Is President Trump America first or America only?

ALAYMAN said:
Now this is a much more substantive question regarding politics and international policy. I'm not about to tackle that one in this limited space or with my limited knowledge, lol, except to say that I think we (The US government being the "we", not the church) don't need to be the world's police, nor should we be shouldering all the burden.
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This is what the Nigerian constitution lacks. No one gained freedom without fighting for it.

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I could go for this as the U.S. approach in Nigeria. "Here's some guns. Shoot them yourselves."
 
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biscuit1953 said:
Gaza overwhelmingly voted Hamas into power and cheered the massacre on October 7. Gaza is a terrorist state that has vowed to wipe Israel off the map and you sit there making a moral equivalence between Israel defending herself against Islamic terrorists and Christians being slaughtered by the thousands. You should be ashamed.
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Why is it everyone thinks Gazan history starts in 2006?

Do you agree with Calvin, that civil government exists to protect the Church?
 
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Ekklesian said:
This is what the Nigerian constitution lacks. No one gained freedom without fighting for it.

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I could go for this as the U.S. approach in Nigeria. "Here's some guns. Shoot them yourselves."
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My guess is that's because you have a strong non-interventionist penchant when it comes to foreign policy. As I said earlier, that's too vast a topic to enter in such a format as this, but keeping it simple, ignoring threats simply because they aren't on our shore is short-sighted, as new caliphates/threats are planned and energized with such apathetic policies. It's not just about protecting religious foreigners from persecution and genocide.
 
“And since I’m already name dropping, everybody saw that interview. You have a guy say that he supports Stalin and that he was a big fan of Stalin on your show. You can have him on your show, but doggone it, you better push back on people like that….Enough is enough. We’re not putting up with it anymore. The reality is that Israel is one of our greatest allies and for people to think otherwise, you fall into one of two categories. You’re either ignorant or you simply hate Jews. Quit lying to yourself. Just say it.” Officer Brandon Tatum

 
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ALAYMAN said:
...ignoring threats simply because they aren't on our shore is short-sighted, as new caliphates/threats are planned and energized with such apathetic policies. It's not just about protecting religious foreigners from persecution and genocide.
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All well and good except that's not how the question is being framed. That's certainly how revisionists attempt to frame the question of the Middle East. But it's not even hinted at in this revisionism concerning Nigeria, because no threat to the U.S. or any of its interests, can be conjured up by even the most imaginative clairvoyant. So suddenly it's about protecting Christians.

Suddenly all are worried about the plight of Christians in Nigeria. Even the Nigerian president, who apparently has been begging for U.S. attention, is puzzled by the sudden threats and accusations. I think it will soon be painfully evident that it's really just about mitigating Israel™'s crimes. And @biscuit1953 took the bait...hook, line, and sinker.

ALAYMAN said:
My guess is that's because you have a strong non-interventionist penchant when it comes to foreign policy.
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I have a strong penchant for consistency when it comes to foreign policy. Are we about colonizing the world for Christendom 2.0? Let's get to it.
 
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ALAYMAN said:
Link?
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You didn't read the X post I cited?

“The Nigerians have no idea where this is coming from,” Amsterdam said. “There are 230 million Nigerians who long for a strong relationship with the United States… and we ignore them until we condemn them for a genocide that is absolutely not a genocide.”​
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EDIT: In the interview Amsterdam said Nigeria wants to consult with the the United States, and wants its assistance in protecting their populations. I take that to mean the President.
 
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Just as I said. It's not really about the Christians, and he's only going to make matters worse.

