Recursive_Enlightenment
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User ID: 791
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
"Or, to put it another way. If this is such a good idea, why didn’t we do it through most of the Cold War?" We lacked the capacity. A huge reason the North didn't let the South leave and fought a civil war to keep them in the union is because everyone knew the US was much militarily stronger as one nation
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
It doesn't need to offer anything that the US doesn't already have. We should be trying to get other rich English speaking places to join the US for reasons of economies of scale in defense.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
To get bigger to better compete with China.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Economies of scale in military protection means the US benefits from adding rich, stable, culturally compatible states.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
A competent US President would intensify the divisions within Canada so the US could get Alberta to become a state.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
We don't know this. It could be that the small country of Israel takes enough casualties that they give up trying to control all of Gaza.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Agreed, but it will be weakened if it does badly in its future invasion of Gaza, and to avoid that outcome it might need US help.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
But politically Biden loses a lot more if Israel is weakened than if Russia keeps larges parts of Ukraine.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
The most likely path to this resulting in WW3 is several other actors deciding that now is the time for military adventurism because of America's finite response capacity.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Would it be suicidal over the long-term for leftist European politicians to take in such refugees?
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
I wonder how Jewish academics are going to handle this. Will they update their believes about their woke colleagues and students, and if so will they work to change hiring and admissions policies?
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Prediction: If this passes nice hotels will almost never have vacancies. They will have some rewards program that guarantees there are never vacancies because any empty room will be given to a person in the rewards program or perhaps given to a friend of a hotel employee. Or, you go to the hotel expecting to have one room, and the hotel decides to give you two as a bonus for being such a good customer.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Agreed. But lots of damage could be inflicted by air attacked. Alan Dershowitz wants Israel to destroy Iran's nuclear ambitions. https://twitter.com/HappyCamper2626/status/1710815116479058301
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
I played pong when it was the best available game, and currently play Overwatch 2.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
I'm up for this. In what video game should we all fight?
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Serbia was a client of Russia at the time Serbia pushed Russia to start WW I.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
I think you are looking at the issue from the viewpoint of a moral philosopher. From Israel's viewpoint what matters is will the attack mean if it attacks Iran, the US won't punish it?
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Would Israel attack Iran if it predicted that Biden would privately oppose but publicly support the attack? From Israel's viewpoint, the attack leading to Iran attacking Saudi Arabia would be a good thing because this would bring US air power into the war.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
But Trump will blame the war on Biden saying that Biden unfreezing Iran's assets enabled Iran and sent a signal to Iran that we would be OK with them attacking Israel. Trump would point out that during his presidency Iran didn't cause trouble because Trump did things like assassinate Iranian general Soleimani. Trump would claim that Russian invading Ukraine during Biden's but not his presidency is another example of how US perceived weakness causes war.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
The attacks on Iran will, ideally from Israel's viewpoint, stop Iran from getting an atomic bomb and damage Iran's economy thereby reducing Iran's ability to fund the enemies of Israel.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Israel could launch repeated airstrikes on Iran.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
Biden and Obama have tried to make peace between Iran and the US, which is why the US recently unfroze $6 billion in Iranian funds. It is in the US interest to prevent a large war in the Middle East. It is in Biden's interest to prevent a significant increase in the price of gas that would likely come about because of such a war.
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
What are the chances that this leads to Israel attacking Iran? Iran appears to have been a supporter of Hamas. Netanyahu has seemingly been eager for a reason to dismantle Iran's nuclear weapons program. From Netanyahu's perspective, eliminating the program would make recent events a net gain for Israel. However, how would the global community respond to an Israeli assault on Iran? While many countries in the region would likely be pleased, they would need to feign outrage. Russia, having recently gotten weapons from Iran, would denounce the attack. But, given its diminished power, what action could Russia realistically take? Would Biden risk sanctioning Israel for such an action, particularly when his Republican adversaries would likely applaud it?
Recursive_Enlightenment
1yr ago
For reasons of entertainment, I'm hoping the next elected Senator from California is Meghan Markle. She has identity points, name recognition, and charisma. It would be funny if she ends up with more real power than the British royal family has.
To get a rich and English speaking state, we would have had to attack the British Empire, which would not have been easy until after WW II, at which point doing so would have devastated the US brand name.
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