We're being hoisted on our own petard of arrogance and refusal to understand the interests of others enough to leave room for what they can live with. We prefer to back them into a corner.
My mind reels at how many follies go back to the Clinton administration--this one, Horrible execution of I/P peace treaty, to various economic problems, to working class resentment over globalization, to Bush saying 'we don't want to be the world's policeman' in response to Clinton's foreign policy and getting votes that way, to the stranglehold that ideology has put on the Democrats, to the Dems use of constantly divisive strategies against the left part of the base, to the alliance with industry, esp. the finance industry, and so on.
My, how fickle Israel and the finance industry have turned out to be. Supporting Trump! After all the Democrats did for them.
Maybe it all would have happened the same way without him --I don't know. But he did loosen the bolts substantially.
This has always made me wonder if something better could have protected Ukrainian lives this time, if certain people didn't need this manichean world view and rather acted as informed by Machiavelli. I simply don't know. Putin is not very rational or intelligent himself, except in the Trumpuan way. So he's not easy to beat.
But I finally understand realism! I finally get it in a deeper way. Not that I agree with Mearscheimer about Ukraine--but more what some of the earlier realists like Kennan understood about how countries behave.
With Mearsheimer, I always say that if you hear one of his interviews or read one of his essays and you’re not irritated by something he says, you’re probably not paying attention! But he has an aggravating way of paying attention to the right things in foreign policy conflicts.
These realists are onto something. Also, some of them are kinda shitty. And it's often a vague theory! But yes, it's good at picking out certain essentials.
We're being hoisted on our own petard of arrogance and refusal to understand the interests of others enough to leave room for what they can live with. We prefer to back them into a corner.
My mind reels at how many follies go back to the Clinton administration--this one, Horrible execution of I/P peace treaty, to various economic problems, to working class resentment over globalization, to Bush saying 'we don't want to be the world's policeman' in response to Clinton's foreign policy and getting votes that way, to the stranglehold that ideology has put on the Democrats, to the Dems use of constantly divisive strategies against the left part of the base, to the alliance with industry, esp. the finance industry, and so on.
My, how fickle Israel and the finance industry have turned out to be. Supporting Trump! After all the Democrats did for them.
Maybe it all would have happened the same way without him --I don't know. But he did loosen the bolts substantially.
This has always made me wonder if something better could have protected Ukrainian lives this time, if certain people didn't need this manichean world view and rather acted as informed by Machiavelli. I simply don't know. Putin is not very rational or intelligent himself, except in the Trumpuan way. So he's not easy to beat.
But I finally understand realism! I finally get it in a deeper way. Not that I agree with Mearscheimer about Ukraine--but more what some of the earlier realists like Kennan understood about how countries behave.
With Mearsheimer, I always say that if you hear one of his interviews or read one of his essays and you’re not irritated by something he says, you’re probably not paying attention! But he has an aggravating way of paying attention to the right things in foreign policy conflicts.
These realists are onto something. Also, some of them are kinda shitty. And it's often a vague theory! But yes, it's good at picking out certain essentials.