U.S. officials familiar with the planning said options for “reclaiming” the vital waterway include close cooperation with Panama’s military and, absent that, possible war.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    483 months ago

    then-President Jimmy Carter transferred sovereignty to Panama in the late 1970s.

    We’re literally just invading another country to take their property. Which to be fair IS a long rich American tradition, but gawdamnit it has to stop.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      33 months ago

      No no no, they’re invading another country to checks notes stop the flow of fentanyl where 901955% of it flows through.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    63 months ago

    Called it. Can’t be arsed to look up the exact comment but I literally said he’d park a carrier on each end of the canal and would do this.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    83 months ago

    May he choke on his own flayed cock force fed to him… but he’s really quite the idiot. If he hadn’t fired the competent leaders of the military, he could have just asked them to pull the pre-made plans out of the file drawer. I don’t remember if it was at the end of bush’s term, or when Assange released documents, but there was a period where the fact was being talked about on everything from radio stations to the local pubs that the US had ‘just in case’ plans for many of their allies. I would also put money on most countries having vague guidelines and goals drawn up for emergencies where a dickhead in an allied country takes power.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    193 months ago

    Wow. Really? Like really really?

    We’re now gonna massacre a bunch of Panamanians for a shipping canal? Fuck.

    Well, now that they clearly have great OPSEC, I hope Panama sabotages the hell out of it.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      193 months ago

      I think Panama did say they’d destroy the canal before they’d allow it to be taken. I took a cursory look for that tidbit, but the news feeds about the canal are blown up at the moment.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        23 months ago

        If I had to wager a guess, destroying the canal wouldn’t stop a takeover. Rebuilding it would be a fraction of the price of the war.

        And don’t try telling me that the cost of the war will be much higher than just the military occupation because of shipping costs going up from the canal being shut down, the cost of actually maintaining the place, riots, etc because the idiots who want this wouldn’t listen for long enough to think about that anyway.

        • Ech
          link
          fedilink
          English
          113 months ago

          And the cost of the war would be a fraction of the money lost during the length of rebuilding. Remember that ship that blocked the Suez? Less than a week and cost nearly $10 billion. It would likely take years, plural, to get Panama functional again.

        • queermunist she/her
          link
          fedilink
          63 months ago

          The cost of rebuilding would be more than just the cost for materials and labor. They’d also have to deal with a generation of vengeful Panamanian guerillas killing the construction workers, sabotaging equipment, and sinking ships.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            23 months ago

            Yeh it’d be like the situation with the Houthis but worse because the cannal has choke points just one ship wide, and any ship destroyed would block the whole thing for months or even years.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    143 months ago

    Isn’t the Panama Canal basically running out of water? They should act like they’ve been cowed, sell it to us for a ton of money, and laugh all the way to the bank.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    15
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    The title is wildly over hyping this news. He said to plan multiple strategies, not to gear up for an invasion. Of course the military is gonna plan a war scenario. This is not the frightening headline its made out to be, shock the military plans stupid ways to put boots on the ground, the military LOVES to plan wars. Click baity for sure!

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      15
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      I have no idea what you’re saying…

      What is not frightening about planning to start a war? Are you saying that you could take the canal without starting a war? What other way of acquiring it are you thinking of? What other strategies do you think exist? When you ask the military to come up with multiple strategies to accomplish something, you’re really asking them “would we have to put troops on the ground, or could we do this with a bombing campaign? What about the threat of violence and an illegal embargo?”. But if you employ the military in any strategy they come up with, you’re starting a war.

      I mean, I guess we could offer to buy it, but it’s a cornerstone of their economy, we wouldn’t like the price. And Trump doesn’t go in for “bad deals” (paying for things).

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        23 months ago

        So I think it is have that unprovoked invasion is even on the list and that is enough to warrant the headline. Even ordering that to be considered is unambiguously bent a bad guy.

