Updates on important news Stories buried by the news cycle.

[Thekri]

Part of the issue of the relentless churn of the news cycle is that stories that were incredibly important a few weeks, months or even years ago tend to drop off the radar, even though the underlying issues have not been remotely resolved. I wanted to make this thread to post updates to some of these important stories as they continue, and I will start off with a couple of the major foreign policy issues that have been mostly ignored. Ukraine is on this list, but it has resurfaced in a big way thanks to the impeachment hearings, but it is still worth talking about the situation there.

Feel free to post any updates on other major news stories that have been buried as well, this is intended as a very general thread to focus on updating on nearly forgotten stories from a few months ago, but I am going to focus primarily on foreign policy situations. As this administration has flitted from one foreign policy crisis to another, it is easy to lose track of exactly how much damage has been done, and how wide spread it has been.

Lets start with Ukraine. Obviously there has been a lot of talk about it lately, but what actually is happening there now? It has been 5 years since Russia occupied the Crimea and sent their "Little Green Men" into Eastern Ukraine. Since then it has been 5 years of vicious, but mostly sporadic fighting. The fighting had been steadily dying down until the spring of 2018, when a dramatic increase in violence flared up across the region. Renewed offensives from Separatist Rebels, backed with a large number of suspiciously modern heavy armored vehicles (That notably were not Ukrainian in origin) prompted the US sale of anti-tank systems in March 2018. Those Javelin missiles that keep coming up were part of this, and like most elements of this story, with aid driven by Mattis and provided by Congress. The escalation seemed to be a negotiating tactic by the Russians to force the Ukrainians to the negotiating table to free up forces for Syria, but the swift US and NATO response prevented this, and the Ukrainian military held their own admirably. As of November 2019, the front lines have returned to a stalemate. Most of the casualties are caused by artillery fire, and actual ground clashes are rare. Notably, Air Power advocates are rather silent, as the entire frontline is essentially empty of aircraft, due to 5 years accumulation of Anti-Aircraft systems behind the lines. Civilian Air Traffic also avoids the area, preventing a repeat of the Malaysian Airlines Disaster.

Now lets move on to another hotbed that was important for like a month, then we all forgot about because it didn't seem to be developing in a way we liked. Venezuela. Juan Guaido declared himself President in January, to the full throated support of the United States and many other western Nations. However, as of November, President Maduro hasn't gone anywhere. Venezuela has descended into absolute chaos, with two rival governments claiming sovereignty, and millions of refugees fleeing the nation. Russia has exploited the chaos to establish a foothold in Latin America, as guests of the Maduro regime, but the presence remains small as control over anything remains elusive for either faction. As of today, the streets remain flooded with Protestors, the economy is essentially nonexistent, neighboring countries are dealing with a massive refugee crisis (Which the Trump administration is making worse with obnoxious aide and refugee policies), and the rest of Latin America keeps passing toothless resolutions condemning various parties involved in the situation.

On to stalemate #3! Syria. The US has been trying to remove President Assaad for 8 years now. The unrest of the Arab Spring destabilized the nation, and it has spiraled into ever deeper chaos ever since. Air Strikes, Special Forces, and the Presence of US Ground Forces have not had any positive impacts, as listless and erratic policy decisions have exacerbated the chaos. The most recent development to move out of the news cycle was Trump's betrayal of the Kurds, and since then the area controlled by the Turks has been turned over to a mixed bag of pro-Turkish Rebels who have been looting, killing, and displacing Kurds in staggering numbers. The Kurds have been fighting back, and just as expected, the Turks have seen a spike in Kurdish attacks, not a decrease. Meanwhile, Russia, Israel, Iran and the US have been treating the country as a live fire range, as they engage in a host of Proxy wars. Asaad has definitely gained the upper hand since the withdrawal of US forces from the North, and has started shelling refugee camps in Idlib. There remain lingering questions about what exactly the US is doing with the oil that Trump has claimed to have stolen as well (Expect new scandals out of that next year). Meanwhile, President Pence seems to be leaning into his responsibilities as the Presumptive next President, and visited Troops in Northern Iraq, and is meeting with Kurdish leaders (Like a President typically does if he doesn't have bone spurs).

On to Yemen! Yeah, you probably noticed the trend. It is a disaster, and it follows the pattern for US involvement perfectly. Congress condemns Saudi actions on a bi-partisan basis, the Trump administration sees dollar signs and doesn't care about the consequences, and the result is a bloody quagmire that chews through civilian lives. After the massive impact of the attacks on Saudi Oilfields, the Yemen conflict has dropped out of the news, and it does seem to actually be dying down (Mostly because even the Saudi's are going broke fighting that war). Iran keeps using Yemen as a way to strike Saudi Arabia, but the conflict on the ground seems to have gone firmly in the direction of the Houthis. So expect another radicalized nation that has been riled up by foreign attacks to be churning out terrorists for the next few decades. The conflict in Yemen is by no means over yet, but the Saudi Coalition has mostly collapsed, and they are withdrawing support. Up next seems to be the retreat of the Yemeni government, or the permanent fracturing of the nation into separate parts.

