Down East

You're full of it. The USA wasn't the only country offering assurances to Ukraine during the Budapest agreement. The UK, France, and China also offered their own assurances.......so where are they now? Do you want Russia lobbing nukes to appease your nonsense of the USA going to war with Russia. Europe smugly broke their own promises with NATO by not honoring the agreed proportions of military spending to GDP. The USA can only use European bases at the invite of their governments. Coups? Britain initiated the 1953 coup in Iran for economic reasons...................... and the US assisted due to the Big Red Scare that was sweeping the Europe and the USA. The stuff you are throwing out would be kind of funny if it wasn't so sad, but please, keep running off at the mouth with a half assed understanding of world events.

A lot of people believe that it was entirely a CIA coup taking down Mosaddegh, but that isn't the entire story. The CIA certainly played a role for sure, but it was British MI6 that initiated the coup because England was going to lose billions of dollars worth of oil machinery and oil contracts under Mosaddegh. It gets even more nuanced from there. Mosaddegh reneged on the deal it had for years with the AOIC and was going to take over the oil fields under the guise of nationalization. England protested to the International court. The International court (ICJ) sided with Iran on the oil fields because they stated that the AOIC was made up of civilian companies with no standing. The British government actually owned a controlling 51% of the AOIC and said "screw that". Britain was bankrupt at the time due to WWII, and it was losing the last of its empire as well. The country was deeply in debt and trying to claw its way out of bankruptcy. They were determined that there was no way that Iran was going renege on their deal with the oil fields and machinery. The oil was basically a life saver for their economy at the time. Meanwhile, the Soviets were waiting in the wings wanting to make a deal with Iran so they could buy into their oil. That was not going to happen if the USA had anything to do with it. The USA, Britain, and a lot of other European countries were in a panic about the Soviets back then. In the end........A lot of countries didn't cry all that loudly over the coup because of the Soviets and the creep of communism. And as a side note........some countries still resented Iran because they were a huge supplier raw materials to Hitler's Germany before and during the early parts of WWII.

I'm guilty of this myself as a retired Navy guy. A very large percentage of other retired military from my era are of the same mindset. The hostage situation happened during my second year mark. Four years later, I was stationed in Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico when the Marine Barracks blew up. The civilian secretary in my office came in one morning crying because CNN had just broadcasted that the Marine Barracks in Lebanon had just blown up. Her husband was a Lieutenant Navy/Marine Liaison living on the second floor of the barracks at the time. Luckily, he wasn't inside when the explosion occurred, but It took 4 days for the poor lady to find out that he was OK due to the confusion. I lost a good friend on the USS Cole. Engineman 2nd Class Marc I. Nieto He always called me "Dr. Diesel" and was constantly pestering me about technical issues with his gear. Great kid! So yeah, I'm still bitter.

My entire point was that the Euro's have been constantly calling the USA warmongers for the past 50 years, but they are always the first ones to call the US President whenever there is a situation in the world that might affect their economies. They have been been neglecting their own militaries knowing that the Americans are stupid enough to keep bailing them out. The Euro's had a royal meltdown when Trump called them out for not keeping their pledge of committing a few percentage points of their GDP to military spending. The EU should be its own power. There are 29 countries in the EU and there is no excuse for them not making a joint effort to protect their economies and sovereignties. The US has done 75% of the heavy lifting in keeping the Persian Gulf open to world trade while Europeans and many other countries reap the benefits. Then the Europeans turn right around and bash Americans to appease their left wing voters. As far as my fellow Americans go, we should not be trusted any longer because there there is no continuity in foreign policy from one election cycle to the next. On top of it all, we are in a non shooting civil war right now. Might sound crazy to some but it's very true. We used to be country first.........but now days we are party first.

If the Euro's hadn't been so weak for the past 75 years, things may have turned out different. They enjoyed bragging about their free health care and enlightened point of views, but they let their militaries become nothing but little boys clubs. Look at the Ukraine for example. The Euro's didn't give a shit about the Ukraine until Putin actually sent the tanks in towards the capitol. They didn't do a single thing about Crimea. They didn't do a single thing about Ukraine's Donbas region. They all sat back and bitched about the USA for not stopping it. Every time the a Euro sovereignty/economy has been threatened................................they begged for American carriers. Look at Germany. It took a US president to stare down the Soviets and reunify their country. I'm not excusing the US for it's Iraq/Iran blunders, but the world would be a much more dangerous place without it. You said rogue? Iran has been at war with the USA for 47 years. They have been at war with various Arab neighbors for decades. They have been at war with Israel for decades. They financially support Hama, Hezbollah, and many other radical groups throughout the middle east. Iran supplies Russia with thousands of drones being used against the Ukraine. Let the liberals cry all they want about Iran. They are the ones that appeased these radicals to the tune of billions of dollars and made fools of themselves..

Your sarcasm aside, you are being overly simplistic. The war powers act states that the president is required to inform congress within 48 hours of military action, and he is limited to 60 days without a congressional vote. Congress must vote to declare/fund military actions that go past 60 days. Obama could have been impeached for his 2011 Libya bombing actions by continuing the bombing beyond the 60 day limit. Congress could have cared less.

Hated to read that Rachael Carpani passed away. Beautiful lady, and I loved her as "Jodi" on McLeods Daughters.