Geo Political Risk

[Balance]

Russia was never weak in the 80!! And China was and is a persistent authoritarian regime spreading its version of Communism throughout South East Asia in those decades.

And you Balance, are a great benefactor of those attempts to defend and uphold democracy in the world at large as are all of us here.
If the US is so evil in your eyes - why don't you go live in China, where you would clearly be much more contented!

Hang on to your Yankee Doodle hat!

I am simply giving you my perspective of why I do not share the war mongering views coming out of the US.

You really have no idea of the unbearable suffering the US exacted on the civilian population of countries like Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, Afghanistan, do you?

You are aware that the US does not allow its military personnel (charged with war crimes) to be tried outside of the US? Do you ever wonder why?

https://www.france24.com/en/20180910...han-war-crimes

https://time.com/5202268/calley-trial-my-lai-massacre/

WOMD.

[Davexl]

Hang on to your Yankee Doodle hat!

I am simply giving you my perspective of why I do not share the war mongering views coming out of the US.

You really have no idea of the unbearable suffering the US exacted on the civilian population of countries like Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, Afghanistan, do you?

You are aware that the US does not allow its military personnel (charged with war crimes) to be tried outside of the US? Do you ever wonder why?

https://www.france24.com/en/20180910...han-war-crimes

https://time.com/5202268/calley-trial-my-lai-massacre/

WOMD.

What do you think war is about Balance? Politics by other means. TWO SIDES engaged in deadly combat. Civilians will die. Atrocities will be perpetrated by both sides in an actual war! For God's sake - don't pretend to be so naive and virtuous in your own biased opinions by selectively presenting a single well-publicised atrocity by the US as evidence, when the other sides atrocities are ignored! What hypocrisy!

As USUAL you are only selectively presenting one side of an argument, observing matters thru your own narrow perspective with regards to the US, presenting your own (or probably CCP ?) propaganda and expecting that something will stick and imply guilt to one side only.

What a hypocrite you are - living in freedom, in a well functioning democracy where your views will be tolerated, rather than living under an authoritarian regime.
In a democracy at least all viewpoints can be represented freely and mistakes can be admitted and introspection can freely occur.

That's what we are standing up for at the end of the day...

[Balance]

What do you think war is about Balance? Politics by other means. TWO SIDES engaged in deadly combat. Civilians will die. Atrocities will be perpetrated by both sides in an actual war! For God's sake - don't pretend to be so naive and virtuous in your own biased opinions by selectively presenting a single well-publicised atrocity by the US as evidence, when the other sides atrocities are ignored! What hypocrisy!

As USUAL you are only selectively presenting one side of an argument, observing matters thru your own narrow perspective with regards to the US, presenting your own (or probably CCP ?) propaganda and expecting that something will stick and imply guilt to one side only.

What a hypocrite you are - living in freedom, in a well functioning democracy where your views will be tolerated, rather than living under an authoritarian regime.
In a democracy at least all viewpoints can be represented freely and mistakes can be admitted and introspection can freely occur.

That's what we are standing up for at the end of the day...

I rest my case.

WOMD.

[Waltzing]

"well functioning democracy "

says who...better than china, yes, better than russia, Yep..

No place is perfect but most democracies are dis functional but they try to get there and you can still vote them out.


https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/127682814/when-did-our-public-service-get-so-arrogant

[DavidB]

Well, one thing I am pretty confident about is that if war does come to Europe, stock markets around the world including our own will tank. At least by 50% I would have thought. I have no idea if war will come or not. But I'm wondering what contingency plans investors are putting in place now or thinking about (if any) in case it does? Taking profits, moving to cash, doing nothing? Panicked selling? I'm sitting on my hands at the moment. I took profits some months ago, updated a number of home appliances, and have now sat on the balance since. Not because of the Ukraine situation though, but because of the rise in interest rates and the reemergence of inflation.

[Balance]

"well functioning democracy "

says who...better than china, yes, better than russia, Yep..

No place is perfect but most democracies are dis functional but they try to get there and you can still vote them out.


https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/127682814/when-did-our-public-service-get-so-arrogant

Stems from the arrogance and incompetence of this current government.

Unable to deliver on anything of the huge promises they made to get elected, Cindy & her nincompoops instead attempt to control the narrative 100% so the public only can read & see what they want the public to read & see.

