AJAK's thoughts on political ideology + responses

[AJAK]

We have a system where good citizens are punished and malefactors protected. This setup has been called the “Swamp.”

We ought to remember how Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp almost a decade ago. But he drained nothing. He is not like Roman Consul Spurius Postumius who put down the Bacchanalian cult of 186 BC. In fact, Trump was recently caught on a microphone wishing people would kowtow to him like they do to North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. Trump has no love of the US republic. Like other demagogues he admires dictators. If it is not a disgrace to wish for toadies after the fashion of an Asian sociopath it nonetheless indicates his anti republican disposition. The situation is particularly alarming when we see how Trump regards the Epstein files. His name as well as his Mar-a-Lago resort are mentioned 38,000 times across 5,300 files. On 3 February Trump said, “I think it’s really time for the country to maybe get onto something else….” Incredibly, Trump added, “it was a conspiracy against me, literally by Epstein and other people.”

And what about Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who lied about his association with Epstein? And there is Pam Bondi who has no real desire to go after a large gang of predators. There is no statute of limitations on child rape. Why is she so determined to sweep this under the rug? Around the world, powerful people are resigning from their positions like Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem who recently stepped down as CEO of DP World after it became known that he wrote an email to Epstein which stated, “I loved the torture video.”

Torture video?

There are monsters who devour children. And then there are monsters who protect the monsters who devour children. To take a specific case investigator Nick Bryant asks whether house speaker Mike Johnson is compromised, pointing out that “Johnson would rather shut down Congress than have the House vote on a bill that would mandate an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s network of child molesters.”

Its becoming pretty clear where all of those reported missing children every year are going.

Everything we know about political stability suggests that this kind of activity, if allowed to infect a society’s elite could take the whole system down. In this context, it would be nice to know if MAGA is actually MMGA – Make Moloch Great Again; For the leaders of MAGA appear to be avoiding the issue.

The communists and the Russians, the Chinese and the Iranians, will exploit the Epstein affair. They are already saying that capitalism coincides with a “Satanic elite.”

 

[AJAK]

Jeffrey Epstein ordered 16-year-old victim to undress and give him a massage while he was on speakerphone with Trump, newly released files claim.

Epstein was alive for five years after Russia launched its war against Ukraine in 2014. In all the materials released so far, there is no trace of support for Ukraine. What does appear repeatedly is helping predatory Russia: contacts linked to the Kremlin, attempts to connect Russian officials with Western billionaires, and discussions around financial and crypto schemes to evade sanctions. Is it surprising that the head of an elite pedophile ring sided with Russia? No. It’s logical.

Epstein was working with Kremlin official Belyakov to circumvent sanctions post Crimea and set up a BRICs cryptocurrency, but his eagerness to help Putin beat the West predates that.


"He wants to be helpful," Trump says regarding his conversation with Putin and Iran despite reports that Russia was providing intel to Iran on US military targets.

Trump also refused to comment on Russian involvement in Iranian attacks on American military targets. The president called the question “stupid.” For context, the question asker was FOX News Peter Doocy.

Ukraine only ever wanted to be an ally and partner, and morality/Budapest Memorandum obligations aside, they have a lot to offer.

The treatment of Ukraine by the Trump/Vance/Kushner administration has been unbecoming, to say the least. Trump is a Soviet controlled charlatan.

It's not just certain Republicans pushing the multipolar world meme. Even Mark Rubio spoke about "multipolarity" as if it was already a foregone conclusion. its a neo-Soviet agenda, aka Eurasianism, “Multipolarism”.

“Multipolarity” is not just a neutral academic term. It is a core concept in Russian geopolitical ideology promoted by Alexander Dugin and echoed by the Kremlin. It calls for the end of a US led world order and its replacement with competing power blocs dominated by Soviet Russia, Red China, and other authoritarian regimes. If you advocate “multipolarity,” you are advocating the weakening of the US and you are anti American. Multipolarity is explained in Alexander Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics, which Jack Posobiec heavily promoted on his feed in 2017. Mao's replacement Xiaoping admitted that multipolarism was a cover for Soviet unipolarity.

