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If I Was Emperor…
Apparently, some Swedes are worried that Putin has his eye on Scandinavia for a future playground. I will let Annika fill y’all in later.
Though I am fairly sure that Putin is not done helping poor lost Russians in neighboring states to secure their due right to rejoin the empire, I find it difficult to imagine an invasion of Sweden before an invasion of Estonia or Latvia. I suspect that the order of conquest will follow the path of least resistance. But perhaps not.
In any case, can we agree that would-be conquerors everywhere probably perceive Obama’s remaining years in office as an ideal time for action?
If so, might they take bigger bites than they otherwise would because of the limited window of opportunity?
Or, if you were emperor, would you let Obama’s presidency play out peacefully, in hope that America will weaken and withdraw further… and that the next American President will also be a Democrat?
Image Credit: “Map of Scandinavia” by 000peter – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Published in Foreign Policy, General
Thanks for explaining your position more fully.
Perhaps political theorists need a new term, Matty, for an empire without an emperor. Though modern Presidents certainly have exaggerated power to initiate (if not declare) wars, many of our early conquests seem to have enjoyed widespread support from Congress and citizens.
I don’t disagree that the US continues to exhibit some traits of empires. I doubt the world’s foremost superpower can, in any era, be anything other than an empire of sorts. Our power and affluence derive largely from our deep involvement in world affairs.
This is sad and fascinating. Can you expound on why UKIP members perceive Putin as an ally?
I don’t see the “level headedness” in your analysis. Sorry.
That NYT article is nonsense, for many reasons. The first reason being that it is common in most air forces in the world that much of the equipment is non-operational for some period of time. Especially when they are experiencing a lot of new equipment coming in (Eurofighters) and a lot of equipment going out (Tornados).
You think even 10% of the Russian air force is anywhere near “operational”???
No one. Read the treaty. NATO had zero obligations to Ukraine.
There’s plenty of sources suggesting the world will end next Tuesday. Doesn’t mean it will.
Besides the fact that they have already done so, like in Kosovo? Or besides the fact that they are in NATO? Or besides the fact that they actually took the lead in operations such as Libya?
That’s right. Pretty sure several European nations are nuclear powers, as is the US. Does this logic not apply to Russia?
And that’s the kicker here! There’s claims being thrown around that the “leftist” (and many of them are) European governments have given up on military and on confronting Russia etc etc.
When in fact it seems to be precisely the opposite, with all these ultra-right wing (most of them are actually pretty left-wing parties, economically…and certainly nothing to do with “left vs right” from the American perspective)…actually being pro-Russian.
We see the same thing in the US with the Ron Paul types of “libertarians” who are knee-deep in pro-Russian propaganda.
Because they are nationalistic parties. Nationalistic parties in Europe tend to support each other, even when their ideologies are that those “other guys” are inferior to them.
Being nationalistic parties, they also mostly have economic policies aimed at “protectionism” (what would more generally be considered…left-wing…here in the US), and to a large extent, anti-Americanism.
And of course, it is likely Putin provides quite a bit of their financing.
Even more “sophisticated” American observers get fooled by these parties, thinking that they are somehow comparable to the Republicans here in the US. Most are not even close.