sparky wrote:" Trump Foreign Policy Advisor: 'Americans Are Fed Up With the Bullshit'
http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 03192.html
Mike Flynn, 57, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), has served as a foreign policy advisor to Donald Trump since the autumn of 2015.
SPIEGEL: General, we are here to say goodbye.
Flynn: Why goodbye?
SPIEGEL: Donald Trump announced that if he wins the election, he will not continue trans-Atlantic relations in their current form. ...
Flynn: He will never give up his style, his way to target his enemies. The Americans are fed up with the bullshit they heard for many years. They want the truth, they want to believe what their leaders are saying again.
We have to look at the cost of resourcing the US military around the world. How is that cost incurred, and how is that cost paid for? I'll give you an example. The Chinese get over 40 percent of their oil from the Middle East through the Persian Gulf, but have you ever seen a Chinese aircraft carrier sitting inside the Persian Gulf? For at least 40 years, the United States of America has been guaranteeing Chinese energy supplies. Sitting here today, the US provides funds to, honest to God, 99 percent of the countries on the planet.
We even give North Korea humanitarian aid. We give them food, and God knows what they do with it. They probably feed it to the crooks in the headquarters. This is not about an antagonistic relationship with Germany or NATO. This is about looking and examining what the needs are going forward for the 21st century and who is going pay for it.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
President Rodrigo Duterte should pursue bilateral talks with China following the favorable ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration but should keep the United States out of the picture, analysts and former government officials said Thursday.
Former ambassador Alberto Encomienda said the administration should be left to itself to figure out diplomatic ways of resolving the sea row.
Encomienda, who was secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Maritime and Ocean Affairs Center during the Arroyo administration, noted that “right after the arbitral ruling came down Beijing issued a statement that it is willing to negotiate with the Philippines. President Duterte also said that he is opposed to going to war.”
“If left to the two (countries), the ruling should not intensify anything. But, if there is foreign intervention, like the intervention of the US in the region, then that is a different situation,” Encomienda pointed out.
He echoed observations that the US “has been intervening too much in this region.”
“Every time we talk about the decision, we refuse to recognize the elephant in the room,” Valdes said. “We refuse to recognize that all of this started because of the influence of another alien power, specifically the United States, on the Philippines to (take) the course that we have taken.”
“This baffles the mind, and we can only conclude that the one that had persuaded us to go to this court is another superpower -- a superpower that has already occupied the Philippines through the EDCA,” he said.
Signed in 2014, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement allows the US greater military presence in the country as well as to use selected local military facilities.
Valdes echoed this view, saying: “This presence of the US in the Philippines is an occupation by a superpower on our sovereign rights.”
He said the South China Sea row “is really a fight between the US and China, and not the Philippines (against China),
Temario Rivera of the Center for People Empowerment in Governance said pursuing bilateral talks with China following the tribunal’s ruling would give Duterte “a practicable way out.”
“There are points of negotiation, including joint exploration or exploitation over the resources within the South China Sea,” he pointed out.
Nearly all Filipinos trust President Rodrigo Duterte as he embarked on his term, according to the results of a Pulse Asia Research, Incorporated survey released on Wednesday, July 20.
The results of the nationwide survey conducted among 1,200 Filipinos from July 2 to 8, showed that 91% of Filipinos trust Duterte, while less than half a percent distrust him, and 8% are undecided on whether or not to trust him.
“President Rodrigo R. Duterte begins his stint as the country’s 16th president with an overwhelming majority of his constituents expressing trust in him (91%) and practically no one distrusting him (0.2%). The rest of Filipinos (8%) cannot say if they trust or distrust President Duterte,” Pulse Asia president Ronald Holmes said.
