Thread by @althecat

Dear @JoeNBC,

The issue with the submarine deal is NOT ABOUT SUBMARINES. Nor is it anything to do with the Election. This election is @EmmanuelMacron's to lose and his opponent is not Le Pen, it is the talented mayor of Paris, the Green/Socialist candidate Hidalgo. /1

The diplomatic crisis is with a) NATO and b) All of Europe. And it is about the US deciding to form a special relationship with the terrible Australian and UK Govt's both led by morons. And the decision to start a new cold war in the Pacific.

The issue for Europe has two legs to it.
- Europe does not appreciate being treated like chumps on the global stage as the U.S. is sabre rattling in the Pacific Ocean.
- Europe is focused on Climate Change, and addressing climate change is a multi-polar problem, China/EU/US.

And @COP26, the most important diplomatic discussion since the Yalta Conference, is a little over a month away, and the most important matter on the EU agenda is climate change, and this requires Chinese cooperation.

The era of American Exceptionalism is over. It ended as the world evacuated Afghanistan. The U.S. decision to escalate its military tensions with China at such a critical time in global history is nothing short of diplomatic/environmental/fiscal vandalism.

Unlike the United States, Europe and China are actually committed to massive economic re-engineering to address the climate threat. This effort will dominate the next three decades. It will be difficult.

By contrast the U.S. appears to be being held hostage by the Senator for West Virginia, and completely in thrall to its military industrial complex which perversely sees the obsolescence of it's carrier groups as an opportunity to increase its profit margins.

.. and finally, while we are on the subject of U.S. military cluelessness, could you please advise Admiral James Stavridis that he really should stop talking about "Hunger Games". He doesn't seem to know what it's about. /ENDS