Originally Posted by
petit plateau
Trump is certainly making sure the next US president has fewer options.
(And that the Europeans will definitely be buying closer to home)
A contrarian position would be that the next Prez will have a simpler problem to deal with, as the US will be regressing to the defensive perimeter that ICE and TSA can maintain, with no allies, other than Putin (seriously... that remains hard to even write) a Canada that is aligned with Europe, Australia aligning with Canada and Europe, and the new paradigm of FMS to... Burundi, and other similarly minded states. India is stepping out rather well in their own independent weapon system designs, although they have seen the Russian systems remain no better than the Soviet ones and so they are focused towards EUR systems. China, gets a free pass as it stands, which is only a problem if you consider that is a problem. Japan has to amend their constitution, (thanks, Don) and consider reliable allies, as will South Korea, which in spite of their historical issues, have common aims and are able to be effective allies.
This leads Israel in the business of bouncing rubble in Gaza and Lebanon, presumably a reasonable response to the begetting and begatting of violence that arises when 2 groups are sitting in the same sand box and there is no intent to remove the t1Rds from the kitty litter of 70 years of intolerance.
Is this a good thing? Depends. Taking out heads of state such as Maduro, as much as he was odious doesn't increase stability, nor does zapping fizz boats in the waters of other nations, but it is just another day ending in Y today. That the relative ease of removing a head of state from Venezuela set the expectations of a quick and gratifying removal of Irans head shed probably will look less glorious in the cold light of day.
We are getting a global reset, possibly on the order of the dinosaurs after Chicxulub, and maybe, that is what comes from the indifference that passes for civics in the west today.
What is curious is that China is not going to be happy with the changes, it forces their hands if this continues; it doesn't help India, although the consequence of famine there will certainly increase the opportunities for co-generation from funeral pyres, which seems to be a neat efficiency step. Taiwan will not be happy, but then they will be irrelevant in the biggly scheme of things, they are incidental to the problems of China other than being a political rallying point for a panda coming towards the natural end of his reversion to the gang of 4, the one thing that the CCP vowed never to repeat. Mexico will have a great opportunity to continue supporting the USA, but only as guest workers and imports. The need for guest workers will be dependent on the amount of potash that gets sent south from Canada, but DJT can always get it instead from Belarus and Russia, from the US's new allies.
All up, it seems that the opportunity for opportunity is quite large, for those that don't get planted in the dirt on the way through. The biggly, niggly bit is, Dale Carnegie would probably disagree with the strategy of making long term protagonists as a strategy.
"Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" Elizabeth Willing Powel;
“A republic, if you can keep it.” Benjamin Franklin
