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I am aware of the conflict in the Ethiopia region. I have Ethiopian/Eritrean neighbors and friends. I remember the last time there was peace being happy for the

I am aware of the conflict in the Ethiopia region. I have Ethiopian/Eritrean neighbors and friends. I remember the last time there was peace being happy for them. But I don't think there's any chance that the US government could successfully intervene in the conflicts there in such a way as to make a lasting peace more likely. It just doesn't have the capacity for that. We don't know the players and any thumb we put on the scale will just imbalance the whole thing. In the Gaza War, the US has direct personal and financial ties to one of the main actors in the conflict. Now, if someone said, "The US should do more to influence Hamas," I would say that's not really possible because we have no connections or leverage over their behavior. They are connected to Iran and Qatar and their own people, but they don't really care what we think of them. But we have fairly decent leverage on the Netanyahu government. So when I advocate for the US to do things with relation to the Gaza War it is all about changing the behavior of the Israeli government, and not something else we don't really affect.

Gibbon1 3y ago
You're demanding the US government be far more heavy handed in a conflict that is fundamentally unimportant. And the losing side has a decades long track record of refusing good faith appeasement. The US can do far more good by focusing it's efforts elsewhere.
- enterprise_cog 3y ago
  Palestinian children are unimportant? The conflict is a humanitarian crisis. We are directly funding it and providing the munitions for Israel to kill civilians. We don’t even need to be heavy handed. We just need to pull the plug on support. If by losing side you mean Israel, then yes I agree they have not acted in good faith for decades. Or do you think Israel killing 20k+ civilians, failing to achieve their military objectives, and Hamas being in a stronger position than ever is Israel winning?
  - Gibbon1 3y ago
    What you are suggesting is that the US back Israel into a corner with the belief that that'll fix things. That's usually a bad idea which is why countries lead by reasonable people don't usually do that. And you're delusional if you think Israel has lost wars. They won the civil war with the Arab Palestinians. Won 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Won the 1967 Seven day war and Won the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In comparison the PLO and Hamas have lost every war they started with the Palestinians Arabs you pretend to care about being worse off each time. Usually someone in the position of the Palestinian Arabs should just take the offer of appeasement and move on.
    - red-iron-pine 3y ago
      the '49 War happened the way it did because of the British Jewish Brigade was trained and fought in WW2 and a solid corps of them served as the backbone of the Haganah/Palmach. 5000 Palestinan Jews received British training and gear, many veterans of that unit carried British weapons into the 49 war. they won the Six Day War (six, not seven), because they received several credible intelligence tip-offs from the US, UK, and other sources related to the huge build-up of Arab forces. they launched an attack and completely caught the Arab militaries off guard before they could launch their own offensive -- which, again, wouldn't have happened without foreign help. they won the Yom Kippur War because the US military stripped it's divisions on Europe and sent all of the ammo and gear to Israel. In response, the Arab world kicked off the oil embargo, which kicked of a couple decades of economic malaise, basically until the dot-com boom of the 90s. the IDF punches above its weight, of that I have no doubt, but they only keep winning due to foreign help.
      - Gibbon1 3y ago
        You're working hard to make the Israeli wins illegitimate in order to justify atrocities against Israeli citizens and demands for a do over where genocide is perpetrated against the citizens of Israel. I'm not down with atrocities or genocide. And then one can ask who's war is this. And the answer is always it's the Middle Eastern Arab countries, the PLO and Hamas's war not the Israeli's. So your arguments don't sway me.
- earthboundkid 3y ago
  It doesn’t matter if the conflict is important. It matters if there’s a chance of having a positive impact on the outcome. There’s no chance of that for Ethiopia. There’s at least a small possibility of that for Israel because America is tightly connected to key players and has a lot of leverage.

Gibbon1 3y ago

You're demanding the US government be far more heavy handed in a conflict that is fundamentally unimportant. And the losing side has a decades long track record of refusing good faith appeasement. The US can do far more good by focusing it's efforts elsewhere.

enterprise_cog 3y ago
Palestinian children are unimportant? The conflict is a humanitarian crisis. We are directly funding it and providing the munitions for Israel to kill civilians. We don’t even need to be heavy handed. We just need to pull the plug on support. If by losing side you mean Israel, then yes I agree they have not acted in good faith for decades. Or do you think Israel killing 20k+ civilians, failing to achieve their military objectives, and Hamas being in a stronger position than ever is Israel winning?
- Gibbon1 3y ago
  What you are suggesting is that the US back Israel into a corner with the belief that that'll fix things. That's usually a bad idea which is why countries lead by reasonable people don't usually do that. And you're delusional if you think Israel has lost wars. They won the civil war with the Arab Palestinians. Won 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Won the 1967 Seven day war and Won the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In comparison the PLO and Hamas have lost every war they started with the Palestinians Arabs you pretend to care about being worse off each time. Usually someone in the position of the Palestinian Arabs should just take the offer of appeasement and move on.
  - red-iron-pine 3y ago
    the '49 War happened the way it did because of the British Jewish Brigade was trained and fought in WW2 and a solid corps of them served as the backbone of the Haganah/Palmach. 5000 Palestinan Jews received British training and gear, many veterans of that unit carried British weapons into the 49 war. they won the Six Day War (six, not seven), because they received several credible intelligence tip-offs from the US, UK, and other sources related to the huge build-up of Arab forces. they launched an attack and completely caught the Arab militaries off guard before they could launch their own offensive -- which, again, wouldn't have happened without foreign help. they won the Yom Kippur War because the US military stripped it's divisions on Europe and sent all of the ammo and gear to Israel. In response, the Arab world kicked off the oil embargo, which kicked of a couple decades of economic malaise, basically until the dot-com boom of the 90s. the IDF punches above its weight, of that I have no doubt, but they only keep winning due to foreign help.
    - Gibbon1 3y ago
      You're working hard to make the Israeli wins illegitimate in order to justify atrocities against Israeli citizens and demands for a do over where genocide is perpetrated against the citizens of Israel. I'm not down with atrocities or genocide. And then one can ask who's war is this. And the answer is always it's the Middle Eastern Arab countries, the PLO and Hamas's war not the Israeli's. So your arguments don't sway me.
earthboundkid 3y ago
It doesn’t matter if the conflict is important. It matters if there’s a chance of having a positive impact on the outcome. There’s no chance of that for Ethiopia. There’s at least a small possibility of that for Israel because America is tightly connected to key players and has a lot of leverage.