USA was in Afghanistan for years. Same with Iraq. And they never really conquered Afghanistan. The goal was never to do that because they easily could have. If Russia wanted to they could have bombed the crap out of Ukraine the first day and had them surrender the second. But that was not their goal.
I wonder what it's like being active duty American military personnel, knowing that your fellow military service members were actually sent to die in a war that never had as its intention to be won - only sustained.
I heard the Vietnam War was fought to just sell helicopters and other military equipment. It's absolutely sickening.
I don't think Germany was fighting the global financial order for any reason but for their own independence, given they were starved and murdered into submission in the interwar period.
I'm just thinking of Hitler's point of view being a soldier in war, seeing the politics of war to advance financial interests. Then you got WWII, where nobody really "won" [IMO].
I feel like one of these days, this type of fuckery warmongering for financial interests is going to mess with the wrong person/soldier, who leads a military to start a conflict not so easy to control.
What do you think about this war just being another bullshit financial matter? Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum said that Putin was another one of his "young global leaders", so is this just another staged military conflict for global financial powers? It seems too risky, and too possible for the Western powers to lose control of this war for that to be the case.
I don't know what the current alliances are - and on paper, it still seems to me that USA can take on the entire world and win - but at what cost? I can't see a war between the West and Russia/China/Iran resulting in any less than 500,000,000 casualties - with a huge change in the current global order.
I think this at the top all feel like they are untouchable...but these past two years, I didn't get the sense that we in the West are being governed by a patient elite. Somehow, it seems like they are uncomfortable with the current status quo, and that's why there was the push to get us on a global QR code social credit system.
Am I way off here?
I'm just having a hard time making sense of what's been going on in the past two years, and I've never lived in a period where this much authoritarianism has been pushed.
I don't see Russia struggling with Ukraine. To me they are trying to be careful to prevent too many civilian casualties. Unlike when USA attacked Iraq. BTW, I have spoken to numerous people from Iraq and they all say the country was better off with Saddam. The US ambassador also lied to an misled Saddam. She told Saddam they had no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflict and his border disagreement with Kuwait. This basically gave Iraq the greenlight to proceed in engaging Kuwait.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/09/wikileaks-april-glaspie-and-saddam-hussein/
My thoughts exactly.
You should check out "House of Saddam" [2008] if you haven't already.
Say what you will about Saddam - but he was absolutely a boss. Just the way he walked to his death in the gallows, looking so stoic, with his life about to end. It's almost chilling.
I know a lot of people say they have no fear, but there are only a few things that I truly fear - my children being hurt for one. Death, for another.
I really don't think I would be walking to my death like Saddam did.
His life truly was one of "Live By the Sword, Die By the Sword".
I have strong views on the Iraq War, and Saddam Hussein - as I quit the Canadian Army over the lies surrounding him.
It's incredible for me to think about his rise and fall - and given how well he kept the multiple extremist elements of Iraq in check, I still have no view aside from believing that Iraq WAS better off under Saddam.
I feel the same way about Muammar Gaddafi in Libya - the GDP per-capita in Libya has dropped by something like 50% since Gaddafi was killed, and apparently there are sexual slave markets on the streets of Libya.
I don't see how anyone can argue that either Iraq or Libya are better off since deposing Hussein and Gaddafi, respectively.