Comments

  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    Regardless of my own stance on the matter, I don't think there's anything particularly degenerate about pro-life stances, which usually focus on the value/protection of the unborn child.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    But if it's in the interest of Israel and also the US is fine with a policy, is it really then "Israel carrying out US policy".ssu

    Well, I don't believe it is in Israel's interests, because I don't think Israel will survive the moment the US leaves it to pay the bill.


    To put it differently, I believe the US realizes fully that it has helped create an utterly unsustainable geopolitical situation for Israel, but is content to keep Israel on this course because it suits American interests.

    After all, if the US cannot maintain control of the Middle-East, then why should it care about what happens to Israel afterwards?
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    But the US Congress is in the palm of his hand.ssu

    You may believe that - many do - but I don't see it that way.

    I disagree with those who portray Israel as the beneficiary in this relationship.

    While Israel is carrying out US policy in the Middle-East, it is inching itself closer and closer to the geopolitical abyss.

    One day in the not-so-distant future the US will retreat to its island, and Israel will be left to pay the price of decades of belligerence by itself.

    At that point it will become clear who was played by who.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    Oh please. It's a rare occasion when the US faces blowback from its cynical foreign policies.

    Maybe if that happened a little more often the US public wouldn't be so oblivious to the ruin their nation brings on the world, hm?
  • Avoiding costly personal legal issues in the West
    This is not the type of debate I would directly touch even with a 10-foot pole, but from a bird's eye perspective I think it's a great example of how men and women are ushered into two camps by endless feeds of "news" and fear porn that expertly play on people's inherent vulnerabilities and insecurities vis-á-vis the other sex (possibly one of our strongest weaknesses), which fuels resentment.

    The result is a dehumanized view of the other, entirely black & white "All women are X, all men are Y", etc.

    I've noticed online media feeds forwarding this type of mental poison without any apparent reason.

    The real question here is: where is all the fear porn coming from? Who is creating it and to what end?
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    In Israel Netanyahu is considered a 'moderate', if you can believe that.

    And when interests align he uses the loonies as a lightning rod. That's why he has his rabid ministers saying the most outrageous shit.


    Essentially Washington uses the same trick, but it uses Israel. Their interests align with that of Israel, and they have Israel to say and do all the things that would be erm... 'embarassing'... to have to say and do themselves.


    Netanyahu receiving 50+ standing ovations in US Congress was a bit of an eye-opener to me. Netanyahu seems to believe he has US Congress in the palm of his hand, but US Congress may as well be playing to his shitty megalomaniac/narcissistic personality.

    Loonies are easy to control, much like emotionally-possessed citizens. They're irrational and delusional, so it's just a game of affirming their delusions.

    It turns out one nation's looney is another nation's moderate, who has loonies of his own. :lol:

    What a lovely, dysfunctional shitshow.
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    [...] his staunch support for Israel's war on Gaza, and a central pillar of his platform being that he's anti-war. The hypocrisy / opportunism combo there is audacious even for an American politician.Baden

    That's quite literally what the Biden/Harris administration is doing right now, though.

    They threaten Israel with menacing finger-wagging and taps on the wrist, while literally supplying the bombs they are throwing on schools in Gaza.
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    Kamala mentioned something about tyrants and dictators, mimicking Joe's terminology vis-á-vis Russia and China.

    Not only does this show a complete inability for diplomacy, but also a complete unwillingness - much like what we have seen during the Biden administration.

    This doesn't bode well for the rest of the world.

    I don't think the world is ready for Joe 2.0.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    Just a former Mossad director comparing the current Israeli government to the KKK:

    Ex-Mossad Chief: 'Netanyahu Allies Worse Than KKK, Overhaul is His Master Plan' (Times of Israel, 2024)

    Quite in line with what I argued earlier, the idea that radical loonies are in charge of anything is just a guise (Pardo calls it an urban legend) under which these cynical political structures (similar to that of the US) try to exculpate themselves from the crimes they commit.

    The radical loonies / military industrial complex / wealthy bankers / etc. made us do it!
  • Ukraine Crisis
    Everything is the West's fault. All the injustices that happen in the World happen because of the West.

    This naive and false idea makes them believe that they're smart as they criticize the West.
    ssu

    Caricatures aside, the idea that the West carries principal responsibility in this war and that the West's conduct so far has been nothing short of shameful, is an idea that is carried by a well-established group of western experts, analists and academics - a group that has done a vastly better job at predicting the course and outcome of this war than those who subscribe to the narrative that is put forward by virtually every major western media outlet. In fact, I struggle to think of a single fact that said media outlets have ever been right about.

