo LOL you are either a whore or a bitch. So anyway I don't know how much I believe or care about Trump's or anyone elses sexual escapades
His connections are interesting he talks like he doesn't want war. When asked about the war in Ukraine he said he wanted people to stop dying. So I guess he is a war monger.
I think Trump may have wanted to be a high level military man when he was a young man. He did go to military school after all and would have entered the military as an officer and could have worked his way up. We know that he a least wanted to understand military tactics and to learn disciplined. It is said that he made up that he had bone spurs so he could not go into the military idk. I wanted to go into the military but was rejected because my arches are too high I was accepted in the air force or navy medical program prior to my physical. I am sure more people get rejected for foot irregularities than any other thing.
Trump was close friends with Nixon, and JFKjr. His uncle John Trump was an electrical engineer, inventor, and physicist and professor at MIT. John took charge of the Tesla papers when he died. I think it is very possible that Trump owns a patent or two. I think Trump understood that he would be the enemy of the ones in "control" if he became president I think he knew/knows they are very dangerous beings.
Trump likes women and bought a few whores. imo LOL you are either a whore or a bitch. So anyway I don't know how much I believe or care about Trump's or anyone elses sexual escapades
His connections are interesting he talks like he doesn't want war. When asked about the war in Ukraine he said he wanted people to stop dying. So I guess he is a war monger.
acptulsa
Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2008
- Messages
- 75,396
Right and left. Right and left. Is that all you can say? How can one new effort by Biden getting struck down be both to my right and to my left? It wasn't that big.
Ah, yes. The Trump should be reinstated because he's just a chuckle-headed sucker pitch again.
It may inspire you to know an idiot can aspire to the presidency, but some of us find this Idiocracy to be galling.
acptulsa
Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2008
- Messages
- 75,396
Last edited:
unknown
Member
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2011
- Messages
- 12,404
Who actually said Trump was antiwar?
We didn't start any new wars under Trump but that's essentially it.
The global empire expanded or stayed the same, he increased the Pentagon's budget and bragged about stealing Syrias oil, lol.
As much of a fuck up as it was, Biden actually got us out of Afghanistan, well, "officially".
We didn't start any new wars under Trump but that's essentially it.
The global empire expanded or stayed the same, he increased the Pentagon's budget and bragged about stealing Syrias oil, lol.
As much of a fuck up as it was, Biden actually got us out of Afghanistan, well, "officially".
jmdrake
Member
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2007
- Messages
- 51,888
I see. More made up lies by you. You took an old video where RFK said he supported policies that encouraged (not mandated) all Americans to get vaccinated and applied that to him mandating the experimental "Operation Warp Speed" vaccine that Donald Trump is still proud of. That simply should RFK Jr. is reasonable and you're not. There are some vaccines, that are actually vaccines and not experimental gene thearpy like Trump's Opearation Warp Speed Poison, that are good to take. The Smallpox vaccine for example has a 95% success rate in preventing sommeone from catching smallpox (and thus transmitting). Because of that, ring vaccination, where only those who are known to have been in contact with an infected person are vaccinated, is an effective strategy for smallpox erradication. Pfizzer was forced that its vaccine wasn't even tested for that. Nigeria was able to stop a smalllpox outbreak by using ring vaccination.
Now as to RFK Jr. castigating those who "denied the dire warnings of the pandemic" that would include Dr. Fauci and Donald Trump. In February of 2020, Dr. Fauci was publicly saying COVID would be no worse than the flu (and yet less than a month later Fauci was saying COVID would be 10 times worse than the flu). Trump was saying the same thing. Later Trump told Bob Woodward that he "played down" the pandemic because he didn't want people to "panic." But nowhere in your diatribe do you have a single quote where RFK Jr. endorsed lockdowns. Some countries stopped the virus in its tracks without locking down. Taiwan, South Korea and Japan for example. Intelligence from Taiwan was shared with the Trump administration prior to known outbreaks in the U.S. regarding what was going on in China. But Dr. Fauci downplayed everything publicly because he knew his gain of function research, something Obama put the brakes on but was accelerated again under Trump, was the likely culprit. So what could have been done besides lockdowns? Well sufficient testing for one. Using a pool testing strategy employed by some African countries, every person coming back from overseas could have been tested. The good thing about pool testing is that it alsoo protects privacy. Since all of the samples are put in the same pool, it can't be used for Chinese DNA collection. In summer of 2020 when I was still Uber driving and coming home every weekend to check on my elderly parents I desparately wanted a COVID test and couldn't get one. The lack of test kits for a virus that they had advance warning was coming to the U.S. is a failure on the part of Fauci/Trump. A test has been made available in January 2020, but the Fauci/Trump administration declined to use it. This epic failure is so bad that the article needs to be looked at:
On Saturday Jan. 11 — a month and a half before the first Covid-19 case not linked to travel was diagnosed in the United States — Chinese scientists posted the genome of the mysterious new virus, and within a week virologists in Berlin had produced the first diagnostic test for the disease.
