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Originally Posted by Hondaracer
Now, we might do both. And to what end? What do you get by sending Canadians there? Go send some soldiers to go die for a cause they have no interest in. I guess that’s every war these days and nothing is ever just to begin with.
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I get it when people think countries should mind its own business - that stuff like the genocides in Palestine or Xinjiang don't matter b/c it's not on our turf or that if the war isn't on our shores it's not our problem and we shouldn't help. We have starving people here, we have people dying here so ignore what happens to the rest of the world.
However, I disagree with it - we're not just citizens of our own country and we should play our part of supporting causes that we view as just (what's just is relative to your country). This means we do things that we have no direct relation to - we airdrop food in Gaza for people who likely will die anyways, we gently (too gently) lecture the Chinese on their genocide in hopes that it makes a difference (it isn't making one). And we stick our noses into Ukraine to contain a dangerous country like Russia.
It used to be that Canada, the EU, Australia, Japan, and many others had an implicit/explicit deal with the US - they run the world affairs and, as a result, they get to impose American values around the world. The rest of us get to carry less of the burden as a result. Trump's always been half right about demanding these countries spend more on the military - he's right that we've been shrugging off our part but that was the DEAL. The US gets to overthrow gov'ts around the world - they get to invade Iraq using lies and we'll go along with it - but the deal is they bear the burden - they starve their own people in exchange for global dominance.
Now the US is giving up global dominance b/c their leaders are too stupid to realise how rich and powerful it made them. Giving it up means China is the king maker now - they're doing what the US used to do - they're taking control of most of Africa, grabbing a hold of big chunks of Asia and they've got their fingers in the EU, Canada, Australia etc. The UK didn't lose power by choice, they fought as long as they could - they weren't stupid but the US is and now Canada has to pull their own weight which means a bigger military and maybe troops on the ground in places we don't really want to be in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hondaracer
And please, don’t go on with the “if we left Russia run, Europe as a whole is under threat!” Because it’s obviously not.
If China ever took Taiwan, should we spend 50 billion there?
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China's going to eventually try to take Taiwan - maybe not in the next 10 years but you can bet it'll happen as the US gives up their power. If China is the world's superpower when it happens there won't be much we can do about it - it'd be like opposing the invasion of Iraq - the US will have their tail between their legs as they retreat from the rest of the world.
Russia's never going to be super power again but it can be a real threat to Europe - they control too much of the resources that Europe wants and they also can sell those resources to countries that can threaten Europe.
You make this stuff sound like it's all black and white but geopolitics are all shades of grey and Ukraine is too valuable to just give it to Russia especially if we can use it to bleed Russia dry for a few years.