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[–] Oswy ago 

Actually, though, I'd be saying similar if it was CHINA, for whom I have next to zero personal affection. I just don't want to provoke a terrible war.

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[–] Joe_McCarthy [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Mostly you just don't understand foreign policy. Which is lamentable as we've known each other long enough for you to know better if nothing else.

Our China policy is truly critical. By bottling them up in their backyard and contesting their claims to resources in the region we contain their strength and keep them focused on defending themselves near their borders. They're so preoccupied with our alliance system and trying to bully their neighbors to grab resources that they can't even begin to seriously focus on moving into our hemisphere to threaten us.

Russia is unimportant to the US by comparison but to expect some white kumbaya if we disengaged with them is just criminally retarded. You'd get a bunch of scared little countries going nuclear and probably Russia invading them to prevent them from getting there.

Re: the British Empire. It prevented both Germans and Russians from dominating the world - including your own people. Even a lowly Englishman is respected because of imperial prestige but it also made the country wealthy and cultured - a legacy it lives off of to this day.

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[–] Oswy 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

What am I even reading? To prevent Germany from dominating Europe, the British Empire backed it into a corner, making it lash out in a World War whose ultimate result has been the nigh on destruction of European civilisation. To prevent the Soviet Union from dominating the world... we did what? Give it half of Central Europe in 1945?! None of this makes any sense whatsoever in the long run.

If the only reason we prod Russia to the brink of mass global conflict is to stop Latvia from getting the Bomb - why don't we back off and sanction RIGA instead of Moscow?! Why are you so unbothered about Israel, Saudi Arabi and Pakistan going nuclear?

If Russia is relatively unimportant, why do you spend half your day pushing for a hardline stance against them?! Madness.

As for my imperial prestige, I'll remind the victims of Islamic rape cooperatives of it, and spread some on toast to feed my kids, eh? It's a bullshit facade. In my own experience, it's actually had a bad side: Russian friends have come to England expecting Sherlock Holmes, and been shocked to find the reality, which is bad enough even if we ignore the foreigners present.