Comments by "Persona" (@ArawnOfAnnwn) on "How RUSSIA and PUTIN extend their POWER? From Afghanistan to Libya via Angola - VisualPolitik EN" video.

@manh9105 The US war killed about a quarter of a million people as compared to Russia's which killed about a million. The Russian one may have been worse but to call the US one "firing flowers" is ludicrous. America's wars are hardly bloodless (Vietnam killed over 3 million btw...).
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It isn't short-sighted. India has a long and good history with Russia, compared to an extremely uneven and unreliable history with the US. They've even been militarily intimidated by the US (during the Bangladesh independence war, during which Russia came to their aid), and also sanctioned by it (when they declared themselves a nuclear power). Russia has treated India well, the US hasn't.
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Putin had around a 70% approval rating in January, as per international surveys. And that's down from a high of nearly 90 a couple years ago, and is still higher than Biden has had any point in his presidency. He's way more popular than any of the alternatives. Don't imagine an election is going to give you the results you want. Nations vote for who they like, not who the west likes.
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@rebeccaaldrich3396 Most of that money went to US contractors, not the Afghans lol! Afghanistan was still a desperately poor country under US occupation. You make it sound like they treated the Afghans like the Saudis treat their own people lol! Btw, you're engaging in the same kind of demonization of your enemies as Russia is doing now with Ukrainians. How convenient.
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Russia is literally ranked SECOND in the world in the Global Firepower rankings. And that index doesn't count nuclear weapons. If they're a paper tiger, you must think every nation in the world is a paper tiger.
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@antanassmetona4054 Lol yeah sure. The salty one is the person who has to resort to trying to discredit others cos they can't deal with their views being challenged. And 'everyone in the world'? Lol, that 'everyone in the world' is where my facts come from, whereas your hot take is nothing more than opinion. The Global Firepower Index isn't controlled by Russia, and nor is the duration of the Battle of France or the US invasion of Iraq some Kremlin fake news. You're the one pretending everyone in the world is wrong, as your hot take is literally contradicted by international measurement.
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@Marian87 Sure bro. Keep imagining you have a crystal ball, and speak for the whole world. The US did the same when it invaded Iraq against huge international condemnation fyi, and has a FAR higher death toll than the Russian war in Donbass (literally orders of magnitude higher). Funny how that didn't make the US a criminal state in your eyes. Hell, even the Afghan war alone (less deaths than Iraq) has a higher death toll than all of Russia's wars this century. And those two are hardly the only theaters where US forces have been active, just the biggest ones. You can lecture me on crimes when the US is held accountable for its extensive crimes. As for the world, Gallup (ironically an American polling agency) asked the world who they considered the greatest threat to world peace just a couple years ago - it was a landslide 'victory' for the US. It wasn't even close - second place (which also wasn't Russia) was literally a quarter of their score lol! You wanna know why? Look up their sordid history in Angola, Argentina, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Savador, Grenada, Gautemala, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Nicaragua, Panama, Sudan, Vietnam, etc. There was plenty of basis for that poll result. India is well aware of how fickle America can be, from multiple painful experiences (even recently, when they courted Pakistan in order to save their doomed war in Afghanistan). It's not going to be dumb enough to take their side against its own interests. The Americans are a useful counter to China, while the Russians have been a better ally that's already helped counter America. This is the exact opposite of short-sighted, it's far-sighted. As for the sanctions, Iran has been under sanctions for even longer simply for the 'crime' of wanting its own nukes (something Israel gets a free pass on), and they're still around. Cuba has been under sanctions for over half a century (against global condemnation including by America's own allies) and it's not collapsed either. And neither was anywhere near as robust as Russian. So Russia ain't gonna collapse. And sanctioning India? Lol, yeah right! First off, we've already weathered US sanctions, for the same 'crime' as Iran (despite having two nuclear armed enemies to deal with). And secondly, they can't afford to sanction us - they need us to help deal with China. You can talk about how short-sighted a policy is when you have something more to base it on than simply your own opinion.
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@AQuietNight If you knew anything of the wests' history in Africa, you wouldn't be able to say that with a straight face. Here's a start, and one you might not expect since it involved a minor western power - look up the history of Belgium (yep, Belgium) in the Congo. Around 10 MILLION people died there alone. And that's just one example.
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@zeropointenergy777 Bruh, do you know how long the much ridiculed French held off against the German blitzkrieg in WW2? 7 weeks. And they're endlessly teased for it. It's been a handful of days so far in this war. Even the US didn't manage to topple Iraq this fast, they took almost 6 weeks to do it. Hell before they finally won the media was replete with stories talking about a long and/or messy war ahead. This has barely begun.
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@rebeccaaldrich3396 Lol, you just asked for an ally against yet another enemy, favoring more western hegemony. Revealing.
