Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence therefore it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations & collisions of her friendships, or enmities.
Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, Rivalship, Interest, Humour or Caprice?
The entire globe is intertwined. Conflict anywhere has the very real possibility of becoming conflict everywhere. It's in every countries best interest to do what they can to maintain peace, no matter how far away from home that peace is.
"During the 'Maidan uprising', Independence Square was a huge protest camp occupied by thousands of protesters and protected by makeshift barricades. It had kitchens, first aid posts and broadcasting facilities, as well as stages for speeches, lectures, debates and performances.[194][195] Police assaulted the camp several times, causing further anger.
Yanukovych has been accused, by Amnesty International[196][197] among others, of using the Berkut to threaten, attack, and torture protesters. The Berkut, later disbanded on 25 February 2014, were a special police force under his personal command and were accused of defending Russian interests.[185]
Violence escalated after 16 January 2014, when Yanukovych signed draconian Anti-Protest Laws. The first protesters were killed in fierce clashes with police on Hrushevsky Street on 19–22 January."
I didn't know who that person was, so I had to go look it up. What turned up was a veritable fountain of weird foreign propaganda. Apparently a woman gave out cookies and now bots are here on HN.
She is a weird centerpiece of Russian-pushed conspiracy theories that attempt to convince that a relatively unknown middle manager from the US State Department was a mastermind in a vast conspiracy that pitted Ukraine against Russia, which left Russia no other option than to invade Ukraine and start raping and killing there.
Her name is like one of those obscure, but highly specific factoids that 9/11 truthers, flat-earthers or the chemtrail crowd share with each other and bring up at every opportunity. When someone starts telling you about the melting temperature of steel beams or the height of crematorium chimneys at Auschwitz, it's a clear sign that they've been reading conspiracy theories from the sketchiest corners of the internet. Nuland's name is a similar signal.
Ukraine is acting as a buffer state which prevents the inevitable nuclear confrontation between Russia and the nuclear armed states in Europe. Any nuclear issue will always become a global issue. The oceans protect the US from russias military, but not its missiles.
The present reign of terror and international lawlessness began a few years ago.
It began through unjustified interference in the internal affairs of other nations or the invasion of alien territory in violation of treaties and has now reached a stage where the very foundations of civilization are seriously threatened. The landmarks and traditions which have marked the progress of civilization toward a condition of law, order, and justice are being wiped away.
Without a declaration of war and without warning or justification of any kind civilians, including women and children are being ruthlessly murdered with bombs from the air. In times of so-called peace, ships are being attacked and sunk by submarines without cause or notice. Nations are fomenting and taking sides in civil warfare in nations that have never done them any harm. Nations claiming freedom for themselves deny it to others. Innocent peoples and nations are being cruelly sacrificed to a greed for power and supremacy which is devoid of all sense of justice and humane consideration.
To paraphrase a recent author, "perhaps we foresee a time when men, exultant in the technique of homicide, will rage so hotly over the world that every precious thing will be in danger, every book and picture and harmony, every treasure garnered through two millenniums, the small, the delicate, the defenseless-all will be lost or wrecked or utterly destroyed."
If those things come to pass in other parts of the world, let no one imagine that America will escape, that it may expect mercy, that this Western Hemisphere will not be attacked, and that it will continue tranquilly and peacefully to carry on the ethics and the arts of civilization. If those days come, "there will be no safety by arms, no help from authority, no answer in science. The storm will rage till every flower of culture is trampled and all human beings are leveled in a vast chaos."
If those days are not to come to pass- if we are to have a world in which we can breathe freely and live in amity without fear-the peace-loving nations must make a concerted effort to uphold laws and principles on which alone peace can rest secure. The peace-loving nations must make a concerted effort in opposition to those violations of treaties and those ignorings of humane instincts which today are creating a state of international anarchy and instability from which there is no escape through mere isolation or neutrality.
The old timey grammatical construction makes me ask — is this a quote from the disgraced America First Committee, who fought tooth and nail against American involvement in WW2?
For if America maintains the defense of Europe, she gains influence upon European decision making. Our former hegemony was built upon our role as America, defender of peace and fighter for liberty.
Europe's health care is built upon subsidization by American defense. That is a source of power.
Hey I remember when I thought like this. So what I did was use NextDNS and block every website that was invoking emotional reactions in me for 6 months. Then after 6 months I went back and looked at 'the current thing' they were pushing emotionally. And it was all idiotic because I hadn't been there as they hyped their weak justification/manufactured outrage. Then I re-started from the ground up re-building my positions.
'Europe keeps to defence policy United States setup post WW2' stopped enraging me about 'European freeloaders' when I stopped consuming manufactured outrage infomercials voluntarily. Huge FU shoutout to Instapundit who I followed post 9/11 and took advantage of that!
The Biden/Obama administration and Europe both have their responsibility in alienating Russia. The current administration simply wants to wash its hand off of it as if their was no continuity between Trump America and Democratic America. Now the US words are meaningless.
But you seem to regard "Was Alienated by Somebody" status as license to ignore treaties and start wars. Might that same standard apply, when you don't happen to favor the aggressor over the victim?
They are a tiny fringe minority that gets humiliated whenever they try to debate actual experts. Here's Mearsheimer getting smacked down in front of a live audience by the Polish foreign minister: https://youtu.be/ivcSVG5eCeQ?t=2100
Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, Rivalship, Interest, Humour or Caprice?