Tanada wrote:You really need to spend a few minutes fact checking what every politician says for accuracy instead of taking it all at face value.
retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, and chair of the Military Intelligence Board from July 24, 2012, to August 2, 2014.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_T._Flynn
ROCKMAN wrote:Duterte is planning for the joint development of the oil resources using China's dime. Both China and the Phillipines win." And perhaps a little support for the Rockman's latest silly acronym: MADOD...the Mutually Assured Distribution Of Resources. Essentially developing a protocol between the US and China that allows each country to control future resources without a military confrontation. Similar to the MAD protocol between Russia and the US to avoid a nuclead war that neither could "win"
And just like the Cold War the MADOR approach would include pulling as many small actors as possible under each country's tent. Just as it seems the Philippines might be sliding onto China's side of the ledger.
Joe Biden Hints At South China Sea Intervention And Expresses Great Affection For Australia
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/07/19/joe-biden-hints-at-south-china-sea-intervention-and-expresses-gr/
Duterte said, "We will be chartering a course of our own. It will not be dependent on America, and it will be a line not intended to please anybody but the Filipino interest."
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wants a "conversation" with China on the South China Sea in a bid to work out a "win-win relationship" with the country, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said on Friday.
Duterte, who took office on June 30, has said he wants better relations with China and to attract Chinese investment for major infrastructure projects.
SeaGypsy wrote:Wrong again 6, Duterte has had at least 3 meetings with Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jinhua. The last was on 7/7, so either he is lying to your government or they are lying to you.
Former President Fidel V. Ramos is inclined to accept the offer of President Rodrigo Duterte to be the country's special envoy to China amid tensions in the West Philippne Sea.
Ramos, known as FVR, said he is set to meet Duterte this weekend to discuss the "mission."
As for his upcoming meeting with the President, FVR said he will seek Duterte's guidelines and "parameters" about the mission.
"From the very beginning, I already said I am very honored. And I said I can do the job. I also requested some guidelines and parameters from the President because that is the way it is. You must give a proper guidance to a subordinate that you want to perform and the mission will be accomplished," Ramos said.
According to Ramos, bilateral talks with China and contingency plans are among the "important things" he will discuss with the President.
Ramos, meanwhile, welcomed the positive statements made by Chinese officials on his possible appointment as special envoy.
Ramos said he will prioritize an approach that will be acceptable to both parties: livelihood or fishing.
But he noted that joint development could have a legal implication.
"We begin with the people's livelihood: fishing. If we agree to joint development, there's a legal restraint there. [Justice] Carpio had made it clear the area around Panatag Shoal, because of the PCA ruling, is ours. The understanding is that we open our hearts to both."
Malacañang clarified that bilateral talks with China are still being considered, after a US senator claimed in tweets that President Rodrigo Duterte had given assurances that negotiations with the Asian giant are out of the picture.
"The Philippines continues along a diplomatic path to fully realize the EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) rights granted by the Arbitration Court – engaging in bilateral talks to find mutually acceptable arrangements to RP (Republic of the Philippines), PROC (People's Republic of China); and consulting with our regional allies," said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella in a press release on Wednesday, July 20.
US to keep 'laser' focus on region: Biden
Joe Biden says Australia and the United States have built an 'unsurpassed partnership'.
'I am here because that partnership is a living connection between our two countries,' the US vice president told a Lowy Institute-US Studies Centre function in Sydney on Wednesday.
He said the US was 'all in' when it came to the Asia-Pacific region and 'anyone who questions America's dedication and staying power in the Asia-Pacific simply is not paying attention'.
The vice president said it was overwhelmingly in the United States' interest to keep a laser focus on the region.
Mr Biden said the US commitment to military strength is 'unparalleled'.
'We continue to outpace our competitors, spending more on our overall defence than the next eight nations in the world combined,' he said.
'We have the most capable ground forces in the world and unmatched ability to project naval and air power to any and every corner of the globe, and simultaneously.'
Sixty per cent of the US fleet and its most advanced military capabilities would be committed to the Pacific by 2020.
'The United States has kept and will keep a laser focus on the future in the Asia-Pacific.'
It was also in America's interest that Australia 'continue to grow, succeed and prosper', he said.
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2016/07/20/us-to-keep--laser--focus-on-region--biden.html?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=578f724d04d3012a8355be7d&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
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