Put more pressure on Congress. They really aren’t getting enough lately, honestly. They could assert their war powers at any moment.

USAID was a miniscule amount of money but “too much” to spend, and this endless war is a small price to pay?

The first Trump shutdown in the first term happened because Trump scrapped the existing Republican/Democrat deal made in Congress and demanded that there also be cuts to legal immigration in addition to the agreed-upon wall funding and increased ICE budget.

“Trump’s policy doesn’t make sense so it must be fake news” is a bad way to cope with reality.

Stephen Miller and a number of GOP leaders are demanding that legal immigration be frozen or reduced.

Intel set up shop in Israel long ago, but I’m still boycotting. At least we have AMD as an alternative.

Sepp of all people, when he’s saying this you know things are much much worse.

That’s the point, it will turn into Iraq. And mercenaries will still require congressional authorization.

That’s not at all accurate. Toddlers are not an example of moral creatures; sharing and empathy are not developed at that age either.

If religion went away, violence would still exist. Atheist regimes still commit genocides. Humans just suck.

That’s simply false. I’m a practicing Muslim and I’m peaceful because of my religion and not despite it. My religion pushes me to be more patient with people and respect people who probably don’t deserve it.

Claiming that Muslims are peaceful despite their religion is a profoundly ignorant take. Talk to any kid in Sunday school if you don’t believe me. Islam has the same root word in Arabic as “peace.”

Here’s the problem as I see it. Trump, Hegseth, and Rubio are deeply overconfident. Trump’s former ambassador was telling BBC that Venezuela is much easier than Iraq. Trump fell into the same mistake as Bush did of thinking the president is unpopular and that the outside opposition is all set to swoop in and replace the government and give Trump everything he wants in oil. This is too tantalizing. The problem is that the new government is not stable, patriots and nationalists and pro-Maduro pro-army forces will resist and fight a foreign occupation. Trump thought he could skirt the problems of Iraq by doing only airstrikes and wrapping up the whole conflict in less than 60 days (so that Congress can be cut out of the whole thing).

Rebels can sabotage the oil lines, that means the need for troops to protect the oil. That will go longer than the 60 day limit; so either Trump will have to find another military or ask Congress for authorization. Trump will likely force Congress to go along; Republicans are too scared to cross Trump and Democrats are afraid of being labeled unpatriotic for not going along with it. The fact is that Dem leaders are being silent on this. The only good take I’ve seen is Graham Platner issuing a statement about how illegal this whole thing is, not defending Maduro or sounding unpatriotic.