Stylistillusional [none/use name]

If there’s one thing this coalition isn’t going to collapse over, it’s being too racist.

I am once again and eternally embarrassed to be Dutch. A country filled with naive, pearl-clutching, know-it-all’s with a massive superiority complex.

Tbh, this sentiment about the libs being back in charge after a brief resurgence of Marxist seems like wishful thinking about China in the first place.

People can reasonably disagree on the extent to which China is committed to forming an alternative bloc to US imperialism. But it is ridiculous to make a conclusion either way based on a few years. Shit like that doesn’t happen in just a few years. It takes (at minimum) decades of carefull strategic maneuvering and risk taking. It’s not something you announce and then you just got to do it.

It’s like people being sad about whatever BRICS summit not announcing an immediate alternative to the dollar: you basically played yourself by getting excited and then disappointed over an unrealistic wish.

Personally, I’m getting pretty tired of people who most likely don’t live in the region criticising the parties doing the most to fight back against Israel for not doing enough because of some bad news of the day.

You don’t know what’s going on in Iranian government circles either and you’ve just come to this interpretation based on personalities.

What I’m saying is that there is still value in pursuing a ceasefire even if you believe there’s little chance of success.

Even if you believe war is inevitable, the Israeli position is being attrited more and more the longer all-out war doesn’t break out. But history is always still contingent and it would be irresponsible towards all the people living under your governance to just jump in head first just because you believe it is inevitable. That’s how fascists think.

The resistance knows better than us what is at stake and what an all-out war would look like. Although it almost certainly wouldn’t entail less Palestinians dying.

What’s been made clear again the last couple of days, is that it is a priority for Iran to go through the proper diplomatic channels before resorting to military means. Even if it is likely to get them nowhere (I.e. holding off on retaliation for the promise of a ceasefire).

They want to convey that they are rational and principled when they commit to violence. They give a heads-up precisely because it won’t stop a retaliation. They don’t want an all-out war but they have to respond.

The primary audience doesn’t even have to be Israel and the US, but also the rest of the world: Iran is better because it has justice on it side. Iran holds itself to a higher standard and acts accordingly.

i don’t believe Iran has avoided getting weapons out of a faith in the west or flawed understanding of what they would do to protect them, but because other priorities have been more pressing in recent years

In that regard being close to having nukes already gives you much of the leverage of having them. Countries don’t build nukes because they plan on actually using them. It’s about the threat, which still exists to a large extent if you are close to getting the bomb. But without the cost of maintaining nukes.

Investing in missile and nuclear technology is worth it because that tech can be used for other applications. Actual nukes just sit in a warehouse until they have to be replaced.

Yes, Putin is popular because he is a crucial part of the state. After the shitshow that was the 90s, his name is synonymous with stability. You quite literally have to be an extremist to want to put that stability on the line. Even if you’re not fond of him, you have to recognise there’s no safe, viable alternative. There’s no way that the people most invested in the Russian state would let anyone else take the presidency without Putin’s consent.

In that sense the elections are fake: they’re not letting anyone else near the Kremlin no matter what. As opposed to the US where you’ll have two fake options.

Personally I think it’s weird to reject electoralism in the US/West and then to start defending Russian election results as ‘real’ because Putin is popular. You’re still playing the liberal game of electoralism.

I’d guess this is a corruption thing and not offical policy. Not paying your mercenaries when you’re already having manpower issues seems like a bad idea.

Yeah, as much as we sometimes wish for something to happen right now, Ansar Allah just inviting an all-out war doesn’t give them any direct benefit. It’s not going to stop the genocide of Gaza tomorrow.

Or at least there is no extra benefit to shooting every ship in range as opposed to small-scale attacks consistently enough to disrupt shipping in the area and place stress on Western economies. They know for sure that they can withstand another bombing campaign better than the West can withstand losing their treats.

It’s going to be wild if a NATO ship gets downed by a bunch of cheap drones and missiles. For now it seems like Yemen has been sure not to overwhelm US defences with drones. But it’s going to be interesting to see what their gameplan is.

Even just sinking one navy ship would be such a tremendous blow to the US that the response would have to be huge. They would have to pull back their ships if they don’t want to risk losing more. That would look so fucking bad.

So then the response would have to come through Saudi Arabia in the form of a massive bombing campaign. But give how much of a disaster the Saudi intervention has been in the past, they would have to do more than just bomb Yemen if they want to secure sea routes again. There’s no way that this doesn’t turn into a massive headache unless Ansar Allah backs off.

But if they’re not even entertaining talking to the US, that seems far off. Either way, the ability of the Yemeni peoples to take suffering commands deep respect. Damaging directly those countries that have facilitated one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent history could motivate them to take a lot more damage.

China has gone woke, now they will go broke. The Chinese economy is going to collapse from this.

They can sorta do it by just destroying NATO from within. The US doesn’t have to unilaterally withdraw, it just has to create doubts about its actual commitment.

I keep going back and forth over whether Western governments actually understand what type of government and society they are dealing with in Israel.

Not that I expect them to do anything good but the West sees Israel as part of their group. It’s like they expect Isreal to have the same taste and class as the rest of the Western elites. But why should Israel care whether Biden gets elected or care about international support when the US has reiterated time and time again that their material support is unconditional.

It’s definitely all cynical, but are they cynical enough to understand the huge liability that is Isreal?

Wait, is that my boy Prigozhin?

In the Netherlands, if the right-wing parties can get their act together and form a coalition government, they will have 88 seats in parliament.👁️

Can’t stop thinking about the mad lads in Yemen and how much respect I have for them.

Obama could never.

Everybody is sincere posting about people enjoying stuff. But nobody’s talking about how you could possibly feel satisfied after eating a whole bag of candy, instead of feeling like dogshit.

Those small bags of crisps they have in Asia > disgusting Western 300 grams Lays.

Critical support in that case.