Geopolitics
- Thread starter Mciahel Goodman
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MBS said to the Atlantic magazine hitting back to the US threats, that the KSA has 800 bn dollars investment in the US.
A lot of people talk about the whataboutery because when Anglo Saxon countries do things no one talks about it and is swept under the carpet.
Look what Australia has done now with the UN SPT.
Look what Australia has done now with the UN SPT.
GENEVA ( 23 October 2022) – The United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has decided to suspend its visit to Australia due to obstructions it encountered in carrying out its mandate under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT), to which Australia is a party.
The SPT delegation has been prevented from visiting several places where people are detained, experienced difficulties in carrying out a full visit at other locations, and was not given all the relevant information and documentation it had requested.
Despite its continued efforts to engage the authorities for the resolution of the problems, the SPT continued to be obstructed in the exercise of its mandate. As a result of this, the SPT members felt that their 12-day visit, which began on 16 October and was due to run until 27 October, had been compromised to such an extent that they had no other option but to suspend it.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-rele...ends-visit-australia-citing-lack-co-operation
As much as it is possible to see a coherent thought in Putin's statements...
He started by blaming Lenin for recognising Ukraine and Khruschev for "giving away" some land (Crimea mostly). He recently quoted from the most famous anti-Soviet dissident, Solzhenitsyn, who was also a right-wing nationalist. His other quotes have been from Dostoevsky, another reactionary Tsarist, and from other nationalist anti-Soviet dissidents, all of them anti-liberal apart from being anti-left. The seemingly out-of-place rambling about J.K Rowling, trans people, and cancel culture, fits in with this pattern.
Also, his war and his troops have been blessed by the Orthodox church, which was heavily repressed for most of the Soviet period.
This is not back to the Soviet era. It is back to an older Russian nationalism, before the formal nationhood of colonies like Ukraine existed.
I wonder if this sounds familiar...
For the last bit, look also at the biography of the chess player Sergey Karjakin, another psycho nationalist.
This is funny enough as interviews go
Not much new there, I think.
Amazing mental gymnastics from Mearsheimer, as usual.
I was reading this article and...isn't the bolded part complete BS? If I recall correctly, I've literally heard Michael Hayden (former NSA) say that North Korea looked at Hussein/Qaddafi and took notes.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/ukraine-wont-ignite-nuclear-scramble
But the Norh Korean program already existed when those events happened. So I guess they mean that no additial nuclear programs were started due to this?
I guess that's true though after Hussein/Qaddafi any notion of NK giving up their nuclear weapons for something in return is now out of the question.
No chance of this happening since the Abraham Accords. Pretty much all Arab governments are now working with Israel, and increasingly more are happy to be open about this.
Qatar got me curious. Where do they stand in Middle Eastern geopolitics? What's their angle?
If I recall correctly they were accused by other countries of supporting revolutionary waves during the Arab Spring. Why would Qatar help the protestors?
If I recall correctly they were accused by other countries of supporting revolutionary waves during the Arab Spring. Why would Qatar help the protestors?
Qatar have been associated with the Islamist/Muslim Brotherhood side of things over the last decade or so. So loosely aligned with Turkey and the Islamist parties in places like Egypt and Tunisia that attempted unsuccessfully to win power after 2011. That, probably more than their relatively good relations with Iran, is what prompted the Saudi-led blockade against them. The anti-Islamist Arab states and parties have been especially opposed to how Qatar have used Al Jazeera to undermine their authoritarian regimes, hence the targeting of Al Jazeera journalists in some places.
In recent years the hostilities bred by these alignments seem to have cooled as the Syrian and Libyan conflicts have wound down a bit. I would say the region’s geopolitics are currently in a bit of a flux, and it’s unclear where Qatar will emerge if and when things settle into some new pattern.
Personally I'd love to see it happen but as you say the governments and the people are not always aligned in their support for the Palestinians.
That's everyone unfortunately. Look at the nonsense in Northern Ireland. People just rush to hate, even without the touch paper that is Religion, they will fight over most things.
Fantastic podcast series on AQ Khan and Saudi v Iran conflict
Brave from the parliament. Unlikely to be followed up by the Council or the commission though...
Turks aren't gonna give a shit considering the Istanbul bombing.
Very very interesting, esp given the war: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/dec/testamnt/autonomy.htm
https://www.reuters.com/business/en...hing-hide-nord-stream-blast-probe-2023-01-12/
So is it becoming obvious who sabotaged Nordstream? How stupid EU can be?
So is it becoming obvious who sabotaged Nordstream? How stupid EU can be?
Because Sweden and Denmark didn't let in Russian prosecutors?
Because common sense exist.
What do you mean?
I'm gonna assume he means it's the US who did it.
Maybe, but I want to hear him say it.
Didn't Biden openly say if Russia attacks Ukraine they will make sure Nordstream 2 gets stopped, it even surprised the German journalists how blatantly he said it? Suffice to say if it were Russia or another terrorist organization then they would have announced it, don't understand why they would want to hide that.
But Nordstream 2 did get stopped, it was already dead.
If you need a reason for why Russia wouldn't announce it, then you've answered your own question. This is the reason. They've sowed doubt and confusion. Another reason is that such an attack being officially sanctioned and announced would only bring NATO/EU countries even further into the conflict. Russia likes to pretend they're fighting the West already, but I think they'd be surprised at how much their "opponents" are holding back. There are a lot of countries doing a lot, but they could do a lot more if they felt sufficiently incentivised.
Exactly!
Here is a true story. Or ... it could be a true story!
A Russian wakes from a 12 month coma, and being Russian, immediately goes to get a shot of vodka at the local pub. While there he gets into a discussion with another Russian and asks him about the latest news. The other Russian tells him "We are at war with NATO. But we are winning on all fronts."
"How many casualties have we taken?" the first guy asks.
"110,000 by the latest count" The second guy answers.
"And NATO?"
"Oh, NATO hasn't arrived yet."
I don't understand this, the notion is that governments, or atleast the bigger ones, already know Russia did it but aren't announcing it. Wouldn't they be retaliating already if this were the case?
Since the start it has been reported that Russia did this to sabotage Germany's economy.
I don't think anyone is stupid. Russia is still the main suspect, as far as we know. If they did it, and the European countries know it, they will only announce this when they are willing to escalate the conflict. It would be disastrous for them to accuse Russia of this and not retaliate.
If another party did it (say the US, for example), then the EU has zero interest in announcing it publicly, but it will be used behind closed doors to obtain something from the US. Publicity would only fuel division inside NATO and benefit far-right pro-Russian groups in Europe. The EU is already at odds with the US on several economic issues, there is no need to create more.
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Soviet pilots in Soviet fighters fought in Korea. It was an open secret. If the Soviet Union was officially and directly involved, the conflict would escalate further, but they weren't so it didn't. It might seem like silly charade, but it matters.
Didn't Russia say multiple times they were going to reduce Western cities to the ground and nuke their countries into oblivion?