    So I'm not sure what you believe this type of posturing achieves.

    You've already stated you don't wish to engage with my arguments. If you have changed your mind you may start with the post whose contents you almost fully ignored in favor of a "I'm not going to talk to you anymore!"
  • What should the EU do when Trump wins the next election?
    An isolationist America would be a godsend to the world.

    But we all know that's not going to happen. The US thrives on ceaseless meddling.

    I hope one of these days the American people will suffer actual blowblack under Washington's policies, and be confronted with consequences for continually exporting suffering to the rest of the world.

    Maybe that's what is required to open some eyes.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    The Russians don't need nuclear weapons to win, nor do they benefit from such a huge escalation. Things would have to get a lot worse first for them to consider that option.

    The Ukrainians on the other hand are getting desperate and irrational enough to try something like that, and the US may just be cynical enough to give them what they want. Devastation and chaos in the region is what the US is after, and it doesn't care at all about the fate of Eastern Europe. It just wants to weaken China and escalate tensions between Russia and Europe.

    Nuclear escalation which it can blame on Ukraine is right up Uncle Sam's alley.

    Western audiences have become so gullible and ignorant that they would believe whatever story they try to sell it under.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    On a sidenote, I think people grossly underestimate the risk this war brings to the region, with which I mean Europe as a whole, western Russia and by extension China.

    If the Ukrainians have well and truly left the realm of rationality, which it increasingly appears that they have, they may be instrumentalized by the US for extreme ends.

    The US wants to see the region in chaos. It has a willing, desperate proxy that will fight without regard for self-preservation and that Washington can blame everything on if things get out of hand in a nuclear way.

    The real risk factor here is that US has nothing to lose and much to gain in a cataclysmic conflict in Eastern Europe which it would only be indirectly involved in. It would cripple all its potential rivals on the Eurasian mainland.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    Kursk Incursion Boosts Ukrainian Morale After Grim Year (Reuters, 2024)

    Lastly, and perhaps most plausibly, this was another PR stunt, just like the previous Ukrainian offensive - to show both domestic and foreign audiences that the war is not yet lost.Tzeentch

    :chin:

    One wonders how an incursion into a strategically irrelevant region of Russia at the cost of vast amounts of men and materiel plus the collapse of the Donbas front would remotely bolster morale, but alas the Ukrainian side has long since passed from the realm of rationality.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    Israel is ground zero in the conflict between West and Islam. If Israel falls, Europe is next.BitconnectCarlos

    Quite the contrary.

    Decades of US-Israel policy is the cause of chaos, refugee crises/mass migration and radicalism, and the reason why various, formerly flourishing regions were disallowed from developing into modern states.

    The sooner the US vacates the Middle-East, the better for Europe.
  • How to Justify Self-Defense?
    'Turning the other cheek' is certainly the more consistent school of thought - ergo, hurting someone in self-defense is not morally permissable.

    However, I think there remains some case to be made for self-defense being a neutral act in some situations.

    Perhaps the most convincing argument for this is that when one enters a real self-defense situation, one is not in a position to rationally weigh their options. A loss of control can reasonably be argued here. Panic and survival instincts take over.

    Secondly, if it can reasonably be argued that the victim's intention was not to harm the assailant, but simply to protect themselves, the question arises to what degree an unintended bad side-effect can be considered fully an immoral act on the victim's part.
    Obviously pointing a gun at someone and pulling the trigger clearly has an intent to grievously harm or even kill, but for example attempting to break free from someone's hold may not.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    I think some skepticism about this particular story is warrantedboethius

    I agree with Benkei's skepticism.

    In fact, I would go a step further and say the WSJ story is obviously bullshit.

    What amazes is me is the fact that people are even willing to entertain such a story when it's so obvious who is responsible for this.

    It's like the propaganda storm is messing with people's 'bullshit filter'.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    It's wait and see again.Benkei

    What are you waiting for, exactly?

    The US to come out and say they did it? Wait and see what they write in the history books twenty years from now?

    If what you are waiting for is conclusive evidence, that's just not how this type of thing works. Clandestine operations are set up with the express purpose of being nigh impossible to conclusively find out who did it, and thus they provide 'plausible deniability' to the perpetrator.

    This 'sitting and waiting' reflex seems to be a form of intellectual paralysis, brought on by the fog of war and continuous propaganda campaigns. It's actually one of the goals of information warfare to bring the adversary into that state of mind, in which case it is called strategic paralysis. It hadn't occured to me until now that this also happens to domestic audiences.