Afghanistan: I make threads on this one every once in a while, but nobody really cares. Suffice it to say the government we set up has absolutely no credibility, and the only real resolution path that is still open is being negotiated by Vladimir Putin. Huge surprise there. The Taliban owns most of the nation that isn't controlled by an ISIS affiliate. Nothing in this nation is getting sorted out any time soon, and while none of it is explicitly Trumps fault, he has essentially destroyed every plan we had to fix the mess, and has replaced those plans with... absolutely nothing.

North Korea: Still shooting rockets. Still no sign of any sort of deal. Literally not a single concession from NK has been announced. But apparently Trump still loves Kim, so I guess Kim got his first ever boyfriend out of the deal.

El Salvador: Nobody has made any attempt to fix this, so nothing has changed. Refugees are still streaming out of the country as gang warfare rips what is left of the nation apart. Trump's solution so far has been restricted to vilifying the victims.

China: Another great trade deal seems to be dead. Back to square one. Also, we seem to have completely lost the South China Sea. Which is very upsetting to the Navy and basically nobody else cares.

Iran: Ok, sequel is still being written on this one, but apparently the Trump administration can claim they are attacking oil tankers and launching direct attacks into Saudi Arabia, and there are absolutely no military consequences for it. On the other hand the country is in massive internal turmoil, and there is a lot still to come there. Anyway Iran is the only one of these that has never really left the news.

The Planet Earth: Still getting hotter every year. Still accumulating Plastic faster then a Kardashian. The US government still doesn't see the problem.

It has been 3 years since we elected this man that pretends to be President. He has wracked up one of the most abysmal foreign policy records in world history. He literally does not have a single win to claim, but he has given our enemies dozens of wins.

[Gestopft]

I was having quite a nice day until I read this.

Good thread though; lots of topics still bubbling below the surface that are rather important. If I had a news organization, I would make a point of doing month-six month-year followups on major stories, just to see how things are or aren't resolving. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I think we can mostly ignore North Korea. I mean, check on their progress, make sure that they don't do anything to our regional allies, but I just don't see them as much of a threat at all.

[Thepersona]

I will add my cup of tea here:
Chile. While the agreement on a new constitution is at least holding on, our "enlightened" president wants to get the military out in the streets. Again. And this time, it seems that they will be authorized to shoot (and kill) protesters.
Also, they'll be shortening the training time on the police (pacos qlos) by a few months, as if that never led to police brutality. Oh, and we have human rights violations left and right!
Currently, more than 200 people lost (at least) one of their eyes while protesting, because they were shot in the head by police, using riot ammo.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/chile/

BTW, i'm still alive, kicking and protesting!

[Justank]

Maybe I'm alone in this, but I think we can mostly ignore North Korea. I mean, check on their progress, make sure that they don't do anything to our regional allies, but I just don't see them as much of a threat at all.

They never really have been. Not to the U.S. anyway, they are certainly somewhat of a threat to South Korea and slightly less so to Japan, which is pretty much why we care at all. Obviously nuclear weapons proliferation is an issue but that's more China's problem. NK isn't about to actually start anything though, they just want attention and free foreign aid.

[Gestopft]

They never really have been. Not to the U.S. anyway, they are certainly somewhat of a threat to South Korea and slightly less so to Japan, which is pretty much why we care at all. Obviously nuclear weapons proliferation is an issue but that's more China's problem. NK isn't about to actually start anything though, they just want attention and free foreign aid.

I think this is really the most relevant part of the whole situation. The people there may be in the dark, but Kim isn't. He knows exactly what would happen if he were to actually attack one of the US's regional allies.

[ohtlmtlm]

Bolivia coup by the military, their left-leaning, democratically elected president fled to Mexico.

and as a surprise to no one the violence and protesting continues even after the president has vacated.

[Chinese Bootlickers]

I expect him to tragically "commit suicide" via 2 bullets in the back of the head in the near future.

[Kokolums]

these issues wont even register with the american people.

theyve been told bush couldnt fix any of them, and obama wasnt able to fix them either. warning that trump cant fix them will get a big yawn. the op looks admittedly biased by clearly stating ukraine started 5 years ago and syria started 8 years ago (and north korea started 50 years ago as well and venezuela collapsed years ago and the entire middle east has been fighting for 2000 years) but somehow trump is one with the worst foreign policy record. those didnt start on his watch. its a good idea to look at global issues but you undermined the thread by blaming trump needlessly.