The ideology behind “MAGA Communism” didn’t come from America. It came from Alexander Dugin. Your favorite “influencer” may be influenced by his twisted ideology that seeks to destroy America from within and weaken the US in the geopolitical landscape.

https://imgur.com/hBMvAV1

Dugin is celebrating the death of NATO. The Trump admin may accomplish what the communist bloc has tried to accomplish since 1949. As Stalin called Hitler the icebreaker of the revolution, Trump may prove himself the icebreaker for the beginning of Lenin's final imperialist war.

The Russian rehabilitation of Stalin and change of laws to criminalize behavior that was legal up until recently. They prepare their population for a protracted war with the West.

 

[Conquistador]

…as recent events have proven, the multipolar world is a myth. The US is currently more dominant than ever, because it chooses to exercise that power.

 

[ulrich]

…as recent events have proven, the multipolar world is a myth. The US is currently more dominant than ever, because it chooses to exercise that power.

I wonder how it looks like from China.

If I was outside of the West, I think USA would look like a superpower but in clear decadence.

Of course, hard to say because I am sure all the news I read have at least some degree of propaganda and bias.
Objective political reality is impossible for the common man to grasp.

 

[Kshatrap A.V.]

If I was outside of the West, I think USA would look like a superpower but in clear decadence.

Usa is actually being shown as bit of in decadence. Like trump asking for putin to help.

And also like it's creating lot of enemies

And wherever it's military has gone to like Vietnam, Afghanistan etc. it lost. Atleast that's what I am seeing in news and that's why Trump is only doing aerial attacks on Iran. Said by news not me.

 

[Conquistador]

I wonder how it looks like from China.

If I was outside of the West, I think USA would look like a superpower but in clear decadence.

Of course, hard to say because I am sure all the news I read have at least some degree of propaganda and bias.
Objective political reality is impossible for the common man to grasp.

Well our supremacy is grounded in a few things that are not eroding:
1) our gdp/c and economic size. Regardless of the structural weaknesses of our economy, its prduction and consumption levels are undeniable.
2) our military is still unchallenged due an underappreciated organizational and doctrinal edge. China’s systems are nearly as good, but they are correct to be so cautious about their large-scale capabilities. Likewise Russia has displayed its inability to emulate us. Also, we can simply buy and staff more of the high end stuff than others can. Whether the Chinese economy can really support their armament plans remains to be seen.
3) Our ability to recruit talent from the rest of the world continues. Western Europe is the only region where people don’t envy us, and that’s only because we created the conditions for their societies to become what they are.
And while our universities are increasingly becoming less than healthy, the core work they do in technical fields is still going strong, and somehow rich people from Eurasia still think it’s worth sending their kids to be indoctrinated in not only wokeism but basic democratic Americanism.

 

[Conquistador]

Usa is actually being shown as bit of in decadence. Like trump asking for putin to help.

That’s a personal thing lol. We don’t need Russia for anything. Except uranium and titanium and if we really wanted we could just make trade concessions to the Aussies for more of those. Or y’know, invade Canada

And also like it's creating lot of enemies

Just catching up with China and Russia though. And I think the chattering classes will be surprised in half a generation by the dynamics of global opinion.

And wherever it's military has gone to

Because you’re only seeing the failures.
is a pretty decent record of successes actually. Not to mention before WW2 with the Banana Wars and yes the Indian Wars.

The third-largest military intervention of the Bush era was conducted under such a dearth of media coverage that it’s still not widely known. This was the US air cover for the massive 2006-7 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia to overthrow the effective and popularly legitimate de facto government (ICU) in favor of the Kenya-based TFG.

like Vietnam,

Vietnam was at the theater level a loss, but actually at the grand strategic level it was a massive win. We made the Sino-Soviet split irreversible while stopping the spread of communism into Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It did come at a cost but in absolute terms the cost was ridiculously low, it’s just that America isn’t used to fighting existential wars with real costs so Vietnam is our standard for pain.

Afghanistan etc. it lost.

I mean we did maintain our puppet regime in Afghanistan for an order of magnitude longer than the British could. We left because we were unwilling to treat the Taliban with the necessary brutality. Also we had no real reason to stay after we killed Osama and it turned out he was hiding across the border in a place where some ISI colonels definitely knew he was there.

