The Obama "To Make Important Middle East Speech" MEGATHREAD

[Zoupa]

As far as I know, we weren't allies.  Though we did send vital supplies.

Reading about France's pathetic attempts to get us to intervene in Horne's To Lose a Battle: France 1940 gives me the giggles.

BONJOUR! Could you send some of your pathetically small and underequipped army over as fast as you can? Yes, they'll get overrun with us too!

That's what good allies do. Zombie Lafayette is: disappointed 

Y'all was lucky to get what youse got.

I'm thankful for all the sacrifices Mother Russia did for us in both World Wars.

[Viking]

As far as I know, we weren't allies.  Though we did send vital supplies.

Reading about France's pathetic attempts to get us to intervene in Horne's To Lose a Battle: France 1940 gives me the giggles.

BONJOUR! Could you send some of your pathetically small and underequipped army over as fast as you can? Yes, they'll get overrun with us too!

That's what good allies do. Zombie Lafayette is: disappointed 

Y'all was lucky to get what youse got.

I'm thankful for all the sacrifices Mother Russia did for us in both World Wars.

I'm thankful the Russians joined us first time round and the NAZIs go them to join us the second time round. The Ruskis did it for themselves.

[CountDeMoney]

Yes yes, you like the jews and we butcher them every chance we get, I know the drill. I was looking more for historical reasons and whatnot. You seem to be saying there's an emotional attachment because of the substantial role jews have played in US history, yes?

An emotional attachment? That's like saying we have an emotional attachment with Europe.  They're who we are.

They're who you are too, but it's just more fun sticking them in ovens and watching their yarmulkes pop when they're done.

[CountDeMoney]

As far as I know, we weren't allies.  Though we did send vital supplies.

Reading about France's pathetic attempts to get us to intervene in Horne's To Lose a Battle: France 1940 gives me the giggles.

BONJOUR! Could you send some of your pathetically small and underequipped army over as fast as you can? Yes, they'll get overrun with us too!

That's what good allies do. Zombie Lafayette is: disappointed 

Too true.

We should've had battlewagons forward deployed to the UK in 1939.

[LaCroix]

You seem to be saying there's an emotional attachment because of the substantial role jews have played in US history, yes?

some article posted on languish a year or two ago blamed lbj and his grandmother

[Zoupa]

Yes yes, you like the jews and we butcher them every chance we get, I know the drill. I was looking more for historical reasons and whatnot. You seem to be saying there's an emotional attachment because of the substantial role jews have played in US history, yes?

An emotional attachment? That's like saying we have an emotional attachment with Europe.  They're who we are.

They're who you are too, but it's just more fun sticking them in ovens and watching their yarmulkes pop when they're done.

Less of the rhetoric, more of the historic please. Why stand by them no matter what, compared to Zambia, Laos or Tadjikistan?

[LaCroix]

Why stand by them no matter what?

because they are long-standing allies, i presume. it doesn't help that they're more civilized than much of the middle east, are whiter than the arabs, and have the support of the religious in america. it's not hard to find a reason to support israel over the brown people

[CountDeMoney]

Less of the rhetoric, more of the historic please. Why stand by them no matter what, compared to Zambia, Laos or Tadjikistan?

The same reason we stand by you assholes no matter what.

[Ed Anger]

As far as I know, we weren't allies.  Though we did send vital supplies.

Reading about France's pathetic attempts to get us to intervene in Horne's To Lose a Battle: France 1940 gives me the giggles.

BONJOUR! Could you send some of your pathetically small and underequipped army over as fast as you can? Yes, they'll get overrun with us too!

That's what good allies do. Zombie Lafayette is: disappointed 

Too true.

We should've had battlewagons forward deployed to the UK in 1939.

Ewww, I don't know about that. Let the Europeans bash themselves for a while before we get involved.

[CountDeMoney]

We should've had battlewagons forward deployed to the UK in 1939.

Ewww, I don't know about that. Let the Europeans bash themselves for a while before we get involved.

Fuck that.  Any time is good Nazi killing time.

[Ed Anger]

We should've had battlewagons forward deployed to the UK in 1939.

Ewww, I don't know about that. Let the Europeans bash themselves for a while before we get involved.

Fuck that.  Any time is good Nazi killing time.

Let 'em overrun the frogs first. They deserve it.

[CountDeMoney]

We should've had battlewagons forward deployed to the UK in 1939.

Ewww, I don't know about that. Let the Europeans bash themselves for a while before we get involved.

Fuck that.  Any time is good Nazi killing time.

Let 'em overrun the frogs first. They deserve it.

Why do they deserve it?

[Admiral Yi]

Less of the rhetoric, more of the historic please. Why stand by them no matter what, compared to Zambia, Laos or Tadjikistan?

Because up until around Sabra and Shatila the story of Israel was very much a plucky David fighting off several Goliaths.  Starving Auschwitz survivers sneak through a British blockade and pick up smuggled Sten guns to battle massive professional armies from the entire Arab world to protect their *UN recognized* independence.

The question I've got for you is why Europe decided to throw Israel under the bus in 1967.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Can an Amerikkkan enlighten as to why the US and Israel have such close ties? US jewish voting population? Cold War history between the two?

I don't see what the US gets out of this special relationship.

I think it's a combination of right time/place. We were going to support anyone during the Cold War that we could, much of the Middle East was "in play" as to who they would side with. Both us and the Soviets pumped a lot of money into countries in that region. Egypt sort of went back and forth, Iraq sort of went back and forth. Iraq notably had a lot of support from us but also a lot of Soviet military hardware that we tore up in Gulf War I.

Israel was a lot more amenable to being on "our" side than the side of the Soviets, they were one we could move into the "firm" column in supporting the side of the West against the savage, unwashed Russian monsters. The large Jewish population in America also tightened this up significantly. Sometime in the past 30 years fundamentalist American Protestants also became massive supporters of Israel because they intrinsically think it is "right" for the people of David to control the Holy Land (contrary to popular belief only a very small number of the most extreme fundamentalist Protestants believe that Israel has to rebuild the temple for the rapture to happen.)

I'm with you though, ROI on the shit hole that is the Middle East is absolutely terrible. I look more to our relationship with Saudi Arabia than our relationship with most other European countries as an example of how to get decent ROI. Unfortunately we made the mistake of stationing some troops in Saudi Arabia which enraged some hard liners.

[Viking]

What made the US pick socialist Israel was Nassers trying to play the superpowers against each other and eventually going for Soviet funding of the Aswan dam.