patrick.net

Even though Collin Powell was overall a turd, he did limit the killing during the Sudan cavil war.

Those hostilities have broken out once again. I wonder how many millions will get killed and displaced this time around.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Sudan_conflict

It has always been the US policy to provide funds to keep the government of Pakistan operating. Our leadership may just drop the ball on this and let it become a failed nation state. They simply don't have the economy to operate on their own without assistance. Starvation will become a thing there as well as a lack of fuel to move food supplies to those in need.

The people will find someone to blame, they are an Islamic country with nukes. What could go wrong?

If the country is too small and lacks resources, then it should have stayed part of India.

I’m afraid that conflicts serve the needs of forever migration types and global depopulation advocates. ‘Our’ oligarchy has a healthy dose of both.

We’ve given up moral authority with criminals running foreign policy, from the PNAC of Bush to Powers/Nuland/Blinken during Obama and Biden. Destroying Iraq, Libya, nearly Syria, funding ISIS (“moderate Al-Nusra rebels”), funding this genocidal excursion in Ukraine. And that’s just the A-list. (All adversaries of Israel I’d note.)

Could China do worse?

Chinese hegemony would look like servitude to Americans, with a heavy dose of Han chauvinism, but the pointed destruction of European cultures might end. Why would China welcome the Islamicization of Europe, or endless mass migrations?

I really believe Biden's handlers are willing to start WW3 just to get him/themselves re-elected.

RedStar says

I really believe Biden's handlers are willing to start WW3 just to get him/themselves re-elected.

I believe they’re pushing regime change in Russia (softening it up with Ukraine before putting our boots on the ground) to end decisively the two major 20th century powers. The end game of US vs Russia is annihilation of both, leaving only China. Our politicians supporting this slow walk to WW3 are patsies and grifters, not knowingly betraying their country, but bringing us to that impasse regardless (and probably receiving kickbacks from the Ukraine funding/money laundering operation). They are beholden to a higher power (organized plutocrats).

The pivot to China is risky of course for global capital, and Xi Ziaping may yet prove more nationalist than a nascent globalarchy would like. Interesting times indeed.

goofus says

The pivot to China is risky of course for global capital, and Xi Ziaping may yet prove more nationalist than a nascent globalarchy would like. Interesting times indeed.

Yeah, I have a hard time believing China won't absolutely stab the Koch Bros, Soros, EUrocrats/Schwab, etc. in the back - unless they plan on putting them in a subordinate position.

The Chinese really grate against taking orders from foreign barbarians, and they usually end up Sinofying any conquerers.

Misc says

Now that the US has lost its leadership role in the world, I am expecting conflicts to erupt all over.

I bet they don't. We'll see of course.

The rest of the world has seen that conflicts are tremendously expensive, and wasteful. It's only the United States that still believes in the Broken Window theory of economics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

The reason the US attacked Afghanistan was to put in a pipeline from the Caspian Sea through Afghanistan.

https://ips-dc.org/un_ambassadors_oily_past/

In 1998 Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney had told oil executives that “the current hot spots for major oil companies are the oil reserves in the Caspian Sea region.” So it was no surprise that the oilmen and oilwomen of the Bush administration would continue their efforts to protect U.S. access to current and future oil and gas in the region, even as they launched a war against the country they had so recently hoped would become a giant oil transit hub for U.S. oil companies drilling there.

They could have just negotiated with the Taliban to come to agreement in building a pipeline, but instead they offset the cost of having a war on US taxpayers and take right of way by force, and the war was lost, and that pipeline will never be built, at least for US access. Russia will have access to it through, so cut them off. Ukraine war.

Every war is is a racket.

https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

They will.

It's no surprise France invaded Mexico to setup a Habsburg Client State in 1862 and not in 1852 or 1872.

Don't be surprised to see Francophonie wars, and all of sudden the Europeans will forget about their Sad Wise Old Uncle Act when it comes to grasping/preserving overseas influence by "any means necessary".

Just as suddenly, they'll "Find" money for destroyers to patrol the Straits of Hormuz.

But we won't have to pay for it! Nor for "Defending Europe against Russia".

"Individual European countries have fought off Russia successfully from Sweden to Austria-Hungary, but nevermind that, unless the US does 80% of the money, troops, and logistics, United Europe can't bat off Russia"

It's been a good run.

Multi-polar worlds are awesome and very peaceful!

AmericanKulak says

It's no surprise France invaded Mexico to setup a Habsburg Client State in 1862 and not in 1852 or 1872.

Yes, and immediately withdrew in 1865 when they saw that massive standing Union Army with the South defeated.

AmericanKulak says

"Individual European countries have fought off Russia successfully from Sweden to Austria-Hungary, but nevermind that, unless the US does 80% of the money, troops, and logistics, United Europe can't bat off Russia"

Considering how the European governments treat their citizens, I would bet the Europeans will welcome Russia as liberators. They might come to regret that of course, but I don't think there's going to be any love lost for their establishment class. They've allowed all of Europe to be over-run by economic migrants. Russia don't play that game.

Things in Sudan are going from bad to worse. The army stopping humanitarian aid, the militia just killing people, a few hundred thousand fleeing the area.

It is gonna get worse.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/united-nations-united-states-ring-alarm-west-darfur-violence-2023-06-16/

socal2 says

It's been a good run.

Multi-polar worlds are awesome and very peaceful!

Domestic totalitarian governments killed over 100 million people in the 20th century alone; that is far more than all the international wars combined in that century, the bloodiest century so far in human history. The sad reality is that the chaos since 2020 has shown us that even the formerly "Beacon of Liberty for the world" United States is also susceptible to becoming a China, a Soviet Union, and/or a classical Persian-style empire (that set the precedence for Alexander's Macedonian Helennic empire despite Greek tradition for liberty, then subsequent Roman Empire, as well precedence for Chin unification of continental East Asia, which in turn gave inspiration to Mongol Empire and subsequently Russian Empire). All of those empires were paid for via monetary scams (starting with Croesus' discovery of the electron coin having greater face value than metal content, and people accepting it for convenience) subsidizing a monopolistic bureaucracy, which then incentivize parents to over-paying for educating (brainwashing) their kids while disarming the citizenry . . . over-time, instead of peace and efficiency promised by every bureaucracy in its early years the result is a weak-minded population of scammers eager to scam each other, and consequently the collapse of civilization.

Well, looks like we've added another conflict. The Palestinian/Israel flare up, as well as a bunch more new ones.

There's a total of 110 armed conflicts in the world right now.

https://geneva-academy.ch/galleries/today-s-armed-conflicts

The US is trying to get the UN to start committing resources to that conflict in Sudan. As forecast, it is the one most likely to claim the highest number of deaths.

https://www.aljazeera.com/where/sudan/

socal2 says

Multi-polar worlds are awesome and very peaceful!

LOL. That's the downside for sure.

But, we're pretty isolated here in North America from any competitors. Our only problem is the low-wage plantation owners and pea packing plant owners love for cheap illegal labor.

And we have a great armaments industry!