ALAYMAN said:
Edit: One possible explanation of the dynamics at play
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How do Nigerians account for Trump’s pivot to such an aggressive policy?​

The motivations are not fully clear, but several overlapping theories have emerged in Nigerian analytic and government circles.​
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First, over the years, some Nigerians, at home and in the diaspora, have fed the U.S. Republican Party’s powerful evangelical base reports of alleged widespread persecution of Christians in Nigeria. ​
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Some non-governmental groups based in the South East, notably the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), have also been vocal drivers of this narrative. ​
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Many Nigerian security analysts, and even some Christian leaders, question the methodology behind this data. On 6 November, a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Global Disinformation Unit said that “for data that could be shaping US policy towards Nigeria, InterSociety’s work is opaque” and that “data sources quoted by InterSociety in its reports do not reflect the figures published”.​
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Meanwhile, religious freedom advocates in the U.S. raised the profile of ...[the questionable and opaque data]. For example: ​
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  • In February 2024, Open Doors, an organisation that tracks Christian persecution, claimed that “every two hours, a Nigerian Christian is killed for their faith”, that 82 per cent of Christians killed around the world from October 2022 to September 2023 died in Nigeria and that Nigeria had become “the deadliest place in the world for followers of Jesus”. ​
  • ...​
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  • In early September, Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, introduced a bill to impose sanctions on Nigerian officials “who facilitate violence against Christians”. ​
  • On 27 September, television talk show host Bill Maher, apparently trying to dim the global spotlight on Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza, credulously reeled off breathtakingly steep numbers of Christians allegedly killed in Nigeria. It was amid this pressure that Trump put Nigeria back on the Countries of Particular Concern list. ​
A second (perhaps less well grounded) theory is that the U.S. is seeking to deepen religious fault lines in Nigeria, as a means of crippling Abuja’s influence in regional and global affairs – eg, by blocking its aspiration to represent Africa as a veto-wielding member on a reformed UN Security Council.​
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  • In September, addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima was highly critical of Israel’s campaign in Gaza and the toll it took on Palestinians. According to this theory, the narrative of widespread persecution and mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria was amplified by some U.S. media, to counter Nigeria’s condemnation of the killings in Gaza.​
  • Also in September, shrugging off worries about the potential impact of Trump’s trade policy, particularly tariffs on Nigerian exports, President Tinubu said: “If [our] non-oil revenue is growing, then we have no fear of whatever Trump is doing on the other side”. Some analysts saw this remark as an undiplomatic poke at Trump that risked blowback. ​
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What could the termination of U.S. aid and a military operation mean for Nigerians?​

Further cuts to aid, which is already diminished by Trump’s shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development earlier in the year, risks scaling down or shutting some health and education programs, as well as weakening humanitarian relief efforts, in parts of Nigeria, including where conflict-displaced populations are in dire need. It will not protect Nigerian Christians; instead, it will increase suffering among many people that Trump purports to be defending.​
 
Ekklesian said:
You didn't read the X post I cited?

“The Nigerians have no idea where this is coming from,” Amsterdam said. “There are 230 million Nigerians who long for a strong relationship with the United States… and we ignore them until we condemn them for a genocide that is absolutely not a genocide.”​
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EDIT: In the interview Amsterdam said Nigeria wants to consult with the the United States, and wants its assistance in protecting their populations. I take that to mean the President.
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Yes I listened to the Carlson interview. As I said in my question to you about that interview (and the position of the lawyer), he made claims like Nigeria has often in the past wanted U. S. intervention. Where's the proof of that claim? That kind of evidence might change the balance of my opinion.

I acknowledge that Nigeria currently seems open to diplomatic pathways of solving the problem. And in view of those facts alone, I don't like Trump's saber rattling, assuming their proposals/offers are in good faith
 
ALAYMAN said:
Yes I listened to the Carlson interview. As I said in my question to you about that interview (and the position of the lawyer), he made claims like Nigeria has often in the past wanted U. S. intervention. Where's the proof of that claim? That kind of evidence might change the balance of my opinion.
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Amsterdam is someone in the know, and that's why he's being interviewed. I'm satisfied with his answers.
 
Ekklesian said:
Hum all you want.

My concern is the ulterior motives behind the sudden interest in Nigeria, not whether or not you're convinced Amsterdam is telling the truth. Your sources and mine confirm that it is not a Christian genocide, and Trump's bluster is disingenuous.
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Pretty much what I said earlier. These killings have been going on for years. All of the sudden it is the biggest calamity in history.
 
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