    Don't get me wrong. I get the reflex out of intellectual rigor, and usually reserving judgement is the 'correct' thing to do, but in this case it's exactly where the propagandist wants you to be.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    It's interesting you keep talking about this alternate world. It's almost like your subconscious is trying to tell you something.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    I heard from reliable sources he also had an American accomplice. A certain 'Joe B.' :lol:
  • Ukraine Crisis
    The Germans are apparently looking for a Ukrainian diving instructor named 'Volodymyr Z.' :lol:

    You couldn't make this shit up. It's like they're purposefully trying to humiliate Germany at this point.
  • Climate change denial
    The causes are also very clearly discernible: greenhouse gases. This is pretty basic stuff. To imply the causes aren’t discernible, the effects aren’t seen, etc — is pure climate denial. Why don’t you grow up on this subject already?Mikie

    I will "grow up" on this subject once it stops being a lightning rod that obfuscates the very real, short-term health risks that everybody ignores.

    I know that's not your intention, but it's the intention of many who keep flooding the media with climate alarmism.
  • Climate change denial
    The real thing boomers should be feeling sorry for is the fact that their children will have to carry their economically unsustainable social security systems (which will probably be completely scrapped by the time their kids would get to enjoy them), and that the reason their kids are infertile and getting cancer and Parkinsons at the age of 30 is because they followed the ethereal 'climate change' narrative while blind to the real poisoning of the environment that have clearly discernible causes.

    PS: I realize now that the melodramatic letter was probably not written by a boomer, because this type of virtue-signaling self-flagelation is not in their nature.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    Do you remember this by the way?

    US warned Ukraine not to sabotage Nord Stream after MIVD alert (June, 2023)

    They're expecting us to believe it was the US that tried to stop Ukraine from sabotaging Nord Stream, when it obviously was the US that orchestrated the whole thing. (Having given us both their stated intent and a clear motive)

    Supposedly Zaluzhny was in charge of the operation, and Zelensky was kept out of the loop.

    How convenient, considering at the time of the article they were trying to replace Zaluzhny, which has now left the public arena - no accountability there.

    No one in their right mind should believe this bullshit.

    Whether the physical deed was done by US assets or Ukrainian assets is largely irrelevant. There's only one party that benefits from the sabotage - the United States, and all of this scapegoating of Ukraine is just 'plausible deniability' / false trail spin.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    It's interesting you chose to share a picture from 1945, during which Israel had not yet been established and the United States still could be said to have reasonable leadership.

    If we would rewind the clock a hundred years, maybe things could have worked out differently, but comparing then to now is apples and oranges.


    Furthermore, have you taken a look at the graph you shared earlier? Who does Egypt share its spot at the top with? Afghanistan, Vietnam and Iraq - very typical examples of US "allies" in my opinion. I think your graph makes the opposite point of the one you're trying to make. If I were Israel or Egypt looking at that graph, I think I should be extremely worried. In fact, unless something fundamental changes for Israel, I'm convinced it will share the same fate as the rest of the countries on that list.


    You're also choosing to ignore periods of recent history during which the US and Egypt could be said to be have been indirectly at war with each other (through Israel as the US proxy) and the US involvement in the turmoil that has plagued Egypt for more than a decade, which has repeatedly soured relations between the two countries. Egypt realises it's being manipulated, but up until recently it had no choice but to acquiesce in order to survive.


    Saudi-Arabia is another (not all that different) story, but to make a long story short: Saudi-Arabia is/was being propped up by the US to fight against Iran, just like Iraq was before it. The recent rapprochement between Iran and Saudi-Arabia shows the Saudis have finally wisened up to the fact they were being used as basically a proxy.


    So yea, who is living in .. erm... "la la land" here?


    Anyone with historical awareness should be highly skeptical whenever the term 'ally' is used by the United States. Personally, unless there are formal mutual defense agreements and/or security guarantees I think the term means nothing, other than that a nation is temporarily serving US interests. There is no 'bond', there is no 'friendship' in the world of geopolitics - certainly not in that of US geopolitics.

    Anyone with geopolitical awareness understands the joint US-Israeli goal has been to keep regional players down, and they are therefore at odds with virtually every other nation in the region - especially those that are powerful enough to aspire to regional dominance. The US has made clear what happens to countries that get uppity or get notions of 'independence'. They get trashed and thrown onto the junkheap of history.