Atleast that's what I am seeing in news and that's why Trump is only doing aerial attacks on Iran. Said by news not me.

The Iran situation is still developing. But fundamentally the use of air power is a matter of economy and minimal effort.

While we don’t actually have the numbers to occupy all of Iran, we could take over the ports if we wanted to, or create a safe zone for dissent in Khuzestan. And the air campaign is going a hell of a lot better than Russia’s has in Ukraine. Frankly the US is the only country able to achieve decisive effects through air (and sea) power; it’s just that we’ve gotten so good at it we forgot the inherent limits of air power. Also Trump doesn’t have a real strategy or operational goals (Israel at least does).

 

[ulrich]

Well our supremacy is grounded in a few things that are not eroding:
1) our gdp/c and economic size. Regardless of the structural weaknesses of our economy, its prduction and consumption levels are undeniable.

Completely agree with you on points 2 and 3.

The eclnomy size is a whole more difficult conversation.

It would seem to me that the US economy is over inflated and.. without a strong local manufacturing base quite dependent of imports which gels badly in the case of war (although, to be fair... who in their right mind would invade USA??)

 

[AJAK]

Usa is actually being shown as bit of in decadence. Like trump asking for putin to help.

And also like it's creating lot of enemies

And wherever it's military has gone to like Vietnam, Afghanistan etc. it lost. Atleast that's what I am seeing in news and that's why Trump is only doing aerial attacks on Iran. Said by news not me.

Yes, Trump has been making plenty of enemies.

America has had many problems with liberal presidents destroying American allies abroad. Not only did Nicaragua go communist when Jimmy Carter was president, Iran also fell under the control of U.S. enemies (which ultimately led to Carter’s election defeat in 1980). But now we have a dangerous Republican president who is driving allies into the enemy’s arms while his secretary of war says Joe Biden drove Russia into China’s arms. But Russia has been in the arms of China all along.

Is Donald Trump crazy? Is he normal? Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico reportedly told EU leaders that he was shocked by Trump’s state of mind. Robert Fico, who has supported Trump in the past, privately expressed concern about Trump’s psychological state which he described as “dangerous.”

Trump has been exceptionally patient and gentle with Russia while provoking Canada and Denmark/Greenland into hostility. Canada has begun to take steps to make China its “strategic partner.” The Chinese are now calling Canada an ally. This is a remarkable achievement. Now the US is sandwiched between two hostile countries Canada and Mexico. By what stratagem has this been accomplished?

Given recent events, you might think the US is the winning side. The dictator regimes appear to be on the ropes. China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela are going broke. This tickles our optimism even as we forget that America is also on the brink of a financial abyss. Then we look at this Greenland situation and the picture darkens. We realize that the American president is an irresponsible crazy person.

The American voter attempting to steer clear of the pro-China, open-border, transgendered policies of the Democrats is now treated to “national suicide by foreign policy.” Here is your choice, America: Die by the Democratic mob or die by the MAGA madman.

Some might argue in Trump’s favor that he has given the US a wonderful victory in Venezuela. Some might argue that he is about to rescue the Iranian people from their clerical oppressors. But there has been no victory in Venezuela. The Cleric oppressors were mowing down protestors by the tens of thousands. Nothing of strategic significance has yet to transpire. These regimes are still orbiting Moscow and Beijing. What is significant of course is that the Western alliance is fracturing with Tucker Carlson saying the breakup of NATO is good for America.

Why is Trump squandering opportunities in Venezuela and Iran? That is the real question before us. Why is he alienating Europe and Canada? This madness of Trump promises to result in the demolition of his party, his country, and the Western alliance. In the end his actions are also self destructive. the Russians are applauding him. At the same time in Washington there have been calls to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

America is in decline. Common sense is no longer common. We have an American leader who shifts back and forth. He has policies that contradict each other. He talks as if the Venezuelan regime has already fallen, yet the regime remains intact. He says he has done more than anyone for NATO, yet he acts to destroy NATO. He says he is on the side of the Iranian people, yet he has his picture with Tucker Carlson at the White House the same Tucker Carlson who recently asked, “Could the Iranians obtaining the Bomb wind up being a good thing?

