Comments by "Arthas Menethil" (@arthas640) on "The US (ultimately) pivots from Europe to the Indo-Pacific." video.

Same here, I never liked Trump but in a few areas he was correct and people ignored him simply to be contrarian. They didnt like how loud mouthed and crass he was so they opposed him even when he was right, like Biden and Clinton opposing the border wall, tightened election security, and reforms on immigration during the Trump administration but keeping some of Trumps programs intact once Biden was in power. Even just in the last few months we've seen Biden going from bashing the Saudis to begging them for help because he didnt realize there was a reason why so many American leaders tried to keep the Saudis as friends even though nobody likes them. Obama quietly checked Chinese influence with some somewhat secretive plans to shift focus from the Middle East and Europe to Asia, but Obama and Bush almost completely ignored Chinese theft of IP, Chinese theft of tech, growing Chinese imperialism, Uyghur and other minorities being abused and enslaved, generally slave like conditions in sweatshops and factories, and China's human rights violations. Obama wanted to be viewed as the diplomatic type so he didnt want to rock the boat, call out China's behavior publicly, or antagonize China in any way which worked perfectly with China who are always more than willing to say just about anything the west wants to hear but will do whatever they want in private. Similar story in Europe as Clinton, Bush, and Obama all wanted to be viewed as turning their Soviet enemy into a modern ally. They largely ignored Russia's many crimes like leveling Grozny and were too afraid of the bad PR a stronger stance on Russia would bring. Obama and Clinton especially wanted to be viewed as Diplomatic peacemakers so they didnt push NATO countries to keep their promises on defense spending especially as that would mean American allies cutting back on social programs. Trump's hard stance on China and Russia were exactly what we needed around 15-20 years ago. Instead US allies just kept dipping their hands into the till so they spend money on social programs that boosted their popularity and left it up to America to shoulder their burden and they ignored China and Russian imperialism so they could keep the dirt cheap goods and dirt cheap fuel coming. This was like ignoring a campfire until it grows out of hand and turns into an out of control blaze that Trump was left to deal with, and the opposition to Trump lead other countries and parts of the US to largely ignore him simply because they hated Trump. Now we've got a forest fire to deal with as Russia threatens war with NATO, brandishes nukes at the west, and invades Europe while China has built bases across the South China Sea, threatens war with neighbors and is gearing up for a war with Taiwan and the West.
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@Student0Toucher agreed. I hate Trump but he was spot on about NATO, the European powers rather plainly cut funding to their militaries because they expected the US to handle their defense for them freeing up more funding for populist social programs. Even the UN does much the same, they're almost incapable of doing much without the US carrying the bulk of the weight.
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@thedbishere is that why the US made NATO include minimum defense spending, got Europeans to garrison their side of the iron curtain, turned western Germany into a giant wall to slow down a Russian invasion, gave tons of weaponry to European allies, helped European allies to secure energy imports, and tried to ween Europe off European support only ro see them abandon their own defense? The whole "made Americans rich" thing is like a broken window fallacy, it COST Americans a fortune that got dumped in Europe while Europeans took advantage of that and slashed defense spending because they were effectively being subsidized by American tax payers.
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@matthewalbi555 I never liked Trump but a few areas he was correct and people ignored him simply to be contrarian. Obama quietly checked Chinese influence with some somewhat secretive plans to shift focus from the Middle East and Europe to Asia, but Obama and Bush almost completely ignored Chinese theft of IP, Chinese theft of tech, growing Chinese imperialism, Uyghur and other minorities being abused and enslaved, generally slave like conditions in sweatshops and factories, and China's human rights violations. Obama wanted to be viewed as the diplomatic type so he didnt want to rock the boat, call out China's behavior publicly, or antagonize China in any way which worked perfectly with China who are always more than willing to say just about anything the west wants to hear but will do whatever they want in private. Similar story in Europe as Clinton, Bush, and Obama all wanted to be viewed as turning their Soviet enemy into a modern ally. They largely ignored Russia's many crimes like leveling Grozny and were too afraid of the bad PR a stronger stance on Russia would bring. Obama and Clinton especially wanted to be viewed as Diplomatic peacemakers so they didnt push NATO countries to keep their promises on defense spending especially as that would mean American allies cutting back on social programs. Trump's hard stance on China and Russia were exactly what we needed around 15-20 years ago. Instead US allies just kept dipping their hands into the till so they spend money on social programs that boosted their popularity and left it up to America to shoulder their burden and they ignored China and Russian imperialism so they could keep the dirt cheap goods and dirt cheap fuel coming. This was like ignoring a campfire until it grows out of hand and turns into an out of control blaze that Trump was left to deal with, and the opposition to Trump lead other countries and parts of the US to largely ignore him simply because they hated Trump. Now we've got a forest fire to deal with as Russia threatens war with NATO, brandishes nukes at the west, and invades Europe while China has built bases across the South China Sea, threatens war with neighbors and is gearing up for a war with Taiwan and the West.
1