US official: US drone shot down by Iran in international airspace

@ronvalencia: Point by point.

What has Macron got to do with any of the points relating to Iran? Syria and Iran are entirely two separate sovereign nations.

Regarding Libya, you clearly have zero understanding of the situation. As evil as Gadaffi was, his rule over Libya is by far better than than the war that is going on now.

The war has been going on since 2011 and it still rages on. Thousands and thousands have died as a result. On Libyan ground and in the Mediterranean Ocean as refugees drown crossing over to Europe.

Is American military adventurism a good thing in your opinion? Has it actually made any of those countries safer, more prosperous?

@ronvalencia: Links?

Do you really need links for the comments I made above?

You need links to prove that America used waterboarding on prisoners?

You need links to show you that the US invasion of Iraq was illegal?

You need links to prove American planes are above Syria airspace?

You need links to show the US government has a ridiculous amount of debt that is owed to China and other nations?

It’s all be widely reported. Which rock do you live under?

1. Both Russia and Iran has their "little green men" proxies in Syria and they were wiped out when attacked US base.

French argument is for Syria. Hint: Oil from Saudi to Turkey then to EU.

2. Bullshit.

3. Refer to my French argument on Libya.

4. US doesn't need Middle East oil. Your "The US and practically most countries in the world will be short of crude oil" argument is bullshit.

In the third quarter of 2018, the U.S. imported roughly 10.2 million barrels of petroleum per day, with the largest amounts coming from Canada (41%) and Saudi Arabia (10%).

In the third quarter of 2018, the U.S. exported roughly 7.5 million barrels of petroleum per day.3 The largest markets for U.S. petroleum exports are Mexico and Canada, but the U.S. exports petroleum to 180 countries.

The recent increase in domestic oil production, especially since 2010, has had a significant impact on U.S. petroleum imports and exports. From 2005 to 2015, the United States’ reliance on petroleum imports fell from 60% to 25% of total consumption, while exports increased by over 300%. Since 2015, imports have remained fairly steady at approximately 10 million barrels per day, but exports have continued to increase, from 4.7 million barrels per day in 2015 to 7.6 million barrels per day in early-mid-2018. The Energy Information Administration projects that U.S. import reliance for oil will continue to fall over the coming decade.

US doesn't need Middle East oil.

1. Who cares

2. Who cares. Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Bush,_House_of_Saud

3. Who cares.

4. US government debt is mostly owned by US entities. China's proportion is minor.

https://www.willistowerswatson.com/-/media/WTW/Images/Press/2018/01/Global-Pension-Asset-Study-2018-Japan.pdf

Nanny state savings (pension funds) vs GDP ratio

Australia: 138.4 percent

US: 131.2 percent

UK: 121.3 percent

Canada: 107.8 percent

...

Japan: 62.5 percent

Germany: 12.9 percent

China: 1.5 percent

Try again.

Attacks on Japanese's Middle East trade only accelerates Japanese re-armament. Norway is useless.

@ronvalencia:

1. Waterboarding? Who cares? I care and millions and millions of others.

2. Invasion of Iraq was illegal? Again, who cares? I do so do millions of others.

3. American invasion of Syrian airspace? Who cares? Well everyone does, no one wants illegal entry into their airspace.

4. Yes true the majority of US debt is owed to Americans. But is it not embarrassing it owes over a trillion to China, over a trillion to Japan. Is the debt not an issue?

5. Crude oil. Here you seriously lack understanding of crude oil and refining.

Not all crude oil is equal. As I said above, US oil production is very light-sweet and after refining you mainly produces condensate, naphtha and gasoline. You cannot fly a plane with it, nor can you move a tank or a ship with this type of crude oil.

Also as the article you showed, the US imported imported 10.2m bbl/day and exported 7.2m bbl/day!

No country is oil independent. Even Saudi Arabia buys oil!

They flew it over in planes ,all large transactions are done in wire transfers. That was a pay off. History has shown you can't buy peace.

As far as navy head gear their ship hats are part of their working uniform. When you leave a ship tp go on liberty or functions you wear a dress uniform which has a prescribed cover for the uniform.

Literally none of this is true. Assets were simply unfrozen. How can one human be so wrong and disingenuous with every post he makes? You're the poster child for misinformation and the spread of propaganda.

Maybe he just watches conservative news?

'News' would be a stretch.

Not much difference between news and entertainment on Foxnews, so I guess the lines are blurred out.

Like I said, intel can change over time, even over the course of a few minutes. One example I can give you is when I was in Afghanistan we had to call off a strike on a compound less than a minute before we would have hit the target because an innocent party drove their vehicle too close to the impact area.

Neither one of us were there when the initial briefing was made, so we can’t say what the original conversation went like as well as the subsequent one that caused Trump to cancel it. It’s the job of his military advisers to ensure he is briefed for those decisions and they usually give the big picture on the initial briefing, especially since mistakes are made political no matter who is in office. President Obama got a lot of shit for some of his decisions as Commander-in-Chief too, with a decent portion of it undeserved.

Seems like a dumb thing to go to war over. Both nations need to grow up.

And like I said, it's not so much the decision as it is changing his mind for the world to see which gives off an impression of indecisiveness and weakness. From what I'm reading, no new intel came about at the last second, it was only Trump's inquisitiveness that changed his mind but this was after it had come out that a strike was already underway.

Frankly, I'm curious if Trump actually has any real foreign policy strategy at all, because from the looks of it, he seems to be winging it as it comes his way.

No doubt both sides are acting dumb, but Trump and Bolton started provocations and increased tensions dramatically..

They pulled out of the deal even though the ICA and EU told them not to, as all data showed Iran was not breaking the deal. Then they put up economic sanctions.

Wait, so your argument is that a shitty deal that only benefits the Iranian dictatorship and helps destabilise the middle-east even more than it already is, is better than no deal and heavy sanctions on a country that apparently feels like it´s ok to attack 2 tankers and shoot down a US drone.

And no Trump and the us did not start any provocation, he saw the deal for what it was and of course backed out it as you should.

That's either subjective or 8ball stuff.

I'm just telling you factually how all of these tensions started. This is Trump and Bolton's botched foreign policy.

Obama, others warned Trump that pulling out of Iran nuke deal could lead to war

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/obama-others-warned-trump-pulling-out-iran-nuke-deal-could-n1020461

How Donald Trump created one hell of a mess with Iran

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/opinions/us-iran-mess-trump-endgame-bergen/index.html

Trump Abandoned a Nuclear Deal a Year Ago. The U.S. and Iran Are Now on a Collision Course

https://time.com/5586246/iran-nuclear-deal-anniversary/

@zaryia: well, first of all, the threat of something should not keep anyone in a bad deal that in the long term is far worse than no deal.

And your 3 sources are all stating opinions not facts and to boot, they are all far-left leaning.

They have a factual time line of events within them. They have factual statements from the ICA. They have factual statements from the EU. This is Trump and Bolton's foreign policy disaster. Pulling out of the deal and applying economic sanctions caused this mess.

Saying otherwise is to say reality has been altered. This is on Trump, sorry.