 

[AJAK]

In October Trump finally sanctioned Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. Assets were frozen, US entities were blocked from doing business with these companies. Secondary sanctions were also threatened against foreign companies, especially in China and India. But Rosneft and Lukoil only account for half of Russia’s total oil exports so that Russia can export oil by shifting to other outlets. How is this satisfactory in terms of punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine?

The reason Trump has given for half sanctions against Russian oil is to minimize the disruption of global markets. Here we are confronted with a contradiction. What foolishness placed us in this position to begin with? Where were the wise men of the West who might have steered us away from trading with our enemies and thereby coming into dependency? Neither liberals nor conservatives nor social democrats said anything wise about the supposed fall of the Soviet Union. All embraced this as a godsend. At last, we can invest in Russia, said the capitalists. At last, we can gain access to Russia’s natural gas and oil. The West ended up doing business with KGB bosses and communist apparatchiks all the while believing that these had become good democrats and liberals lol. So the West gave Russia investment and technology while becoming addicted to Russian gas and oil. Three decades later Russia resumed its militaristic course threatening the whole of Europe with nuclear world war. The West’s elite has proved to be a pack of fools.

So here we are unable to fully embargo Russia because the “world economy” might fall to pieces without Russian oil. And this happened because the West allowed itself to become entangled with the Russian and Chinese economies, because we allowed ourselves to believe the Russian lies and ignoring communist takeovers in oil rich Venezuela and mineral rich South Africa, Congo, etc. These mistakes were not merely economic. They were strategic mistakes. And there was a “philosophy” at the bottom of all this: liberalism which James Burnham called “the ideology of Western suicide.”

The West has not become communist yet it has inched ever closer to socialist constructivism which deeply compromises all social strata (not just the ruling class). This movement toward socialist constructivism (by way of the welfare state) represents a spiritual and intellectual disintegration which has been progressing steadily for decades. The strategy of the US and the actions of American presidents have often been compromised by this disintegration. This is the general situation that frames Donald Trump’s stratagem in Latin America, Greenland, and the Middle East. It is a disintegrative policy carried out by a disintegrated person on behalf of a disintegrating society.

 

[Kshatrap A.V.]

liberalism which James Burnham called “the ideology of Western suicide.”

Afaik, Liberalism is of different types and works differently in different countries. So, which type are you referring here.

 

[ulrich]

Afaik, Liberalism is of different types and works differently in different countries. So, which type are you referring here.

I feel "liberalism" and "neoliberalism" is becoming a moniker for critics of the system to group everything they dont like without much relation to any actual ideology or meaning of the terms.

 

[Kshatrap A.V.]

I feel "liberalism" and "neoliberalism" is becoming a moniker for critics of the system to group everything they dont like without much relation to any actual ideology or meaning of the terms.

Hmm. True just like how "fascism" is thrown around by folks on other side of the political ideology.

 

[AJAK]

Afaik, Liberalism is of different types and works differently in different countries. So, which type are you referring here.

FDR was perhaps the most influential public facing political leader of ww2. He defined modern American “liberalism” (ie leftism) and unfortunately the heinous legacy of his administration endures to this day which has morphed into "wokeness."

He is often associated with the ‘Liberal Internationalist’ movement and is best described as “Communism-Lite.”

The primary difference between left and right wing worldviews is the belief that hierarchy is inherent to reality. This is not simply the belief that hierarchies exist but that they are part of the natural order and not artificially imposed; just the way that things are, whether people like it or not. Right wingers apply this hierarchical view to every aspect of the universe: Humans, animals, plants, etc.

Conservatives do tend to show a default motivation to respect and preserve differences, whether it be borders between countries, differences between sexes, differences between rich and poor, and lots more. And liberals tend to assume those differences are fraudulent or arbitrary. The poor don’t deserve to be poor. The rich don’t deserve to be rich. And so forth.

Conservatives tend to see the world as a place where, like it or not, observable differences reflect real underlying value that is somehow meant to be where station and attention received are usually deserved. Therefore, most hierarchies that emerge are best left as they are. However, unfortunately, change is slowly eroding the world’s hierarchies. Therefore, constraining change and accepting inequality is just common sense.

