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Transnational Thursday for July 9, 2026

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.

It would justify WHATEVER with a large portion of the American public.

Why? If Russia killed him on US soil or blew some skyscrapers on US soil, that would be another thing, but in if it was in Ukraine, why would Americans care?

  1. Because a representative democracy cannot function if your opponents (who are themselves not democracies and don't have this weakness) can assassinate your representatives at will.
  2. Because Russia doesn't get to do that to America.