DaddyWarbucks

Good move by these people to get rid of this air base. US and UK military installations in the Middle East become lightening rods when hostilities break out in this forever war between Israel and the surrounding countries.

Agreed... but not just for the USA. It's a disaster for the whole world to one extent or another. The only possible upside to this situation is that it might be the final nail in the coffin of Israeli influence - some might say dominance - of US foreign policy.

Not at all. That's a legitimate question, and cogent to this topic. Silence or evasion means you've conceded the point.

",,,defending the indefensible" indeed. The responses could only be agenda-driven gibberish as is obvious in this thread

This war should never have happened in the first place. The Russians invaded because the US and NATO overthrew an elected government and started provoking the bear. How would the US have reacted if Russia had done something like that in Canada or Mexico?

That's quite true. There are credible reasons why the US hasn't decisively won a major military engagement since 1945. The absence of a strong will to fight is #1. The impressive civilian and military effort that won a two-front world war in the 1940s has never been successfully reactivated, although not for lack of trying. This led to a stalemate in Korea; an ignominious defeat in Vietnam, and several invasions of countries in the Middle East that resulted in catastrophic outcomes, not least of all for the principal aggressors, the US and Israel. Look at them - America is in the worst social and economic condition that I can ever remember. Israel has become an international pariah living on borrowed time until it inevitably goes the way of Apartheid South Africa. Sanity's revenge will come down hard on both of them.

Brilliant riposte. You should be ghostwriting for somebody.

Indeed, it could. They have incriminated themselves by their recorded statements and bloody deeds. The destruction of Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank bear witness to their guilt.

He's entitled to it. Maybe he's a recovering <removed> victim, just as many bartenders I knew in my younger days were former alcoholics.

Sadly no. If there were, they'd get my vote too if I was eligible to cast it. On a personal level, Mark is the best of a bad lot. On the party level, the Democrats have been knee-deep in the cesspool of Thai politics since their founding in 1946. It would be too much to expect them to come out smelling of roses.

I'm 82 now and renewed my car and motorbike licenses last year in CM. No problems. However, it would be typical of Thailand if there were different requirements at different regional DLT offices.

I never go anywhere without mine.

No. there was nothing funny about Biden's condition. He was the personification of H.L. Mencken's 1920 take on the future of the country: "As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents. more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day. the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." Biden was tragedy. Trump is farce.

OK Eric, if you say so. I just finished reading an excellent book: The Ruptured Chinaman. By One Hung Loh. Any relation?

Yes. and numerous other atrocities. Such as the targeted assassination of Aleksandr Dugin that went terribly wrong, killing his daughter Darya. Possibly with the help of, or actually done by, "foreign intelligence agencies". This proxy war should have been ended long ago.