[Dsonsion]

I will add my cup of tea here:
Chile. While the agreement on a new constitution is at least holding on, our "enlightened" president wants to get the military out in the streets. Again. And this time, it seems that they will be authorized to shoot (and kill) protesters.
Also, they'll be shortening the training time on the police (pacos qlos) by a few months, as if that never led to police brutality. Oh, and we have human rights violations left and right!
Currently, more than 200 people lost (at least) one of their eyes while protesting, because they were shot in the head by police, using riot ammo.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/chile/

BTW, i'm still alive, kicking and protesting!

Strength, Chilean people, freedom and justice are on the horizon. I hope Piraña is stopped in his militarisation attempts.

[Omega10]

these issues wont even register with the american people.

theyve been told bush couldnt fix any of them, and obama wasnt able to fix them either. warning that trump cant fix them will get a big yawn. the op looks admittedly biased by clearly stating ukraine started 5 years ago and syria started 8 years ago (and north korea started 50 years ago as well and venezuela collapsed years ago and the entire middle east has been fighting for 2000 years) but somehow trump is one with the worst foreign policy record. those didnt start on his watch. its a good idea to look at global issues but you undermined the thread by blaming trump needlessly.

Bold section number 1: I agree 100% with this. American people just don't care about any of this. This does not reflect well on Americans Especially when we incredulously ask "Why do they HATE us so much???" Much of the world views us as the biggest threat to peace in the world.

Bold section number 2: As much as Trump has tried to be the opposite of Obama, and Obama tried to be the opposite of Bush, at least in the Middle East, basically the Trump foreign policy is just years 17 -> 20 of the foreign policy initiated by Bush, continued by Obama, and now further continued by Trump. The most likely result is that whoever wins the Presidency in 2020 will continue these policies.

On the other hand, the main policy that Trump HAS initiated, the trade war with China, has not gone so well for the US. The southern border policies he has implemented have not made the US look too good either. These both can be pinned on him.

[Thekri]

these issues wont even register with the american people.

theyve been told bush couldnt fix any of them, and obama wasnt able to fix them either. warning that trump cant fix them will get a big yawn. the op looks admittedly biased by clearly stating ukraine started 5 years ago and syria started 8 years ago (and north korea started 50 years ago as well and venezuela collapsed years ago and the entire middle east has been fighting for 2000 years) but somehow trump is one with the worst foreign policy record. those didnt start on his watch. its a good idea to look at global issues but you undermined the thread by blaming trump needlessly.

Yep, agree with all of this. Of course it won't register with the American people, that is the point of this thread. This all fell out of the news cycle because it is depressing and looks hopeless, so nobody wants to talk about it.

I also totally agree that previous administrations messed up a lot of these situations. I hold Obama directly responsible for failing to address many of these issues as well, and have made no secret about blaming him for it. But Obama never rose to the sheer spectacular levels of incompetence as Trump has on North Korea or Syria or Afghanistan. Obama mostly sucked by refusing to take any dramatic action, while Trump goes all in on spectacle that was never considered in the first place, and inevitably ends in tragedy. Nobody is going to argue Bush's foreign policy wasn't a train wreck either, but again, he had some wins to go with his many failures (Such as doing legitimately great work in Africa and Latin America, solid policy in regard to Russia and China) which were of course obscured by the enormity of his mistakes.

That's mostly one sided presentation of news from American point of view.

Yep, sure is. Thanks for providing the Anti-American perspective. I can only provide the American point of view from a critical perspective, and I am really not sure how you came away thinking I was making America look good in that rundown of all the misery and sadness that American foreign policy has caused in the OP. I am not going to jump on the rabid anti-Americanism that you seem to believe though, so thanks for providing that perspective.

[Zaktar]

Yep, sure is. Thanks for providing the Anti-American perspective. I can only provide the American point of view from a critical perspective, and I am really not sure how you came away thinking I was making America look good in that rundown of all the misery and sadness that American foreign policy has caused in the OP. I am not going to jump on the rabid anti-Americanism that you seem to believe though, so thanks for providing that perspective.

That person's whole post is best read in cheesy Russian accent. My mind couldn't help itself.

[Zaktar]

I never said you are making America look good, but your news end up being about Trump and his lack of "wins", which shows how self absorbed you are, like vast majority of American posters here. You don't care about people who live in countries you've mentioned, you only care about US "wins".

- - - Updated - - -


Yep. Everyone who dislikes US behaviour is a Russian. *queue Hillary book meme*

Your specific complaints read like propaganda, and I never said you were. A person doesn't have to be Russian to have Russia speaking through them.

[Zaktar]

Fair enough. So for comedy value

Well, and your specific writing style. You leave a lot of words out of sentences, perhaps for concision, which make it read perfectly in a Russian accent. Add to it that you're coincidentally parroting Russian-sounding propaganda and we have a perfect notion.

[Citizen T]

Use the mega-thread. closing now...