    Egypt and Saudi-Arabia simply saw the writing on the wall and understood their only option was voluntarily subjugation.

    We see now as US power wanes that these countries have no intention of staying under the US yoke for any longer than is strictly necessary.


    Personally, I find your liberal use of the world 'ally' rather misguided. But I suppose they can be said to be allies in the same sense that Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Ukraine, etc. can be said to have been 'allies'.

    But stay in your la la land where Egypt and Saudi-Arabia are enemies of the US.ssu

    'Enemy' is a strong term that I haven't used, so perhaps this is a projection coming from your own 'la la land'?
  • Ukraine Crisis
    Suspect. When it's the Kremlin, it's reduced to geopolitics, heck they're defending themselves (i.e. excused), and hardly otherwise mentioned ("invisible"), despite their bombing, shamming, etc. When the Ukrainians + supporters are fighting to take back parts of Ukraine, then it's another matter, be it evil US deep state theories, Kyiv to blame, ... And Hiroshima + Nagasaki ☢ 1945...not geopolitics for you?jorndoe

    If you believe I 'excuse' the Kremlin you're simply not reading my comments.

    My continual point is that Washington and the Kremlin are two apples of the same shit tree.

    Because you cannot handle the fact that I view Washington as the same type of cold-blooded, calculating reptile as the Kremlin, you, just like many others here, feel like you must go looking for inconsistencies where there are none.

    It's all very snooze inducing. When you all are done coping and ready to make some real arguments let me know.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    The country is bankrupt and in shambles. No one is going to be held to account for the coming hundred years. That's why it is the perfect patsy. It probably plays the part willingly in order to secure more aid.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    , that's called bribery, not an alliance.

    You may characterize this as an alliance, but I don't. Various countries in the Middle-East have been made to do Washington's bidding out of fear, and Egypt is obviously among those countries.

    Why do I say that?

    Egypt is the most populous country in the Middle-East and it is a geopolitically critical regeion due to the Suez canal. It is the most obvious contender for regional dominance in the Middle-East. Yet, today it is nowhere near that position and has suffered turmoil, including turmoil as a result of US meddling.

    That is because the US and Israel are doing everything they can to stop regional powers from rising up in the Middle-East.

    US and Egyptian interests clearly do not coincide, and this "alliance" is a product of something else.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    Anyway, perhaps it's a good time to evaluate where this Ukrainian offensive is going.

    Decisive results that could justify the expenditure of vast amounts of men and materiel so far seem nowhere to be found.

    This lack of decisive results makes it difficult for analysts to determine what the intended goal of the operation may have been.

    Possibilities include:
    - 'Spreading the Russians thin', ergo a diversionary attack to relieve pressure of the Donetsk front.
    - Gathering chips for negotiations
    - Occupying the Kursk nuclear power plant
    - PR / Propaganda purposes

    Of these, I find the last two options to be the most plausible.

    'Spreading the Russians thin' is questionable on several levels. First of, to spread the enemy one must also spread their own forces, which, given Ukraine's position on the battlefield, is not something they can afford. Furthermore, Russian gains in south-eastern Ukraine continue unabated.

    In terms of Ukraine's negotiating position, this has probably done the opposite of strengthening it. There's virtually zero chance the Russians would even consider negotiations while the Ukrainians hold as much as a millimetre of Russian territory. Furthermore, it has given the Russians an excuse to tighten the thumbscrews and increase their war goals.


    The Kursk nuclear power plant seems to be the only item of strategic value in the Kursk region which may justify an offensive. The direction at which the Ukrainians have advanced seems to imply this as its possible target. Even so, it's unclear what the plan would have been after capturing this power plant, since the chances of Ukraine holding onto it for long would have been virtually zero, unless they were prepared to use the nuclear plant as a form of blackmail.

    Lastly, and perhaps most plausibly, this was another PR stunt, just like the previous Ukrainian offensive - to show both domestic and foreign audiences that the war is not yet lost.

    Time will tell.


    Regardless of intended goals, what are the actual consequences?

    The offensive follows the modern pattern of defense-in-depth, in which the initial offensive drive is not stopped but instead allowed to penetrate until it has ran out of steam and given clues towards its intended direction. A lack of strategic significance of the Kursk region allows the Russians this option. Meanwhile, scouts, light infantry and tripwire forces focus on attriting the offensive's manoeuvre elements.

