The Drone Wars

Do you still beat women? NATO exists for one purpose--to keep Russians out of Europe. They can't agree on any other agenda. ISIS isn't going anywhere anyway.

Turns out taking over Vietnam ain't that simple. You must have missed that part. Not one of the gooksters thinks that America should have taken over. They're very proud of having expelled both the Americans and the Chinese from Vietnam.

The catch for that is that they have to piss us off so badly that (at great cost) we utterly destroy their economy, their infrastructure, their industry, and kill millions of their civilians. And then we can never leave. We still have military forces stationed in Japan, Germany, Korea, Italy, and all over the Pacific. We are so noble.

Only when idiocy is declared to be a form of intellect.

Good grief, Japan and Germany were genocidal empires in living memory and have been led by remarkably incompetent leaders. Scandinavia is an un-invadable frozen rock with a tiny, smart population that is all related. They went off on bloodthirsty global military adventures 1,000 years ago and now run the British Isles, Iceland, Greenland, the Low Countries, The Baltic States, Russia, and North America. Americans are not as noble as you imagine and neither is anybody else. We just do everything better and don't suffer fools very well.

An erroneous conclusion based on a sample size of one.

 

Are you serious?

Our citizens enjoy more freedoms than anyone on the planet. The fact that we lock up our criminals rather than let them run free is not a lack of freedom to anybody but criminals who ask for it. Incarceration has nothing to do with the personal liberties of a law-abiding citizen.

 

We do have an sentencing issue in the courts that needs to be changed because of its high costs and low benefits. But you are confusing and conflating that with the many freedoms of US citizenship.

We have personal Constitutional freedoms granted at birth and irrevocable. We can say what we want, vote for who we want, work for who we want, marry who we want, retire when we want, and have as any kids as we want. We can pray to anybody or nobody. We don't have to show our "papers" when traveling internally. We can make money any legal way we wish to. We have legal recourse to any abuses from government, police, corporations or each other. It is not like this in most of the world.

We have the most stable government and economy on the planet. There are no strongmen dictators, the democratic process prevails. We have law and order on a scale unheard of in most of the world. We are essentially unconquerable behind vast oceans and our military has global reach. We are collectively very wealthy.

Americans are free, safe, and prosperous but with that freedom comes responsibility. One of those responsibilities is to incarcerate criminals who have failed in their responsibilities as a citizen. You abuse it, you can lose it . . . that is how justice works. The carrot and the stick always works better than just the carrot or just the stick.

 

You need to learn something about Ukraine. Ukraine is to Russia as the Confederacy is to the United States or Scotland is to the United Kingdom. They have differences. Sometimes they exist separately and sometimes together. The bigger one always seeks unification.

But they are all essentially the same racial, ethnic, and political people. The Old Soviet Union incorporated a lot of subject nations full of Mongols, Khazacks, Chechens, and such. But old Russia, the Ukraine, and Belarus (White Russia) have long been ethnically, linguistically, culturally, and politically allied. When it comes down to nuts and bolts they will always be so.

Ukraine is not a part of NATO because Ukraine has never been a part of Western Europe. It's Russian turf, just like Canada is our turf. We don't need Ukraine because it is militarily useless. Its a vast plain that huge armies march across and lay waste to regularly–Genghis, Huns, Napoleon, Hitler. It is and has long been a buffer between Russia and Europe and that is still its main value. We don't even want Ukraine because we can;t station forces in undefendable land that close to Russia. It's an important buffer for both sides.

The Ukrainians are not trustworthy nor do they understand European values. Allies of Russia, when Germany overran them in WWII, millions of Ukrainians joined the SS and fought against Russia. They regularly change sides, as I suppose a country like that must. They always have from the Czars till now when they are trying to abandon their Russian allies again. That does not mean that they are our friends. They cannot fight and they cannot be trusted. They got nuthin' we need and they are on Russia's turf. We amuse ourselves by tweaking the Russians for their absurd political stagecraft and makes sure it deplete and embarrasses them.

But it ain't . . . our . . . fight. We will protect our NATO allies. We will not go to war with Russia over one of their client states that is of no use to us.

They are being annihilated anyway. ISIS has no economy, no allies, no offensive military capability, a depleted source of recruits, a dejected population, no coastline, and no source of supply. They have themselves in a three-front war with the Syrians, the Iraqis, and the Kurds and are starting to lose territory. Their burnings, beheadings and wanton destruction of ancient artifacts have alienated the world, even among Arabs, who have allied against them. It took a special kind of incompetence to maneuver themselves into a shooting war with both Russia and the United States of America. ISIS is a snowballing disaster and we really do not have to do much except watch.

As an added bonus, fucking Russia seems determined to replace us as the Great Satan and become mired in a middle eastern desert country amidst a bitterly hostile population full of crazies of every flavor. What a delightful prospect. Now Russia is hemorrhaging money and men on two fronts. And in both places they are fighting people that we really don't trust (Ukraine) or our enemies (Syrian rebels, ISIS). We will make overt noises of stern disapproval and covertly aid all sides to egg it on while laughing our asses off.

You are so full of shit, d'Artagnan. Do I sound self-loathing to you? No, I just don't suffer fools very well. And I am capable of looking around without red, white, and blue glasses with blinders to perceive geopolitical reality. It's a child's notion that everything the US does is virtuous, noble and self sacrificing and that everything our adversaries do is dastardly, megalomaniacal, and evil. It never about morality. Its about vital national interests, real military power, political and economic influence, and above all geopolitical reality.