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US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7150

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Read the rules in the OP before posting, please.

In order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a re-read to refresh your memory! The vast majority of you are contributing in a healthy way, keep it up!

NOTE: When providing a source, explain why you feel it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion if it's not obvious.
Also take note that unsubstantiated tweets/posts meant only to rekindle old arguments can result in a mod action.
LegalLord
Profile Blog Joined April 2013
United Kingdom13775 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-03-19 19:37:48
March 19 2017 19:37 GMT
#142981
Free movement with respect to refugees... well I hardly agree that it's irrelevant, though certainly the free movement issue has more to it than that. Though it's far from the point and perhaps worth relegating to the other thread.

But again, how is the US responsible for the decision made by the EU to take refugees? If we made them, why is it that you think it's our fault that you took them?
History will sooner or later sweep the European Union away without mercy.
Gorsameth
Profile Joined April 2010
Netherlands21707 Posts
March 19 2017 19:40 GMT
#142982
On March 20 2017 04:37 LegalLord wrote:
Free movement with respect to refugees... well I hardly agree that it's irrelevant, though certainly the free movement issue has more to it than that. Though it's far from the point and perhaps worth relegating to the other thread.

But again, how is the US responsible for the decision made by the EU to take refugees? If we made them, why is it that you think it's our fault that you took them?

I'm fine with taking the 10's of millions of refugees and shipping them off to the US, sure, lets go do that.
It ignores such insignificant forces as time, entropy, and death
opisska
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Poland8852 Posts
March 19 2017 19:41 GMT
#142983
On March 20 2017 04:29 LegalLord wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 04:22 opisska wrote:
On March 20 2017 04:13 LegalLord wrote:
On March 20 2017 04:08 m4ini wrote:
On March 20 2017 02:17 Danglars wrote:
On March 20 2017 01:46 a_flayer wrote:
On March 20 2017 01:06 Artisreal wrote:
nobody denies that trump can't stand neither truth nor even appearing to be failing.


I know of at least one person who would deny such a claim.

It's funny though, all this complaining about NATO/defense spending. As if the US would spend less on its military if all European nations paid 2% of their economic output into NATO.

Do you at least register how insulting it is to spend so much on defense and our military alliances can't even meet a 2% target? Because I'm not on board with much of Trump's rhetoric on NATO, but I do know something has to change over there. We provide three quarters of funding, and only four countries at last check hit 2%, all the while the European nations included total more population and GDP than us? Hardly. And anyone not sufficiently partisan should know it.

Speaking of which, people who's minds are not made up may read more here.


So does that mean the US picks up the tab for the costs of refugees that are coming to europe rather than the US from a region that you're (sometimes fully, sometimes partially) responsible for making a hellhole?

.. no?

Well. Feels a bit hypocritical to me personally to go ahead criticising not enough spending on military while not taking into account that certain european countries pick up the tab for the US in regards to the aftermaths of what you guys constantly started in the last decade.

I generally agree with the idea that the US is being hypocritical here on the money matter. My post above generally makes that case.

But as for your specific example, can you really say that the US is responsible for the way the refugee crisis went? Sure, American FP ventures have a lot to do with why refugees were created to begin with. But who actually made the decision to take them?


I guess the US thread is a safer place so state that "someone made the decision to take refugees" than the EU one, because the Americans are less likely to see through the bullshit? So once again: while there was some will to accept refugees shown by the EU leaders, there was never really any other option to begin with. We in Europe have enough decency that we do not shoot or drown civilians on sight and the nature of the maritime borders make it physically impossible to prevent their entry otherwise. Yeah, I also think that we should heed our responsibilities in the relevant international treaties, where we have agreed to provide support to refugees of war, but even if we said "fuck it, not our problem", we would still be facing the fact that the refugees were landing on our soil every day and night ...

The matter's come up in both threads very frequently. But the topic came up right here right now so... yeah.

