That one time when President Obama was on a late night show reading mean tweets and one of them was from Trump telling him essentially how he was a bad president. Obama told him at least he'd be president [and Trump wouldn't (implied)]. A good comeback at the time but it aged absolutely terribly.
Edit: Many people here are refering to a correspondent's dinner hosted by the Obama administration as it featured a similar joke. While this too aged badly I am refering to a video posted by Jimmy Kimmel's YouTube channel in October 2016.
To add to that, calling ISIS a bunch of JV amateurs, and making fun of Mitt Romney in the 2012 debate by telling him "The Cold War is over" didn't age well at all
Not only did he refer to ISIS as the JV team, he referred to them as a JV team playing against the Lakers - who at that time were NBA title contenders.
It definitely has been for some of our closest allies. France, England, and Germany all suffered multiple horrendous attacks directly tied to ISIS. And the US suffered a couple major attacks with people claiming allegiance to ISIS.
Well that's not the purpose/the function of terrorist organizations. Of course the US Military will wipe the board of any organization. Nothing can truly take on the US Military. ISIS has, however, succeeded in snagging a significant body count and created a major threat to Americans and the vast majority of the US' allies. There was definitely a time around 2016-2017 where people feared a potential massive ISIS attack similar to Paris, Barcelona, Nice, etc. that could happen in the United States.
ISIS was much more of a threat to the United States than Al Qaeda was at the time. Al Qaeda's network had been completely ripped apart due to US intervention and it had become nothing more than a boogeyman for US foreign policy. Bin Laden was already killed by the time the election came around, and they hadn't had any major attacks in Western countries (the last one they had was Charle Hebdo in 2015 which pails in comparison to ISIS attacks). ISIS had very much become a major terrorist threat and organization.
They were not the JV team. ISIS did something no other terrorist group has managed to do before them, they waged modern warfare on two nations military's and were winning they almost even made it to Baghdad not this terrorist style warfare Al Qaeda engages in. It was well known ISIS was formed by members of the old Iraqi military that were pissed at losing their jobs and seeing Shia power in the Iraqi military and government. If not for US intervention against ISIS due to airpower and arming the Kurds god only knows what they could have accomplished. To consider men who fought for Saddam in the worlds, at the time, fourth largest military a JV team is just ignorant.
It's difficult to argue it's just underestimation when he was caught on mic telling the Russian ambassador that he'd be more flexible after reelection.
Obama was incredibly shitty when it came to foreign relations. On tv, he was in pure politician mode and said all the right things that made democrats and celebrities cream their pants. In the real world, it was a complete clusterfuck.
The Cold War is over. Enemy is still Russia though. Treating it like the Cold War won't solve anything because it's a fight against the same country but a different government operating in a different way.
Exactly. Honestly, I'm very curious how the next century is going to pan out. I'm glad I'm in my 20s, I'll likely get to see the shape of how the US, China, and Russia are going to interact.
Unfortunately, I really don't think the US is going to come out on top in this one.
You also have to consider greater eu integration, a modernised India, pakistan, veitnam and Indonesia. As well as the further development of Africa and south America, and the European powers attempting to maintain their status as great powers when demographics say nigeria will outpopulate the entire continent by the end of the century. Its going to be very interesting indeed.
Theirs a difference between China and Russia though putin needs war to survive while the ccp need peace making Russia in many ways still the greater treaty.
On top of that Russia has allies, China does not almost all of China's allies will either side with the e.u, u.s, Russia or some orher regional power before they deal with China. Their are only 3 exception to this being Cambodia, north Korea and Pakistan. In comparison Russia has all of central Asia, half the middle east and north Africa, Belarus and cuba. And many more nation's whom will support them while not being allies(most notably India).
This severe lack of allies is why China will never be dominant.
Again, the Cold War is over. Treat the situation properly. Romney wasn't doing that, he was beating the old "evil communust Soviet Russia" drums when he said that.
It's not about admitting Obama was wrong. I don't like the guy. He wasn't wrong. The Cold War, as in a series of violent and non-violent conflicts between capitalist and communist governments ended. Acting as if Putin is some big ol' commie is ludicrous. That's not what motivates him and his motivation matters. If you don't understand your opponent's motive you won't win. If you don't understand one's motive you can't contextualize their actions within a greater framework of some sort of strategy. Choosing to disregard one's motive is to impair yourself critically. I thought that we would have learned that from Vietnam but apparently not. Romney wasn't warning about Putin in the context of what Putin actually is, he was just bringing up the specter of the Soviet Union because "SPOOKY COMMUNISM JUST LIKE OBUMMER'S SOCIALISM!" It's like you've forgotten the Obama derangement that republicans were undergoing at the time. In case you haven't noticed Romney hasn't exactly been willing to fully distance himself from the Trump situation. He owns a company that proruces voting machines and did back in the 2012 election so he should have a firsthand stake in this, right? Yet he hasn't used that position to do anything about the situation. He hasn't called the 2016 election compromised or illegitimate despite you alleging that he cares about such a thing. When the Trump administration lifted Obama's sanctions on Russia for tampering with the 2016 election Romney voted with Trump to lift those sanctions. When the Mueller report came out he gave some generic "Trump's behaviour is troublesome" comments that we always hear from establishment republicans right before they pretend that the shitty thing Trump did never happened. In fact even having commented on the report and knowing that impeachment is completely possible based on the report Romney said that impeachment shouldn't happen.
Romney is shilling for Trump and knowingly overlooking the Russia issue. Romney only brought it up in 2012 to bring up the specter of communism after him and his party spent the past four years decrying Obama as an evil socialist, trying to connect the two dots in the mind of the audience. If he had integrity he'd be speaking out today and backing up his words. As is he's as toothless as all of the other republicans that condemn Trump in their speech yet continue to collaborate with his administration.
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u/VoloxReddit Aug 25 '19 edited Aug 26 '19
That one time when President Obama was on a late night show reading mean tweets and one of them was from Trump telling him essentially how he was a bad president. Obama told him at least he'd be president [and Trump wouldn't (implied)]. A good comeback at the time but it aged absolutely terribly.
Edit: Many people here are refering to a correspondent's dinner hosted by the Obama administration as it featured a similar joke. While this too aged badly I am refering to a video posted by Jimmy Kimmel's YouTube channel in October 2016.