Liberals tend to see the world as a place where observable differences are superficial, rarely reflecting actual value, cosmic purpose or intent, deserved status, or attention received. Therefore most hierarchies require reform. Fortunately, however, the world is getting better and change is taking us in the right direction. Therefore, embracing change and rejecting inequality [the textbook definition of liberalism] is just common sense.

The absolute essence of Leftist ideology is “equality”: The destruction of all natural order and the total inversion or abolition of all power hierarchies. Leftism fights to elevate the weak and tear down the strong. This manifests in policies and movements like feminism, anti nationalism, wealth redistribution and so on.

The basic political agendas of Leftism were succinctly summarized by Marx and Engels in their 1848 Communist Manifesto (aka the Leftist Bible):

Abolition of property
Abolition of family
Abolition of traditional culture
Abolition of nation (and race)
Plus, the creation of a totalitarian technocracy, featuring rapid technological advancement and the centralization of all production in the hands of the state of banking via monopolies, of transportation, communication, education, and so on

This drive towards a centralized technocratic state and fundamentally a one world government is the defining characteristic of all Left Wing political movements. Leftism is synonymous with Globalism. Even the anarchists who aim to abolish all governance still preach a globalist ideology that would be impossible to enforce without a one world government: No borders, no countries, no property, no money, no families, no religion, no races, no genders, no hierarchies, and so on. If Leftism was realized to its maximum degree our entire planet would be transformed into some sort of formless gray goop.

“There will no longer be nationality, no longer fatherland, in the political sense of the words: they will mean only places of birth. Man, of whatever race or colour he may be, is an inhabitant of the universe; citizenship is everywhere an acquired right.” — Proudhon, The General Idea of the Revolution (1851)

Plenty of Globalist elites (eg the WEF gang, supposed mega capitalists) have been hinting or outright stating that this is their objective: “You will own nothing and you will be happy.” Plus, Globalist elites and Leftist plebs alike are obsessed with wealth redistribution, largely from the Bank of the West to the Third World but still they constantly talk about wealth inequality, increasing taxes, reparations and so on.

 

[ulrich]

The primary difference between left and right wing worldviews is the belief that hierarchy is inherent to reality.

I disagree.

The main difference between the political left and right (which is an enormous simplification in itself) is the value they give to objectivism.

The left equals personal perception to observable reality which goes against the "scientific" tradition of western philosophy.

Note that this rejection of objectivism is utilitarian... it is used as a means to validate and exalts the struggles of their base.
You will rarely see the struggles of "heirs", "rurals" or "men in general" being praised.

 

[ulrich]

Also liberalism is in any case an economic philosophy.

Mixing it with modern leftism is a huge mixture of nonsense.
It would be the equivalent of calling capitalism "nazi".

 

[Conquistador]

Completely agree with you on points 2 and 3.

The eclnomy size is a whole more difficult conversation.

It would seem to me that the US economy is over inflated

I used to agree with you completely. Nowadays I think the picture is more balanced and complex.

and.. without a strong local manufacturing base

In terms of production the US still manufactures a lot. Certain labor intensive industries have offshored but we’re not remotely as deindustrialized as W Europe or even the former communist bloc.

quite dependent of imports
which gels badly in the case of war

What imports precisely? Strategic materials, either we have dormant reserves that would become economical, or we can get them from Canada et al. Most of the stuff we get from China we could get from Latin America.

Not saying that consumer goods cuts and fuel rationing wouldn’t be unnecessary, but it’s not the same as the kind of dynamics seen in both Russia and Ukraine right now.

It was never an issue for us in WW2 (unlike for literally everyone else)

(although, to be fair... who in their right mind would invade USA??)

Lol. We only bother with a large regular army and Marine Corps and to some extent air force because of our role on the world stage. The US is probably even harder to invade than Russia frankly.
Counterinsurgency alone requires over 2% of the occupied population in terms of ground troops. Supplying 7 million troops across an ocean is hard.

