The Exceptional(?) Mr. Trump

Billy_T wrote:

I would be shocked if the numbers of civilian dead had not seriously increased under Trump, over the already unconscionable and indefensible levels under Obama. I can’t see how it’s even possible that they haven’t.

Some reasons why:

The US military is fighting terrorism in 76 countries around the world — here’s where

1. Trump increased troop levels in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and added brand new fronts in Africa and Asia.

2. He loosened “rules of engagement” protocols for the military (and domestically, for police, border agents, etc.), mocking previous rules as “PC.”

3. He increased defense spending, with more increases in the pipeline.

4. His ICE and Justice Department have been far more aggressive in going after migrants — inside and outside the country.

5. His Justice Department has been far more aggressive in the war on drugs, as well as going after dissidents, especially those who protest against Trump.

Also, Trump’s bizarre blind eye toward everything Russia made this far more likely:

Syria and Russia’s latest offensive has killed 177 civilians in 2 weeks

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I dunno, BT. I’m not sure any or all of that would come close to 26,000 actual bombs dropped. But, I dunno. I would like to know. But of course as american citizens we are not allowed to know what our CIA/deep-state is really doing and who it is murdering on our behalf.

Could be Trump is a bigger mass murderer than Obama. Maybe Obama is the bigger mass murderer. Its debatable at this point.

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wv wrote:

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I dunno, BT. I’m not sure any or all of that would come close to 26,000 actual bombs dropped. But, I dunno. I would like to know. But of course as american citizens we are not allowed to know what our CIA/deep-state is really doing and who it is murdering on our behalf.

Could be Trump is a bigger mass murderer than Obama. Maybe Obama is the bigger mass murderer. Its debatable at this point.

w
v

WV,

Trump started with Obama’s baseline. There was no rollback of military action when he took over. From that point, he actually increased troop levels in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, as mentioned, and he added dozens of new fronts on the so-called GWOT.

How could he NOT drop more bombs and kill more civilians? Add to that, his relaxation of military rules of engagement, because he said, repeatedly, that our military had been previously handcuffed due to PC. Translation? Don’t worry about civilians as much as before.

Throw in a huge shift in Justice Department goals, methods, “enemies,” etc. Gloves off for migrants, minorities, inmates, dissidents, etc.

Again, I would be completely shocked if the Trump era did not cause a major spike in killings and maimings of the innocent, domestically and internationally. It would defy logic, common sense and everything we know about right-wing ideology, the GOP and Trump himself. And I say this knowing full well that Dem-controlled governments had obscene levels of this as well. Trump is worse. He and the GOP are worse.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by Billy_T.

Billy_T wrote:

wv wrote:

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I dunno, BT. I’m not sure any or all of that would come close to 26,000 actual bombs dropped. But, I dunno. I would like to know. But of course as american citizens we are not allowed to know what our CIA/deep-state is really doing and who it is murdering on our behalf.

Could be Trump is a bigger mass murderer than Obama. Maybe Obama is the bigger mass murderer. Its debatable at this point.

w
v

WV,

Trump started with Obama’s baseline. There was no rollback of military action when he took over. From that point, he actually increased troop levels in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, as mentioned, and he added dozens of new fronts on the so-called GWOT.

How could he NOT drop more bombs and kill more civilians? Add to that, his relaxation of military rules of engagement, because he said, repeatedly, that our military had been previously handcuffed due to PC. Translation? Don’t worry about civilians as much as before.

Throw in a huge shift in Justice Department goals, methods, “enemies,” etc. Gloves off for migrants, minorities, inmates, dissidents, etc.

Again, I would be completely shocked if the Trump era did not cause a major spike in killings and maimings of the innocent, domestically and internationally. It would defy logic, common sense and everything we know about right-wing ideology, the GOP and Trump himself. And I say this knowing full well that Dem-controlled governments had obscene levels of this as well. Trump is worse. He and the GOP are worse.

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Well you may be right, BT, but i havent seen any numbers. I’d like to see some actual stats on how many bombs Trump dropped.

Granted, i have no idea where the Obama 26-thousand number came from or how accurate it really is 🙂

And that is essentially my 2017-Continuing-never-ending-complaint — that we dont know WTF our government is actually doing. Layers and layers and layers of lies and lies and more lies. CIA-lies, NSA-lies, Corporate-PR-lies, Pentagon-lies, Presidential-lies, etc, etc, etc.

This American system jumped the shark a long time ago. We dont control it, and we dont have any say in what it does. We have a tiger by the tail. And we are blindfolded as well.

PS — …also, fwiw, just because Trump “increases military spending” in this or that area, does necessarily mean he is actually ordering the killing of more actual-humans. There may be some differences between Trump’s body count and Obama/Clintons. We have no idea how many people Obama or Trump are actually killing each and every day. We dont know. I’d like to know. I wish the american people wanted to know. But they dont.

w
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