As for what to do: shoot them, deport them, set up refugee camps where it is cheaper to take care of a mass influx of refugees, take them at your own peril, or any other choice. It's your call since it's the union y'all decided to be a part of. But don't go blaming the US for the decision you made. Maybe you will just have to come to terms with the realization that ideals don't always conform with reality and that the "open the floodgates" project is going to show just how frail and problematic the "freedom of movement" provision can be. But that's not the US's fault.


Can we agree that shooting people is not an option? If not, then I don't really know what is there to discuss ... Deporting would be nice, but you need two to dance. You can't deport people into a country against that county's will, not to mention that they will just come again. Keeping people in refugee camps is both expensive and dangerous, because those hordes of desperate people without a future might turn into a serious issue.

What does freedom of movement have to do with it? There is no freedom of movement across the outside EU border. Yeah, we could have tried to lock them all in Greece and Italy, but that already is us, that solves nothing. Maybe Trump should think about building the wall more inland to save resources, who the hell even cares about Texas, right?
"Jeez, that's far from ideal." - Serral, the king of mild trashtalk
TL+ Member
m4ini
Profile Joined February 2014
4215 Posts
March 19 2017 19:45 GMT
#142984
On March 20 2017 04:37 LegalLord wrote:
Free movement with respect to refugees... well I hardly agree that it's irrelevant, though certainly the free movement issue has more to it than that. Though it's far from the point and perhaps worth relegating to the other thread.

But again, how is the US responsible for the decision made by the EU to take refugees? If we made them, why is it that you think it's our fault that you took them?


The freedom of movement only applies to european citizens. If you study a map closely, you'll find that none of the countries that have american democracy spread in them is part of the union. Hence freedom of movement actually doesn't apply to refugees. Let me emphasise that: freedom of movement doesn't apply to refugees.

The underlined comment is so idiotic that i actually don't know how to react to it.


On track to MA1950A.
Sermokala
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States13957 Posts
March 19 2017 19:57 GMT
#142985
On March 20 2017 04:19 KwarK wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 04:10 Sermokala wrote:
As long as Europeans admit that they caused the problem with their handling of the breakup of the ottoman empire.

That ceased to be attributable to us after you reined us in at Suez. The Middle East remained an Anglo-French sphere of influence until then. The only European legacy of the region these days is Israel and Jordan. When the United States decided they wanted European economic interests out they kicked out the rest of it too.

The US had to make a statement to end the euros colonial empires and show that Israel wasn't going to become a crusader state repeating the conquests of the last millennium. Far be it to topple dictators that gassed their own people but allowing Isreal to simple conquer the Islamic states around it whenever it felt it wanted to would have caused catastrophic consequences down the line.

Egypt is one of the only really stable pro western governments that we still have in the region. You arn't going to find many people who think it was a bad idea. The worse idea is that it somehow washed the hands of the people who caused all the divisions in the middle east as it is today.
A wise man will say that he knows nothing. We're gona party like its 2752 Hail Dark Brandon
Toadesstern
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
Germany16350 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-03-19 20:01:35
March 19 2017 20:01 GMT
#142986
On March 20 2017 04:37 LegalLord wrote:
Free movement with respect to refugees... well I hardly agree that it's irrelevant, though certainly the free movement issue has more to it than that. Though it's far from the point and perhaps worth relegating to the other thread.

But again, how is the US responsible for the decision made by the EU to take refugees? If we made them, why is it that you think it's our fault that you took them?

I feel like your entire argument basicly boils down to
"well yes, we put a bag full of shit on fire and placed it in front of your door before ringing your doorbell.... but it was you guys who hastily decided to best put it out by trying to step on it! So how exactly is it our fault that you got shit on your shoes now?"
<Elem> >toad in charge of judging lewdness <Elem> how bad can it be <Elem> also wew, that is actually p lewd.
Danglars
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States12133 Posts
March 19 2017 20:08 GMT
#142987
On March 20 2017 04:08 m4ini wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 02:17 Danglars wrote:
On March 20 2017 01:46 a_flayer wrote:
On March 20 2017 01:06 Artisreal wrote:
nobody denies that trump can't stand neither truth nor even appearing to be failing.


