4 ms·

I don't think it's controversial that Putin deserves to be ousted by a foreign military as much as anyone. He's certainly much more powerful and dangerous than

by smt88 5y ago

I don't think it's controversial that Putin deserves to be ousted by a foreign military as much as anyone. He's certainly much more powerful and dangerous than Stalin or Hitler because he can unilaterally end human life on earth at any moment of any day. > Install anyone else that's not insane, say Navalny. Well, we definitely couldn't install anyone. We'd have to administrate an open election. > I read they have 50% of their total combat brigades in Ukraine now. This is a pretty antiquated assessment of military power. Boots on the ground show only that Russia wants to take Ukraine rather than completely destroy it. They can level the entire country with tactical nukes if they want. > Installing a leader that is open to integrating with the west, along with India, we could encircle China and force them into peaceful deescalation. I think it's more likely that we'd make China very dangerous and hostile, and we'd also re-open the world to the possibility of foreign regime change. If we can decapitate Russia, why couldn't someone say, "Hey, this Biden guy stole the election, we should murder him for the good of the American people!" Biden didn't steal the election, but I think you see where I'm going with it.

mistrial9 5y ago
from my understanding of the development of the international oil trade in the 20th century, one of the key advancements by multinational oil in the West was to learn lessons from the British, and do two important things on foreign soil: always back a leader that can hold on with local support; always pay the Nationalist/Military oil interests very well, in addition to making trade rights built-in. Unfortunately, it seems that the "wild west" behavior of the USA in South America, in the wake of the brutal Spanish conquest long ago, made some enemies (that have oil) that are not easy to talk to now.
- sarma912 5y ago
  Do you have a good book rec around British oil and lessons learnt?
  - BlueTemplar 5y ago
    Oil, Power, and War : A Dark History should be close enough ? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42527868-oil-power-and-war https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42527868-oil-power-and-w...
BuckRogers 5y ago
[flagged]
- xtian 5y ago
  You probably won’t take this advice, but you should really start making peace with the fact that the US is completely incapable of accomplishing any of these warped fantasies of yours. The vast majority of the world is celebrating the self-evident decline of US-centric unipolarity. But those of us who live here have some hard years ahead.
  - kelnos 5y ago
    That's the thing. Even if we were to suggest that the parent's ideas had merit (big "if"), it's pretty laughable to think that the US is capable of doing this properly. Looking back, it's hard to find American successes in this sort of meddling, all the way back to WWII.
    - xtian 5y ago
      True, and the US didn’t even properly defeat the Nazis (see, for instance: Adolf Heusinger, Operation Paperclip, and the many Nazis who happened to find themselves in positions of power in West Germany).
      - BuckRogers 5y ago
        [flagged]
- mistrial9 5y ago
  - BuckRogers 5y ago
    The ideas have to be out there or they'll never get traction. We have major influence recently. The path of the world was changed dramatically with the election of Biden over Trump. I can't imagine how emboldened Putin would be had Trump won. I realize others say everyone was scared of the rich man's son, but I don't see it. He withheld 400 million in military aid from Ukraine, says it all as far as the path we'd be down.
waffleiron 5y ago
>He's certainly much more powerful and dangerous than Stalin or Hitler because he can unilaterally end human life on earth at any moment of any day. This is Biden too. Literally can unilaterally start a nuclear war.
- dTal 5y ago
  True, it's an extremely dangerous situation for nuclear weapons to exist at all. Biden, however, has not threatened to use them. Nor does he rule over his subordinates on pain of extrajudicial murder, so there's a few checks and balances there. Alas the same cannot be said for Putin.
- smt88 5y ago
  > This is Biden too. Literally can unilaterally start a nuclear war. So what? What does that have to do with anything? Biden has never threatened nuclear war and has nothing to gain from it. Putin has threatened it repeatedly in the last few weeks. Biden is more powerful than Putin, Stalin, or Hitler, but he is not as dangerous.
  - lmm 5y ago
    Biden frequently misspeaks or gets confused, and refuses to take dementia tests, so if he really can unilaterally launch then I'd actually be pretty worried about that. (I think there are other people in the loop in the case of the US president though? Personally I've always been most worried about the Royal Navy's submarine captains, who really do have the ability to launch unilaterally in a very direct way)
  - waffleiron 5y ago
    >So what? What does that have to do with anything? Because my reply was to: >much more powerful and dangerous than Stalin or Hitler because Note the "because", the exact same argument stands for Biden, but we wouldn't argue he's more powerful and dangerous than Stalin or Hitler. I was pointing out the weakness in the "because".

