750 000 population of Mosul, 1096 killed, Aleppo 1 800 000 so to get same proportion we can get about 2.5 of deaths... And Mosul operation isn't over yet too.
1096 per three months is about 365 civilian deaths per month, Aleppo (by not really reliable Observatory for Human Rights) reported something like 463 civilian deaths from Mid-November to Mid-December, so if we take it as upper bound that would give us that Russian-backed forces are about 1.27 times civilian casualties then US-backed forces with high-precision weaponry in Mosul.
I can live with such difference, definitely.
LOL. As if on cue to make a mockery of you.
https://twitter.com/mitchellreports/...rc=twsrc%5Etfw
Looks like Tillerson (so Trump) is expected to name Elliot Abrams as Deputy Secretary of State (the man who actually runs the State Department btw).
Elliot Abrams is basically the original neocon, a term which you still scarcely get wrong. He is one of the leading architects of the Iraq War.
I personally think this is abhorrent. I'm the polar opposite of a neocon (and you calling me one speaks more to your ignorance than anything else). But I think it is hilarious you post what you did, and then Trump is about to put up the guy who is so fullthroated American exceptionalism, as to make Dick Cheney look like John Kerry. He actually is about to name an Iraq War mastermind to his biggest job yet.
So much for.... oh I don't know... everything everyone who defended Trumps comments said in this thread.
Spoiler Alert: This has been rumored for the past six days, and I was waiting to post something about it, which delivered itself today with. Trump going off the reservation with O'Reilly was an ideal opportunity, which is why I went 12 pages without saying shit. Every Trumpkin in this thread was set up to just unload their defense of the indefensible. You all exposed yourselves, lambasting American exceptionalism in order defend something incredibly stupid (but basically, very Obama-ish in a sense) that Trump said. And you did that while the Administration was about to move in the EXACT OPPOSITE direction of the manner in which you posted.
Rock, meet hard place. Way to go geniuses.
Last edited by Skroe; 2017-02-05 at 05:07 PM.
McConnell saw the interview. His response (on CNN, hah!) was specific.
I'm going to withhold judgement until I see this whole interview (from the short clip it unsurprisingly appears that O'Reilly is baiting him), but what is troubling is not that Trump admits that the US has committed or been the setting for atrocities committed in the past (red herring: obviously it has) but that he seems to have no moral objection to us or anyone else doing so, and that at the same time that Trump is overtly threatening journalists in his own country, he's also appearing to excuse the fact that an alarming number of political opponents and Russian journalists who've reported critically on the Putin government have died or been mysteriously attacked. To paraphrase:
O'Reilly: Putin uses a reckless and cynical application of murder, war, intimidation, espionage, subterfuge, fake-news propaganda, foreign invasion, and the proliferation of weaponry as tools to destabilize sovereign nations, undermine allies, exploit vulnerable populations, silence the press, amass personal wealth, and consolidate and maintain vast political power indefinitely
Trump: Yeah, but c'mon, who doesn't?
Putin is revered as a redemptive national hero by his supporters, and feared as a dangerous and unpredictable aggressor by his detractors. This is how Trump wants to be seen. Of course Putin isn't Trump's boss. Neither cannot allow himself to be seen as lesser-than or weak by comparison to his counterpart, but I wonder if Trump is a bit intimidated here. It's interesting that in most of his international dealings so far Trump has played the bad cop, but here it's the opposite. I wonder if this is a sign that Trump sees himself in a weak position vs Putin. Indeed, to maintain the image of himself that he's cultivated, if there's an issue with Russia it's expected that he emerge dominant, while all Putin needs to do is keep Trump at bay.
When Trump bestows public praise on people or groups of people, its usually either as currency to repay loyalty or else an attempt to identify himself with aspects of their image. While many on the left seem to suspect the former, I think this is more a case of the latter.
What confuses me is that it's really not necessary for Trump's supporters to whitewash Putin. Trump himself is making no promises of getting along with Putin, and indeed some of these countries like Iran that Trump has been going after are pretty closely aligned with Russia
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." - Isaac Asimov
Even the scum of the earth McConnell ran away from this one, rofl.
I keep hearing about the good things he "will do". Yet the only things he's attempted to do so far have been horrifying and (mostly) illegal. Don't forget that he uses the POTUS twitter handle to retweet his insults and attacks. We have a child in our oval office, and I'm not speaking about Barron.
Yikes, CNN staffers must be double-locking their doors now.Originally Posted by interview
Seriously, Trump is swallowing the same fantastical BS that Putin uses to justify his brutality. I recall George W. Bush being stunned when he realised Putin genuinely believed that the US President could control US TV news in the same way that the Russian President can control Russian TV news. Come to think of, Trump seems upset that's not true.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-russia-234664
And now the Cult of Trump goes on about how investigations like this are a waste of taxpayer money.
What adult people do in their bedroom is their own business and it's like this in Russia. Gays are not prosecuted. It is true that historically gays are not viewed favorably in Russia. It's society is more traditional. Imho that's a good thing.
You linked freedom house report, I am skeptical about its methodology, looks like Singapore(death sentence for drug crimes if I am not mistaken.) And Bhutan( a country almost as closed north Korea) and a bunch of other countries like Benin(south Africa) have higher freedom index than Russia.
To be fair the US does kill its critics in a much more nuanced way.
Gary Webb anyone?
If you are so ignorant you don't realize how much terror the USA has caused, you need to study more.