I know of at least one person who would deny such a claim.

It's funny though, all this complaining about NATO/defense spending. As if the US would spend less on its military if all European nations paid 2% of their economic output into NATO.

Do you at least register how insulting it is to spend so much on defense and our military alliances can't even meet a 2% target? Because I'm not on board with much of Trump's rhetoric on NATO, but I do know something has to change over there. We provide three quarters of funding, and only four countries at last check hit 2%, all the while the European nations included total more population and GDP than us? Hardly. And anyone not sufficiently partisan should know it.

Speaking of which, people who's minds are not made up may read more here.


So does that mean the US picks up the tab for the costs of refugees that are coming to europe rather than the US from a region that you're (sometimes fully, sometimes partially) responsible for making a hellhole?

.. no?

Well. Feels a bit hypocritical to me personally to go ahead criticising not enough spending on military while not taking into account that certain european countries pick up the tab for the US in regards to the aftermaths of what you guys constantly started in the last decade.

If you think of defense spending in terms of refugees and blame, you might be part of the reason why it's been a one-way street for so long. We could spend this entire year yakking about disparate situations. Like the article said, maybe NATO has just outgrown its place and deserves a slow end.
Great armies come from happy zealots, and happy zealots come from California!
TL+ Member
RealityIsKing
Profile Joined August 2016
613 Posts
March 19 2017 20:14 GMT
#142988
Donald Trump does have a point. Europe has been spending far too little on their defense in recent decades. They have relied on US protection, which has allowed them to cut military spending and use that money on other public services.
Karis Vas Ryaar
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States4396 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-03-19 20:18:11
March 19 2017 20:14 GMT
#142989
Arnold not running for senate but going to Washington to fight for after school programs. I like him as an advocate. He just couldn't handle California's budget.




"I'm not agreeing with a lot of Virus's decisions but they are working" Tasteless. Ipl4 Losers Bracket Virus 2-1 Maru
Velr
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Switzerland10724 Posts
March 19 2017 20:15 GMT
#142990
Against who, except the US, would europe need more budget?
Danglars
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States12133 Posts
March 19 2017 20:16 GMT
#142991
On March 20 2017 02:53 LegalLord wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 02:17 Danglars wrote:
On March 20 2017 01:46 a_flayer wrote:
On March 20 2017 01:06 Artisreal wrote:
nobody denies that trump can't stand neither truth nor even appearing to be failing.


I know of at least one person who would deny such a claim.

It's funny though, all this complaining about NATO/defense spending. As if the US would spend less on its military if all European nations paid 2% of their economic output into NATO.

Do you at least register how insulting it is to spend so much on defense and our military alliances can't even meet a 2% target? Because I'm not on board with much of Trump's rhetoric on NATO, but I do know something has to change over there. We provide three quarters of funding, and only four countries at last check hit 2%, all the while the European nations included total more population and GDP than us? Hardly. And anyone not sufficiently partisan should know it.

Speaking of which, people who's minds are not made up may read more here.

I wanted to draw attention to this comment on the article:
Show nested quote +
Let's not pretend that the US fell ass-backwards into this position. Following WW2 the US set out deliberately to gain military hegemony over the entire western world. All nations, through NATO, were required to submit their militaries to US command (despite the occasional token foreign commander), making them a de facto branch of US foreign policy...a policy often quite foreign indeed to European left-leaning democracies. Can anyone blame other countries for letting their armies wither on the vine under those conditions, when there were tempting (and expensive) social programs to be enacted? Meanwhile the US military-industrial complex grew and grew. Until recently the US was quite content to let allied militaries atrophy, more business for their own and profits for the supporting industries.

