Comments by "John Roberts" (@view1st) on "The New Atlas" channel.

  1. Yes, the avoidance of unnecessary civilian casualties, especially in the capital Kiev and other major cities, is one of the war aims of the Russian Federation in my opinion: a moral victory as well as military victory.
    1
  2. But are they?
    1
  3. The Thai monarchy's survival, paradoxically, has depended to a large extent over the years on the USA and as long as they don't threaten the Thai monarchy directly (which I don't think they are doing) the monarchy will be unwilling to pushback too hard. One, after all, doesn't bite the hand that feeds them.
    1
  4. Did the Chinese government actively participate in this gain of function research knowing what it was for, or were they duped like the Ukrainians might have been.
    1
  5. That and properly arming the Global South so it can effectively resist western aggression and enable them build up the necessary internal political and economic structures as to allow them true economic, military and political independence from the West. In a word they need development. Not the fake development offered by the West but real development to put them on par with Russia and China.
    1
  6. Ultimately overreach will stop it. The law of diminishing returns will kick in if it hasn't already and it becomes more costly to expand the empire further than not to.
    1
  7. It forced the USA and its allies back to the 48th parallel, preventing the US from encroaching on Chinese territory whilst simultaneously creating a buffer zone. Perhaps not ideal but better than China doing nothing.
    1
  8. The born again Christians and fundamentalists in the USA might actually want that and, indeed, that's what we might be seeing: these fanatics that want the 'Second Coming of Christ' working towards a global nuclear war so that they can be 'raptured'.
    1
  9. NO!
    1
  10. Blame the wonderful capitalist system the Anglosphere is so enamoured of. In short it's to do with profit: it's easier and cheaper to poach foreign STEM graduates from elsewhere than produce your own.
    1
  11. Then it will fall behind militarily, economically and on a sociatal level and end up being vulnerable to the imperialism of, and colonisation by, others.
    1
  12. They bring these concepts into disrepute and by doing so cheapen their value. They insidiously redefine words so as to change their meaning, often into the exact opposite of their original meaning and in so doing we end up with words and concepts that are bastardised and serve the interests of the powerful. This in turn effects society at the most basic level, leaving people with the inability to independently understand and make sense of the world. 'Democracy' is just such a word, so debased as to mean a rigged system of elections where the electorate get to choose from factions of the same plutocrat party that represents only the richest and most powerful people in society, the 1% or less that compris an aristocratic elite of inherited wealth. Meanwhile, the original definition of democracy meaning ordinary people getting to choose who represent them is all but forgotten and where it is mentioned it is almost always represented in terms of it being something unworkable and too idealistic.
    1
  13. They want the status quo to continue to be maintained indefinitely.
    1
  14. I'm sure that most citizens of the Republic of China want a peaceful resolution of the issues and if that means formal unification with the People's Republic of China then I'm sure they will resign themselves to it rather than fight a war that they cannot win and that would make no economic sense. Remember, both peoples are Chinese.
    1
  15. Military or civilian?
    1
  16. The USA could try and persuade the European Union not to trade with China in any major way in much the same way it persuaded them not to trade with Russia during the cold war, denying or limiting Chinese access to valuable transfers of technology and know‐how. It could also attempt to disrupt China's trade routes through Asia and Europe, as by employing terrorists to sabotage pipelines and transportation infrastructure and creating general mayhem has it has in the Near East. The European Union and South America might be persuaded to employ tariff regimes that discriminate unfavourably against countries that trade with China, thereby reducing overall trade. Another way would be to try and cut it off from, or limit its access to, European and North American communication and on‐line trading networks that rely on digital or crypto currencies. Rest assured, whatever options are available I'm sure the planners at the Pentagon are considering them.
    1
  17.  @mjc1431  Or India.
    1
  18. The Russians were well on their way to defeating Germany single-handedly and they would accept nothing short of unconditional surrender. What the Americans wanted was irrelevant. And the Americans got what they wanted anyway – two client states with governments completely subservient to Washington which were then used to continue the war against the Soviet Union, albeit now serving the American Reich (empire) instead of the Third Reich.
    1
  19. It is good that these fascists are being killed so that they won't be able to be used elsewhere in Europe like in Serbia the way NATO's ISIS paramilitaries in Syria.
    1
  20. They're all being provocative by calling the island Taiwan instead of the Republic of China. This is the island's official name. (Mind you, calling it by its proper name would also probably be even more provocative because it suggests that the ROC is an independent country with its own government.)
    1
  21. If it's declining how come it's so powerful?
    1
  22. It can. And is.
    1
  23. With strong effort on the part of the Russians and with the help of the Chinese I think Ukraine can be rebuilt fairly quickly and China's Belt and Road Initiative restarted. The USA will then have only delayed the economic integration of this part of Eurasia, not stopped it.
    1
  24. Ever since commodore Perry demanded Japan open up its ports to the ships of the USA under threat of attack if they refused.
    1
  25. They will send millions... á la world wars 1 and 2. See what happened in both: the USA prospered at everyone else's expense. Further, it got the USA out of the Great Depression that its bankers and speculators had created.
    1
  26. A task it is finding itself increasingly unable to perform.
    1
  27. Is it possible that you are both right?
    1
  28. Ulterior motives and professed motives. Pretexts and real reasons.
    1
  29. But he wasn't in charge. So it was really 'The Cabal' (or whatever you want to call them) of the Deep State who were really in charge. A government by a small para-legal, quasi-governmental clique who operate outside the official channels of the state apparatus and are not bound by its laws.
    1
  30.  @JS-ih7lu  Unfortunately, there is always a Yeltsin waiting in the wings to spoil things.
    1
  31. Like Rome, when the USA cannot attack Asia – where all the money and riches created by economic development are going be – and cannot exploit Africa either, it will stagnate and either collapse or have someone like emperor Constantine revive it's flagging fortunes, if only for a while.
    1
  32. They may have succeeded in one of their principal aims though: that of dividing Europe with a new iron curtain and sowing the seeds of a new cold war. Preventing greater Eurasian economic and political integration is a permanant and strategic objective of the USA, as is making Europe as dependent as possible.
    1
  33.  @latiffabdul  I dare say even Japan and South Korea will join that East-South bloc too eventually. Those two countries are after all Asian and right on the doorstep of China, the principal country in Asia, while the USA and Europe on the other hand are thousands of miles away. It is also very probable that Australia and New Zealand as countries located in Oceania in the Asia-Pacific will eventually be included in that East-South bloc.
    1