Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
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OK, now that Lindsay Graham, a sitting United States Senator “died suddenly after a brief illness” when a massive Russian missile strike occurred during his visit to Kyiv, are we now allowed to contemplate that this might not be the true story?
What would anybody gain by hiding this? If he was killed by the Russians that would be a tremendous leverage point in negotiations, probably infuriate Trump and bring him in line with the average governmental employee about Russia.
It would justify WHATEVER with a large portion of the American public.
You'd also have to work tremendously hard to hide the outcome from his family.
Some military deaths are sus - those usually involve the bodies being unavailable and no utility in revealing the truth.
This is not that.
You said exactly why Trump etc would hide it.
“It would justify whatever with a large portion of the American public”
If your goal is to NOT have a Presidency defined by war then you do not want the populace inflamed for war. Reverse if your George Bush and you already decided to war Iraq.
Trump seems to personally love American power and want to retain it, hiding the assassination of a high profile public figure goes against everything he's done with his presidency and his revealed personality.
At the same time he'd have two MAJOR prongs trying to force the information out there - the majority of the American political and military establishment (which supports pressure on Russia) and any adversaries who find out (because Trump hiding it and then it being revealed would be a massive embarrassment).
It doesn't make any sense.
You would also need to hide it from his family who would presumably have similar political inclinations.
Whether you could successfully muzzle it is a different question than whether you would want to muzzle.
Trump is 100% would want to cover it up because he 100% does not want to be a war time President. Atleast at the group group escalation point of war.
His revealed personality is not to escalate to high casualty/ground force war which he’s done in both Ukraine and Iran. His revealed preference would be to cover it up.
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