        However, another strategy involving the military could conceivably include providing engineering support in exchange for being favored by Panama. Violence isn’t the only thing in scope of the military. So you say they have more than one potential military plan is technically conceivable.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          2
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Well, while it is possible that the military does provide a nonviolent strategy along with their other ideas, do know that Trump will reject that out of hand. As I mentioned earlier, he’s not interested in “bad deals”, and any deal like this would have to at least be not terrible for Panama, and anything that doesn’t cripple Panama will be “a bad deal”.

          That leaves Trump with only military force, I’m afraid he has no choice, his hands are tied… 🙄

    • Phoenixz
      link
      fedilink
      53 months ago

      Click bait, yes, but leave it up to trump to say the quiet part out loud over and over.

      People should be afraid of what’s coming

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      53 months ago

      While they do report multiple strategies and I’m sure that’s true, the fact that explicitly unprovoked military invasion is even on the table at all deserves every bit of outrage.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    463 months ago

    Please remember that all this is noise to hide the great billionaire sacking of america. Smoke screen.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      233 months ago

      Threats to other countries isn’t noise… It doesn’t seem appropriate to hand wave away threats to other people.

      • Guy Ingonito
        link
        fedilink
        33 months ago

        Feels like they’re trying to overwhelm us with a barrage of shit.

        The Drake v Kendrick rap battle taught us that refuting your opponent point by point leads to failure. You need to hammer your opponent on his weakest point over and over.

        If we focus our efforts on his collapsing of the economy, will we be able to force him to drop the dumb imperialism stuff and focus on defense? I don’t know.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      283 months ago

      Putin knows that one of the quickest ways to destroy the US is if the rest of western civilization abandons it. Russia saw firsthand how quickly nearly the entire world joined in to sanction and abandon them when they invaded Ukraine with that bullshit story. The Panama shit is an even worse excuse, almost guaranteed to turn the western world fully against the US.

      However, it’s also physically separated enough from the US that Americans at home that don’t pay attention won’t be directly affected to turn against it with retaliation, the Republican base is racist and narcissistic enough to back it seriously, and with a large enough power imbalance so unlike Ukraine there’s no chance of a prolonged conflict.

      The infrastructure isn’t in place yet for them to just do whatever they want and arrest every protester like Russia does, so they do have to still take that into account, Panama is remote and unknown to a large portion of the population sadly. But the building of Panama Canal is something that many learned about in school as a pivotal historical infrastructure project. Something still in use today and referenced in the news even though they may not know where it is. For the America is Best narcissist, taking back what “we” built is an admirable goal.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      93 months ago

      My theory:

      Panama controls a major trade route and charges shitloads of money for each ship that passes.

      Same reason for Canada. The North-West Passage is melting and will be open year round in the not too distant future.

      The same makes sense for Greenland if you consider Russia as a trade partner with lots of raw metals. Plus Greenland itself may have oil. Again, this when the ice melts completely.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      603 months ago

      He wants to be a strongman and he realizes peoples’ impression of him is nearly as small as his penis.

    • DaveyRocket
      link
      fedilink
      English
      40
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Because you can’t really invade a place full of white people like Greenland or Canada. Even the diehard Trump fans would probably not be okay with that. On the other hand, a country full of poor, brown people that have only ever been fucked over by America? Well shit, we can’t wait to bomb them! George Carlin explained it, America loves bombing brown people. Anyone in the US military with the slightest amount of backbone will not follow these illegal orders. See the Nuremberg Trials if you’re not sure what an illegal order looks like. They aren’t even trying with a WMD hoax, this is just an illegal invasion.

      • tiredofsametab
        link
        fedilink
        313 months ago

        Even the diehard Trump fans would probably not be okay

        Given the number of diehard trump fans who wish harm to other members of the US and agitate for an internal war, I doubt this is true for the majority of them.

        • DaveyRocket
          link
          fedilink
          English
          73 months ago

          You may be right. When logic and reason are your enemy, no one will be able to guess your next move (apparently kicking self in nuts repeatedly).

