by Quarrelsome | 2025-06-22 03:48:02+00:00
> the fewer Americans believe that it is worth the full cost to be responsible for the bulk of Europe's defense

tbh, I'm not entirely seeing it. The public mostly prefer local issues and can be quite fickle when it comes to priorities and are often easily influenced. IMHO the low tax lobby are just looking for a scapegoat to justify tax cuts and undermining US geo-political goals is puzzlingly the attack vector to maintain it, which is the biggest break from the old GOP. If I were a betting man, I reckon the moment the US finds the money to start to put a dent in the deficit, will be the moment tax breaks get back on the agenda and the defecit will end up untouched.

The point is kinda moot anyway now since US tax dollars are being spent bombing Iran which is specifically what we were all told _wasn't_ going to happen with this new strategy, so idk anymore. But this administration is like that, fickle, deceitful, reactionary, eccentric.

> I'm pretty on board with that.

I mean I hate Hamas as much as I hate Otzma Yehudit. They're both fascist, genocidal freaks who want the eradication of the other and I'd prefer a world without either. So Otzma Yehudit propping up this current Israeli coallition makes me struggle to pick a side here. I can support the eradication of Hamas, but at the same time I doubt the current strategy is going to be effective in doing that, given that the current campaign is creating another generation of scarred Palestinians who will rightly hold an emotional grudge against the state of Israel. I wouldn't mind if their strategy was swift and effective like the highly successful Hezbollah dismantling, but I can't help but think this is all strung out intentionally to keep Israel in a state of war so Netanyahu remains outside of a jail cell. Yoav Gallent himself stated that continuing the war in Gaza seemed kinda pointless given he felt that Israel's military objectives had been met and got fired for having that perspective. I'm starting to feel the cruelty is the point, especially since Ben Gvir is kingmaker. I can support Israel's right to exist and defend itself, but I can't support a fascist genocidal freak like Ben Gvir, that man is a monster.

I think the strategy on Iran has been an incredible failure, from rescinding a diplomatic agreement in the first Trump adminstration to the bombing today. Taken as a whole its a massive fumble, especially given how weak the Iranian administration has been looking recently and how its not very popular among the Iranian people. Given that US intelligence appeared to suggest that Iran isn't close to building a nuke and Trump has somehow forced Gabbard into a 180 on the subject, it feels like we're back in 2003 hyping up a WMD fear that we'll find out later isn't the case.

2025 has just been a big advert for nuclear proliferation, given that these strikes would never have happened if Iran had a nuke, that Ukraine would never have been invaded if it didn't give up its nukes, with a reluctant ally in the US trying to force a peace on Ukraine with a loss of territory earlier on this year.

> Oh hell nah. Doesn't matter though, Trump won every single step of the way.

Good to hear, I was starting to wonder. Tbf, the final vote count was a lot closer than in the moment his victory was declared. He clearly won but was as puzzlingly close as the last time he won, I guess I should be thankful that I'm insultated from the sort of American that votes for him because he doesn't at all look like the sort of person that the Americans I know and love could ever vote for.