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@dawae2162 Bruh, I'm gonna believe aggregated data over isolated anecdotes. And by expert researchers. Russia is ranked second in the world militarily by the Global Firepower Index (and no, nukes aren't counted in that). And the US, which is ranked first btw, still took six weeks to conquer Iraq, and that's with extra international support and a larger invasion force of their own as well (Russia isn't even using its full force, let alone its whole army, cos as even western reporting says they've kept about half their initial force in reserve). Anecdotes like yours don't mean much.
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@antanassmetona4054 Apparently injecting some facts into a comment section full of rhetoric marks one out as 'salty'. Ok.
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@manh9105 Ah okay cool. My bad.
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Who says we don't learn? The people who keep repeating that dumb bit of pop 'wisdom' are prone to looking at everything in oversimplified generalizations with zero context. We do learn, we learn IN DETAIL. It only doesn't appear as such to you people because you work off of a simple toy model of the world that lacks any detail, complexity or context. The present has never been a repetition of the past, it's always been an evolution of it. And evolution is subtle, it changes in small increments, not like the X-men.
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@marlon1938 Economic colonialists? Lolwut?! Are you talking about that dumb 'debt trap' meme? That's not my words btw, it's literally been described by academics who've studied financing in Africa - and found no evidence to support it - as a meme. Look up the 'How China Lends' report online, or just watch Polymatter's video on the topic.
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@Domdeazy Lol sports teams?! That's your big comeback? Hell even that argument doesn't hold. Ever heard of the brain drain? Well newsflash it doesn't apply to only brains. A more holistic term would be 'talent drain'. Anyway, sports teams are a pathetic counter to centuries of exploitation - and not just in the distant past, but even today (especially by France).
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@Domdeazy Quite a few of those dystopian dictatorships have a close relationship with France. :)
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Russia isn't poor, it's middle income. There's a significant difference between the two.
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@Marian87 Bruh, Russia literally can't invade India even if it wanted to, so don't lecture me using Europe. You guys managed to embroil the world in two world wars (neither from Russia btw), which says a lot. The world doesn't exist to cater to western desires - India has plenty of reason to do as it does, and that's all that matters. We are not your puppets. As for being a cash cow, lol! We got more aid from Russia than Russia has ever got from us (obviously, since we were poorer). No, we were useful diplomatically for Russia, but that doesn't cost us anything. Now make the US pay sanctions for all its warmongering, and then you can try taking the moral high ground. Until then, you're just looking out for your own interests (which the US serves) and selfishly asking us to sacrifice ours for you. Sorry, but no.
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This sounds like the kind of nonsense motivational and 'leadership' speakers as well as self-help gurus regularly come out with. It could literally have come from one of their books on finding your 'inner strength' lol. 'Strength is constructive', 'Power is corrosive' sure. xD Much wisdom. Very deep. Wow.
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@antanassmetona4054 Here's another first sentence for you then - you're not gonna read cos it's beyond your capability lol.
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Putin had around a 70% approval rating in January, as per international surveys. And that's down from a high of nearly 90 a couple years ago, and is still higher than Biden has had any point in his presidency. He's way more popular than any of the alternatives.
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@CJusticeHappen21 YouTube is censoring links again. Just search for wisdom generator, pseudo profound quote generator or even new age bullshit generator and you'll find a bunch of them.
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@AQuietNight Today's problems partly stem from a lack of investment. And guess how the West responded when someone else muscled in with investment. Now don't embarass yourself by repeating that dumb meme again - I've already dealt with one gullible idiot talking about it above, complete with resources to look up. Tho for what it's worth here's another one - Gyude Moore.
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@Domdeazy Lol, France has more forces in Africa than the "Wanger" (lol!) group (which isn't even Chinese) does.
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@doujinflip Actually there's a much more straightforward reason - the west literally doesn't finance infrastructure much. Africa does take western money - literally half their financing is western - but most western funding is directed towards social spending (education, healthcare, etc.). Western investment into capital expenditure is very low, whereas that's precisely what the Chinese investments specialize in - almost all Chinese money in Africa is for building capital. The split is very clear when you look at the data.
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@CJusticeHappen21 And to make it even clearer, there's nothing about the term strength that refers exclusively to being creative, positive, flexible, multi-purpose, dual-use, etc. We have other, more specific terms for all that - I just used a bunch of them, and there's many more. Ditto for power being solely detrimental. But these terms sound like stuff you'd find in a boring instructional manual (except creative I guess). They don't sound "inspiring" enough, but technical. But everyone likes the idea of being a 'strong' person. Hence why these charlatans use the more marketable word, and just redefine it to suit their needs. Just as you're doing here.
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@CJusticeHappen21 Bruh you can define strength and power however you like, they're still just your definitions. Coming up with seemingly wise but always pithy terms and their meanings is standard practice for those people I mentioned. It's right up there similarly wise-seeming aphorisms and supposedly 'deep' analogies (the latter of which you just used now). It's so common that there's now literally websites that will generate the kind of 'insights' they come up with at the push of a button. And your hot take would fit right in there. Redefining words to serve a lesson is part of their whole shtick
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