Subj : NATO
To : Arelor
From : Kaelon
Date : Tue Aug 01 2023 05:05 pm
Re: Russia's Defeat
By: Arelor to Kaelon on Tue Aug 01 2023 05:12 pm
> This is a problem I have with the modern Western style in general: we think
> we are the center of the world and we believe we can destroy somebody just
> by refusing to be their friend.
It's very clearly a pay-to-play scenario. You want access to western markets? Then, you need to play by our rules. I really don't see a problem with this, and part of our enablement of China's threatening rise is in fact us not following this maxim closely enough. We were very content letting China become our factory, and decided we wouldn't be picky about their authoritarianism and one-party state because, we thought, they'll eventually become a democracy if they work with us.
Definitely a false narrative where China has successfully played the west. NATO, on the other hand, is the logical conclusion of entering and succeeding in the United States' global world order.
If you want access to global markets, you have to play by our global rules: transparency, accountability, rules-based order, which largely replaced the arbitrary zeitgeist of Europe during the 1930s and triumphed over the Soviet ideology in the Cold War. If you want to help write the rules, you need to contribute - first, to the economic system (the WTO, or one of its regional trade blocs, including the EEC and Euro-Zone), and then enter into a political bloc that maintains judicial enforcement of the economic system (for Europe, it's the European Union mandated by Maastricht and successor treaties).
NATO reaches the apex of the economic system by providing a defense bulwark against countries that adopt the U.S. pay-for-play standard: support our military industrial complex (i.e., allow us to invest in U.S. defense-aligned jobs in your territory, beginning with defense industries and concluding with military bases) and you can invest most of your profits into a social welfare cap.
NATO becomes unpopular among jingoistic circles and among pacifists, but it rarely becomes a majority of the accountability-seeking electorate. And as the Russian invasion of Ukraine shows us, NATO is ultimately the pinnacle desire of any country that wants guarantees for its sovereignty and simultaneous participation in the US/EU world order. This is precisely why the Five Eyes (Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines) are primed to join NATO -- if we can still logically call it that -- in the next 24-36 months.
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-=: Kaelon :=-
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