"War, huh, good God, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!" - Trump Thread #157

[Spandauer]

It ain't nothing but a heart-breaker
(War) Friend only to The Undertaker
(Edwin Starr 1970, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong)

Unless, of course, your name ends in Trump, when it ain't nothing but an opportunity to grift, deflect and destroy.

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5496818-beware-the-ides-of-march-trump-thread-156

In Yuan and Euros

A billion bucks claim was put in for the Suez one, and that was just the canal authority.

Marine insurers dismayed by $1bn claim for Suez Canal block and seizure of vessel :: Lloyd's List (lloydslist.com)

Which - lest we forget - could be seen from space 🚀

He's missing one little point that the most generous insurance in the world cannot resurrect dead crew members. It's already clear that they don't give a shit about lives, though.

I seem to remember that various underwriting syndicates at Lloyd's Maritime lost their shirt in the Suez blockage incident, so don't imagine they're be lining up for SoH even with US is covering risk.
How will this even work when they don't even have a process in place to return the $166 million or so taken illegally in tariffs.

That's a given.

I suppose if Trump was to volunteer to captain a ship through it would take the heat off ALL the others though. The problem would be identifying what nation fired the winning missile.

My money would be on the USA.

My money would be on the USA.

Yeah, you know, 'regrettable friendly fire' and all that.😉

Contractors in O&G have to take out personal insurance for millions of pounds to cover the daily cost if the rig/installation is out of commission due to their actions. Presuming something similar applies with maritime insurance, how much will the US be willing to pay for each 24hrs a ship is delayed and losing revenue while attempting to use the SoH?

It won't be the UK for sure. Starmer would need at least a week to find a UK ship to fire a missile. And last I heard our subs were still protecting Greenland.

:-)

Trump will pay them in 2 weeks.

Just as soon as he has nationalised the drug cartels and put Don Jr in charge of them.

I've just seen a comment on a Facebook post that describes the US military strategy as "all the gear, no idea". Which I reckon about sums it up.

Running out of gear I suspect. The patriots must almost be spent by now. Hits just now reported on Baghdad airport.

Nah, he'll divert funds from all the squillions the US is sitting on from his bigly tariffs.

Scary thing is, that may be exactly what he's thinking!!!!!

DS2 was meant to be working on a project at an oil rig in Iraq starting last month but it got delayed so he's at a plastics recycling centre in Scandinavia instead. I'm just a little bit relieved.

So that's a no then.

Trump saying Chyna HAS TO send ships to the Gulf, or he will cancel his visit to Chyna.

The PRC responds via their State Media, the Global Times.

The security of Hormuz doesn’t depend on the number of warships patrolling it - Global Times

Basically, you created the mess. Your problem.

"Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi addressed this directly during phone calls with his counterparts from Kuwait, Bahrain, Pakistan and Qatar for exchanges of views on the situation in Iran. "This is a war that should not have happened - it is a war that does no one any good," he said, noting that "without the UN's authorization, the US and Israel attacked Iran in the process of the ongoing US-Iran negotiation, which clearly violates international law." In other words, someone set the fire. Now they're asking the world to help put it out - and split the bill."

And in the same edition of the paper, there is this:

Iran's supreme leader reiterates demand for compensation from 'enemy' - Global Times

Pay up.

Gotta say, I agree with the Party on this.

Doesn't this also make America look incredibly weak. Basically an admission that they can't sort the crisis out on their own so they need China's military to help.
In reality China's navy can't fix the problem either, as they say it's not about the number of warships, but the fact Trump is even asking is... Embarrassing

Australia say no, Japan says no, Chyna says no, so true to form, the threats from the orange blob go up a notch. Per CNN :

“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the Financial Times in a phone interview, adding that “if there’s no response or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.”

And he said this :

"The president touted the US’ assistance to Ukraine in its war against Russia, saying, “We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine. … Now we’ll see if they help us. Because I’ve long said that we’ll be there for them but they won’t be there for us.”"

"Asked what type of assistance he is seeking, the president said, “whatever it takes,” including minesweepers."

IT GETS WORSE :

“We’re always there for NATO,” Trump later reiterated while returning to the White House from Florida aboard Air Force One. “It’d be interesting to see what country wouldn’t help us with a very small endeavor, which is just keeping the strait open.”

"Trump also suggested in the Financial Times interview that allies could help address threats coming from the Iranian coastline. He said he wants “people who are going to knock out some bad actors that are along the shore,” referring to Iranian forces that have used drones and naval mines in the Gulf."

"The president repeated his frustration with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, over his lack of immediate support for the US-Israeli strikes on Iran."

"“The UK might be considered the No. 1 ally, the longest serving, etc., and when I asked for them to come, they didn’t want to come,” he said, noting he discussed the issue with Starmer in a call earlier Sunday."

“And as soon as we basically wiped out the danger capacity from Iran, they said, ‘Oh, well we’ll send two ships,’ and I said, ‘We need these ships before we win, not after we win.’ I’ve long said that NATO is a one-way street.”

I don't get it He keeps saying he has won. So why does he need ships ? Flat earthers have better logic than he does.

On Japan, this from CNN says it all really:

"In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said “Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others” will send ships to the region, but Takaichi said there was no formal request to Tokyo yet."

So he has not even asked them. And nor, by the way, does he appear to know that Japan has a pacifist constitution. A constitution that the allies, led by the US , insisted on.

He's bored with Iran.

Trump says Iran first, Cuba next (ap website)
“We’re talking to Cuba, but we’re going to do Iran before Cuba,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel confirmed talks on Friday.
Trump said his supporters in south Florida are eager to see change after decades of animosity.
He has been talking about the island since January, when the U.S. military ousted former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the U.S. to face drug charges.
Before that, Venezuela had long supported Cuba financially.
“I think we will pretty soon either make a deal, or do whatever we have to do,” Trump said.

CNN:

"President Donald Trump said Sunday he had not seen a fundraising email sent by his political action committee that used an image from a dignified transfer honoring fallen US service members.

“Well, I was at the dignified transfer, unlike a lot of other people,” Trump said when asked aboard Air Force One about criticism surrounding the email.
“I didn’t see it,” he said. “I mean, somebody puts it out. We have a lot of people working for us, but there’s nobody that’s better … to the military than me.”"

I reckon if he was tied to a chair and forced to answer the obvious follow up questions, he would be sectioned.

Yeah. We all know what talking to Trump means now.

" Meet me down the Red Lion about 2pm. We can talk about it over a G&T"

Bombs the Red Lion.

"I won".

Wasn't it in "The Battle of Britain" film...
Old guy wandering around a shelter muttering "They've got the Rose and Crown" and the women say "He'll have to drink at the Red Lion now"..."if they'll have him".

Trump saying there’ll be consequences for NATO if his allies don’t help in the SoH.

Iran said they haven’t offered to talk, because it’s pointless, as they were talking when he started bombing them.

I think NATO allies probably think it’s pointless helping Trump, not just because it’s his war but because his words mean nothing. Like negotiating with a 2 year old or that dodgy builder really - but so much more dangerous.

I wonder how the SoH will ultimately turn out - everyone will certainly suffer due to the mango Mussolini’s actions in some way.

I am more and more baffled daily as to how such an insane, very strange, appalling businessman, poor at understanding war person is in this position to play his tantrums out on the world stage - it’s very hard to believe it’s actually real.

NATO members are not obliged under the terms of the treaty to assist members who start an offensive war without consulting them.

Yes. India and the PRC are talking to Iran, Their ships are sailing.

Trump is bombing Iran. His ships are not sailing.

If he can't join those massive dots, it's astounding that he survived beyond the terrible twos.