 

[AJAK]

We now know that Russian girls were imported into the US by Epstein. There were metings between Epstein and Putin. Now we discover that Trump was up to his neck in Jeffrey Epstein’s girls; and now we are shown that Epstein’s sex empire was a “KGB honeytrap” for harvesting kompromat” on celebrity Western businessmen and politicians according to the Daily Mail. Unger is now vindicated by his claim that Epstein relied on Russian pimps to supply him with girls.

US security services had been monitoring Epstein’s Russian connections for years. (But did nothing while hundreds of children were being harmed.) US security officials also believe Epstein had long standing ties with Russian organized crime who could have been blackmailing him. That could explain the ease with which Epstein appeared to be able to fly in girls from Russia. We can see that any secret level of American counterinteligence at work behind events must have been neutralized long ago. To carry out a honeytrap of this size involving US presidents and businessmen while US counterintelligence did nothing is proof that the US has no meaningful defense against sophisticated esponage. This is something every American should know.

Edward Snowden stole just about everything of importance there was to steal from US intelligence agencies? Is it any wonder he defected to Russia with his ill gotten gains? Is it any wonder that twelve Russian sleeper agents (illegals) were sent back to Russia rather than arrested and jailed? To add insult to injury most Americans do not have enough common sense to see that Snowden was a traitor to his country. Some people even think he was a hero. How could all of this have unfolded without major figures, in the US being on the hook to Russia?

The average American assumes that US intelligence services are the best. Americans after all think they won the cold war. But the cold war did not end. The Russians kept working against the US and they were using pedophile rings. Some will say this analysis is crazy because America is still prosperous, still strong. If America is still prosperous today most have not understood the consequences of American indebtedness. They have not considered the collapse of the work ethic. They have not reckoned on their moral decline, their intellectual emptiness, or the nation’s physical slide into obesity and disease. Few have considered the contribution made to their decadence by the Russian and Chinese intelligence services. In reality, the Chinese communists have hollowed out the US economy and are pumping them with fentanyl. Russian agents and their fellow travelers poisoned their culture through “active measures.” And the testimony on this lies unread in countless books by KGB and GRU defectors. Friedrich Nietzsche said we should never judge a thing by what it appears to be and that we should judge it by what it is becoming. America is becoming a bankrupt, immoral, fat, addicted and diseased mass of entitled cretins. War and economic hardship might reverse these lamntble trends. On the other hand we might be looking at the end of American society.

The accomplishments of Joe Biden and Donald Trump,. what they have created is a “reign of error.” If the US was circling the drain under Biden they;re now going down the drain under Trump. It is a wonder that two diametrically opposed villains can bring two entirely different tracks of national destruction together in one two party political cocktail.

The partisans of both camps continually undermine common sense and national survival. The right seemed somewhat sane and reasonable at first. But now with the success of Russia’s active measures, Donald Trump carries out his stratagems with a full orchestra and chorus of lackeys. The resulting music has been badly scored, has neither rhyme nor reason. How did this happen? We should not in attempting to understand Trump’s political success, underestimate the suggestbiity of an industrial nation traumatized by de industrialization, alienated by an atomizing and socially disintegative feminism, frustrated by a managerial class with anti American propensities and perplexed by a massive invasion of foreigners. Americans have been guilted into surrendering their heroes along with their heritage through Frankfurt school cultural marxism. Now that people see what is at stake and what has been lost and they are desperate to recover their country from a proto totalitarian machine. But either way they turn they are caught in a trap, their leaders are compromised, their country is being stripped of its power.

 

[ulrich]

What imports precisely? Strategic materials, either we have dormant reserves that would become economical, or we can get them from Canada et al. Most of the stuff we get from China we could get from Latin America.

@Conquistador, all fair points.

The only strategic resource you may need to deal with are some rare earths like neodymium.
I understand China has the market cornered for some of those.

 

[AJAK]

That’s a personal thing lol. We don’t need Russia for anything. Except uranium and titanium and if we really wanted we could just make trade concessions to the Aussies for more of those. Or y’know, invade Canada

Just catching up with China and Russia though. And I think the chattering classes will be surprised in half a generation by the dynamics of global opinion.