Soon after, researchers in other nations rolled out their own tests, too, sometimes with different genetic targets. By the end of February, the World Health Organization had shipped tests to nearly 60 countries.
The United States was not among them.
Why the United States declined to use the WHO test, even temporarily as a bridge until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could produce its own test, remains a perplexing question and the key to the Trump administration’s failure to provide enough tests to identify the coronavirus infections before they could be passed on, according to POLITICO interviews with dozens of viral-disease experts, former officials and some officials within the administration’s health agencies.
The slowness of the testing regimen — which, administration officials acknowledged this week, is still not producing enough tests to meet the national demand — was the first, and most sweeping, of many failures. So far there have been confirmed cases in at least 23 states, and at least 15 deaths, while the stock market plunged and an otherwise healthy economy braced for a major disruption.
But neither the CDC nor the coronavirus task force chaired by Vice President Mike Pence would say who made the decision to forgo the WHO test and instead begin a protracted process of producing an American test, one that got delayed by manufacturing problems, possible lab contamination and logistical delays.
“Please provide an explanation for why the Covid-19 diagnostic test approved by the World Health Organization was not used,” Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Senate health committee, who represents the hard-hit state of Washington, asked in a 3½-page letter on the testing fiasco to Pence, Health Secretary Alex Azar, CDC director Robert Redfield, and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn.
So far, none has been provided.
So yeah. Fauci/Trump screwed up. I keep saying "Fauci/Trump" because, after lying to Jake Tapper and saying there was "push back" to taking more active measures, Fauci admitted that Trump did everything Fauci asked him to do. That means that if Fauci had said "Let's use the Berlin test kits", Trump would have used the Berlin test kits. When Fauci said "Let's lock down for 14 days to stop the spread", Trump agreed the lockdown would be official U.S. policy. When Fauci said "extend the lockdown", Trump agreed. The first sign Trump gave of any deviation from Fauci was when he declared prayer to be essential and that allowed churches to reopen. Fauci had already endorsed liquor stores being open as well as hooking up with strangers on Tinder as long as your "willing to take that risk" (and use a condom and a face diaper?). This is the same person that warned against having people who weren't "immediate family members" over for Thanksgiving. Anyway, beyond that small deviation, Trump was lock step with Fauci.
Finally you're trying to use past endorsements by RFK Jr. of Hillary Clinton and others who supported vaccine mandates as proof Fauci supported vaccine mandates? Have you forgotten that Trump endorsed Hillary and donated to her?
Anyway, THAT is how you actually give evidence for a position. Not the bullshyt shotgun approach of posting a bunch of misleading facts that don't actually support your claim. Recap, old clips of RFK Jr. saying he supported vaccines in general (not Trump's mRNA Operation Warp Speed garbage), and policies that encourage as opposed to mandate Americans take proven (not experimental) vaccines do not show RFK Jr. supported OWS vaccine mandates. And RFK Jr rightfully criticizing Fauci/Trump downplaying the virus when they knew it was worse than what they were saying and they did not take reasonable steps to stop the spread like using already available test kits from Berlin does not mean an endorsement of Fauci/Trump's ineffective lockdown strategy. I don't expect you to agree. You are the person who makes excuses from Trump on such inexecusible acts as endorsing red flag laws and doing bumpfire stock bans so I don't expect you to be reasonable on Trump horrible legacy of Operation Warp Speed, draconian lockdowns, downplaying a virus to prevent a "panic", and not using aleady available test kits. But the exercise is useful for when I have further discussions with reasonable people.
Last edited:
acptulsa
Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2008
- Messages
- 75,396
Republicans should ditch the elephant and use the Pushmi-Pullyu. It has two faces, to better spew the hypocrisy.
I'm sure Trump's proud to be just as much of a sacred cow to them as Israel.
Last edited:
