America has been going around the world as a sort of policeman for the last 75 years, saying 'borders are sacred' and 'no country can conquer another's territory,' and bombing everyone who tries to do so. That's why we intervened to save Kuwait from Iraq, Taiwan from China, South Korea from North Korea, South Vietnam from North Vietnam, Ukraine from Russia, and so on and so forth. Every single war America has waged has been premised on this 'borders are sacred' or 'genocide requires humanitarian intervention' moral foundation. But Biden and Trump have already thrown out the 'genocide' argument because they support Israel's genocide of the Gaza Strip. The last argument they had was 'borders are sacred,' but Trump has unilaterally, in exchange for nothing, thrown out that last justification for U.S. foreign policy with the insane and reckless assertion that he is willing to conquer Greenland and the Panama canal for the sake of U.S. geostrategic security.
So it turns out borders aren't sacred. Israel you could say was an exception because of its overriding security needs and the Holocaust blah blah blah. But you cannot say that Greenland is such a vital interest to the United States that the U.S. risks being genocided if it doesn't first seize Greenland. We have now just learned that the sacredness of borders ranks somewhere below the security benefits of conquering Greenland. If that's true of the United States, since all moral laws are universal, this must also mean that any other country that could benefit its security by taking something more vital to its security than Greenland is vital to the U.S.'s security, ipso facto must have a green light.
It would be hypocritical of America to say otherwise.
From this new vantage point, it becomes obvious that Argentina's security is threatened by Britain's control of the Falkland Islands. Ireland's security is threatened by Britain's control of Northern Ireland. China's security is threatened by Taiwan's independence. Spain's security is threatened by Britain's control of Gibraltar. Russia's security is threatened by NATO's control of Ukraine. (And for that matter NATO's control of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland.) Ethiopia's security is threatened by Eritrea cutting it off from the sea. India's security is threatened by Bangladesh almost cutting off its land access to its eastern provinces. Indonesia's security is threatened by Malaysia occupying half of its island. Kuwait denying Iraq most of its access to the sea is denying Iraq national security. Guyana not giving over its oil revenue to Venezuela is threatening Venezuela's security. And I'm sure there are many, many more reasonable cases of national security being put at higher risk than America's risk of not owning Greenland.
But Trump has stated that Greenland is necessary for U.S. security. Not even 'valuable' or 'pertinent,' but necessary. It is a do or die, must, issue. So if Greenland is that important, every conflict listed above and more are morally justified. There is no logical way out of this puzzle. By even asserting this, not actually doing it, but asserting it, you have justified every possible land grab on Earth. Because you cannot hypocritically demand other people not look to shoring up their security while you say it is 'necessary' to annex Greenland for your own. People will swallow shit, but they cannot swallow too much shit without gagging it back up.
I wanted Russia to win the Ukraine war and expose America's hypocrisy with regards to Israel compared to Ukraine, but this Greenland/Panama/Canada rhetoric has actually already fulfilled all my desires. There is no way America can any longer complain about Russia violating Ukraine's sacred territorial integrity, because in the space of a week America has already said, three times, in three different places, that it no longer holds territorial integrity to be sacred anymore. It now thinks nations should act in the best interests of their own security and woe to the conquered. So if that's the new system, then what are we fighting Russia in Ukraine for? For a completely amoral goal of just randomly weakening Russia because we don't like them? For no moral purpose at all, but out of pure malice? Because Russia is a potential adversary in a future world war? Why are they a potential adversary? They were our ally in World War I and World War II. If you're nice to Russia they have a historical record of being nice back to you. If the only reason we need to antagonize Russia is so that we can beat Russia after antagonizing them, wouldn't it be wiser to just not antagonize them in the first place?
There is no argument. There is no moral argument, there is no practical argument. Trump has scuttled all possible arguments for why we are bombing Russia before he even took office. This is ridiculously embarrassing as an American, because it exposes what weaselly hypocrites we are to the entire world, but as a pro-Russian it's like music to my ears. Keep talking Trump. This is why I elected you! Keep burning our reputation down to the very ground and then melting down through the basement all the way to Hell. That's where our reputation belonged all along, but now, finally, it's visible to everyone. The pretense has been ripped off and the ugly truth has been exposed, naked, to the world for the very first time. Every single foreign policy act America took was not out of moral concern but naked self-interest. And all those tens of millions of people we killed for the sake of 'world peace' and the 'international rules-based order' were actually massacred for American self-interest. Suddenly we've perpetrated a genocidal war on the world with more victims than Hitler. If you add up all the American interventions since World War II you can easily reach that number of civilian deaths. And now there is no moral argument for a single one of them. There is only the brutal, unclad, iron American fist. Saying, 'this is in our interest, this is for the sake of our security.' Well two can play at this game. Ukraine is in Russia's interest, full stop. The entirety of Ukraine is in Russia's security interest -- and Latvia too. Woe to the conquered. Actually three can play this game. Taiwan is in China's security interest. And South Korea is in North Korea's security interest. Actually everyone can play this game. Let's go. Let's throw the whole table over. Now that we know what the real rules of the game are -- not the phony 'borders are sacred' and 'no genocide' rules, but the real rules 'this is in our interest therefore it's okay,' let's get everyone playing the game at once. Not just America. The whole world deserves to play this new game. And let the chips fall where they may.
No comments:
Post a Comment