Which begs the question, why is the situation changing now? True, the US is effectively bankrupt, but the only remaining large-scale industry in the country is weapons/defence. If allies start defending themselves and the US is obliged to withdraw, it can only mean a further blow to their domestic economy...unless they gin up a new conflict someplace.


While I don't endorse the comment in full, it makes the good point that the current situation isn't just people leeching off the US - this is by design a US-dominated system. And it can certainly be argued that the EU, a project that is closely tied to NATO in many ways, often bears a lot of the brunt for the fallout of US-dominated actions.

The question is, of course, if Americans still want that arrangement. And increasingly since Iraq, the answer has been "no." It might take the FP apparatus a while to catch up to that fact but it's clearly the case that Trump's proposition of making others pay their fair share pursues a more aggressive retrenchment than Obama, who was already doing the same. Though Trump did fuck up the Asia pivot so the US has fewer options now, it's clear that they were headed towards isolationism much more than in the past.

Furthermore, NATO grew so big that it is perhaps collapsing under its own weight. Over the past two decades it's been adding commitments like there's no tomorrow, in a way that starts to undermine the core of the alliance. The "historical argument" for its existence has to come to terms with the fact that it no longer serves the purpose it once did.

Also, Trump changes his mind ten times a day. I don't buy a commitment to NATO being permanent. He will just give mixed signals for the next four years.

Yeah the commitments end is interesting. It's mission is kind of whatever it feels like that year. I

Now the topic shift reminds us that it's not germane to total defense spending, like others just deflected to, it's just germane to what Europe wants to do in its own defense now that the USSR is not doing international communism. It would be interesting to learn how much they care about their own defense relative to domestic welfare spending.
Great armies come from happy zealots, and happy zealots come from California!
TL+ Member
Sermokala
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States13957 Posts
March 19 2017 20:18 GMT
#142992
On March 20 2017 05:15 Velr wrote:
Against who, except the US, would europe need more budget?

Being able to help out in stabilizing and enlightening less developed countries? There are more things to do with your military then just going to war.
A wise man will say that he knows nothing. We're gona party like its 2752 Hail Dark Brandon
zlefin
Profile Blog Joined October 2012
United States7689 Posts
March 19 2017 20:20 GMT
#142993
On March 20 2017 05:14 RealityIsKing wrote:
Donald Trump does have a point. Europe has been spending far too little on their defense in recent decades. They have relied on US protection, which has allowed them to cut military spending and use that money on other public services.

repeating a falsehood doesn't make it true. you need to get a better sense of the actual spending levels and military risks and scenarios.
europe spends little on defense because it has few military threats.
They'd have been fine without US military protection.
Great read: http://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-2016-general-election/ great book on democracy: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10671.html zlefin is grumpier due to long term illness. Ignoring some users.
Velr
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Switzerland10724 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-03-19 20:23:29
March 19 2017 20:20 GMT
#142994
Yeah, enlightening and spreading freedom... thats what the US achieved recently. Do you belief yourself?
Gorsameth
Profile Joined April 2010
Netherlands21707 Posts
March 19 2017 20:22 GMT
#142995
On March 20 2017 05:18 Sermokala wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 05:15 Velr wrote:
Against who, except the US, would europe need more budget?

Being able to help out in stabilizing and enlightening less developed countries? There are more things to do with your military then just going to war.

the EU is already engaged in various peacekeeping missions through the UN. We don't need to up our military spending for that.
It ignores such insignificant forces as time, entropy, and death
RealityIsKing
Profile Joined August 2016
613 Posts
March 19 2017 20:22 GMT
#142996
On March 20 2017 05:20 zlefin wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 05:14 RealityIsKing wrote:
Donald Trump does have a point. Europe has been spending far too little on their defense in recent decades. They have relied on US protection, which has allowed them to cut military spending and use that money on other public services.

repeating a falsehood doesn't make it true. you need to get a better sense of the actual spending levels and military risks and scenarios.
europe spends little on defense because it has few military threats.
They'd have been fine without US military protection.



