Former US general advises Switzerland to prepare for war.
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According to former United States general Ben Hodges, the withdrawal of US troops from Europe is only a matter of time. In an interview with SonntagsBlick, he advises Switzerland to prepare for war.
Switzerland been preparing for war since 1648.
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According to former United States general Ben Hodges, the withdrawal of US troops from Europe is only a matter of time. In an interview with SonntagsBlick, he advises Switzerland to prepare for war.
It's unfortunate that we've configured our world like this, with rival nation states and militaries vying for supremacy. In reality, the conflict is between humans and militarism. Militarism will kill us all, in one way or another.
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Thank you for answering. I appreciate the efforts of your listed examples, especially considering their attempts at establishing human rights or dignities before it was even a thing. What I do feel is a counterpoint is how short lived they all were. I also feel for the Kurds (tough neighborhood) but I am not quite ready to move to Rojava, despite their developments I also fear that in time it may be added to your list of short lived examples. Do you feel that libertarian communism is the best theoretical alignment for a modern communist state?
Thanks for your appreciation. We of course agree that they all are very very short lived. Sadly, the Kurds will effectively probably have a rough time in the near future. Zapatistas are quite an exception in here, they manage to stay steady for some years now, but of course their situation is quite unique (though in all examples I gave it was unique situations).
The common point in all those cases are that the reason for their short durations are more or less authoritarians states, in its diverse forms (Republic in 1871, Fascists+Republic in 1936, Communists in 1917, Turkey for Rojava, etc.). So i feel like if every system that has been criticized as bad all fought against libertarian communism, maybe that's a hint about how good a system it is. I'm not sure if it's the best for modern communism, maybe nowadays situation requires something else, but thanks to its versatility, I think it could adapt. So yeah, I kinda feel that libertarian communism and its declinations are the best theoretical alignment for communism in general (though it's not necessarily a state, precisely).
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Plus the morons that keep voting them into power.
Nobody voted Schmusk into power.
No, but what was coming was in their face. The US is OK with it. We are no longer an ally, but please don't forget about us...
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According to former United States general Ben Hodges, the withdrawal of US troops from Europe is only a matter of time. In an interview with SonntagsBlick, he advises Switzerland to prepare for war.
Basically: Si vis pacem, para bellum
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Has the USA ever won a war?
I seem to recall a pretty successful one against the British...
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According to former United States general Ben Hodges, the withdrawal of US troops from Europe is only a matter of time. In an interview with SonntagsBlick, he advises Switzerland to prepare for war.
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Counter insurgency is tough to overcome. As you kill insurgents, more insurgents pop up because the initially killed insurgents were their family and friends. The only way to do it is to rule with an iron fist.
I disagree that there is any way to do it. Ultimately, people don't want you there and are unhappy enough that they're willing to die rather than cooperate. It is simply too expensive in terms of man hours, lives, and money to keep a population under occupation like that. At the very least, you need to do as the colonial powers did and exploit a local division to deputize some of the locals to rule on your behalf.
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I disagree that there is any way to do it. Ultimately, people don't want you there and are unhappy enough that they're willing to die rather than cooperate. It is simply too expensive in terms of man hours, lives, and money to keep a population under occupation like that. At the very least, you need to do as the colonial powers did and exploit a local division to deputize some of the locals to rule on your behalf.
The Mongolians did it. Rome did it. History is littered with countless examples of one nation overcoming another.
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Sure, hopefully we'll do as much as we can and buy the rest, but the USA might not sell it (like information).
I doubt it as well, but I bet it would be worth the shot. Be nice to see some allies get a much deserved windfall.
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I seem to recall a pretty successful one against the British...
LOL. How much help did you get though?
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Oligarchs taking over is a reflection of a given social situation. It's not a deterministic thing. It happens because of how a lot of people start to think. This is not a physical law of nature. It's all in our hands.
Your bourgeois elections word salad is joke. Get real, no one is going to take it seriously outside of internet LARP. You know it yourself, don't lie!
