Donald Trump - First 100 Days as POTUS

[Azdgari]

This won't be my best post, as it's quite late, but with regards to your post about Islam being inherently violent, I was horrified to get into an argument tonight and discover, factually, that the US-led coalition is responsible for at least 260 civilian deaths, including 70 children, last month alone, and well over a thousand civilian deaths over the course of the Syrian civil war. Perhaps 'Islamic' nations don't exactly have the monopoly on violence that it may seem. Statistically, the US military is far more dangerous to civilians of Syria than than Islamic terrorists are to civilians of the US.

[Elton John]

What about the rebuilding and rehabilitation of Japan post WW2? You can definitely say that we needed to after we dropped two atomic bombs on them (and it's arguable that if we didn't, a ground war in japan would have cost far more lives for both sides, and would have killed a lot of civillians) , but we could have chosen not to like we did for europe post ww1 (correct me if I am wrong.) and while we did impose some strange rules on them, because of the rehabilitation right now Japan has been a functioning society since ww2 ended.

Yeah, that's the best I could come up with. American imperialism has not been for the best.

[Squeely]

Aaaand Trump bombed Syria. Which was exactly what I had been hoping to avoid.

Good job, Trump. I had some optimism about you, and in a few short months, you've destroyed all of it.

[existentialnihilist]

I vehemently detest Trump and concur with Squeely that his bombing of Syria was impetuous as he neglected to factor the political implications of such an action especially with Russia being allied with Assad. This and Trump's hardline approach to China and North Korea means that he is basically treading on thin ice.

Trump's islamophobic rhetoric not only perpetuates the "us vs them" narrative but also alienates muslims which is one factor that contributes to them joining the Islamic State.

[Panda-chan]

Seeing as how Trump reaches his 100th day in office tomorrow, I guess I'll toss in my 2 cents.

I have to admit I'm not very happy with a lot of Trump's recent policies, especially how he has reneged on so many of his campaign promises. He pledged to "drain the swamp" but has instead hired the swamp to fill key roles in his cabinet. He's gone after Julian Assange, the man who practically handed him the election. He pledged "America first" but is continuing Obama's legacy of the United States being the World Police. I still don't regret voting for him rather than the globalist puppet Hillary Clinton, but I'm somewhat disappointed by how his presidency has turned out.

I was also absolutely furious by his bombing of the Syrian airbase a few weeks ago. This was the single BIGGEST reason I chose Trump over Hillary, because I do NOT want us to be involved in another bullshit Middle Eastern proxy war. For anyone who doesn't know the truth about the Syrian "civil" war, the CIA has been plotting for years to remove Assad from power, simply because he is allied with Iran/Russia/Lebanon and refuses to let the Qatar-Turkey pipeline be built through his country. That's right, this Middle Eastern war (like Iraq, Libya, etc.) is once again all about oil.

The US-backed "rebels" fighting against Assad are mostly foreign mercenaries that were trained in the Gulf states; they are literally just Al Qaeda with a different name. Western coverage of the Syrian civil war is nothing more than lies and propaganda at this point. The best thing Trump can do is get us out of this clusterfuck of a country, stop giving aid to the terrorist rebels, and let the Syrian government deal with its own problems.

[quote="WildSimba"]But we shouldn't be dictating our country purely off of moral concern. Especially when it's a possible national security issue. It's a little more than a bit of a crime rate increase, what's happening in France and Germany is only getting worse by the week. You know the old phrase "One bad apple spoils the whole bunch." Same thing applies here, we're talking about bringing in uncivilized people into a western society. It doesn't work. We'd be taking far too big of a risk taking them in, considering they're even using women and children to commit acts of violence (primarily suicide bombing). We just simply can't be the moral high ground for every country like we've tried so hard to be in the past.[/quote]
The reason the refugee crisis is so bad in Europe is because the "refugees" aren't being vetted properly. Human trafficking has become quite a lucrative business and European countries are doing very little to curb it. It's shocking that a disproportionate number of refugees are young men who are mostly not even from Syria and it's pretty much common knowledge that ISIS is taking advantage of the lack of oversight to smuggle their own members into Europe.
I don't have a problem with accepting refugees from wartorn countries but the way Europe handled it is atrocious. We can't just give into our emotions and accept every asylum seeker with a sob story. I personally think Trump's travel ban was excessive and premature, but it was step in the right direction.

[quote="existentialnihilist"]Trump's islamophobic rhetoric not only perpetuates the "us vs them" narrative but also alienates muslims which is one factor that contributes to them joining the Islamic State.[/quote]
Agreed to an extent, although we also can't ignore the fact that there is a very cancerous element to modern political Islam that we do need to be actively fighting against. It's silly to act like racist bigots are the reason Muslims are joining ISIS; the blame should rest on the people that were susceptible to radicalism in the first place.

Finally, I'm quite wary about the situation with North Korea. I'm glad that Trump is actually trying to deal with them rather than continuing Obama's useless policy of "strategic patience". I'm just very, very worried that something stupid will trigger World War III and Kim will go berserk and nuke anime Japan or South Korea. Trump should make every effort to resolve this peacefully because a nuclear war with North Korea will almost certainly involve Russia and China.

[Elton John]

Trump makes me really miss gw bush.

I never thought i'd have that kind of emotion towards dubya.

[Squeely]

[quote="Elton John"]Trump makes me really miss gw bush.

I never thought i'd have that kind of emotion towards dubya.[/quote]

Same. My gut feeling during the Republican primaries was that I'd like most, if not all, the candidates more than Trump. His presidency has just proved that inkling right. And I'm far from the only one who feels that way - Trump is sitting at a measly 39% approval rating.

[Regulus]

The best thing about Trump is that he's so unlikely to get elected for a second term.

[Squeely]

[quote="Regulus"]The best thing about Trump is that he's so unlikely to get elected for a second term.[/quote]
I'd like to believe that, but truth be told, I have my doubts. Trump unfortunately does still have a fanbase, and if the Dems give us another candidate who is hard to like... I can sadly see another election going to Trump.

On the plus side, I've seen a lot of Republicans speaking up about voter's remorse, so perhaps they'll vote Dem or at least third-party in the next election. Though a lot of people are party-loyal, so who knows. I honestly feel bad for Republican voters who no longer like Trump, since they may not have anyone they want to vote for next election. I guess there's also the possibility that Trump won't run for re-election, but unless his age catches up with him, I doubt he'll stay out of the runnings.

[Azdgari]