"NATO admits it has an "over-reliance" on the U.S. for the provision of essential capabilities, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, air-to-air refueling, ballistic missile defense and airborne electronic warfare."

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/08/news/nato-summit-spending-countries/

Spin it however you want. Germany, who at the same time is boasting an economic surplus and willing to pay $100 billion for refugees, and most of the countries in NATO aren't contributing their fair share, and they know they're relying heavily on America's defense spending to make up for it.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7b006f0e42d040f09b23616275478780/report-germany-spend-106b-refugees-over-5-years

zlefin
Profile Blog Joined October 2012
United States7689 Posts
March 19 2017 20:26 GMT
#142997
On March 20 2017 05:22 RealityIsKing wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 05:20 zlefin wrote:
On March 20 2017 05:14 RealityIsKing wrote:
Donald Trump does have a point. Europe has been spending far too little on their defense in recent decades. They have relied on US protection, which has allowed them to cut military spending and use that money on other public services.

repeating a falsehood doesn't make it true. you need to get a better sense of the actual spending levels and military risks and scenarios.
europe spends little on defense because it has few military threats.
They'd have been fine without US military protection.



"NATO admits it has an "over-reliance" on the U.S. for the provision of essential capabilities, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, air-to-air refueling, ballistic missile defense and airborne electronic warfare."

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/08/news/nato-summit-spending-countries/

Spin it however you want. Germany, who at the same time is boasting an economic surplus and willing to pay $100 billion for refugees, and most of the countries in NATO aren't contributing their fair share, and they know they're relying heavily on America's defense spending to make up for it.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7b006f0e42d040f09b23616275478780/report-germany-spend-106b-refugees-over-5-years


it has an over-reliance because the US is overspending; not because there's an ACTUAL military risk. so again, you don't know jack (or choose to ignore it, and have a poor sense of military strategy)
my point is they'd be fine without US protection, because they simply have very few enemies, and those enemies power isn't that high.
you'd need to point to an actual military threat that they coudln't handle without US help.

do you need it spelled out for you more clearly?
Great read: http://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-2016-general-election/ great book on democracy: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10671.html zlefin is grumpier due to long term illness. Ignoring some users.
opisska
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Poland8852 Posts
March 19 2017 20:27 GMT
#142998
On March 20 2017 05:15 Velr wrote:
Against who, except the US, would europe need more budget?


Have you noticed that one country that keeps peeling off parts of countries that we can potentially accept as members in future while we are just watching? But that would be a discussion for the EU thread ... well on a second thought no, it's gonna go down as usual, so that is probably not a discussion to have here at all
"Jeez, that's far from ideal." - Serral, the king of mild trashtalk
TL+ Member
LegalLord
Profile Blog Joined April 2013
United Kingdom13775 Posts
March 19 2017 20:31 GMT
#142999
On March 20 2017 04:40 Gorsameth wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 04:37 LegalLord wrote:
Free movement with respect to refugees... well I hardly agree that it's irrelevant, though certainly the free movement issue has more to it than that. Though it's far from the point and perhaps worth relegating to the other thread.

But again, how is the US responsible for the decision made by the EU to take refugees? If we made them, why is it that you think it's our fault that you took them?

I'm fine with taking the 10's of millions of refugees and shipping them off to the US, sure, lets go do that.

Let's face it, we would just dump them on someone else. Americans as a whole are selfish dicks like that.

On March 20 2017 04:41 opisska wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 04:29 LegalLord wrote:
On March 20 2017 04:22 opisska wrote:
On March 20 2017 04:13 LegalLord wrote:
On March 20 2017 04:08 m4ini wrote:
On March 20 2017 02:17 Danglars wrote:
On March 20 2017 01:46 a_flayer wrote:
On March 20 2017 01:06 Artisreal wrote:
nobody denies that trump can't stand neither truth nor even appearing to be failing.


I know of at least one person who would deny such a claim.