    In other words, regardless of how media may try to spin this, this offensive seems to follow regular patterns of how modern armies deal with offensives. If this offensive came as a surprise, there was likely already contingency planning in place to limit the damage. It's even possible the Russians were aware that this offensive was coming. Alexander Mercouris claims an unnamed source spoke of an attack like this two weeks before it happened, though that remains uncorroborated.

    This offensive does however provide the Russians with an opportunity to attrit the Ukrainian armies' manoeuvre elements that were previously held in reserve. Media reports suggest the Ukrainians indeed are suffering heavy losses in terms of manpower and materiel. That is not necessarily strange for an offensive, since they are almost always very costly affairs, but it's also precisely the reason why an offensive must achieve decisive results.


    Much in line with the apparent balance of power, this offensive is unlikely to change anything in Ukraine's favor. In fact, it seems counterproductive on many levels: expending one's crack divisions and manoeuvre elements on a strategically irrelevant region while elsewhere the frontline is collapsing seems foolish.

    But perhaps the main problem for Ukraine is that this offensive into Russia makes negotiations virtually impossible. This further undermines the Ukraine's/the West's credibility in peace negotiations, which has already been tarnished by the fiasco in early to mid 2022.

    And personally, that's what I believe the goal of this operation was: to make peace impossible for the foreseeable future.

    We must ask the age old question:"Cui bono?" and there is of course only one actor that desires perpetual war in Eastern Europe: the United States.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    Calling Egypt and Saudi-Arabia US allies just turns 'ally' into a vacuous term. Of course they are not allies - certainly not today. Egypt is in BRICS, and Saudi-Arabia is openly flirting with it.

    I'm sure the US likes to believe they hold some kind of non-coercive sway over these countries, but that's just fantasy on their part. History shows what happens to indepedently-minded countries in the Gulf and the Middle-East, and Egypt and Saudi-Arabia just realized at some point their fates would be the same as Iraq if they didn't dance to Uncle Sam's tune.

    But times are changing now.

    Why do I bother commenting your absurdities and errors?ssu

    Sounds like you're looking for a cheap way out. You didn't even respond to the meat of my response, instead trying to pretend Saudi-Arabia and Egypt are allies or even friends of the US (which they obviously are not, if ever they were).
  • Ukraine Crisis
    Japan during WW2 was a fascist menace. Of course they had it coming. That doesn't mean the nuclear bombing was justified, or that civilians weren't innocent/victims. The Japanese state/government clearly was not.

    Not sure what point you believe you're making here.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    I guess, by such logic, Japan had Hiroshima and Nagasaki ☢ coming, some 79 years ago (with a difference of not being a land grab). "That’s geopolitics for you."jorndoe

    There's an obvious distinction between a country and its government, and its civilian population. Countries and governments are not victims, since they are seldom innocent. Kiev made a calculated gamble and it didn't work out. It should not play the victim card but take responsibility for its failed foreign policy.

    Anyway, I thought you blamed the US for it all.jorndoe

    Not for it all. Just for the lion's share.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    Bibi knows just what to tell the Americans and when. For him Americans aren't a problem, [...]ssu

    I think we should be open to the possibility that it is in fact Netanyahu who is being played by US Congress. US Congress seems to know exactly how to play towards his narcissistic disposition, don't they?

    For decades, Israel has been pursuing policies that basically guarantee its own destruction, while carrying out US foreign policy, namely sowing chaos and exerting influence in a region the US is unable to directly control.

    Meanwhile, the US can exculpate itself from principal responsibility for Israeli human rights abuses and war crimes because "the poor United States is being dragged along by Israeli ultranationalists and their psychopathic leader".

    Israel does all this without having any formal security arrangements with the United States. And we know what happens with nations that presume on special relationships. (Vietnam, Ukraine, etc.)

    So who is being played by who here?
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    Uh, both Egypt and Saudi-Arabia are allies of the US.ssu

    They are really not, but there have been times during which the US attempted to placate them. Pretty much every nation in the Middle-East would be overtly hostile to the United States if it weren't for the threat of retaliation. Israel is the only real US ally in the region.

    I'm not at all surprised that you think that the all the administrations from the Carter administration through Trump to Biden have behind them a "Grand Strategy"...ssu

    I'm not talking about the administrations obviously. Presidents haven't had any significant influence on foreign policy for decades. That much should have been clear from the moment a former actor became president.

    In fact your idea of there being a "Grand Strategy" simply shows how little you know of how Washington works and how it goes through different agendas and strategies all the time.ssu

    Oh, sweet summer child. :lol:

    It's not like US grand strategy is a secret. You can find hours upon hours of panel discussions by related thinktanks which provide a broad outline of what this strategy looks like.

