If only soldiers can have an opinion on military matters — Paul Edwards

No, but to one should be aware of the things when talking about everything being possible by air power. There's enough literature, documentaries and information to understand these things. Just as a non-US citizen might comment US politics, even he or she isn't an American.

Unfortunately when people talk about "peace" what they really mean is non-combat. — Paul Edwards

What usually people talk about is deterrence.

he Mullahs of Iran would spread their Islamic "revolution" worldwide if they had the ability to do so. Keeping them in check for eternity is a lousy strategy. — Paul Edwards

What that revolution has come to is to defend Shiite communities and thus meddling in the domestic situation of various countries. It's the ISIS loonies that truly want to spread their view of Islam everywhere.

And I'm not even content with 100% allied governments. 9/11 forced us to deal with NGOs too. I want EVERY INDIVIDUAL on this planet to be allied with the US/Australia/Taiwan.

I want everyone to be willing to risk their own lives to PROTECT America, not giving their lives to HARM America as happened on 9/11.

Or at the very least be neutrals. — Paul Edwards

The moment you are talking about came and went with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then there was a window of opportunity to change things as the ex-Soviet people were then very open to the US ideologically. But we would have needed larger than life politicians, and had only average ones. You could have made Russia an ally of the US and perhaps a member of the European Union. Yet the US simply dismissed Russia as past thing and the "Westerners" in Russia were silenced. The Ex-Warsaw pact countries knew better and opted for NATO. That NATO enlargement is seen in the Russian military doctrine as the biggest threat the nation faces. Terrorism in on fourth place. The present elite see's the US as the biggest threat to them.

That moment was in the end lost during the Kosovo War. The effects can be seen now: even if you have those opposition leaders poisoned and driven to exile in Putin's Russia, those same opposition leaders don't have many nice words about the US, actually.

That moment was in the end lost during the Kosovo War — ssu

Yes, I agree that was a very unfortunate situation. Unfortunately the racist Russians didn't like their Slav brothers being bombed. I agreed with the Kosovo war, but I totally opposed recognizing Kosovo as an independent state, betraying commitments to Russia. There was absolutely no urgency to doing that. The Kosovars were perfectly safe with NATO protection. We have absolutely no right to annex territory from a secular capitalist liberal democracy (which Serbia was at the time) like that.

However, even if we posit that Russia is lost for eternity, there's no reason why we can't convert the entire Middle East to be our ideological brothers. That's exactly what we should be doing in response to 9/11.

And after we have agreement on the Middle East, maybe we can ask whether anything can be done to win the Russians over. Note that I did manage to convert one Russian nationalist into a very enthusiastic member of the free world. I've posted the link before, but here it is again. It's a shame he is too busy to participate here now.

Good question. It is in America's long-term interest that the rest of the world (now all members of NATO, including China and Russia), be able to liberate the US from someone like Trump who doesn't respect the democratic process. — Paul Edwards

And it is in the long-term interest of the non-US countries that they not be enslaved by a rogue US. NATO needs to be able to reconfigure on a dime against a hostile US.