Category: Politics, Power, and Governance

Is there any country we invaded that did not first violate the sovereignty of another? no.
We set up the postwar world order of state sovereignty, human rights, and free trade, in order to end empires, and drag humanity out of poverty.
It worked.
Unfortunately (a) as typical germanic europeans, we left russian and china intact when we should have completed the job (b) we assumed a population with a below-the limit IQ of 84 (the middle east) could evolve into a middle class majority ethic and moral civilization (it can’t) – but it’s not exactly a non-virtuous ambition (c) we should have brought russia in with a massive program of assistance as we did germany and japan in particular and europe in general, after the fall of the soviet union, including gradual inclusion into NATO creating ‘the circumpolar civilization’ that meant no other of the world race-civilizations could compete with us.
So the USA, and the broader west, having learned our less on that it takes a 100 IQ population or something near it to produce a modern economy, modern state, and high trust polity, is withdrawing slowly while trying to force europe back into paying for itself, and retrenching to the anglosphere of UK, US, AU, NZ (maybe canada, possibly the some of the nordics, and probably plus japan and south korea), because we are naval islands not world island continentals.
The US is effectively autarkic and the more chaos in the world the better it is for us. But there is too much value (other than france) in the european community geopolitically, so we’re trying to preserve that as well.

Reply addressees: @Fixitguy8 @CKindlee @Rsurrection7 @elonmuskADO

He is correct, he was just foolish because (a) Ukraine (I lived there at the time) would happily have ‘sold’ the eastern provinces to russia for a discount on oil. (b) russia already had a lease on crimea and they could have renewed it. (c) the west would be happy to integrate UA into the european economic zone but not into nato just as it hasn’t let other countries into nato.
So as I argued at the time, Putin ‘panicked’ and it’ll be the death of him and likely his government, even if it takes a long time, the west is bleeding russia, while putin assumes the west will grow tired, the opposite is happening, is that they are rebuilding their arms industries. Russia can’t.
I was extremely frustrated at the time because I saw him as a weapon against the progressive, left, woke, in the west and he blew that too.

Reply addressees: @Fixitguy8 @CKindlee @Rsurrection7 @elonmuskADO