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Afghanistan Update: Islamic State claims responsibility for multiple bombings over last two days, including two Shia mosques


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3 hours ago, sblfilms said:


Maybe it is from being on the opposite side of the country from Canada, but growing up Canada’s relationship with America wasn’t a remote thought. Our relationship with the European powers, and even Israel were in the ether. I wonder if it is different for those who grew up in the northern US states?

I'm coming at it from the Canadian perspective.

1) Norad -- the joint Canada/US Air Defence alliance

2) Canada is the US's largest export market (and has been for a long time) - CUSMA trade agreement

3) Largest border, with the most lax entry requirements (NEXUS program, numerous unmanned border crossings, flights from Canada to US complete immigration in Canada, etc.)

4)  Regulatory alignment -- Broad alignment on everything from cars to household goods

5) 5-Eyes intelligence alliance

6) Numerous joint policing/prosecuting agreements

Don't want to derail this thread too much more than I already have.

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44 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

There are entire towns on the US/Canada border where you can just walk down the sidewalk from one to the other. Many roads lead between the countries with no checkpoint.

 

16 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

 

Huh, I knew there are border towns where all of the stores are on one side of the border but I thought they had cracked down on casually strolling across the border to go shopping in those places.

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There's like two small towns on the Quebec and maine border that applies to. Anywhere else you get harassed to death when coming back to the US. My wife's family is from Detroit and they used to go into Canada all the time with minimal hassle long ago but so much changed after 9/11 (you know, when this country went psycho)

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6 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

There's like two small towns on the Quebec and maine border that applies to. Anywhere else you get harassed to death when coming back to the US. My wife's family is from Detroit and they used to go into Canada all the time with minimal hassle long ago but so much changed after 9/11 (you know, when this country went psycho)

 

That's more in line with what I had thought the case to be, that pre-9/11 it was fine and post-9/11 it became a nightmare where the stores are on the other side of the border but the nearest actual border crossing might be a good ways away. And at least in Detroit you have what you need in Detroit. In these small outposts...

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6 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

you know, when this country went psycho

 

Also I think this predates 9/11 but part of the reason rail service into Canada is such shit is that the US insists that there can only be a single boarding point on the Canadian side of the border. The train can't stop again until it hits the border crossing. This is especially problematic for where Detroit is because a Detroit-Toronto line that skips London isn't viable.

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8 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

That's more in line with what I had thought the case to be, that pre-9/11 it was fine and post-9/11 it became a nightmare where the stores are on the other side of the border but the nearest actual border crossing might be a good ways away. And at least in Detroit you have what you need in Detroit. In these small outposts...

Just casually using Google maps on the boarder nearly every little road and town on the border has a border patrol office right on it so yeah you might be able to cross the street into one country or the other, you're not leaving that town without doing so

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WWW.BBC.COM

The US president promised more competence and empathy - his reputation and America's have taken a hit.

 


 

Quote

 

Biden's election campaign could be boiled down to three messages to distinguish himself from Donald Trump. First, he would be more empathetic. He would be more competent. And instead of "America First", it would be replaced by the mantra "America is back".

 

But in his address yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot of empathy towards the thousands of Afghans who've helped Americans these past 20 years. On competence, even his biggest cheerleaders would struggle to say the withdrawal of American troops has been anything other than shambolic.

 

And after the bewildering events of the past few days, how exactly is America back? Many see what has unfolded on President Biden's watch in Afghanistan as a linear continuation of Donald Trump's America First policies - and, as some have joked cruelly, not as well organised.

 

...

 

When the G7 gathered in Cornwall and the Nato nations met in Brussels the sense of relief was palpable among the prime ministers and presidents that a more outward looking American president was in charge. But given what has unfolded - how America has been humiliated, how Joe Biden embarked on a policy he was cautioned against by these leaders - there is now a good deal more wariness.

 

 

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WWW.MSN.COM

Thousands of desperate Afghans remain stranded under Taliban rule in Kabul on Tuesday, as the US and its allies -- still frantically evacuating their personnel from the city's airport -- reckon with the sudden breakdown of their two-decade effort in Afghanistan.

 

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