I say this as someone who speaks 3 languages, has lived for multiple years in countries in North America, Europe and Asia and has visited about ~30 countries so far.
oligarchs are the ruling class in capitalism. "oligarchs taking over" is a misnomer, they already own everything by definition, in every capitalist country. they can choose to fuck your life at any time, if threatened. the US is prime example of just this.
if you don't think socialism is possible despite the many real world examples, and don't actually want a solution because you are rich enough to travel leisurely around the world, step aside from politics and stop worrying about it. let the adults do the work, its in our hands after all.
if your larp is true, you really are the "sheltered westerner" i assumed you to be, and a tiny minority in the planet. i don't think theres much value in this conversation anymore, but seethe more if you will.
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I apologize for the misunderstanding- I took your statement that imperialism cannot be voted away as you not voting.
I consider the current Chinese government to be closer to fascism and imperialism than to actual socialism, and to say that the great famine was not a direct result of bad (Maoist) policy would be revisionist.
You state that imperialism cannot be voted away, but is that not what the Chileans did? Is that not what has happened in Bolivia and Venezuela? Yes the imperialists do their best to meddle, but they were in fact voted out, which is counter to your original point.
As someone who believes in strengthening the community to forment change you must know that antagonizing me for something I am unable to apologize for is no way to create more comrades. Yes, luck of the draw I was born Scandinavian and not Yemeni, I understand that there are socioeconomic consequences of that. Shame on you for not even attempting to have a friendly conversation with a unionized factory worker.
china fascist
maoist policymakers tried to do the same rapid industrialization that stalin did in the ussr and failed, but it was by no means the main reason for the famine. i will remind you again that china was one of the poorest countries in the world and you don't build strong infrastructure to feed everyone reliably overnight. it was also greatly exagerated by the west, as always.
the thing is, though, that this was about 70-ish years ago? china has enjoyed record economic growth, and improvement on the lives of average citizens. of course i'm not saying its perfect and they have many Ls but when push comes to shove, its nothing short of amazing seeing what they were able to achieve in just 50-60 years. especially coming from a country that can get as poor as they were back then in some regions. they have struck a good balance between free markets and state control, and they are slowly transitioning away from capitalist free markets as it lives out its usefulness.
i find the "china bad" rhetoric of many westerners to be a bit disingenious because you can attribute similar catastrophes to most countries if you look to their past.
Chileans Bolivia and Venezuela?
i asked you to check out chilean socialism precisely because their electoral system was attacked easily and quickly, with dire consequences. please check it out, its eye-opening to why voting socialism in rarely works, even if the socialist somehow manages to win with the burgeois puting their fingers on the scale. sometimes violence is the only way, sometimes it is not. sometimes going back to a parlimentary-like system like china is necessary, sometimes you can do direct elections like cuba. good on the countries that manage to do this more peacefully, but blame not the victims for trying to defend themselves.
venezuela is victim to constant destabilization attempts in the form of sanctions and attacks to its elections. it literally just happened again last year, they are unable to enact good policy and move further than the frankly kind of weird socialism they built. i wouldnt say they are managing well, nor that they have a good future ahead. their situation is closer to cuba in that the sanctions do the brunt of the damage.
i don't know about bolivia enough to talk about it without saying some wrong bullshit, so ill abstain.
antagonizing me for something I am unable to apologize for
i'm simply explaining to you something that you might have not noticed, judging by the content of your posts. i'm sorry if sometimes i come across as frustrated with some of this. it really is peachy for westerners to be saying "just vote! we have all these things by voting :D" to us when it goes much deeper and is sometimes related to that. europeans can keep whatever system they want as long as they treat others fairly.
with that said, socialism is a system that allows for the comforts you have, but not the excess consumption you enjoy. it is, however, a system not so dependent on exploiting poor people to keep the rich rich. i don't actually expect many westerners to think about revolution before suffering through capitalist crisis from losing their colonies and/or not being able to grow forever.
us fascism looks to be just that, so they are trying to turn the exploitation inwards. socialism is a proven way to stop fascism, but i don't expect americans will do it until it gets really bad either.