Excerpt from The article :

‘I have never encountered anything quite like this in any other democracy I’ve worked in: Not when I was a White House correspondent during the Obama administration, not when I worked in Japan or South Korea.

To be clear, our country is free and open compared to many other parts of the world. But I’m not comparing us to Iran (where I used to ask pointed questions at foreign ministry press conferences all the time) or China (ditto).

I’m comparing us to other proudly open and democratic societies. And I’m comparing us to the us we used to be. Where a journalist could ask a straight question and get a straight answer and deliver it to you – straight.’

[Waltzing]

Yes Balance some members of the press the "Worldly" ones are showing the local groupies what the reality is.

Does this country now have some of the elements of the extremes scene over the centuries in europe.

Yes the mind set in a small isolated island can become very occupied with the small stuff.

Like the east germans were in monitoring everything.

[Davexl]

Xi and Putin urge Nato to rule out expansion as Ukraine tensions rise

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ions-grow-west

Excerpt:
"The statement also devoted an entire section on the two sides’ shared understanding of “democracy” and claimed both countries “have long-standing traditions of democracy”. But they said that the advocacy of democracy and human rights “must not be used to put pressure on other countries”."

Almost fell off my chair laughing...!
Russia will implode one day when its people rise up and demand democracy (held down by assassinations & imprisonment) and the same for China (when its American educated diaspora spread democratic ideals within the populace, by word of mouth if necessary)...

Otherwise, a very well written article with good points to consider for all sides of the argument...

[greater fool]

"On August 29, in the final days of its 20-year occupation of Afghanistan, the United States launched a drone strike,
firing a 20-pound (9-kilogram) Hellfire missile at an aid worker named Zemari Ahmadi as he parked his car outside his
home in a residential neighborhood of Kabul.

When a surviving member of Ahmadi’s family complained publicly about the errant strike, the Pentagon did what it has
been doing for 20 years in Afghanistan. It lied.

According to The New York Times, the Pentagon claimed that Ahmadi was a facilitator for Islamic State, and that his car
was packed with explosives, posing an imminent threat to US troops guarding the evacuation at Kabul Airport.
General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the US Central Command, said the drone strike dealt ISIS-Khorasan a crushing blow.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called it a “righteous strike.”

When it was confirmed that children as young as two had died in the strike, the Pentagon suggested that any civilian
deaths resulted from the detonation of explosives inside the vehicle that was targeted. The military produced an
assessment that the occupants of the vehicle were wearing suicide vests and that the car itself was packed with explosives.

In the days following the deadly drone strike, reporters from The New York Times conducted a thorough investigation,
visiting Ahmadi’s home and place of work, viewing video footage from security cameras, and consulting with weapons experts.
This investigation quickly confirmed that every official statement of the Pentagon was false."

https://asiatimes.com/2021/10/us-kil...n-sea-of-lies/




Another blatant Lie. This was a US missile strike.
'desperate cowardice'
The only cowardice on display is from President Biden. He refuses to take responsibility for his murder of women and children.
Total breach of every tenet of respect for human rights, decency, and the rule of international law.


"US forces rehearsed the helicopter raid over and over, hoping to capture Islamic State's leader on the third floor of a residential
building in a Syrian town on the Turkish border, where he was holed up with his family.
But before they could reach him, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi detonated a suicide bomb, triggering a large explosion that
blew mangled bodies - including his own - out of the building into the streets outside.
President Joe Biden, who monitored the raid from the White House's Situation Room, called Quraishi's suicide a "final act of
desperate cowardice". It echoed of the self-detonation of a bomb by his predecessor, Islamic State founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
during a US raid in 2019 in Syria.
The explosion, which was more massive than would be expected from a suicide vest, killed everyone on the third floor and in fact
ejected multiple people from the building," McKenzie said, adding that Quraishi, his wife and two children died."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/460...rate-cowardice

[Balance]

To be expected from the US, greater fool. Everything they do in military action in their minds is justified - their people cannot be at fault unless they say so.

That’s why we need, in this enlightened age after the revelations of the Iraq WOMD & the secret war in Laos (which decimated that small defenceless country & today is still clearing the hundreds of thousands of mines dropped by the US in addition to the two millions of tonnes of bombs dropped), we must question everything that comes out of the US.

The US has lost that most sacred of principles in conflict situations - trust when disclosing & telling the truth.

China & Russia are worse of course but then, we have always doubted and questioned everything they put out.