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        17
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        Give Fox News 6 months of their two minutes hate bullshit and Trumpers will be frothing at the mouth for Canadian blood. Americans have already proven that we’ll follow a blatant liar into war if the propaganda sets the tone for it.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          93 months ago

          And then in 10 years everyone gets to pretend that they were ‘against it the whole time’ like they did with the Iraq War.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            4
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            Ain’t that the sorry truth? On one hand, I hope you’re right and that we have an after soon where we can enjoy forgetting haha

            But — I remember protesting the Iraq war and I told my parent that this war didn’t make sense at all and I couldn’t stand for it. My parent was appalled. They literally cried and said that they were sorry to have a traitor for a child. Haha they hate the Iraq war now! Amazing!

            Remember when Michael Moore got booed at his acceptance speech for some Hollywood award because he had the audacity to be like—yo this Iraq war shit is wrong and does not look like it’s based on anything? And even Hollywood BOOED him. Yanked him off stage!

            Remember the little American car flags. On everyone’s stupid car windows?

            You had to vocally support the troops if you were in public too. People who had become devoted to the Bush admin forced this in every conversation with strangers angling for a fight.

            And we found out the Weapons of Mass Destruction were not real. They weren’t real. The have New York Times journalists that testified to admitted falsifying articles for the Bush Admin.

            Looking back the atmosphere Then was a primer for Now.

            The whole world stood with America and it was for a lie. When I was in Italy after 9/11, an entire restaurant stopped service because we were American and the restaurant expressed that they were with us and they felt deep grief for our country. Europe cried with us. Only to be betrayed 25 years later.

            How do people who lived through these times forget these aggravating and tender moments? They don’t seem to remember and connect the dots.

            I can only assume those who don’t make choices on principles stand for nothing. They base all their current attitudes on social hierarchy and nothing else. Mein Herz ist krank.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              23 months ago

              We saw the same fervour in the UK with the Brexit vote. Family members and people I personally know, who were vociferously in favour at the time, claim now to have always believed it a bad idea.

              There’s the idiom that goes something like “those who stand for nothing will believe in anything.” It always amazes me when people fall for obvious nonsense. Especially otherwise intelligent and thoughtful people.

        • DaveyRocket
          link
          fedilink
          English
          1
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Maybe, but relationships between the American and Canadian military are way too entrenched, even if it was a direct order, it’s pretty hard to suddenly point your weapons at someone who’s been a dedicated ally. Though I won’t blame Canadians for being more than a little pissed for quite some time, I just don’t see how this would actually happen.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        33 months ago

        I entirely agree we shouldn’t do it, but I don’t believe it would necessarily be an illegal order to follow.

        Invading a sovereign country for overtly offensive reasons isn’t against any particular military law, it’s just shitty.

        The president doesn’t have the power to declare war, only to do everything involved in a war, but I don’t think that would actually make any of the orders illegal, unless they were to explicitly do some war crimes or some such.

        • DaveyRocket
          link
          fedilink
          English
          23 months ago

          I get what you’re saying, though maybe when America becomes the new nazis, we can have a Nuremberg Trial 2.0 and set some new precedents!

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            13 months ago

            I have my doubts that any nation is going to accept the precedent that other nations can have authority over their use of military force.

            That also sets a difficult precedent, both for soldiers and the court. If following an order to participate in an invasion of another country, while only engaging with valid military targets according to the rules of war, is a war crime if the international community later decides it wasn’t justified then soldiers will become war criminals not because of their actions being brutal or unethical, but because they were insufficiently aware of the global opinion of a war.

            Second, it potentially puts the court in a position where they suddenly need to imprison literally hundreds of thousands of soldiers, to say nothing of arresting and trying them. This could easily make the court appear toothless when they fail to have the power to arrest the US army, nor to actually have a place to put them.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      73 months ago

      The lake that feeds it is not recharging fast enough so they’re limiting passage of ships and making them take longer and more dangerous routes. So he’s probably planning to commit ecocide on the lake for the handful of years it can sustain the canal at max capacity but long enough to stymie other routes being planned or built.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    1563 months ago

    What did we hear from Trumpers last year, that he was the candidate for peace or some such shit?

  • 𝔼𝕞𝕚𝕝
    link
    fedilink
    English
    13 months ago

    How does this pan out if one had to guess? Will other affected countries/powers allow this? I’m guessing anything from WW3 to nothing should be expected