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Middle East: Saudis Murder & Dismember Washington Post Contributor

its true look how much our soft power is working in syria, iraq, turkey, iran, russia, china and north korea. Now trump ruined it. Before Iran only screamed death to america and kidnapped navy soldiers and humiliated them and threatned to wipe isreal off the planet all the while funding terrorist wars by proxy. Now that trump wrecked our soft power they can really get down to fucking the US over.

I don't even know where to start. Soft power is the US's greatest tool to create coalitions, to pressure for social and humanitarian changes that bring about longterm political change, etc. China is a goddamn gold fucking plated monument to US soft power, for one example.

Soft power does not resolve small flashpoints, and it's not immediate. It's not for the impatient. It's something earned over a long period of time and applied over a long period of time. It's the #1 thing that Russia is insanely jealous of the US for having, and the #1 they have not earned and yet yearn so badly to have. And for us to just throw away something that has taken us 75 years to build slowly piece by piece is utterly suicidally insane.

It's also why we have professional, career diplomats who deeply understand the role they have serving the US in these areas. It's why they last from administration to administration, because this is an institutional process and knowledge that is utterly priceless. For the Trump administration to gut the senior staff of the State Department was unthinkable and grossly irresponsible.
 
I don't even know where to start. Soft power is the US's greatest tool to create coalitions, to pressure for social and humanitarian changes that bring about longterm political change, etc. China is a goddamn gold fucking plated monument to US soft power, for one example.

Soft power does not resolve small flashpoints, and it's not immediate. It's not for the impatient. It's something earned over a long period of time and applied over a long period of time. It's the #1 thing that Russia is insanely jealous of the US for having, and the #1 they have not earned and yet yearn so badly to have. And for us to just throw away something that has taken us 75 years to build slowly piece by piece is utterly suicidally insane.

It's also why we have professional, career diplomats who deeply understand the role they have serving the US in these areas. It's why they last from administration to administration, because this is an institutional process and knowledge that is utterly priceless. For the Trump administration to gut the senior staff of the State Department was unthinkable and grossly irresponsible.

this is a good post. I agree. that being said I do not think all this goes away over night.
 
this is a good post. I agree. that being said I do not think all this goes away over night.

It goes away much, much faster than you think. It's a precious, fragile resource that is extremely difficult to build and extremely easy to destroy. I don't think Trump can do it all by himself in 4 years simply because most of the world (at the moment) does not view Trump as representative of Americans (they largely think we'll just wake up and go OMG WTF ARE WE DOING?!?!? sooner than later) ... but if he's reelected? Or if he's replaced by someone else in the same vein? It's going to be extremely costly.

When you act like Russia, you get Russia's level of influence. The world is not a fucking forgiving place.
 
hmm very very persuasive huh? you know what I am going to pass and just ride with obamas foriegn policy was a fucking joke.

So it's not about soft power at all, it's just that you, again, blame everything on Obama.

Next time I see you advance any other argument than "it's Obama's fault" on a thread, I'll just seek immediate clarification that you actually just have a problem with the actions of the executive from 2008-2016 and before we move on you can just say yes or no to avoid wasting anyone's time.
 
It goes away much, much faster than you think. It's a precious, fragile resource that is extremely difficult to build and extremely easy to destroy. I don't think Trump can do it all by himself in 4 years simply because most of the world (at the moment) does not view Trump as representative of Americans (they largely think we'll just wake up and go OMG WTF ARE WE DOING?!?!? sooner than later) ... but if he's reelected? Or if he's replaced by someone else in the same vein? It's going to be extremely costly.

When you act like Russia, you get Russia's level of influence. The world is not a fucking forgiving place.

It goes away quietly as well. If other countries don't trust or don't like Trump, they won't necessarily tell him directly. The way he has embarrassed allies like Germany and Mexico so publicly while praising Putin puts the US in the worst position we've been in since invading Iraq. It may end up being worse.

Trump flat out lies to the press about what is said in meetings. This is not acceptable and very harmful to future negotiations.
 
Trump can't do anything against Iran. They are his partner in a Baku hotel/apartment project. Well, the money launderer for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is and used Iranian money to build it. Trump made millions from the IRG.
 
I hear he's secretly a brilliant diplomat, military strategist, and technocrat.
 
Why is he even there?

He was third runner-up in Trump Towers' Risk tournament. That qualifies him.

BTW, the two people who beat him were fired. So,he is now the winner.
 
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