(Update 02-19-2025)
“A Victory for Putin”? Jeffrey Sachs & Matt Duss Debate U.S.-Russia Talks to End Ukraine War – Democracy Now! via YT || Jeffrey Sachs comments remind me of the similar trajectory of China/Vietnam conflict. The Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian War is much higher though. My assessment is somewhat in between those two (Sachs and Matt Duss) though.
Will Trump & Musk punish Brazil over Bolsonaro indictment? | Ian Bremmer | World In :60
Got to love this comment – “No country will ever trust America again.“
(Update 02-12-2025) Re: Ukraine, the US changed from guaranteeing Ukraine’s security via Budapest Memorandum (Bill Clinton admin, 1994), to this – Hegseth to NATO: U.S. troops won’t guarantee Ukraine’s security after war (2025, Trump admin).
(Original 03-2024) Not intend to be a political topic. At least I am not interested in starting a debate around politics. In reverse chronicle order. Please navigate away or close the tab as you see fit.
Ukraine: don’t know. The congress may or may not pass the new aid bill. Right now it’s stuck in the house with the republicans holding against the $60 billion military aid. On moral ground, I support the Ukraine people because Russia is the invader here. (Update 02-06-2025) Over 45,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed since start of war, Zelensky says (The Kyiv Independent)
Afghanistan: we all know how it ended. TFG signed a deal with Taliban, and the current guy had to withdraw as the Taliban entering Kabul.
Iraq: the W started it, and guy after the W had to withdraw US troops as the Iraq government essentially said the US troops are not welcomed here. Not sure what’s going on in the green zone, and I recall the building itself is the largest US embassy in the world. Btw, it’s unrealistic to expect Iraq will be like Israel when the US went in (invaded) on March 2003. I have a colleague who served a combat medic in Iraq, and he told me a horror story: the insurgents planted some bomb with little kids, when the US soldiers handed out candies to the kids, the bomb went off. He has fellow soldiers either died or seriously injured from those.
The Kurds in Iraq (quote wikipedia here): “Kurdish people have played an important role in Iraqi state-building since the United States invaded in 2003. Many Kurds seek to build an autonomous federal state in the post-Hussein era, however, a solution for Kurdish problems in Iraq was not even mentioned in the 2004 UN resolution that established Iraq’s interim government.”
My recollection is in 1990/1991 the HW (W’s dad) essentially asked the Kurds to rise up against Saddam, before pulling the rug under it. Saddam H retaliated against those Kurds. You may read Wikipedia for more info.
Let me quote Wikipedia here: “In the North, Kurdish leaders took American statements that they would support an uprising to heart, and began fighting, hoping to trigger a coup d’état. However, when no US support came, Iraqi generals remained loyal to Saddam and brutally crushed the Kurdish uprising and the uprising in the south.[233] Millions of Kurds fled across the mountains to Turkey and Kurdish areas of Iran. On April 5, the Iraqi government announced “the complete crushing of acts of sedition, sabotage and rioting in all towns of Iraq.” An estimated 25,000 to 100,000 Iraqis were killed in the uprisings.”
Afghanistan Again
Also in Afghanistan: during 1980s. the CIA actually supported people like Osama bin Laden, so called Mujahideen, to counter the USSR invasion of Afghanistan. The US supported the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan too – on and off. We all know Afghanistan is now controlled by the Taliban. Ironically, the way the women are treated in the state of Texas, in terms of the right of choice (abortion), in my opinion is similar to Taliban. So we basically have Taliban In Texas (Greg Abbott and his GOP allies).
Back to the topic, Vietnam (1975): fall of Saigon. Reminded you fall of Kabul?
Recently I was thinking a lot of half effort or half assed effort in this country.
Why is that?
I can think of a few reasons:
- The W’s unnecessary war in Iraq did two things at least. American people are more skeptical of foreign conflict. Note while both the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq, in terms of human cost, are disproportionately born by about 1% of the family (to be fair, the late Senator McCain, Sara Palin, and Joe Biden all sent kids there). Then there is the economy or financial cost. The two wars cost $6 trillion by some estimate. This is about 20% of the current US debt. With inflation and everything going on, when the congress try to do some foreign aid (keep in mind the money actually stay mostly in the US for the military aid, because the weaponries are usually made in the US, the US cannot outsource those to China).
- Over the time, current young generation, are not ready to fight. This is quite different from the patriotism that’s widely popular in this country after September 11, again we can blame the W’s totally unnecessary wars in Iraq. Also keep in mind the sacrifice of the young generation is not even across the board, refer to Muskrat, the higher ups’ kids are more precious (02-18-2025).
What about Europe?
I don’t think the two largest economies Germany and French have much asses. Same for Turkey, Hungary. Some other countries, such as UK, Poland, Czech, and 3 former USSR countries at Baltic: Estonia, Latvia, etc.