| ▲ | anon291 4 days ago | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There was never a 'rules-based world order'. We live purely in Pax Americana and every government exists at the pleasure of the United States. If the US wanted to, and if it did it correctly, it could easily conquer most countries. Afghanistan happened because America lost the will, not the ability. Had America gone the normal colonial route, Afghanistan would look a lot different today. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | woooooo 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The UK at their peak and also Russia, twice, tried the "normal colonial route" in Afghanistan.. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | danenania 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
> If the US wanted to, and if it did it correctly, it could easily conquer most countries. It could possibly conquer many countries by largely destroying them as was done to Germany and Japan, but since the US is a democracy and a sizable portion of its people have morals and aren't sociopaths, it's politically impossible to fight a war this way in the modern era without some kind of extreme provocation. Even immediately after 9/11, I think most Americans would not have signed on to a campaign of total war in Afghanistan with multiple millions dead. And even back when America did pretty well take the gloves off, doing nearly everything it could short of nuclear weapons in Korea and Vietnam, it still couldn't win. So I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that any decent-sized country could be conquered easily even if the 'will' was there. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | A4ET8a8uTh0 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
<< There was never a 'rules-based world order'. We live purely in Pax Americana and every government exists at the pleasure of the United States. Yes. However, Pax Americana did, at least initially, at least give semblance of established rules working. Now even that pretense is gone. << Afghanistan happened because America lost the will, not the ability. Had America gone the normal colonial route, Afghanistan would look a lot different today. Eh. No. I am not sure where the concept this weird concept of 'bombing them to nothing did not help; we probably need to bomb them some more' comes from. I accept your premise that some of it is the question of will, but you have to admit that two decades with nothing to show for it is not.. great. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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