It's funny though, all this complaining about NATO/defense spending. As if the US would spend less on its military if all European nations paid 2% of their economic output into NATO.

Do you at least register how insulting it is to spend so much on defense and our military alliances can't even meet a 2% target? Because I'm not on board with much of Trump's rhetoric on NATO, but I do know something has to change over there. We provide three quarters of funding, and only four countries at last check hit 2%, all the while the European nations included total more population and GDP than us? Hardly. And anyone not sufficiently partisan should know it.

Speaking of which, people who's minds are not made up may read more here.


So does that mean the US picks up the tab for the costs of refugees that are coming to europe rather than the US from a region that you're (sometimes fully, sometimes partially) responsible for making a hellhole?

.. no?

Well. Feels a bit hypocritical to me personally to go ahead criticising not enough spending on military while not taking into account that certain european countries pick up the tab for the US in regards to the aftermaths of what you guys constantly started in the last decade.

I generally agree with the idea that the US is being hypocritical here on the money matter. My post above generally makes that case.

But as for your specific example, can you really say that the US is responsible for the way the refugee crisis went? Sure, American FP ventures have a lot to do with why refugees were created to begin with. But who actually made the decision to take them?


I guess the US thread is a safer place so state that "someone made the decision to take refugees" than the EU one, because the Americans are less likely to see through the bullshit? So once again: while there was some will to accept refugees shown by the EU leaders, there was never really any other option to begin with. We in Europe have enough decency that we do not shoot or drown civilians on sight and the nature of the maritime borders make it physically impossible to prevent their entry otherwise. Yeah, I also think that we should heed our responsibilities in the relevant international treaties, where we have agreed to provide support to refugees of war, but even if we said "fuck it, not our problem", we would still be facing the fact that the refugees were landing on our soil every day and night ...

The matter's come up in both threads very frequently. But the topic came up right here right now so... yeah.

As for what to do: shoot them, deport them, set up refugee camps where it is cheaper to take care of a mass influx of refugees, take them at your own peril, or any other choice. It's your call since it's the union y'all decided to be a part of. But don't go blaming the US for the decision you made. Maybe you will just have to come to terms with the realization that ideals don't always conform with reality and that the "open the floodgates" project is going to show just how frail and problematic the "freedom of movement" provision can be. But that's not the US's fault.


Can we agree that shooting people is not an option? If not, then I don't really know what is there to discuss ... Deporting would be nice, but you need two to dance. You can't deport people into a country against that county's will, not to mention that they will just come again. Keeping people in refugee camps is both expensive and dangerous, because those hordes of desperate people without a future might turn into a serious issue.

What does freedom of movement have to do with it? There is no freedom of movement across the outside EU border. Yeah, we could have tried to lock them all in Greece and Italy, but that already is us, that solves nothing. Maybe Trump should think about building the wall more inland to save resources, who the hell even cares about Texas, right?

Shooting people isn't a serious suggestion, no. It's just a hard-line opposite to "let em all in, we can take a limitless quantity" from the other side.

People won't come if they don't have a chance of getting in. There's a rather good chance of dying in transit. They will pursue other directions.

Refugee camps are a logistically effective way to deal with a large influx in the short term. Relatively cheap, you can take a lot in at once, and Turkey honestly does a commendable job keeping good refugee camps. No, it's not a fun life, but it is away from the war, so it's good enough until you figure out how to redistribute them. And it cuts down on fake "throw away my passport and say I'm from Syria" refugees as well.

Freedom of movement has to do with what happens to them once they are already inside of Europe. The political reality is such that, whether or not they are legally allowed to move freely between countries, the political reality is that borders within the EU are much less prominent than they would be between most other countries. So they can travel freely between countries as they like, generally towards Germany regardless of where they are meant to stay (the "Poland takes them but they flee to Germany overnight" issue). The problem of the freedom of movement, broadly speaking, is that keeping it in existence also limits your ability to control your borders - a problem to which refugees contribute.