    Of course the US has a grand strategy. It's rather cute that people here seem to believe that formerly the most powerful empire on the planet runs on coincidence.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    If we go to geopolitics, wouldn't then Egypt be a far more crucial link with it having the Suez Canal? Or simply Saudi-Arabia with it's position and oil reserves?ssu

    It's not like the US hasn't tried on both accounts.

    Iran is particularly important though because it occupies the bottleneck leading to both the Middle-East, Asia Minor and Africa. That's where US and Israeli interests coincide, and there's no other power in the Middle-East that could fulfill that role.

    Suez is not an unimportant bottleneck either though. And guess what we see there? Meddling by the Americans with chaos as a result, and of course decades of hostility between Israel and Egypt. After all, that which America can't control it must destroy.

    Coincidence? I guess so, since apparently US grand strategy doesn't exist, and articles like 'A Geostrategy for Eurasia' by Zbigniew Brzezinski apparently don't exist either.

    I'm honestly a bit shocked you would claim that US grand strategy doesn't exist, but all that means is that the US is being successful at hiding their agenda.

    Don't let yourself be fooled though. It is not coincidence that keeps the evil empire afloat.


    PS: Just to add, radical loonies like Netanyahu are the perfect patsies for the US. They can pretend a radical ally is 'forcing' them to be complicit in genocide, when in fact the US does and has always done these things out of pure power politics. Not the first genocide the US has funded, by the way.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    ↪Tzeentch, right, don't forget to blame the victims for looking to democracy rights transparency freedom (handy, so as to maintain a narrative).jorndoe

    Kiev is not a victim. It made its choices, and carries the responsibility for the consequences. It chose poorly and is now paying the price.

    That's geopolitics for you. This isn't your average lefty echo chamber where terms like 'victim blaming' are used non-facetiously.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    Current US grand strategy focuses on China, which is the obvious contender for global dominance (which Russia isn't), and the architects of this are the US political establishment/political elite/deep state, or whatever name you want to put on the people who run the show in the US.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    The Israeli right and Netanyahu understood that for the US, the US-Israeli axis was far more than just an Cold War alliance. It wasn't the few million American Jews, but all the Evangelists who had a special place in their heart for Israel. And Bibi has been the best politician to use this totally exceptional relationship. I think he partly could be said to be also a de facto American politician. That's how well he can influence the US, even if he basically is a foreigner.ssu

    Hm. I'm honestly not one to ascribe a decisive amount of influence to interest groups and lobbies like the US Israel lobby.

    I think Israel serves US grand strategy in that it gives the US a vital proxy in an economically important region. For example, Iran occupies one of three vital bottlenecks that connect China to Europe, the Middle-East and Africa overland. The other two being Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

    I think it suits the US political establishment just fine that Netanyahu, the Evangelicals, etc. take the flak while no one seems to wonder how come the most powerful nation in the world is (supposedly) being commandeerd by radical loonies.

    In my view, it isn't. These groups are just the patsies, while the main driver is actual US grand strategy and the interest groups we believe are somehow causing this are just the vultures flocking to the smell of fresh carrion. The MIC functions in the same way.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    ↪Tzeentch, alternatively, (once again) you deny Ukrainian agency, presuppose that it's not that they want democracy rights transparency freedom and wrestle free from the dominating (regressive opaque authoritarian oppressive) neighbor,jorndoe

    I'm not denying the Ukrainians anything, though it would be pretty silly to expect NATO or EU membership to magically change Ukraine into a functional state.

    Anywho, the one who denied the Ukrainians agency is the Ukrainians themselves, when they made the remarkably foolish decision to put their security in the hands of Washington, crossing known Russian red lines while doing so. That was honestly pretty fucking dumb.

    Incidentally, you're echoing what came out of the Kremlin.jorndoe

    Reality reflects poorly on the West. One doesn't need to be a Kremlin propagandist to deliver scathing, accurate criticism of our conduct in this conflict.
  • Ukraine Crisis
    Protesters opposed what they saw as widespread government corruption, abuse of power, human rights violations,(91) and the influence of oligarchs.(92)Euromaidan

    It's the same old song: the US overthrows a democratically elected government for 'reasons' and then proceeds to create a mess several times larger, leaving the country in ruins.

    You'd think that clear-minded people would wisen up to the charade at some point.

    Widespread government corruption, abuse of power, human rights violations and oligarchs - , does this remind you of any nation?

    Because to me this sounds exactly like the United States. :lol: