The World has come to grips with the American imperial reach. Reality is finally setting in. Europe does not need to spend umpteen $billions on defense, as it has no readily apparent enemies, except perhaps the US under Trump. After all it isn't Russia, a mistakenly perceived enemy, that is making economic war against Europe, that has led Europe into many violent attacks and invasions in the Middle East and Africa, that started a war in Ukraine by provoking Russia, that condoned the destruction of energy pipelines that helped force Europe into a recession and that is now casting envious eyes on Denmark's Greenland. No, it is the US! So which country is the real enemy here?
War in Ukraine has become a side show for the US. More worrying is their posture on Iran. No 7 on the CIA list. Like the previous 6 leaving a mess so gigantic it would probably collapse everything that has been built since 1945. With Trump you never know, bluff, show-biz or manipulated by some outside forces. UN no longer fit for purpose. A great idea at the time yet largely for the benefit of the US. Normal since they contribute the most. In the mean time, until a new bi-polar, tri-polar or no-polar world emerges, we will be living in a volatile and dangerous world. This may end up being the longest 4 years we have ever experienced.
The United Nations is in league with the WEF and has too many nefarious globalist agendas. I do not see how it could be reformed, and it does not serve its stated purpose given that countries are blackmailed and it is unable to stop the genocides in Palestine and Syria. I hope that the BRICS will help to set up a new and more equitable and fair institution to replace the UN once this round of shocking wars and violence is over and peoples regain their sanity.
‘Right now, it seems to me, that America, with all its well-meaning missionary intent’.. I don’t think the U.S. had or has well-meaning intent of any sort since its inception. It’s not a world policeman but a world thug.
*** $50bn each year appears a more realistic total of what America has actually invested in Ukraine since war started.***
I don't think America is trying to recover the costs invested since the start of the war. I think the real agenda is twofold:
1) Recover ALL money that America "invested" in Ukraine since at least 2014, if not earlier. They wanted to bring about strategic defeat to Russia via Ukraine for a long time. A lot of money and effort has been invested into this endeavour for years, if not decades. All that has failed, and I believe America now would like to recover everything they feel was wasted on Ukraine and then some
2) America has not done any due diligence with regards to any kind of exploration and subsequent processing of the Ukrainian resources. The investment required to do that could be enormous and yet they are not interested in asking any questions about the return on any of the investment that may be required to achieve any commercial outcomes. Why? I think they are much less interested in the Ukrainian resources than they are in having an excuse to stay in Ukraine forever and forever being able to meddle in the affairs of the country and influencing any future politics in it.
As far as Zelensky not being misled regarding NATO membership, I don't agree with that. I would recommend everyone to watch the interview he gave to Fareed Zakaria of the CNN in 2022. In that interview, Zelensky openly admitted that it was always made clear to him that Ukraine would NOT become a member of NATO but publicly the door would remain open. I don't think many people paid attention to the importance of that admission and the gravity of those words, which in practice make him a war criminal who led his country to war on false pretences knowing that NATO membership was never an option but using that to cross Russia's red lines anyway thereby provoking them to start the conflict!
I think you underestimate the leverage of the ultranationalists. It’s not measured in votes. It’s when they confront Zelensky on the steps of the Duma and tell him, very credibly, that he’ll be hanging from a lamppost if he doesn’t tear up the peace deal he was elected to deliver.
The UN was the bastard love-child of the League of Nations and the Second World War. (The First World War being insufficiently murderous to convince the world to hand over sovereignty to the League of (European) Nations.)
So ... the UN suffers from all the faults of its progenitors. It is a nuclear thugs club run by nuclear thugs for the benefit of nuclear thugs.
Whatever the US may be, the UN is worse.
Whatever faults the US may have as the "global policeman", the UN has the same only moreso.
The UN is now irrelevant for precisely these reasons: it has manifestly failed to achieve any of its claimed objectives in the last 8 decades. You can quibble about corruption versus incompetence if you like, but that is (a) also irrelevant to the outcomes, and (b) cold comfort to the dead.
Beware of Americans who promise safety? Good advice.
So is this:
"If the UN comes to your country and promises to help you: Run. Run for your lives!"
--Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, by Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain and Andrew Thomson.
The World has come to grips with the American imperial reach. Reality is finally setting in. Europe does not need to spend umpteen $billions on defense, as it has no readily apparent enemies, except perhaps the US under Trump. After all it isn't Russia, a mistakenly perceived enemy, that is making economic war against Europe, that has led Europe into many violent attacks and invasions in the Middle East and Africa, that started a war in Ukraine by provoking Russia, that condoned the destruction of energy pipelines that helped force Europe into a recession and that is now casting envious eyes on Denmark's Greenland. No, it is the US! So which country is the real enemy here?
Wow, Sir, a person with critical thinking and common sense, what a sight for sore eyes 😀 Love it, thank you 👏🏻
War in Ukraine has become a side show for the US. More worrying is their posture on Iran. No 7 on the CIA list. Like the previous 6 leaving a mess so gigantic it would probably collapse everything that has been built since 1945. With Trump you never know, bluff, show-biz or manipulated by some outside forces. UN no longer fit for purpose. A great idea at the time yet largely for the benefit of the US. Normal since they contribute the most. In the mean time, until a new bi-polar, tri-polar or no-polar world emerges, we will be living in a volatile and dangerous world. This may end up being the longest 4 years we have ever experienced.
The United Nations is in league with the WEF and has too many nefarious globalist agendas. I do not see how it could be reformed, and it does not serve its stated purpose given that countries are blackmailed and it is unable to stop the genocides in Palestine and Syria. I hope that the BRICS will help to set up a new and more equitable and fair institution to replace the UN once this round of shocking wars and violence is over and peoples regain their sanity.
‘Right now, it seems to me, that America, with all its well-meaning missionary intent’.. I don’t think the U.S. had or has well-meaning intent of any sort since its inception. It’s not a world policeman but a world thug.
*** $50bn each year appears a more realistic total of what America has actually invested in Ukraine since war started.***
I don't think America is trying to recover the costs invested since the start of the war. I think the real agenda is twofold:
1) Recover ALL money that America "invested" in Ukraine since at least 2014, if not earlier. They wanted to bring about strategic defeat to Russia via Ukraine for a long time. A lot of money and effort has been invested into this endeavour for years, if not decades. All that has failed, and I believe America now would like to recover everything they feel was wasted on Ukraine and then some
2) America has not done any due diligence with regards to any kind of exploration and subsequent processing of the Ukrainian resources. The investment required to do that could be enormous and yet they are not interested in asking any questions about the return on any of the investment that may be required to achieve any commercial outcomes. Why? I think they are much less interested in the Ukrainian resources than they are in having an excuse to stay in Ukraine forever and forever being able to meddle in the affairs of the country and influencing any future politics in it.
This is not new. Mr Trump has already considered something similar in Afghanistan (see this NYT article from 2017 - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/world/asia/afghanistan-trump-mineral-deposits.html)
As far as Zelensky not being misled regarding NATO membership, I don't agree with that. I would recommend everyone to watch the interview he gave to Fareed Zakaria of the CNN in 2022. In that interview, Zelensky openly admitted that it was always made clear to him that Ukraine would NOT become a member of NATO but publicly the door would remain open. I don't think many people paid attention to the importance of that admission and the gravity of those words, which in practice make him a war criminal who led his country to war on false pretences knowing that NATO membership was never an option but using that to cross Russia's red lines anyway thereby provoking them to start the conflict!
Probably what is needed is what Putin proposes. A new multipolar security order. A new Westphalia.
It’s a great shame that the OSCE has shredded its own credibility since 1991, otherwise it would be the logical starting point.
I think you underestimate the leverage of the ultranationalists. It’s not measured in votes. It’s when they confront Zelensky on the steps of the Duma and tell him, very credibly, that he’ll be hanging from a lamppost if he doesn’t tear up the peace deal he was elected to deliver.
A property developer a car salesman and an AI walk into the White House...
The UN was the bastard love-child of the League of Nations and the Second World War. (The First World War being insufficiently murderous to convince the world to hand over sovereignty to the League of (European) Nations.)
So ... the UN suffers from all the faults of its progenitors. It is a nuclear thugs club run by nuclear thugs for the benefit of nuclear thugs.
Whatever the US may be, the UN is worse.
Whatever faults the US may have as the "global policeman", the UN has the same only moreso.
The UN is now irrelevant for precisely these reasons: it has manifestly failed to achieve any of its claimed objectives in the last 8 decades. You can quibble about corruption versus incompetence if you like, but that is (a) also irrelevant to the outcomes, and (b) cold comfort to the dead.
Beware of Americans who promise safety? Good advice.
So is this:
"If the UN comes to your country and promises to help you: Run. Run for your lives!"
--Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, by Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain and Andrew Thomson.
> Total US fiscal spending would make America the third largest country in the world by economic output. If you’re not scared by that, you should be.
I genuinely don’t understand this statement, sorry.
US fiscal expenditure in 2024 was $6.75 trillion. German GDP was $4.5 trillion....
So their STATE spending is bigger than almost every other country’s economy?
Yes