US Vice President JD Vance has called on European states to show greater independence, urging them not to be US “vassals.” He also said EU governments could have done more to oppose Washington over the Iraq War.

  • @MoonlightFox@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    This seems like an attempt to undermine NATO. The only time article 5 has been used was after 9/11.

    By saying Europe had a choice and should have resisted, he lays the foundation for the US to not follow through on their NATO commitments.

    Edit: The commenter below is right, the article 5 was used for Afghanistan, not Iraq. My whole argument is thus invalid

  • Archangel
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    5028 days ago

    So, is he seriously telling other countries not to just blindly go along with whatever the US tells them to do, but instead to resist and stand up for themselves?

    And Trump is ok with this messaging? Hmmm.

  • @gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    4628 days ago

    …what…?

    Seriously: what the fuck? There was - at best - scant official support in Europe for the war, and public support was nearly nonexistent. The fuck is he on about.

    Go home and fuck your loveseat, heterosectional.

    • @aeshna_cyanea@lemm.ee
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      28 days ago

      They could have idk, introduced sanctions at least. They could have stopped military cooperation and threatened to form their own alliance. It was a deeply unjustified, dare i say criminal war that needed a more forceful response than Europe was able to come up with. I have no great love for the couch fucker but he’s correct here

    • @BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
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      327 days ago

      France opposed the Iraq war and said that the Americans were full of shit when they were claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

      Of course the Republicans snowflakes did not enjoy that.

    • @helvetpuli@sopuli.xyz
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      27 days ago

      Living in a french-speaking country it’s hard to forget.

      The reaction at the time was partly bemusement though. We don’t call them “french” anyway, because they’re from Belgium.

  • @melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    3128 days ago

    Shady Vance is now being told to do revisionist history. I’m excited to hear what he’s told to say next.

    • @Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      28 days ago

      Easily the most underrated moment of the election was when the sofa-king Shady Vance said that the US has the “cleanest energy economy in the world.” On stage! On television!

      That’s not even revisionist, it’s just straight double think. Decades of holding the nation back in an outdated dirty energy economy, from Reagan ripping solar panels off the white house roof to Trump ripping EV chargers out of federal parking lots.

      Decades of fighting any and all clean energy initiatives and they just… pretend it never happened. Gaslit the country into thinking that we already accomplished all of the progress that they personally prevented. The progress that we still desperately need to this day.

  • @TON618@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    Vance saying Europe should’ve done more to stop his nation from going to war has a high levels of rapist blaming victim for their acts energy.

    I was young back then so my memory of the details as i’ve experienced them are somewhat blurred, but there definitely was opposition. And that was met with statements along the lines of “if you’re not with us you’re against us/part of the problem”.

    • @Glytch@lemmy.world
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      927 days ago

      For a while a disturbing number of places in America were calling French fries “freedom fries” because France didn’t want to invade Afghanistan with us. From my recollection, most of Europe was against it and the UK was the biggest backer of the invasion. I was in high school at the time so I could be wrong.

      • @SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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        727 days ago

        Close. French fries were renamed because France refused to join the Iraq war, stating they looked at the intelligence and didn’t see evidence of WMDs. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that this was “Old Europe” talking and that the Eastern European countries were more willing to join the war.

      • @futatorius@lemm.ee
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        127 days ago

        There were mass demonstrations in the UK against the second Iraq war. Tony Blair’s credibility as Prime Minister was completely destroyed by his slimy toadying to GW Bush.

    • @Simulation6@sopuli.xyz
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      427 days ago

      I remember the US and UK being the only ones that really wanted the war and others being opposed or undecided. Isn’t that when the name ‘french frys’ became a political thing?

      • @Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        127 days ago

        The freedom fries, yes. I was living in Dubai at the time but it was a buzz all over the internet back then.

        My god… saying ‘i read this on the internet’ and ‘abuzz all over the internet’ when talking about 22 and 23 years ago is making me feel old. I need my meds…

  • @Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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    1727 days ago

    I remember the lead up. There was a lot of action against it. But the US was clamoring really fucking hard for the war since the neo-cons wanted to invade Iraq well before 9/11.

    Fuck you, JD.

  • @ikidd@lemmy.world
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    1527 days ago

    So when the US starts a war with Canada and Denmark to avoid free elections in 2 years, Europe should step in and JD will make sure the US backs down?

    OK.

  • @Pringles@lemm.ee
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    1228 days ago

    Are they going to rename the freedom fries to vassal fries now?

    The cognitive dissonance of this guy is unbelievable.

  • @TTom0602@lemmy.world
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    1127 days ago

    Well, he’s about 20 years too late for such criticism, and if he had been around to say that, his party would have called him a terrorist sympathizer. He probably would be put on a "no-fly list. "