Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

I miss my British subjects, as it were...
 My contact -friend and foe, alike- would keep
 me honest! Apprised of days' moods, of deep
convictions (and perverse prejudice), fer

and agin — on matters of local ken
 or global import...  Some impotence and
 risible spleen! Betimes a steady hand
to till the oft rudderless dinghy, when

it threatened to swamp! And I feared treading
 unfamiliar water... O! our lifeboat
 of discourses held divers views afloat!
Sometimes, long enough to sight land! Heading

back to such fabled times and storied miens
-though not possible- is a day-dreams' scenes...

(Still) dej, © 2022

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Russia has already lost this war. The logic of the events per se dictates that Russia must be now over and out, which is good for every neighbouring country, and there would be some potential to create a new country with a different character that perhaps could partner with the West.

If you really want a partner for the Western Europe, you should be ready to erase this Russia and let something else take its place. Otherwise you are only going to get what you already have - a partner in the crime of laundering Russia's natural resources. And this brings me to the character of the Western European countries

but I'm not going to elaborate on that today.

Rome - as a republic - lasted twice as long as USA has until now. From early kingdom to late empire it lasted much longer still.

Trump almost did it

This is what I mean by irrational faith in America's uniqueness: Utter ignorance that it is far from unique.

Let me tell you what is really peculiar to USA: Slavery. In Europe there was no slavery for over a thousand years. Slavery was strictly a colonial feature, limited to overseas colonies. In European mainland it was phased out after the demise of the Roman empire.

in USA, the idea [of slavery] was - and among some sizeable pockets of population still is - that the peculiar institution is a "natural and normal condition" of the land. Moreover, they manage to hold on to this peculiar idea alongside with all the freedoms and rights etc. that the constitution supposedly provides to everyone ("everyone" meaning true/real Americans only), and they do not perceive any contradiction whatsoever.

Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq make America look the way it has always been perceived  - as the most acutely troublesome colonial power ever since Western Europe retreated into being post-colonial.

guess we can't raise the level of discussion any higher.

What is confusing about it?

USA has been conquering until it gobbled up a good chunk of the continent and at least half of the Pacific Ocean.

War with Mexico 1846-1848 is a good example.

Don't they teach you about the Spanish-American and the Philippine-American wars, among others?

I am opposed to USA's colonialism. From the outside, USA looks like a colonial empire.

[The USA] of course is a republic - so are almost all countries

Republic is just a word that does not describe anything because it is applicable everywhere.

The pledge of allegiance is flat out regime propaganda, brainwashing and indoctrination

You could run for the district board and rectify the matter    or at least do some fiery speeches and liberty marches like many did against the masks and vaccines.

First, you have not shown that you have any idea what foreign policy is.

there cannot be any reasonable explanation

The one responsible for such communication and supervision of the administrative establishment is mainly the president's chief of staff, but also the vice president. Trump had Ginni Thomas

Biden also has Kamala Harris and Jen Psaki. I must confess that I am very jealous that Biden has Jen Psaki. I need a secretary like her very very much.

it means that Biden is rather similar to Trump. And apparently Trump is great when he does the same things.

The isolated and unpredictable strongman in the Kremlin is not shy when it comes to reminding the world of Russia’s nuclear arsenal. If anyone “tries to stand in our way,” Putin warned on the eve of the invasion of Ukraine, they would face “consequences with such as you have never seen in your entire history.” The returning possibility of nuclear war may be just one of the ways in which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought our holiday from history to an abrupt end. But it’s the most alarming.


Into this tense standoff steps Joe Biden, seemingly convinced that he is the man for this fraught moment even as he demonstrates otherwise with nearly every public utterance. On a recent trip to Europe, the most important diplomatic mission of his presidency, he could barely open his mouth without issuing a foolhardy provocation. He threatened regime change in Moscow, implied that American troops were about to be sent into Ukraine and suggested the United States would respond “in kind” to a Russian use of chemical weapons.

These statements were widely labeled “gaffes.” To be sure, they were the misstatements of an aging politician not known for his rhetorical dexterity. But they also revealed hotheadedness, ill-discipline and self-righteousness: traits that were identifiable even in a younger, more alert Biden — and traits that now make the world a more dangerous place.

(source)

“The adults are in charge again,” bragged Biden’s advisors when they entered the White House. This claim of competence was soon disproved by events, but it also obscured a tension in Biden’s foreign policy. The president elected on a promise to restore America’s alliances has also shown a clear determination to pare back America’s global role. The withdrawal from Afghanistan highlighted that contradiction: a move built on a serious conviction of the need to acknowledge the limits of American power — that enraged our closest allies.

At the time, many foreign policy restrainers and realists welcomed a president who appeared to see the world the same way as they. But in Ukraine, the administration has stumbled into a strategy that pleases no one. The camp that saw the logic of the Afghanistan withdrawal, however botched its execution, may have welcomed Biden’s explicit ruling out of escalatory steps like a no-fly zone and his willingness to let Europeans take the lead in assisting Ukraine. But they cannot be comfortable with the administration’s drift toward regime change in Moscow as a US objective.

Biden’s public declaration that Putin “cannot remain in power” may have been a gaffe that was quickly walked back, but the policy steps the US president has taken suggest that the removal of his Russian counterpart is his ultimate goal. From ratcheting up sanctions to admonishing Putin as a “war criminal” and a “thug,” these are not the steps of an administration putting de-escalation first.

Those who favor a bolder approach might agree with some of Biden’s rhetoric but find worryingly little action to back up the talk. That hazardous gap between rhetoric and policy isn’t limited to Ukraine. At a dangerous moment in history, Biden seemingly refuses to acknowledge the difficult choices and tough tradeoffs that lie ahead. This administration appears to think that Putin will be gone, Ukraine will be free, China will be contained, a deal will be reached with Iran that doesn’t give another regime a nuclear weapon and the US economy will fend off “Putin’s price rises.” Everything, in other words, will be just fine. And all without a meaningful change of course in US policy.

you just whined that my responses devolve to name-calling without a substantive comment, but in fact it is you doing it, posting an insult with no relation to the topic. Sheer projection.