Because you’re only seeing the failures.
is a pretty decent record of successes actually. Not to mention before WW2 with the Banana Wars and yes the Indian Wars.

The third-largest military intervention of the Bush era was conducted under such a dearth of media coverage that it’s still not widely known. This was the US air cover for the massive 2006-7 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia to overthrow the effective and popularly legitimate de facto government (ICU) in favor of the Kenya-based TFG.

Vietnam was at the theater level a loss, but actually at the grand strategic level it was a massive win. We made the Sino-Soviet split irreversible while stopping the spread of communism into Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It did come at a cost but in absolute terms the cost was ridiculously low, it’s just that America isn’t used to fighting existential wars with real costs so Vietnam is our standard for pain.

I mean we did maintain our puppet regime in Afghanistan for an order of magnitude longer than the British could. We left because we were unwilling to treat the Taliban with the necessary brutality. Also we had no real reason to stay after we killed Osama and it turned out he was hiding across the border in a place where some ISI colonels definitely knew he was there.

The Iran situation is still developing. But fundamentally the use of air power is a matter of economy and minimal effort.

While we don’t actually have the numbers to occupy all of Iran, we could take over the ports if we wanted to, or create a safe zone for dissent in Khuzestan. And the air campaign is going a hell of a lot better than Russia’s has in Ukraine. Frankly the US is the only country able to achieve decisive effects through air (and sea) power; it’s just that we’ve gotten so good at it we forgot the inherent limits of air power. Also Trump doesn’t have a real strategy or operational goals (Israel at least does).

Vietnam was a massive win? It was a complete disaster. The Communists won.

America's enemies know that she is easily worn out. When aid to Vietnam ended, they soon fell which then came the Cambodian killing fields. Millions were slain by the Maoist communist regime.

Russians were stationed in-person shooting down American planes in Vietnam. Parenthetically, the US didn't nuke Moscow for that, but Moscow today is threatening to nuke the US for even arming Ukraine and not formally sending the US military.

The US should have setup bases in Ukraine in order to fulfill the security assurances agreed to at the Budapest Memorandum. Also, setup nukes in Ukraine order to act as a deterrence against Russia, but some people don't have an issue with the Russians sending nuclear weapons to Belarus.

Bill Clinton forced Ukraine to give up their nukes under threat of blockade in return for protection. Where is that protection now? Ukraine is being fed to the wolves. Russia also broke the agreement they made at the Budapest Memorandum, no surprises there.

Bill Clinton also helped put Putin in power and bailed out Russia from the total collapse it deserved. Clinton did everything possible to maintain Russia as a strong entity following the fall of the USSR including forcibly disarming its neighbors and forbidding retribution for decades of mass murder and repression. Clinton kneecapped subsidies on nuclear energy and directly encouraged the purchase and investment in Russian energy. (Look up the Gore-Chernonyrdin Commission.) Europe's dependency on Russian energy was directly facilitated through this and encouraged 100 billion dollar investment (in the 90s!!) and economically tied Europe to Russia while a mere 4 years after Clinton, Angela Merkel (communist youth) shows up in Germany and kills nuclear energy and triples down on Russian energy. At the same time metric tons of cash were flowing between the Clinton foundation and the German government.

Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin. Russia has always wanted Europe.

https://imgur.com/pc4o2Uo

JFK on anticommunist foreign aid. The entire communist and anti-western world is aligned with Moscow & Beijing. Ukraine is ultimately about Europe. When material aid ends, like with Vietnam and Cambodia, Europe will be next for the communists.

"But American military might should not and need not stand alone against the ambitions of international communism. Our security and strength, in the last analysis, directly depend on the security and strength of others, and that is why our military and economic assistance plays such a key role in enabling those who live on the periphery of the Communist world to maintain their independence of choice. Our assistance to these nations can be painful, risky and costly, as is true in Southeast Asia today. But we dare not weary of the task. For our assistance makes possible the stationing of 3-5 million allied troops along the Communist frontier at one-tenth the cost of maintaining a comparable number of American soldiers. A successful Communist breakthrough in these areas, necessitating direct United States intervention, would cost us several times as much as our entire foreign aid program, and might cost us heavily in American lives as well."