On March 20 2017 04:45 m4ini wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 04:37 LegalLord wrote:
Free movement with respect to refugees... well I hardly agree that it's irrelevant, though certainly the free movement issue has more to it than that. Though it's far from the point and perhaps worth relegating to the other thread.

But again, how is the US responsible for the decision made by the EU to take refugees? If we made them, why is it that you think it's our fault that you took them?


The freedom of movement only applies to european citizens. If you study a map closely, you'll find that none of the countries that have american democracy spread in them is part of the union. Hence freedom of movement actually doesn't apply to refugees. Let me emphasise that: freedom of movement doesn't apply to refugees.

The underlined comment is so idiotic that i actually don't know how to react to it.

As above. Perhaps not legally but free movement does apply as a political reality.

As for the underlined comment. Humor me. It seems quite clearly based on a moral obligation to help those in need that obviously doesn't exist in the US. It's less prominent in the EU than leftward-leaning folk would like but among the leadership it's definitely much more strongly there by consensus. But the result is this: the US isn't dumping the problem on Europe, Americans are just selfish shitheads who don't give a fuck.

Unless there's some other reason I'm missing.

On March 20 2017 05:01 Toadesstern wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 04:37 LegalLord wrote:
Free movement with respect to refugees... well I hardly agree that it's irrelevant, though certainly the free movement issue has more to it than that. Though it's far from the point and perhaps worth relegating to the other thread.

But again, how is the US responsible for the decision made by the EU to take refugees? If we made them, why is it that you think it's our fault that you took them?

I feel like your entire argument basicly boils down to
"well yes, we put a bag full of shit on fire and placed it in front of your door before ringing your doorbell.... but it was you guys who hastily decided to best put it out by trying to step on it! So how exactly is it our fault that you got shit on your shoes now?"

Yeah that's about right. But Americans would prefer that you just scraped it up and tossed it into the streets and said "not my problem." Because that's what we would do in the same circumstance.
History will sooner or later sweep the European Union away without mercy.
RealityIsKing
Profile Joined August 2016
613 Posts
March 19 2017 20:31 GMT
#143000
On March 20 2017 05:26 zlefin wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 20 2017 05:22 RealityIsKing wrote:
On March 20 2017 05:20 zlefin wrote:
On March 20 2017 05:14 RealityIsKing wrote:
Donald Trump does have a point. Europe has been spending far too little on their defense in recent decades. They have relied on US protection, which has allowed them to cut military spending and use that money on other public services.

repeating a falsehood doesn't make it true. you need to get a better sense of the actual spending levels and military risks and scenarios.
europe spends little on defense because it has few military threats.
They'd have been fine without US military protection.



"NATO admits it has an "over-reliance" on the U.S. for the provision of essential capabilities, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, air-to-air refueling, ballistic missile defense and airborne electronic warfare."

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/08/news/nato-summit-spending-countries/

Spin it however you want. Germany, who at the same time is boasting an economic surplus and willing to pay $100 billion for refugees, and most of the countries in NATO aren't contributing their fair share, and they know they're relying heavily on America's defense spending to make up for it.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7b006f0e42d040f09b23616275478780/report-germany-spend-106b-refugees-over-5-years


it has an over-reliance because the US is overspending; not because there's an ACTUAL military risk. so again, you don't know jack (or choose to ignore it, and have a poor sense of military strategy)
my point is they'd be fine without US protection, because they simply have very few enemies, and those enemies power isn't that high.
you'd need to point to an actual military threat that they coudln't handle without US help.

do you need it spelled out for you more clearly?


Haha, you are making me laugh so hard. You are showing that you know jack (or choose to ignore it, and have a poor sense of military strategy).

The threat is Islamic terrorism which USA have been helping to keep Europe safe, and then Merkel fucked it up by allowing them to get through Europe.

You haven't show any prove to your false statement. Just using broken English with no thoughts just because someone is trying to cut America some spending.

Having a wasteful attitude is not a good way to get through life.
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