by smt88 5y ago

mistrial9 5y ago

from my understanding of the development of the international oil trade in the 20th century, one of the key advancements by multinational oil in the West was to learn lessons from the British, and do two important things on foreign soil: always back a leader that can hold on with local support; always pay the Nationalist/Military oil interests very well, in addition to making trade rights built-in. Unfortunately, it seems that the "wild west" behavior of the USA in South America, in the wake of the brutal Spanish conquest long ago, made some enemies (that have oil) that are not easy to talk to now.

sarma912 5y ago
Do you have a good book rec around British oil and lessons learnt?
- BlueTemplar 5y ago
  Oil, Power, and War : A Dark History should be close enough ? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42527868-oil-power-and-war https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42527868-oil-power-and-w...

BuckRogers 5y ago

[flagged]

xtian 5y ago
You probably won’t take this advice, but you should really start making peace with the fact that the US is completely incapable of accomplishing any of these warped fantasies of yours. The vast majority of the world is celebrating the self-evident decline of US-centric unipolarity. But those of us who live here have some hard years ahead.
- kelnos 5y ago
  That's the thing. Even if we were to suggest that the parent's ideas had merit (big "if"), it's pretty laughable to think that the US is capable of doing this properly. Looking back, it's hard to find American successes in this sort of meddling, all the way back to WWII.
  - xtian 5y ago
    True, and the US didn’t even properly defeat the Nazis (see, for instance: Adolf Heusinger, Operation Paperclip, and the many Nazis who happened to find themselves in positions of power in West Germany).
    - BuckRogers 5y ago
      [flagged]
mistrial9 5y ago
- BuckRogers 5y ago
  The ideas have to be out there or they'll never get traction. We have major influence recently. The path of the world was changed dramatically with the election of Biden over Trump. I can't imagine how emboldened Putin would be had Trump won. I realize others say everyone was scared of the rich man's son, but I don't see it. He withheld 400 million in military aid from Ukraine, says it all as far as the path we'd be down.

waffleiron 5y ago

>He's certainly much more powerful and dangerous than Stalin or Hitler because he can unilaterally end human life on earth at any moment of any day. This is Biden too. Literally can unilaterally start a nuclear war.

dTal 5y ago
True, it's an extremely dangerous situation for nuclear weapons to exist at all. Biden, however, has not threatened to use them. Nor does he rule over his subordinates on pain of extrajudicial murder, so there's a few checks and balances there. Alas the same cannot be said for Putin.
smt88 5y ago
> This is Biden too. Literally can unilaterally start a nuclear war. So what? What does that have to do with anything? Biden has never threatened nuclear war and has nothing to gain from it. Putin has threatened it repeatedly in the last few weeks. Biden is more powerful than Putin, Stalin, or Hitler, but he is not as dangerous.
- lmm 5y ago
  Biden frequently misspeaks or gets confused, and refuses to take dementia tests, so if he really can unilaterally launch then I'd actually be pretty worried about that. (I think there are other people in the loop in the case of the US president though? Personally I've always been most worried about the Royal Navy's submarine captains, who really do have the ability to launch unilaterally in a very direct way)
- waffleiron 5y ago
  >So what? What does that have to do with anything? Because my reply was to: >much more powerful and dangerous than Stalin or Hitler because Note the "because", the exact same argument stands for Biden, but we wouldn't argue he's more powerful and dangerous than Stalin or Hitler. I was pointing out the weakness in the "because".